Celebrating the Resurrection Around the World

In our effort to learn about and appreciate the world-wide embrace of Christianity, here are three artworks by Christians on the other side of the world--one contemporary Indian painting and two recordings of Arabic hymns from our brother and sister in the Middle East.

Jyoti Sahi (Indian, 1944-), He Who Steps Over-The Tandavan, 1975

In He Who Steps Over—The Tandavan, Sahi draws on Hindu iconography to give us a dancing Christ whose movement over death supplies the primal rhythmic energy of the universe. The whole world now pulses with resurrection potential! Nataraja, Sanskrit for “Lord Imaging the Word: Art & Theology of the Dance,” is one of the embodiments of the Hindu god Shiva. As Nataraja, Shiva dances the Ananda Tandava (“Dance of Bliss”), which destroys ignorance and illusion and creates new life. Sahi has painted Jesus in the traditional Nataraja pose in the context of the Transfiguration and the Crucifixion, but here he modifies the pose to capture in particular Jesus’s crossing over to the other side, from death to life. Because he has crossed over, we can too.

The stylized hand in the background forms the abhaya mudra, a ritual gesture in Hinduism and Buddhism that says, “Fear not.” These assuring words of protection and peace are spoken many times throughout scripture by God and his messengers, including Jesus. Jesus’s Resurrection is the ultimate assurance that we need not fear death.

For more on Jesus the Nataraja, see Victoria Emily Jones’ Jesus Question blog

post “Jesus the Dancer, Part 2: The Art of Jyoti Sahi”.

Thie video is of the singularly voiced Ribale Wehbe, singing the traditional chant "Christ is risen" in Arabic. Wehbe was born in 1999 in Beirut, Lebanon. She began her musical journey at the age of eight as a soloist with the Sem Choir, where she remains an active member. She holds a degree in Music Education and Musicology from Antonine University in Lebanon and a Diploma in Byzantine Music from the School of Byzantine Music in Athens, Greece.

This second recording, “Anta Atheemon,” is sung by Christians throughout the Middle East

and the Arabic-speaking world. It was written by Ziad Samuel Srouji, who was born in Haifa,

Israel, and raised in Lebanon but then displaced by civil war to the United States. He is pastor

of the Gate International Church in San Mateo, California.