Category: Illustrations/Other Art

The purpose of an icon is to teach the faithful about God or to help the faithful in prayer and meditation on the person or event depicted.
I’m not officially an iconographer, but “The Resurrection of the Captives” is meant to teach the faithful and direct their meditation on the resurrection and baptism.
The event of “The Resurrection of the Captives” is depicted in a world still bearing the wounds of crucifixion, but in the midst of being made new. This is not the whisking away of the resurrected somewhere else to some ethereal place. It is the resurrection of bodies into a good creation being mended and made new–the redemption of all things. As Julian of Norwich says, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

The Captives pictured span time and history. They represent all the oppressed. On the left, standing, is an elderly woman wearing the garments typical of one held captive during the Holocaust. While imprisoned, she was made to wear a pink triangle to identify her as a homosexual—the reason for her imprisonment. In life, it was a symbol of her oppression and murder. Upon her resurrection, she wears it proudly. All that was still remains—but now it is changed—it is made holy.
The implements of violence and oppression have not disappeared, but even they are being made new. In the woman’s right hand she bears a hoe fashioned from a Wall Street sign. Money and economics no longer oppress and divide. The world is no longer a place of the haves and the have-nots. The sign, once a symbol of power, hope, fear, and inequality, has been refashioned into a common hoe. It is finally put to good use caring for the land. Similarly, an assault rifle has been refashioned into a useful plow. The prophecy of Isaiah 2:4 has been fulfilled—they have beaten their swords into plowshares. What had oppressed them, what had done violence to them, what formerly brought death, has been made to nurture life. And in the process, even work has been redeemed—no longer a punishment or a consumer of life. There is good work to do here.
In her left hand, the woman holds a wooden ladle. She is pouring out water over the head of her fellow Captive. The water symbolizes both baptism and a simple gesture of care—a cooling salve after a long day of good work.
The Captive on the right represents a contemporary man of color wearing the traditional garb of our culture of incarceration—a bright orange jumpsuit. Both Captives, within their imprisonment, were defined by their culture and their captors as less than human. They became identified by their uniform and numbers. They are now identified by their halos as Saints—sons and daughters of our Living God

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The donkey is here as well—representing all the creatures great and small within Creation. S/he is biblically reminiscent of the one who carried King Jesus into Jerusalem to the adulation of the crowds—perhaps the same donkey who carried that same Jesus’ dead body to the tomb. Now, there are no more dead bodies to carry.

The donkey, for me, represents the one in the French film “Au Hasard Balthazar” by the Roman Catholic film-maker Robert Bresson. The donkey is owned throughout its life by various owners—most of whom exploit him, often with more cruelty than kindness—eventually abused to the death. He bears this suffering with nobility and wisdom, becoming a saint in the process. As a side-note, the fact that the animal bears no halo is not meant to say he is less than the others in this New Creation. This was more of an artistic choice than a theological one. All has been made holy.

In baptism, the Captives have truly passed through death into this new life. And we are called to join them, to bring justice and peace and resurrection into our world. We are called to free the captive, work for the destruction of oppressive systems and institutions, and bring life out of places where only death currently prevails. In baptism, we become witnesses to the fact that resurrection can take place here and now—a glimpse of the final resurrection still to come. When we work for justice and peace, we bring forth the Resurrection into our world. This is what we are called to in our baptisms.
This “icon” was painted and gifted to Saint Andrew Episcopal Church by Joshua and Mindy Hancock to commemorate the event of the baptism of their son Ethan James Hancock during the Easter Vigil on the fourth of April, 2015.