April
06
Tags
Running Toward Hope
Happy Resurrection Day! Christ has risen, he has risen indeed!
When I saw this painting, I absolutely fell in love with it. The full title is The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Sepulchre on the Morning of the Resurrection. It is by French artist Eugene Burnand and is one of his best-known works.
What I love is the palpable hope on the faces of Peter and John as they run toward the tomb, stirred by Mary’s urgent news, “They have taken the Lord and we don’t know where they have laid him (John 20:2).” We see hope, but we also see a hint of disbelief and dismay. Peter is considered the older apostle and John the younger one. Notice that Peter has his hand pressed against his chest. Remember he had denied Jesus only a few days earlier. Perhaps his words of denial are in his head as he runs. Perhaps he is holding out hope that everything he thought was lost might not be lost after all.
John’s facial expression and furrowed brows suggest he isn’t sure. He’s hopeful, no doubt, but could this really be true, because if this is true, it changes everything. Is that why his hands are postured in prayer?
And notice the sky is breaking with the morning sun bursting through. The darkness of Good Friday has passed and is giving way to a new day. Think of the agony these men have experienced for the past three days. Like the men on the road to Emmaus, they “had hoped” Jesus was the one but it looked unlikely. But now there is hope, and they are running full force toward it.
Being human connection: Peter and John don’t know what they will find when they reach their destination, but they go anyway. It is good to remember that the empty tomb is not discovered by those who stand still, but by those willing to move toward the mystery, toward the possibility that God has done something new and unexpected.
Featured art: Peter and John Running to the Tomb, Eugene Burnand, 1898, Musee d’Orsay, Paris.