The Adoration Of The Kings 2

24/12/2022

‘BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD’

Matthew 2:1-2

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,
saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him."

So let us now look at this work with the eyes of the faithful, in the full knowledge and experience of scripture and see what is revealed.

The gifts are enclosed in what looks to all intents and purposes to be objects that might be found in Gossaert’s day. Gaspar’s goblet, which he has handed to Mary, is more properly a ciborium in which the host (the consecrated wafer used in the Eucharist) is kept. Here – not wafers – gold coins, one of which the Christchild is handing back – a gesture symbolic of the priest (and Christ was our Great High Priest according to the book of Hebrews) administering Holy Communion. And gold was the tribute paid by kings to a king. Jesus is the ‘King of Kings’ and He will be redeemed – not with gold – but with his own body crucified – shown here naked at birth as he would be at death. Christ the King – Christ the Saviour and Redeemer.

The dove here – as so often – is used to represent the Holy Spirit – part of the Holy Trinity – in John’s gospel ‘I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him’ JOHN 1:32. The dove looks forward to Christ’s baptism – an event thought to have taken place on 6th January – also interpreted as the date of Christ’s first miracle and suggested as the date of the second coming. The artist is showing us here and in other picture elements the ways in which Jesus was revealed as Christ or God.
And right at the back of the picture an angel announces the coming birth, an event plainly in the past, but in the upper centre of the picture – so this image is also to be read as a timeline showing multiple but related events. It is a sermon on Christ’s birth. The foreground is the Twelfth Night, when the Wise Men visited, but the Shepherds who witnessed the birth are still shown in attendance.
The capital on the column to the right of Mary shows the old testament scene of Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac – a story firmly connected with Jesus as the Lamb of God – the Sin Offering of the Old Testament embodied in the Offering of Jesus life for all sin.
The birth of Christ is immediately at the start of the New Testament – a culmination of the Old – the moment when the Law is fulfilled and replaced by the new Covenant. Law replaced by Grace, and Christ’s Church – here embodied for a Catholic audience by Mary rises out of the ruins of the old ...
... and Gaspar’s sceptre bears the tiny figure of Moses and the Ten Commandments – ‘For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ’ JOHN 1:17

There is much more to be seen, but it is plain that a good deal of thought has gone into this – and maybe the artist himself was unaware of some of the myriad interpretations that his doctrinal exposition was revealing. I am sure he would have covered most of them.

Jan Gossaert’s painting is a Biblical thesis – on the surface a statement of the Adoration by the Three Wise Men of the infant Jesus – but behind this a rich and powerful exposition of some Biblical truths. But are they truths?

The angels, shepherds and stable are only mentioned in Luke’s gospel. No one anywhere mentions the ox and the ass, nor are the visitors described as ‘kings’. Somewhere along the line, visual artists have drawn their own interpretation from the scripture, and we have learned the vision, and forgotten the words.

But just as the Bible writers – guided by the Holy Spirit – weaved their tales and prophecies and references to reveal the mystery of Christ, so Artists have used some of their own conventions and devices to give visual form to Christian ideas.

The donkey or ass had an interpretation as a beast of burden – and notably was ridden by Jesus when he entered Jerusalem towards the end – the beast of burden bearing the greatest of all burdens – He who was to bear the sins of all mankind. So it would be appropriate to show the ass as present at the birth of Christ as a reminder of the end of the story and ‘cross-reference’ within the picture – and who is to say there wasn’t a donkey there anyway?

And shepherds? They’re plausible too. The shepherd would always be present at the birth of The Lamb. And was not Jesus that ‘great shepherd of the sheep’ according to Paul?

We must at all times remember that – even if the events described in Scripture are literally true — it is unimportant. It is what the spirit of the words says to the spirit in us that counts. Christ himself speaking to the Christ in us. And if the Holy Spirit speaks Truth to us from a painting then God’s work is being done to bring us closer in our relationship to Jesus.

MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS

JOHN 1:29-31
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
This is He of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.'
I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water."

BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD — G F Handel (“Messiah”)

PRAYER requires CONCENTRATION

GET TO WORK and seek, narrow your interests to this one thing. Have you ever really sought God, or have you only given a languid cry to Him after a twinge of moral neuralgia?
[from ‘Our Brilliant Heritage’ by Oswald Chambers]

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