Loop Church, Chicago, IL Videos
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It is finished
Loop's Lenten Art Series challenges artists to meditate on Jesus' last words: how they might have felt in his body and his spirit when he said them, and how they transcend that time and impact the artist today. Artist Silvia reflects on her process reflecting on Jesus’ words from John 19:30 “It is finished”
These words were easy for me to depict visually, and hard for me to wrap my head around theologically. The first thing I went to was the very physical, human response of this man who had been in agony for hours, days. “It is finished”. I thought of how he might have opened his clenched hands, surrendering to death, released from his suffering.
Then I thought of my own faith journey over the past several years. I held this defined, solid faith in my hands, where I could keep it safe from the world, where I could observe and understand it. Then I started to doubt. Everything. The more I doubted the tighter I clenched my fist, desperately trying to hold onto this faith, any faith, trying to figure IT out. And then there was a time of nothing, of deadness. I finally let go - and only then started to find a little bit, and then more of Life, Beauty, and Grace, that could not be contained in my fist but thrived in the uncertainty? Mystery? God? I had opened up to.
Theologically I don’t know how to explain what happened at the cross. I don’t know what Is Finished. I’m not ashamed of that anymore, but I still find myself trying to figure it out. I look at the world and it does not seem Finished. What I think I might know is that after the cross there was darkness, and then there was a little bit, and then more of Life, Beauty, and Grace.