‘Is it not written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”?
But you have made it a den of robbers.’
Alexander Maksimovich Smirnov (Russian, b. 1947), The Cleansing of the Temple, 2012, oil on canvas.
Bible Passage: Mark 11:15-19
My Big Story Bible: Pages 198
“Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Claude Buck (American 1890 - 1974), The Things That Are Caesar's, 1943, oil on fiberboard and oil on wood of integral frame.
“Here, Buck painted objects that evoke war, including a gun, artillery shell, helmet, and knife. He was disgusted by the events of World War II and painted this image to show that conflict and human cruelty are the responsibility of the "Caesars" of the modern world.” Smithsonian American Art Museum
Bible Passage: Matthew 22:15-22
My Big Story Bible: Pages 202
“As he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. …
‘She has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’”
Rose Datoc Dall (Filipina-American b.1968), Anointing for Burial, 1926, Oil on panel.
Bible Passage: Mark 14:1-11
My Big Story Bible: Pages 194
For every week of this year round project I have found a video from the team at the Bible Project that helps illuminate the passage or themes that emerge in the text. For every passage, except this week’s. This is sadly unsurprising: in the words of feminist theologian, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza,
“In the passion account of Mark’s Gospel three disciples figure prominently: on the one hand, two of the twelve- Judas who betrays Jesus and Peter who denies him- and on the other, the unnamed woman who anoints Jesus. But while the stories of Judas and Peter are engraved in the memory of Christians, the story of the woman is virtually forgotten. Although Jesus pronounces in Mark: “And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.” (14:9) the woman’s prophetic sign-action did not become a part of the gospel knowledge of Christians. Even her name is lost to us. Wherever the gospel is proclaimed and the eucharist celebrated another story is told: the story of the apostle who betrayed Jesus. The name of the betrayer is remember, but the name of the faithful disciple is forgotten because she was a woman.” 1
And so, in place of a video, I will include another paragraph Schüssler Fiorenza’s work, where she highlights the prophetic nature of this anointing, as one that declared Jesus’ status as messiah and suffering servant.
“Since the prophet in the Old Testament anointed the head of the Jewish king, the anointing of Jesus’ head must have been understood immediately as the prophetic recognition of Jesus, the Anointed, the Messiah, the Christ. … according to Mark the leading male disciples do not understand this suffering messiahship of Jesus, reject it and finally abandon him, the women disciples who have followed Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem suddenly emerge as the true disciples in the passion narrative. They are Jesus’ true followers who have understood that his ministry was not rule and kingly glory but diakonia, “service” (Mark 15:41). … While Peter had confessed, without truly understanding it, “you are the anointed one,” the woman anointing Jesus recognizes clearly that Jesus’ messiahship means suffering and death.” 2
1 Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins, (Crossroad, 1983), xiii.
2 Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins, (Crossroad, 1983), xiv.
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. …
He said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ …
Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Hubert van Eyck (Belgium 1385 – 1426) and Jan van Eyck (Belgium 1390 - 1441), Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, 1426–32, oil on panel. Detail of the Lamb on the lower central interior panel of the Ghent Altarpiece, St. Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium.
A dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest.
David LaChapelle (American, b. 1963), Jesus is My Homeboy: Last Supper, 2003, photograph.
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’
Luke Allsbrook (America, b. 1972), Jesus Washes the Disciples, 2017, oil on canvas.
Bible Passage: Luke 22:7-34 & John 13-14
My Big Story Bible: Pages 204 - 206
“And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’ Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘So, could you not stay awake with me one hour?”
Bible Passage: Matthew 26:36-27:26
My Big Story Bible: Pages 208-212
“It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last. When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, ‘Certainly this man was innocent.’
Brian Kershisnik (American, b. 1962), Descent From the Cross, 2023, oil on canvas.
“They labored over his lifeless body with no notion at all that this was going to work out well. Their hopes were dashed and there was nothing for it but to provide as appropriate a burial as could be arranged. There was sad work to be done and endured. This moment in the narrative is important because of the time we ourselves spend on the “Friday” of our experience with no notion of how the “Sunday” ever can break through it.” Brian Kershisnik
Bible Passage: Luke 23:26-56
My Big Story Bible: Pages 214-218
“Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher).”
