This is a very dramatic painting containing a number of events during Jesus' Passion Account. Of course, this is Holy Thursday night. We can see it is night time thought the two windows. We are in the home of Caiaphas, the high priest who is presiding over the trial of Jesus. There's a circle of men seated around this in-charge fellow who is theatrically tearing his clothes. Two men with outstretched arms set the tornadic energy in a counter-clockwise motion. The fellow in the up top left corner is ramping up the emotion. The verdict of this "secretly, in the dead of night" tribunal is, "Jesus must die." Bad things happen in secret night-time meetings.
Oil lamps hang from the rafters and the ceiling. There are Hebrew letters on the wall, like the "In God We Trust" signs over an American courtroom. But Jesus is left out, his hands tied behind his back, up against a wall, with a balustrade to keep him in his place. It's a sad picture. It might be titled, "The Loneliness of God."
Is God lonely? We can muse on that. The daughter of the evangelist Billy Graham was asked, "Why does God allow bad things to happen.? She said, "Well, for so long we've told God to go away. And God, being the gentleman he is, has perhaps complied." I get it.
Again, these paintings may be depicting historical events, but they are all the more reflective of states of mind and heart. Is is right to say, that at some time or other all of us have been of the mind — like the accusing men in the night circle, our inner thoughts going around and around, swirling in an unstoppable tornado of hyped resentment. The national mind these days has been swept up with this kind of destructive energy.
But I think too, Polenov's isolated Jesus, is an image of God joining us in our loneliness. God understands human loneliness because he has stood with us in it. It's reported now that 3 in 5 Americans feel lonely — left out, poorly understood, lacking companionship. This sense pre-dates Covid, but the pandemic is intensifying the problem. Loneliness results in anxiety and depression. Wow, 73% of those who are heavy social media users consider themselves lonely. And the Generation Z young people, ages 18-22, rate highest on the loneliness scale. They say they lack meaningful conversations and a sense of sharing life with others. The American workplace is said to be a particularly lonely place.
No one escapes. A rectory can be a terribly lonely place — doors closed, having to listen to a pastor's diner time grievance monologues, broken men who are unhappy with themselves and their work— lonely.
Being Jewish can be lonely in this self-proclaimed Christian country. A gay teen can feel lonely even in his/her own family. Asian Americans are being increasingly harassed even harmed these days. Being a person of color can be lonely in this country. Twenty eight percent of older adults live alone now. Being A newcomer in a school or workplace can be lonely. Bullying is on the increase. Someone told me once about the school where she worked, "If you're different in this school; you're in trouble."
The nation has a serious problem. Our loneliness is being called an epidemic. Vasily Polenov's Jesus standing marginalized, opposite this whirlwind of lonely condemnation, invites us to start seeing clearly.
