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Philip da Costa

TRS 201H Faith Seeking UnderstandingMs. Berry

3/16/12

Rembrandt, The raising of Lazarus, ca 1630,

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Humanity and Divinity in Concordance


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Jesus experience at the death of Lazarus proves him to have attained a full

humanity. When he cries, he proves the full measure of his emotional capacity and thus

attains the full qualifications of human. In the Gospel according to John the language

captures Jesus remorse at the death of his friend, yet the image of the Razing of Lazarus

by Rembrandt portrays a powerful and un-fearful Jesus who commands death to rescind

itself. These images perhaps seem contradictory in message but both, Rembrandt and

Johns, are representative facets of Jesus that are more complimentary that contrasting.

The biblical image of Jesus at the raising of Lazarus portrays the human Jesus, focusing

the text on Jesus reaction and emotions. Its message is clearly aimed at proving the

humanity of Christ. Where Rembrandt captures the divine nature of Jesus, as it was

during this miracle, by giving Jesus such a commanding foreground in the painting. The

purpose here is aimed at portraying the divinity of Christ. Together, the painting and the

bible form an image of both the full humanity and the full divinity of Jesus.

The full divinity and the full humanity of Christ are not new concepts to

contemporary theologians, though this position was highly contested in earlier periods.

During the 4th century Christological controversy was rampant and this exact discussion

was the sole purpose of the Council of Chalcedon. How could Jesus be God if he could

feel remorse, pain, die and therefore change? And for Jesus to be human, how could he

possess universal knowledge of the past, present, and future of the universe? An

examination of the Gospel and this painting has solved this paradox, or at least it has

brought a new understanding to light. Together there is a truth to the Chalcedonic Creed:

two hypostases, one being.


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To begin the examination of the humanity of Jesus, the gospel of John provides an

excellent starting place. What is immediately striking in the Gospel of John is the use of

the translation perturbed.1

While it modernly refers to a state of confusion or

anxiousness, the translator makes a note that perturbed [is] a startling phrase in Greek

lit., he snorted in spirit, perhaps in anger at the presence of evil (death).2

(John 11:

footnotes) This is a startling change of pace from the emotions that Jesus is usually

associated with in the canonical gospels, which as earlier mentioned are sadness and

remorse. Yet it serves a distinct and important purpose. Anger is a distinctly human

emotion that derives from frustration or from passions overwhelming the logic. And in

the two instances where Jesus becomes perturbed in the Gospel of John, we see him

facing something truly impossible for mere mortals to resolve. First, when Jesus comes

across the weeping Mary and the Jews who accompany her we see the grief overwhelms

him and Jesus wept3

as the only response to the emotions he was confronted with. The

second time we see his anger is at the blaming voices of the Jews who accuse him of

being incapable of healing Lazarus before his death.4 In both situations Jesus is backed

into a corner of sorts, forced into situations that are undefeatable by mortal means. Such

situations are the eternal torment of humans as we want to succeed but we are often

limited by our human capacity and Jesus experiences this frustration in such an extreme

that the translator considers it an evil.

But before we address the actual miracle of the raising, attention must be drawn to

the Rembrandt painings illumination of the divine element of Jesus. In this image,

1Jn 11:33 (American Revised Version).

2Jn 11 Footnotes (ARV)

3 Jn 11:35 (ARV).4 Jn 11:37 (ARV).


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though Jesus is not illuminated, he is clearly the focus of the painting. The dynamic

motion and the fact that his body is the only one that is fully visible draws attention to

him and makes him the center of the image. Though not illuminated by light Jesus eyes,

which are the only ones pointed away from Lazarus, look up towards the heavens. The

painting sends a message unlike the sense of asking for assistance that is suggested in the

Gospel of John when it is written that:

Jesus raised his eyes and said father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you

always hear me; but because the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe

you sent me.And when he had said this he cried out in a loud voice Lazarus

come out! The dead man came out.5

The raised hand in the painting suggests more of a command of a higher power, rather

than an appeal for assistance. Such the image shows the dominant strength of the divine

nature of Jesus. He commands the world to alter to his will, rather than asking for it to

change, which defines the controlling power of Jesus to be equal with Gods, therefore

making him fully divine. The image also portrays another interesting feature, one that is

contradictory to the writings of the Gospel. In the Rembrandt, all if the people are inside

the tomb of Lazarus. Biblically, they are all outside and Lazarus walks out to meet them.

However, being in the tomb provides the distinct advantage of placing Jesus above the

others.

Nonetheless, it is the intersection of the to images, and by extension the

intersection of Jesus two natures, during the raising that is where the Human and the

Divine nature collide within Jesus. Jesus proves he is human through the realization of

5 Jn 11:41 (ARV).


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his emotions, and through the use of his divine power only further betrays his humanity.

To explain, Jesus becomes so frustrated with the situation he faces, his friend has died

and people are saying that he could have prevented it, so Jesus becomes perturbed and

uses his divine power to fix the situation. His reaction is eerily predictable and similar to

someone who is being peer pressured. Pushed to do something because not doing it

causes feelings of guilt. His divine nature, which otherwise was dormant, is brought forth

like a tool to solve Jesus emotional state. Now that is not to say that the divine power of

Jesus was a tool within him, rather, it is another consciousness that Jesus as a human had

access to. The world that Jesus created, as part of the Word and the trinity, was perfect

and without need of intervention. Normally, Jesus as a human is content with abiding by

the laws that the world he created lives by, however in some cases where he is extremely

tested, the Divine nature emerges to perform a miracle. In these moments Jesus reflects

the powerful and commanding figure that the Rembrandt painting illuminates. Within

Jesus are two hypostases within one being. There is human Jesus who is capable of the

emotional journey portrayed throughout the Gospel of John, in the passion, the crying,

the suffering, etc. And there is divine Jesus, who is capable of the seven miracles in the

gospel, the part with the ability to change the world we live in for the better. Both of

these natures reside within Jesus of Nazareth. And his unique composition of two beings

in one can be seen, portrayed by the art of Rembrandt and by the writings of the Holy

Gospel according to John.


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Works Cited

Rembrandt, The raising of Lazarus, ca 1630, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Web.

March 11, 2012.

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