Vasily Polenov, believed that Jesus was a real person. He wrote about painting images of Jesus, "To present His living image in visual art too, to present Him such as he was in reality." This is why the artist traveled to Egypt, Syria and Palestine in 1881-1882. He wanted to observe and learn, so he could depict accurately the clothes the people wore, the colors and light of the places near to Jesus, the scenery — hoping to use these insights so to infuse his Christ cycle paintings with strong feeling.
"I'm too much in thrall of the greatness of the man and the beauty of the narrative about him..." Would that all Christians could speak those words. In 1897, Vasily wrote, "I love the Gospel stories about Him." Here, Polenov has seized on one moment in St. Mark's Gospel account of Jesus' long days in the wilderness.
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him." Mark 1:12,13
Mark's Gospel account doesn't detail dramatic temptations to turn stones to bread or a challenge for Jesus to throw himself off the top of the temple. That's why Polenov shows Jesus, just sitting. We might imagine we're stumbling around the wilderness ourselves, and as we turn a corner we are surprised to see a man sitting in utter stillness — not in royal blue, purple and red, but brown — like the ground. Polenov shows us a Jesus who is one of us.
But nearby there are the beasts — a lion taking an afternoon snooze and a wild dog. Indeed, in Jesus' day, not only were there lions in the Syrian wilderness, but they were there for another thousand years. One scholar says there were brown bears in Israel until recently. Sad, that humans have caused so many extinctions. God placed us in a garden and invited us to name the animals — but we have destroyed their wild homes and killed them for souvenirs. We're poorer for it.
Some say Mark mentions the animals because they posed dangers. I get the feeling Polenov doesn't share that view. It's not the animals that will kill Jesus, but humans. We're the danger. I'd suggest it is more like this: God placed us in the garden with the animals and plants. But Adam spoiled it, and so have we. Jesus came to reclaim all of creation for God. He began that process of reclamation when he stepped down into the water of the Jordan River. Now Jesus is the new Adam, living in harmony with the creatures. Look at Polenov's painting — Jesus isn't floating above God's good ground, but sitting on it, as if utterly harmonized with creation.
There are not a few Christians who are not of this Christ-mind. They live in the denials that fill the airwaves today: coronavirus denial, climate change denial, election results denial, injustice deniers, life in the womb deniers. Polenov's Jesus sits in a great inner stillness. I might imagine myself taking up a seat on the ground with this Jesus. And what might that inner stillness with God lead me to — what new reconciliation, what new commonality, what new awareness? Listening and watching carefully since Election Day, it's clear we've lost a lot — perhaps most of all a sense of common ground, common good. We've got these Lenten days to consider it.
Still, beauty is everywhere, even in the desert place. We see Jesus sitting in the rocky foreground. Beyond is a deep valley. Beyond that is a great rock formation with undulating sedimentary lines. Then there is the blue of the sea and another deeper blue on the far shore. Then there are the mountains. Then the sky. Lent, and Polenov's painting, invite us into the inner place which is deep and beyond.