Helen Sherriff (Australian, b. 1951), (She thought he was) The Gardener, 2013, acrylic and oil on found medium-density fiberboard tabletop with parquetry veneer and bark insert.
Bible Passage: John 20:1-18
My Big Story Bible: Pages 220
In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene.
The tomb, the tomb, that
Was her core and care, her one sore.
The light had hardly scarleted the dark
Or the first bird sung when Mary came in sight
With eager feet. Grief, like last night’s frost,
Whitened her face and tightened all her tears.
It was there, then, there at the blinding turn
Of the bare future that she met her past.
She only heard his Angel tell her how
The holding stone broke open and gave birth
To her dear Lord, and how his shadow ran
To meet him like a dog. And as the sun
Burns through the simmering muslins of the mist,
Slowly his darkened voice, that seemed like doubt,
Morninged into noon; the summering bees
Mounted and boiled over in the bell-flowers.
‘Come out of your jail, Mary,’ he said, ‘the doors are open
And joy has its ear cocked for your coming.
Earth now is no place to mope in.
So throw away Your doubt, cast every clout of care,
Hang all your hallelujahs out
This airy day.’
This is the last of fourteen untitled, epigraphed poems from “Resurrection: An Easter Sequence” by W. R. Rodgers (Ireland, 1909–1969), originally published in Europa and the Bull and Other Poems (Farrar, Straus and Young, 1952) and compiled posthumously in Collected Poems (Oxford University Press, 1971) and later Poems, ed. Michael Longley (The Gallery Press, 1993).
“When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’”
Emmanuel Garibay (Filipino b. 1962), Emmaus, 2012, oil on canvas.
Bible Passage: Luke 24:13-35
My Big Story Bible: Pages 222
“But Thomas one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’”
Claire Curneen (Irish, b. 1968), Empty Tomb (detail), 2018, porcelain.
Bible Passage: John 20:19-29
My Big Story Bible: Pages 224
“When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the lake. …
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.’”
Samuel Thomas (British, b. 1987), Electric Embrace, 2022, digitally finished hand drawn sketch, limited edition giclee print.
Bible Passage: John 21:1-25
My Big Story Bible: Pages 226
“‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’”
Timothy P. Schmalz (Canadian, b. 1969), Homeless Jesus, 2012, life-size bronze sculpture (Jesus identifiable only by the nail prints in his feet), installed at Regis College at the University of Toronto, a Jesuit school of theology.
“Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”
He Qi (Chinese, b. 1950), The Great Commission , 2017, oil on canvas.
Bible Passage: Matthew 25:34-40 & Matthew 28:16-20
My Big Story Bible: Pages 274
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”
Wiki Media Commons (User:Richjheath), Internal Pantheon, Roma, 2008, wide angle photograph of the oculus in the the Basilica of the Pantheon.
Bible Passage: Acts 1:1-11
My Big Story Bible: Pages 228
“And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit…”
Bible Passage: Acts 2:1-41
My Big Story Bible: Pages 230
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’
…
Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”
Luke Jerram (British, b. 1974) Gaia, 2018, a touring artwork, measuring seven metres in diameter and created from 120dpi detailed NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface the artwork provides the opportunity to see our planet, floating in three dimensions.
Bible Passage: Acts 1:8, Acts 2:42-47
My Big Story Bible: Pages 232
“‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’
And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’”
Billie Bond (British, b. 1965), Breathe (diptych), 2018, black stoneware, resin, gold. Inspired by the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi (the repair of broken ceramics with gold), a philosophy of seeing beauty and strength in imperfection.
Bible Passage: Revelation 21:1 - 22:5
My Big Story Bible: Pages 278-280
Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
And I was filled with such delight
As prisoned birds must find in freedom,
Winging wildly across the white
Orchards and dark-green fields; on - on - and out of sight.
Everyone's voice was suddenly lifted;
And beauty came like the setting sun:
My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away ... O, but Everyone
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.
Siegfried Sassoon (British 1886—1967), Everyone Sang, 1919, public domain.
