Pink Crucifixion

Craigie Aitchison

Here is the classic Christian cross. Here is clearly a depiction of Jesus’ crucifixion. And yet the figure has orange hair, barely any expression on his face, is so simply painted that he has no hands, and his arms aren’t nailed to the cross, but casually slung over the back of it. You could say he was almost nonchalant – nearly like the stereotypical teenager lounging about, going “Whatever!” And then a Barbie pink background? What is going on? This, surely, is the crucifixion as we’ve never seen it before!

The artist has described the crucifixion as “the most horrific story I have ever heard”. And yet, he is not in any way attempting to show the horror of it. Quite the opposite: he appears to be ridiculing it! Or is he ridiculing our attempt to try and depict Jesus’ suffering? How can we, as humans, possibly attempt to describe the suffering of God?

By not showing us the exact way in which Jesus suffers, the artist is enabling us to look at the scene afresh. We realise that we simply can’t know how Jesus suffered. Even the gospels differ in the words they attribute to Jesus on the cross, each painting a slightly different picture of that experience. And if we try to imagine what it was like, it will be different for each one of us. Just as we all experience grief and pain and suffering in different ways. Like that pink background which isn’t uniform, but has many different shades and textures, we are not uniform, our experiences of suffering are not uniform. And yet everyone’s suffering will always cry out with the vibrancy of that pink, making an indelible impact on anyone willing to see it.

Perhaps we are being invited to go back and look at our own suffering. We often long for others to see it and to understand it. Finding others with similar experiences can be an important step on our path to healing. But God, the one whom we will never fully understand, is the only one who fully understands us. God is the one who can see deeply inside us, seeing not only the pain, but the route to it, the path that led us to experience the pain as we do, our history, our unique combination of nature and nurture. In God we are fully known, fully understood and fully loved.

And then, when we dare to lift our head and look at the suffering of others? What then? How do we perceive that suffering? Do we expect it to take a particular form? Or are we ready to set aside our expectations, our preconceptions, our own experiences and simply see whatever each individual presents us with? And then remain with them.

Biblical References

Jesus’ crucifixion (Matthew 27:32-56, Mark 15:21-41, Luke 23:26-49, John 19:16-30)