Neil's Weekly Blog Post

This is a painting I love very much. In many ways it is a restrained depiction of the Crucifixion. Mary the mother of Jesus looks on sorrowfully on one side, John the beloved disciple stands on the other. Jesus is not the idealized Redeemer of so many depictions but is a pitiable creature as his life ebbs away. But look at the figure at the foot of the cross and you will find the emotional power of this scene. She is the Magdelene. A composite figure she is both the scandalous woman and the Disciple who loved much. Here she is, her hair is loose, her face is turned away but her hands, thrust into the air, communicate the depth of sorrow that must surely be expressed in the tears flowing down her face and the cry of anguish coming from deep within. But it is also an act of abandon to the One she loved so much.

It is that abandon that I find myself thinking about now, in this Holy Week when we cannot physically meet together. Yet the story we remember and the truth that we honour takes us to the foot of the cross to place there our hearts: broken, sorrowful, overflowing with love.

At moments of abandon I find truth in the words of Psalm 73: Whom have I in heaven but you? A truth that is both awe inspiring and powerfully comforting. For the truth is that we have no one else but God. Surely this crisis brings us to our knees in the recognition of something so much bigger, so very much out of our control that we simply have nowhere to turn but to the Living God. Yet how comforting that is, because in holding onto Christ we have God and He is awesome. When Jesus gave his life on the Cross we saw how far God was prepared to go to stand in solidarity with us, to redeem us and save us for himself. 

This Holy Week, let us then come before the Cross of Jesus and know that even in this time of peril we have somewhere to turn and someone to turn to. When all else falls away, we can throw up our hands in abandon and pray whom have I in heaven but you and find that God is enough.