After coming back from the APS March Meeting 2023 in Las Vegas, I went to The National Museum of Western Art at Ueno, Tokyo, with two friends, Li and Zhu on 19 March. It was a sunny Sunday, and our original plan was to enjoy the cherry blossom. But, it was too early and there was not much blossom so we decided to visit this Museum nearby. We have no expectation of what we would see.
The National Museum of Western Art
In the entrance of the Museum, I saw a magnificent sculpture, The Gates of Hell (see the figure above on the left). I had a feeling that the arts in this museum must be related to religious themes. It turns out to be true. We saw many arts related to Bible stories, most of them related to Jesus Christ (see the figure about on the right).
My friends and I have zero knowledge background for these things. Of course, we all have heard of Jesus Christ and the cross, but these names are probably all we know. When we were in the museum enjoying these arts, Li got pretty curious and we had the following interesting conversation:
Li: I don’t understand. Why this poor guy (refer to Jesus) looks so miserable in every painting? Isn’t he some kind of important figure and a great man, and people admire him?
Lyu: I have no idea. It looks like he got himself some pretty nasty enemies.
Li: What did he do? He did something bad?
Lyu: I don’t know.
Li: Haven’t you learned about Bible stories last year?
Lyu: I only learned the first chapter of the Old Testament. I think the story of Jesus belongs to the New Testament, which I have never learned about so far.
Li: Then, it is a mystery.
Lyu: Yeah… I will probably find a good resouce to learn about Jesus’s story later. His story is so famous, but it is so strange that we know almost nothing about it.
I learned about the basics of the Old Testament by watching one of Peterson’s series last year. I mentioned it in my previous end-year summary post of 2022. I actually tried reading the original text of the Bible during my undergraduate years, but felt they are not suitable as an introductory material. It would be better if I could find someone with Christianity background to teach me, but it is difficulty since I knew no such friends.
After a while, I believe it would be a good idea to see whether there are movies or TV shows that are related to the life of Jesus. I found two, one movie and one TV drama.
The 2004 Movie: The Passion of the Christ
When seeing the name of the Movie, The Passion of the Christ, I already felt it must be a famous and important, since I remember seeing the name in all kinds of scenarios, including one of Bach’s piece, BWV 244, St Matthew Passion. The piece felt quite intense, even though I understood none of its lyrics. The name itself also very strange. Why “Passion”? The Chinese translation is more close to “suffering”. And I failed to come up with some relation between these two words or concepts.
Since I have already known some stories in the Old Testament like Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac and Book of Job, I had some expectation about this move to be quite heavy. Anyway, I went on and watched the movie on the night of 30 March. It was astonishing and I was totally stunned. After this movie, I don’t feel “miserable” is a correct word to describe Jesus. It is too much of simplification. My understanding is that he is trying to convey a deep message to all the people by acting out by himself a story (not just telling). And I guess that the setting is something like: he already knew what was going to happen to him way before his actual crucifixion, and yet, he voluntarily chose to act it out with firm determination and faith.
The TV drama: The Chosen
I got very attracted by the story of Jesus after watching The Passion of the Christ, and I urged learning more about his life before that. During the weekend, I found a TV drama with good reputation, call The Chosen. It has three seasons now and the third season was finished quite recently in February this year. The most important is that all seasons are made free to watch online! As it turns out, I have chosen a good one as my first introduction to Jesus’s life and stories. It is probably also an excellent first step for understanding the New Testament.
