The O Nymphios Icon
The Bridegroom
Egg tempera on wood, Greece, 2001
Icon for the first four days of Holy Week
The beautiful thing about this icon is the face of Jesus. It is sad for the circumstance but not sad for himself. He is not defenseless and yet he chooses not to be defensive in this moment from Matthew's gospel.
A friend once told me that "there is no need to be defensive if you are right and true. Your enemies will not believe you and your friends do not need it."
Pilot asks the most important question of all. "What is Truth?" and Jesus steps out into the crowd and shows him. Jesus believed that Rome was wrong and that love and honesty and truth and fidelity were right. He gave himself over to that surety, following the truth he had discerned in his quiet prayer time with God in the dark of early morning.
"Speak the truth, lead where it will, cost what it may."
Phillips Brooks
Such a leading! Such a cost! Such a Resurrection! We all just hope for God to make good out of horror and God seems always to do so.
This surely consoles the heart, as we relive the passion of Holy Friday. Thank you for that.
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