Here Follows Some Thoughts Upon Seeing an Icon of St. Luke

On Friday, some friends and I took a trip to the J. Paul Getty art museum, in order to see the temporary icon exhibit they have. It was, of course as expected, amazing. (We use the word "amazing" too much. I mean it literally--it was so wonderful [full of wonder] that my head, mind, heart, all my senses, were overcome as though I was wandering in a maze.)

One icon in particular, though, affected me particularly strongly. I looked at every icon in the exhibit, but I kept coming back to this one. I spent at least an hour in front of it.

It was an icon, not painted or engraved on wood or stone, but on paper. It was an icon within a book of the Gospels from Constantinople.

Now, my favorite book in all the Bible is the Gospel of Luke. This Gospel book was open to the first page of the Gospel of Luke and, facing it, an icon of St. Luke.

In the icon, St. Luke is giving Jesus a copy of his Gospel. Jesus accepts the Gospel, blessing Luke.

As a writer, this affected me profoundly.

My observations, upon standing there staring:

Christ was clothed in red, with a blue robe. St. Luke was clothed in blue, with a red robe. This, to me, signifies several things: 1) that Jesus is separate, on a whole other order than Luke; 2) though not being Christ, Luke imitates Christ; 3) Jesus, in His blue robe, is clothed in the heavens, while 4) Luke is covered by the blood.

St. Luke is positioned as kneeling; Jesus is standing erect. Luke is kneeling by bending his right leg, his symbol of strength, showing the totality of his humility.

Luke casts a shadow, Christ does not.

Luke's hair and beard, compared to Jesus', seem less full, and unkempt.

All of the above stresses the divinity of Jesus over the humanity of Luke.

But, what affected me so much:

St. Luke offers his Gospel up to Christ. In a sense, Luke is giving Christ what is already His---the text being divinely inspired, it was God who first gave the text to Luke. Yet the object in Luke's hands is a *book*, a leather-bound collection of pages written in ink. Without St. Luke, this book could not have been written, and Luke offers unto Jesus the work of his hands, the fruit of his labor, the result of his craft---for in my opinion, no book in the Bible is so much a "book" as we think of them as The Gospel of Luke, a historical account, is; in other words, Luke was consciously writing a "book" and not a letter or poem.

This aspect is borne out as Jesus takes the Gospel with His left hand, blessing Luke with His right. The right hand being regarded as "the stronger" hand, Jesus giving Luke His right hand amplifies the blessing, elevating the Gospel writer.

Between the two, held by both their hands as it is being passed, the book of the Gospel itself---it is small, humble; yet the artist has put it in gold-leaf. No paint, but actual gold, forms the Gospel on the page.

Like many icons, the air around the figures is gold---gold signifying the space of Heaven---but the Gospel is on the ground, where color is usually found. The use of gold-leaf in the Gospel mirrors the gold in the sky in appearance and function; to wit, the book itself---the work itself, the text itself---is heavenly. It is divinely inspired. Luke's book, the work of his hands, his mind, his pen, is a little piece of Heaven itself, and he is giving it to Jesus.

And oh! the blessing Jesus gives as He gladly receives the book written by His servant! His hand is outstretched, blessing Luke (it is moreover His right hand, as already noted), but being outstretched, since Jesus stands on the left and Luike on the right, draws the eye to the right.

Jesus is pointing to the text!

Jesus' hand, reaching out in blessing, points to the words on the next page, written in gold:

Epeideper polloi epcheiresan anataxasthai diegesin peri ton peplerophoremonon en hemin pragmaton kathos paredosan hemin hoi ap arches autoptai kai hyperetai genomenoi...

(and, what leaped out at me in that moment,)

...tou logou edoxe kamoi parekoloutehkoti anothen pasin akribos kathexes soi anothen kratiste theophile...

"The Word (logos) it seemed good TO ME, to WRITE..."

Jesus' hand points to the text, in one sense, simply because it is the Gospel. In effect, it simply says, "Read your Bible!" But in another sense, Jesus blesses the text itself, marking its divine authority. But on still another level, since in the icon itself Jesus is blessing St. Luke... by blessing such a highly personal text, approving the text as divinely inspired blesses Luke the writer of the words, more than anything else could.

And now, me?

Obviously, I cannot claim to write under divine inspiration. My words will never become Scripture. And yet...

...it is my dream, my goal, my soul's desire to drop to my knees before my Lord, my work in hand, and give it to Him, and have Him accept it.

It is my dream, my soul's desire, that He would take it and bless me.

And, dare I hope, that someday those who read it might catch a glimpse of Heaven---however distant, however fleeting---within its pages?