Christ and his Disciples on the Road to Emmaus

Title: Landscape with Christ and his Disciples on the Road to Emmaus

Artist: Jan Wildens and Hans Jordaens III

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 123 x 168 cm

Date: C. 1640s

Location: The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

Mark 16:12-13 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.

He is said to have appeared to them in another form, perhaps in the form of a traveler, in another dress than what he usually wore. Regardless, these disciples should have recognized him, and in an event more fully related in Luke 24:16–31, when they finally shed their doubts, they knew him immediately. The rest also did not believe, and suspected that the others eyes had deceived them. The proofs of Christ’s resurrection were given gradually, cautiously, that so the assurance with which the apostles preached this doctrine afterward might be the more satisfying. That his staunchest followers were disbelieving at first, shows that afterward they did not believe it capriciously but rather with a full conviction.

Jan Wildens (Antwerp, c. 1596 – 16 October 1653) was a Flemish Baroque painter and draughtsman. He is best known for painting landscape backgrounds for Rubens and for many artists in his circle, but his finest independent work shows he was an accomplished master in his own right. The figures in this landscape were painted by Hans Jordaens III, another Antwerp artist. Jordaens (b. 1595 - 1643, Antwerp), who appears to have been fairly successful, trained with his father, Hans Jordaens II, who was also a painter. The younger Jordaens was responsible for finishing works by Abraham Govaerts after the latter's death in 1626.

Return of the Holy Family from Egypt

Title: Return of the Holy Family from Egypt

Artist: Jacob Jordaens

Medium: Oil on oak

Size: 63 x 50 cm

Date: c. 1616

Location: Staatliche Museen, Berlin.

As recorded in Matthew 2:19-23, after Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared again in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead." So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."

Every unjust empire in history has ultimately fallen, but God's church continues to endure. To oppressed Christians, whether persecuted for their faith or repressed for other unjust reasons, this reminder of the oppressors' mortality is a reminder that all trials are temporary and our loving Father remains in control. The angelic orders to return to the land of Israel because those seeking the child's life were dead explicitly recall Exodus 4:19-20. Jewish readers would have immediately recognized the allusion: like Moses, Jesus had outlived his persecutor and would lead his people to salvation.

Jacob Jordaens (May 19, 1593 - October 18, 1678), was one of three Flemish Baroque painters, along with Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, to bring prestige to the Antwerp school of painting. Like Rubens, he studied under Adam van Noort, who was his only teacher. During this time Jordaens lived in Van Noort's house and became very close to the rest of the family. After several years, in 1616, he married his teacher's eldest daughter, Anna Catharina van Noort, with whom he had three children.

This painting, of a happy family’s triumphant return, is dated from the same year as his own marriage, and shows the Antwerp master working with a new freedom of color and brushwork.

... And, as it states in Luke 2:40 “the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.”

Amen.