Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve.
And as they did eat, he said, “Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.”
And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, “Lord, is it I?”
—Matthew 26:20–22 (KJV)
LOOK: Passion triptych by Ostap Lozynsky
This painting by the late Ukrainian artist Ostap Lozynsky portrays a handful of episodes from Passion Week: Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, the Last Supper, the Kiss of Judas, Christ before Pilate, the Flagellation, the Crowning with Thorns, Peter’s denial (represented emblematically by the rooster), Christ taking up his cross, Christ being nailed to the cross, the Crucifixion, and the Lamentation over the Dead Christ.
LISTEN: “Stations: Is It I” by Joshua Stamper, on PRIMEMOVER (2021)
Joshua Stamper [previously] is “a transdisciplinary artist and composer whose work explores hiddenness, revelation, ephemera, and archive.” Commissioned by Resurrection Philadelphia, his “Stations: Is It I” composition collages spoken “words of prayer, cursing, praise, fury, hope, despair—from disciples, politicians, priests, crowds, soldiers, the curious,” all parties connected to Jesus’s final week. The texts are taken from scripture.
The cacophony is stressful. Maybe you turned off the recording before it finished, unable to bear it. I encourage you to stick with it for the full four minutes and twenty-one seconds, as a way of sitting with the discomfort and chaos of Christ’s passion, of entering into this story that’s at the center of the church’s proclamation.
Art & Theology 