Kindness

We visited the Fitzwilliam Museum on Holy Saturday, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, so the religious paintings in the medieval section were especially poignant. I was attracted to the crucifixion scene above because it was painted around 1290. This year was the setting for my historical novel, ‘The Twelfth Cross.’ I enjoy seeing anything from this period because it gives me insight into the world of Queen Eleanor of Castile.

This painting was titled ‘Christ on the cross with the Virgin Mary and Saint John’, by an unrecorded artist working in Sienna Italy. The caption led me to examine the work more closely: ‘There is a grid-like precision to the composition that unites the stones of the city wall, the Virgin Mary’s upstretched arm and the stepped outline of her cloak. This rigid structure sets off the sinuous lines of Christ's body, the animated knot of his loincloth, and the steep angles of the arms of the cross.’

I was drawn to the painting mainly because its depiction of Mary and John at the foot of the cross evokes one of Jesus' sayings on the cross, recorded by John in his gospel (ch 19 vs 26-27). ‘When Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Dear woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.’

It always moves me to see how, amid the agony of bearing the sins of the world on his shoulders, Christ was thinking of others. But this Easter, it struck me that Jesus was looking out for the future care of John, as well as his mother. The Lord knew what lay ahead. John's twin brother, James, would be the first of the 12 disciples to be martyred (see Acts 12 v 1-2). It must be devastating to lose a twin. Can you imagine how John must have benefitted as much as Mary from the domestic arrangements that Jesus commends here? How kind. It brings to mind Titus’ beautiful personification of Christ as, ‘the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man’ (Titus 3:4 King James Version). Today, we can take comfort that whatever lies ahead for us, our loving Saviour has already thought about our needs and made provision, as he did for Mary and John.