Day 91 - Staring at the soles of his feet

Hans Süss von Kulmbach | The Ascension of Christ | The Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1513.

This week many Christians will be reflecting on Acts 1:6-11 and the story of Jesus’ ascension. This is the subject of Han Suss von Kulmbach’s painting which was adapted from a woodcut created by his teacher Albrecht Durer. I’m really sorry but isn’t there something slightly comic about this painting? Jesus is disappearing out of the frame and all that is left are his dangling feet. Paintings of the Ascension usually show Jesus’ whole body surrounded by heaven-lit clouds. Yet the artist is suggesting that this is the view that the disciples must have had. The last thing they must have seen of Jesus were the soles of his feet. The artist also positions us, the viewer, with this company of believers so we too see Jesus’ toes as he goes.

Feet are funny in our culture probably because in muddy Northern Europe we cover them up. Every few years I attempt to re-enact the foot-washing on Maundy Thursday. People either feel embarrassed about the state of their feet or complain that they are ticklish. There is something vulnerable about feet.

Were Jesus’ feet dusty? If so, then he takes something of the earth into the Godhead? Did they have dry skin and callouses from all that walking? If so, then Jesus’ solidarity with the poor gets taken up into the Godhead. Hans Süss von Kulmbach shows Jesus’ feet still bearing the wounds of the nails. Then suffering and pain also get taken up into the Godhead. Jesus ascends with a human body. To me, that says something profound about the mystery of God not being all-together separate from the labour and hurt of human nature but somehow holding it and encompassing it.

The vast majority of Hans Süss von Kulmbach’s painting is taken up with the disciples, which includes Mary. I love their different faces and slightly different expressions even though their gaze and even the grass points us towards Jesus’ feet. Unity and diversity all at the same time with the focus on Christ. They are the ones that are left. All too soon two men dressed in white will tell them to stop staring into the sky. Pentecost will come and the work of the Jesus movement will begin. You’ll notice that there is another pair of naked feet in the bottom left-hand corner. We too will be called to walk in touch with the earth. We too will walk in solidarity with the poor. We too will know suffering.

Will we be vulnerable in our faith? Will we jump into our discipleship/apostleship with both feet?

Suzanne Nockels