Happy March 13th birthday to

Vicki L. Hall, 77

John H. Alexander, 50!!!

Second Sunday in Lent

Grace

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

John 3:1-17

Christ Instructing Nicodemus

JORDAENS, Jacob

Mid 17th Century

Musee Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique

Brussels

Belgium

http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/diglib-fulldisplay.pl?SID=2017030824078369&code=ACT&RC=55053&Row=11

The two great Baroque masters of Western Europe Pieter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) and Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678) worked for twenty years in the same town of Antwerp. Their styles of painting were so similar, the famous Rubens look of Baroque, that it is sometimes difficult to discern who painted which picture.

When Rubens and Jordaens painted religious scenes for the churches and abbeys of Antwerp, Rubens stepped down drom his themes of classic antiquity and Jordaens elevated his views and left his inclination for vulgarity. Both showed then an art that was almost indistinguishable. Such was the case for ‘Jesus Instructing Nicodemus’ that was first attributed to Rubens, then to Jordaens.

The picture indeed feels more like a Jordaens. The texture is rough, broad and free. The firm red and ochre of Jordaens are the predominant colours and there is an expression of faces that is the love and force of Jordaens.

http://www.theartofpainting.be/AOP-Instruction_of_Nicodemus.htm