Artwork with special meaning to Christ's resurrection

There are gifts, and then there are gifts. On this Easter Sunday, I relate a quite unexpected bestowal made to this author. A few weeks ago, a colleague and I were in a business meeting with Cape Girardeau businessman Jim Riley. At one point in the meeting, Jim -- an energetic and enthusiastic person, reaches over and pulls from a shelf a reproduction of a painting. He hands it to me, saying, "It's yours. Take it."

As Jim explained what the painting was, tears began to well in my eyes. I wasn't crying but was on the verge. The thoughtfulness of this gesture will stay with me a long time. The reproduction was of an 1884 work, "The Triumph of the Innocents," by English painter William Holman Hunt. Hunt was quite taken with religious iconography after having traveled to the Holy Land in the 1850s, later building a home in Jerusalem.

The protagonists in Hunt's painting are the holy family -- Mary riding a beast of burden carrying the baby Jesus with Joseph on foot, leading a nighttime procession along the road to Gaza. [The story is recalled in Matthew 2:13-14.] Jesus, Mary and Joseph are depicted about a day's journey west of Bethlehem, Jesus' birthplace, placing them on a well-traveled route to Egypt -- where an angel had commanded they go to escape a murderous Herod.

The holy family is surrounded by baby boys, whose heads are surrounded by a luminescent glow which appear to be bubbles. In Hunt's painting, these boys represent the spirits of the children slaughtered by Herod, in a desperate attempt to kill the infant Christ child. The tale is recorded in Matthew 2:16: "Herod gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under." These slain boys are the holy innocents -- and as such, Hunt's art proclaims, their lives were given in triumph, for in the genocidal madness of Herod, Jesus escaped with his parents. He grew in wisdom and stature and was able to complete his ultimate mission -- his finished work on the cross. The "innocents," the baby boys, are part of the salvation story. They gave their lives so that Jesus could -- at a future moment -- give His for the salvation of all humankind.

Google this painting on your computer sometime. As it is Easter, today would be a good day. Look at the splendid detail Holman provides. If you'd like to see the reproduction in person, drop by my office, suite 110 at Chateau Girardeau. I'd be happy to show it to you. It's been quite some time since a gift moved me as much as this one did.

The resurrection story reminds us that as Jesus triumphed with his victory over death by rising from the grave, we also triumph. He won -- so we will win. Happy Easter.

Dr. Jeff Long is executive director of the Chateau Girardeau Foundation and teaches religious studies at Southeast Missouri State University.