It Is Holy Week

The Isenheim Altarpiece was sculpted and painted by Nikolaus of Haguenau and Matthias Grünewald respectively (1512-1516) for the Monastery of St. Anthony located in Isenheim near Colmar, France.  The Monastery of St. Anthony was a hospital specializing in the care of sufferers from Saint Anthony’s Fire, a disease caused by ingesting rye grain contaminated by fungus.  The result was a burning sensation in the extremities.  The centerpiece is the crucifixion of Jesus who is also shown to be suffering from St. Anthony’s Fire.  If not a cure for those who saw the altarpiece, it was a reminder that Christ also suffered.  On either end of the altarpiece are the Saints, recognized for the healing at the monastery.  On the left is the martyrdom of St Sebastian, his flesh pierced by arrows.  On the right St. Anthony the Great.  As Jesus dies on the cross to the right is St. John the Baptist with a lamb (referencing the Lamb of God) the last of the prophets to recognize Jesus. Mary, Jesus’ mother, has collapsed into the arms of the disciple John.  At the foot of the cross is Mary Magdalene hands folded in prayer.  The altarpiece is currently in the Unterlinden Museum, Colmar, France.

Jesus enters into Jerusalem riding a donkey.  The crowds surround him, singing hosannas to God in the highest and laying their cloaks and psalm branches in the donkey’s path.  These are the people from Galilee where Jesus has been ministering for the last three years.  Every Jew who possibly can is required to travel to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover and make the required sacrifices in the temple.  These Galileans  have traveled with Jesus and the disciples to Jerusalem.  For the last three years they have listened to his teachings.  They have witnessed Jesus’ miracles and healings.  To them he is the promised Messiah. 

Over the next week Jesus will clear the temple grounds of the money changers and the sellers of sacrificial items.  He turns the temple back to the God focused place of study, prayer and discussion it was intended to be.

Jesus will raise the wrath of the Jewish authorities which will result in his arrest and conviction.  Jesus will be nailed to a cross and he will die.  His body will be removed from the cross, placed in a nearby tomb, and a stone rolled to seal the entrance.  Guards will be placed outside the tomb to ward off potential grave robbers.

The disciples and followers will hide in fear as it appears that darkness has settled over God’s chosen and the spiritual movement.  When Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was ripped apart revealing to the common people the “Holy of Holies” where God dwelt on earth.  The opening of the Holy of Holies signals an opportunity for the common people to have a personal relationship with God.  The ground shook and the dead began to rise.  In this darkness we see The Kingdom of God come into being.