Jesus: He’s Back – And This Time, He’s Mad

Dear readers, it would appear that once more Easter is upon us, and with it the celebration of life and resurrection from death through chocolate eggs laid by a confused rabbit.  Or so I am led to believe by the supermarket shelves. 

In honor of this occasion I have found a fantastic rendition of Jesus returning from the dead.  Apparently Jesus coming out of the tomb alive and having witnesses would not have been in keeping with his ultimate message of letting the world, including people who were not already his followers, know he just performed a great miracle; thus, most paintings of this scene feature two or three guards lying around the tomb asleep.  This version from the 15^th century “Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry,” however, takes this a step further.

Look at him!  Jesus is literally surrounded by the fallen bodies of heavily armed soldiers.  They’re not just asleep; they are piles of flesh, limbs akimbo, necks at awkward, broken angles. 

This Jesus was not taking his return from the dead lightly.  He was back to kick some serious butt.  And clearly he was up to the challenge of an army or two on his own, as his only companion is this guy.

A rather diminutive angel who clearly just spent waaaay too long at the tanning salon on his way to the resurrection.  There’s no way he caused that much havoc when he’s just recovering from sunstroke. 

Not content with merely taking out the world’s military forces, the resurrection was also apparently the catalyst for the next great flood, as well.

Everyone, human and angel alike, is waist-deep in water.  And when the angels are finding water levels to be getting a little uncomfortable, you know the world is in deep (ha!) trouble.

Really what this painting made me think of was this clip for Gandhi II.  You know, the spirit of Easter.  Happy Spring, everyone!