Painting The Image of Christ

^{CEB – James 3:10} Blessing and cursing come from the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, it just shouldn’t be this way! ¹¹ Both fresh water and salt water don’t come from the same spring, do they? ¹² My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree produce olives? Can a grapevine produce figs? Of course not, and fresh water doesn’t flow from a saltwater spring either.

She calls herself Cloudwatcher. She reads this blog regularly, and has one of her own, Meeting in the Clouds, at which she replies to each and every comment that her many readers leave. Articles contain an elementary truth that has application both for people who are ‘learning the ropes’ about following Christ and for those who have been ‘climbing’ for many years, like the one I’m featuring here today.

This appeared a few weeks ago under the title IMPOSSIBLE! It had to be Rectified! I encourage you to click through and read it at source, and then look around at other posts. You might also find things here you want to copy and forward to people you know.

This is not a typical painting.  It is HUGE, measuring 460 x 880 cm (15 x 29 feet) and covering an entire large wall, with LIFE-SIZE depictions of the figures contributing to the scene’s drama.

Although “The Last Supper” had been painted before, Leonardo da Vinci’s version was the first to depict real people acting like real people.

Leonardo chose to paint the very moment in which Christ announces there is a traitor among the disciples.  Through his brilliant brushwork, he manages to make the moment come to life, with each person displaying very human, identifiable emotions.

His painting also stands above the rest because of the technical perspective. Every single element of the painting directs one’s attention straight to the midpoint of the composition, Christ’s head, and is arguably the greatest example of one point perspective ever created.

Leonardo started the painting in 1495 and completed it in 1498.  He scoured the streets of Milan for more than two years, searching for faces to make the visages of the disciples.

There is much evidence to support the account that Leonardo had a violent quarrel with a fellow artist and that he was so enraged and bitter that he determined to paint his enemy’s face into that of Judas, and everyone who saw it immediately recognized the likeness.  The painting continued, but when da Vinci came to paint the last face, that of Christ Himself, he could make no progress. His best efforts were futile.

After many attempts, he realized his problem. He could not paint the face of Christ while harboring bitter feelings.  He painted out the face of Judas and commenced again on the face of Jesus, this time with the brilliance acclaimed for centuries.

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE
to paint the features of Christlikeness
INTO OUR OWN LIFE
while we paint another face with the colors of hatred and revenge

We CANNOT be used by Christ
to further His kingdom, to tell of His love, to sing His praises,
if we are HARBOURING GRUDGES or ILL WILL against another

Search me O God and know my heart:
try me and know my thoughts.
Psalm 139:23

Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart,
from a good conscience, and from sincere faith. 
1 Timothy 1:5

Thoughts from Mr Anon:

• No matter how much you nurse a grudge, it will never get better.
• What is the heaviest piece of wood in the world?  A chip on the shoulder.
• When we are born into God’s family, we should bear a family likeness.

Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me:
All His wondrous compassion and purity.
O Thou, Spirit divine, all my nature refine,
Until the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.