A Little Bit of Hope

The Danish artist Carl Bloch (1834-1890) did an oil on copper plate piece titled the Entombment of Christ that really caught my attention this week. This piece was one of 23 paintings that he was commissioned to do for the king's prayer chamber in Frederiksborg Castle Chapel in Denmark. Even if you don't recognize his name you are probably familiar with many of his pieces. Dennis and I went to the BYU museum of art when a large part of the Frederiksborg Chapel collection was there. It was so beautiful and amazing and uplifting and inspiring!!  The BYU museum owns a couple originals including a lost piece recently discovered and sold to BYU this past June titled the"Mocking of Christ".  The museum also owns several of his etchings. (Sorry a little off course there.) Today some have recognized Bloch as perhaps the greatest artist ever to depict the life and death of Christ.

From 1 Corinthians 15 the poetry of Paul's testimony of the Savior's victory over death seems like a fitting caption for this piece.

 55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?  56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.  57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The hope in this image comes from inclusion of the flowers. All the sorrow and mourning at his death is wiped away with hope in and through the resurrection. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive".(1 Cor 15:22)  How many times have I seen this image and never noticed the flowers. . . the hope!! How grateful I am for the resurrection, for the hope that it brings and for the life of Jesus Christ that enables me to be better than I am on my own.