ArtWay

Beauty is not pasted over suffering but grows out of it—like the proverbial shoot from parched ground. Bruce Herman

Year B, Proper 18 (Revised Common Lectionary)

Year B, Proper 18 (Revised Common Lectionary) 

Julia Stankova: Healing of the Deaf and Dumb Man, 2017

‘Ephphatha!’ ‘Be opened,’ says Jesus in Aramaic to this deaf and mute man. Everything about this man is turned and twisted, locked up in himself. Look at his shroud, his feet (he can move neither left nor right), the arms behind which he hides, the knot in his tongue. 

Others must have brought him to Jesus; on his own he would never have made that move. But Jesus leads him away from the crowd in the hope that the man will come into action himself. With a deep sigh Jesus blows the man awake with a (re)creative breath, just like Adam in Paradise. 

Only Jesus has a halo in this icon-like painting dating from 2017 by the Bulgarian artist Julia Stankova. Would that be because this scene plays out in the Decapolis, a pagan area, where people were deaf to God? The grey sky might also point to that. 

This story is told only in Mark’s Gospel. It is a little resurrection story.

Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker

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Bible readings for this Sunday: Isaiah 35:4-7a, Psalm 146, James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17 Mark 7:24-37

For more materials for Pentecost to Advent, see here


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- December 2023: Rembrandt van Rijn: The Annunciation
- October 2023: Sunday Christ the King
- April 2023: Year A, Proper 17
- February 2023: Lent: James Janknegt: The Rich Man and Lazarus
- November 2022: Christmas - Brian Kershisnik: Nativity
- October 2022: Reformation Day: Luther and Durer
- June 2022: Michaelmas, September 29
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- January 2022: The Speck and the Log
- November 2021: Advent - Care for the Earth
- September 2021: Year B, Proper 25
- April 2021: Tim Rollins and K.O.S.: Seven Last Words of Christ
- February 2021: Year B, Lent 6: The Ointment of Nard by Arcabas
- January 2021: Year B, Epiphany 8
- December 2020: Advent: Butterfly
- August 2020: Year A, 21st Sunday after Pentecost: Psalm 1
- June 2020: A Year, 10th Sunday of the Summer
- May 2020: Pentecost: Donna Shasteen
- April 2020: The Scene in the Kitchen; Christ at Emmaus
- March 2020: The Seven Last Words of Christ
- January 2020: Year A, Epiphany 3
- November 2019: Edward Hicks: The Peaceable Kingdom
- October 2019: Reformation Day: Luther and Durer
- August 2019: Ordinary Time
- March 2019: Aaron Douglas & James Johnson: Listen Lord
- January 2019: The Speck and the Log
- December 2018: Botticelli: Madonna and Child, with Saints
- November 2018: Gor Chahal and Jan Krist
- August 2018: Year A, Autumn Sunday 8, Parable of the Talents
- May 2018: Ernst Barlach: The Believer
- March 2018: Easter: Grid Buster
- March 2018: Good Friday: I am Thirsty
- February 2018: Lent: The Rich Man and Lazarus
- January 2018: Third Sunday after Epiphany, Year B
- November 2017: Advent - Johannes Vermeer: Woman with Balance
- September 2017: A year, 6th Sunday of the Autumn
- August 2017: A Year, 10th Sunday of the Summer
- May 2017: Pentecost: Images for the Holy Spirit
- April 2017: Fra Angelico: Christ in Limbo
- February 2017: Roger Wagner: Lazarus (Psalm 49)
- January 2017: Gislebertus: The Dream of the Three Kings
- November 2016: Advent: Butterfly
- November 2016: Reformation Day: Luther and Durer
- September 2016: Reformation Day: Luther and Durer
- January 2016: 25 January - Caravaggio: The Conversion of Saul
- December 2015: Meditating on the Life of Christ
- November 2015: Gor Chahal and Jan Krist
- October 2015: Reformation Day: Luther and Durer
- August 2015: Ordinary Time
- June 2015: Van Gogh: The Sower
- February 2015: Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
- December 2010: Advent - Until He Comes!