Canvas Composition II

This is the 1st painting I made for a homework assignment. Last semester, I was assigned weekly scriptures to meditate on. This particular meditation had various Scriptures to choose from revealing Jesus as Healer. The accounts I chose are of Jesus healing Jairus’ daughter, the woman with the blood flow, and the man at the pool of Bethesda. Here are a few things I simply took notice of prior to painting:

Jairus’ Daughter (Mark 5:21-24, 35-43)

-Jairus was healthy, wealthy, and well known
-Jairus came on behalf of his daughter
-He fell at Jesus’ feet begging Him for her healing
-He believed Jesus needed to physically touch her to be healed
-Jesus healed her in private (active)
-Jesus healed her with his words
-The little girl was 12 years old

The Woman (Mark 5:24-34)

-The woman was not healthy, wealthy, or known
-The woman came on behalf of herself
-She came up behind him, touching Jesus’ garment in belief
-She believed she needed to physically touch Jesus to be healed
-The woman was healed in public (passive)
-Jesus claimed her faith healed her
-The woman bore her disease for 12 years


The word ‘immediately’ is used 4 times in this account. Twice it is used in the story of Jairus’ daughter, and twice it is used in the woman’s account:

Jairus’ Daughter’s account:
Healing: “immediately the girl got up…” (Mark 5:42)
The crowd’s reaction: “they were immediately overcome with amazement…” (Mark 5:42)

The woman’s account:
Healing: “immediately the flow of blood dried…” (Mark 5:29)
Jesus’ reaction: “immediately he turned in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?”” (Mark 5:30)

The account in John of the man at the pool of Bethesda is a little contrasted from these 2 accounts as well. A few things I noticed that differ from the Mark accounts are:

Jesus comes to the man (John 5:6).
Jesus asks him if he wants to be healed (John 5:6).
Jesus encounters the man again after he is healed (John 5:14).
Jesus heals him on the Sabbath (John 5:16).

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I separated the canvas into 3 sections to represent the 3 different accounts.

The top left: This section represents the John 5 account of the man at the pool. When the waters were stirred, he was never able to get in to the pool because he was a paralytic and no one would help him in. Jesus healed him with his words. I love that in this man is desperate for contact with water of this world and then Jesus, as the Living Water, comes by, completely superior, and meets this man’s needs. The man didn’t have to wait for an opportune moment to receive anything from Jesus and he didn’t have to be the first one to encounter him. Jesus is the Living Water and He is always stirred, waiting for us to enter in.

The bottom: This section represents the Mark account of the woman with the flow of blood. The woman had deep faith to believe all she needed in order to be healed was slight contact with the hem of a man’s garment. This is after she had already been to numerous physicians – numerous professionals who were not only unable to heal her, but rather she grew worse. And in her weakened condition, she had confidence that this man Jesus would heal her if she only reached out and scraped her fingertips upon His garment. The picture is deep reds and purples composed of heart-like strokes that represent the depths of her heart where faith is originated. The very subtle browns represent the rooting of her heart in faith and the brighter reds express the more noticeable part of her faith, which is her action - approaching Jesus.

The middle right: This section represents the Mark account of Jairus’s daughter. The pale yellow represents the death that attempted to overcome her. The purples express the feminine childhood of the young girl, and the white coming down is the glory, healing, and pure power of the Lord, which overcomes death. The purple streaks are ascending as the white is descending. This shows the love of the Father reaching down in rescue of his beloved.