Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Christ Anoints the Eyes of the Blind Man

Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.
Mark 10: 51-52
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To begin my first blog, I wanted to share this painting by Walter Rane. The painting is very symbolic for me. It depicts the miracle of Christ restoring sight to a humbled man who is blind. While many of us are not "physically" blind, most of us are "spiritually" blind. Blind to things that are keeping us from "seeing" the Lord in our lives.
Observations:
  • The man in a humbled position, kneeling, and possibly hurt due to his loss of sight, since his head appears wrapped.
  • The painting is split in half… the man on the dark, left side and Christ on the light, right side. The left side is possibly symbolic of Earth, Mortality, Sin, and Blindness. On the right...Heaven, Light, Vision, Redemption, Spirtuality. Christ is draped in blue and white... symbolic colors of heaven, the sky and clouds).
  • In the upper left side of the painting is a raised cloth above the man (a veil) which appears lifted for a moment. We see the Lord’s hand extended through into the darkness touching the man’s eyes. (symbolic of an extended hand through a veil).
  • We don't see Christ's entire form.... much of His image is left unanswered in the painting.. and left up to ourselves to see. Small detail...we don't see the thumbs of the Savior, only his 8 fingers. Eight being symbolic of rebirth.
Christ has the power to touch our lives, restore our sight, and heal us of our spiritual blindness.

1 comment:

  1. Do you think there is any significance or symbolism in the thumb itself? Just curious.

    ReplyDelete