A Month of Miracles Part 21 - Healing the Man With Dropsy

Title: Healing of the Man With the Dropsy
Artist: Alexandre Bida
Medium: Etching
Size: 28 x 21 cm
Date: ca. 1873
Location: From Illustrations by Alexandre Bida, from Christ in Art; or, The Gospel Life of Jesus: With the Bida Illustrations. by Edward Eggleston. New York: Fords, Howard, & Hulbert, 1874.

Luke 14:1-6 - One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way. Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” And they had nothing to say.

As Jesus dines with the Pharisees, the religious leaders are watching him. The phrase Luke used here for ‘carefully watched’ means to watch surreptitiously – ominously - much as an undercover agent would today. It is apparent that the mood is somber, suspicion deep. At the meal is a man with dropsy, which means his limbs are swollen with excess body fluids, and Jesus asks whether it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Having had experience with this predicament, the leaders remain silent - and Jesus heals the man. After sending him away, Jesus notes again that they would quickly offer aid to a son or even an ox that had fallen in the ditch on the sabbath. The leaders' silence continues. Nothing has been learned; nothing has been confessed. Despite a constant barrage of divine activity, their position has not changed. The passage confirms how strong sin's stubbornness can be. It also shows how even after warnings about judgment and its consequences, God graciously still gives evidence of his presence.

Alexandre Bida (1813–1895) was born in Toulouse, France, and was a painter of the Romantic period. He specialized in Orientalism and studied under Eugene Delacroix, but soon developed his own style along with his desire for perfection. As a youth he traveled to work in Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, and Palestine, and likely used this knowledge as illustrator of ‘Bida's Les Saints Evangeles’, published in 1873. Of Bida's work, although having closely observed the costumes and people encountered overseas, his decorative arrangements and symmetry of space exemplified the theatrical aspects of his art.

A Month of Miracles Part 20 - The Infirm Woman

Title: The Infirm Woman
Artist: Louis Glanzman
Medium: Mixed media
Size: 55 x 42 cm
Date: ca. 2002
Location: tbd.

Luke 13:10-17 - On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.” The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

This is the last time in Luke that Jesus appears in a synagogue. As he is teaching, a woman possessed by a spirit for eighteen years is in the audience. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. The mention of the spirit is important, because the woman's opponent is not merely mortality or the natural process of aging but a spiritual agent. The age of her condition indicates how serious it is. Again, Jesus takes the initiative—a significant act in a culture that tended to shun women. Again, He shows his authority.

Louis Glanzman was born in 1922, raised in the farmlands of Virginia, and is a self-educated artist. He began his career at the age of sixteen as a comic book illustrator. During the 50's he illustrated numerous children's books, including the popular 'Pippi Longstocking' series. Noted as one of America's most prolific illustrators and acclaimed portrait painters he is deeply proud of his many historical paintings. Recently, his 13 portrait series of the Women of the New Testament became the basis for a book of spiritual reflections entitled 'Soul Sisters.' More of his work can be seen at http://www.louisglanzman.com.