“Resurrection” by Paul T. Granlund (American, 1925-2003)

“For the hour is coming, when all that are in the tomb will hear His voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life.” John 5:28–29

There are not many works of art that capture the moment of resurrection. The work that for me is most memorable is a sculpture called “Resurrection” by American Lutheran artist Paul T. Granlund. You’ll find “Resurrection” on the sidewalk outside the First Lutheran Church in downtown Pittsburgh. In this imaginative work, Granlund depicts the moment that the newly resurrected Christ breaks free of the bondage of death, depicted here as breaking from the stone that has held him. Note how the stone beneath him is imprinted with his face. Now freed, the arms of Christ are outstretched, almost like a great bird gathering for flight.

First Lutheran Church commissioned this sculpture and it was installed in 1985. According to Pittsburgh’s Art in Public Places, its theme is spiritual awakening, to celebrate man’s ability to renew himself and his surroundings. This is however a distortion and flattening of Granlund’s message.

According to one account, during Granlund’s final hospital stay, a visitor told him, “I admire your sculptures, especially the religious ones.” Granlund lifted his oxygen mask to respond, “They’re all religious.”

“Resurrection II,” which has a lot of similarities with the sculpture outside First Lutheran.

“I’m always trying to say two things at once,” said Granlund commenting earlier about his art, “Death shadowing life and life transcending death.” Professor of Classics and Grandlund biographer, William Freiert says, “In a way Paul’s whole life was a response and a reaction to his father’s pietism. His father was a fairly literal-minded biblical preacher. Paul was philosophical and cosmological. The Lutheran interface between faith and intellect is typical of Paul’s work…Another expression of Paul’s Lutheranism is the way in which his works capture the theology of grace. All reality is undeserved gift….The miracle of life emerges from the cosmos, a tetrahedron. The organic emerges from the inorganic, God’s spontaneous gift of resurrection from sin and death.”

Another of Granlund’s sculptures, “Birth of Freedom” (1977), extends the imagery of breaking free beyond Jesus himself. Standing in front of Westminster Presbyterian Church in the heart of downtown Minneapolis, “The Birth of Freedom” depicts four naked figures emerging from stone, reaching toward the heavens.

Westminster commissioned Granlund to give visual expression to the words of the Apostle Paul: “For freedom Christ has set you free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”  (Galatians 5:1) There is a freedom from and there is a freedom for. “For your were called to freedom; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:13-14).

Taken together with “Resurrection” and “Resurrection II”, “Birth of Freedom” also gives image to St Paul’s assertion to the Corinthian church: “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Roman 6:3) And “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”  (1 Corinthians 15:22-23).

Perhaps even more apropos of this sculpture: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Ephesians 3:1-3).

Thus, we see in Granlund’s art a powerful witness: Easter is just the beginning. As Christ died and was raised, so shall we be raised to new life. And in the meantime, we live in the newness of that life. Thanks be to God!