Last November, as part of our church’s fiftieth anniversary, we had a sermon series that took us on a tour of the faceted art glass windows that adorn the sanctuary with images of the communion of saints hovering above us each time we gather for worship. Sometimes I can get focused on the details of the worship service, and forget the windows are there, but then I look up at just the right moment as sun shines through, and, at least for a moment, I am undone—captivated by the unfolding Biblical graphic novel above me. The presence of the slender ribbon of windows lends an almost Orthodox aspect to our otherwise modern, suburban United Methodist (UM) worship space at Good Shepherd UMC in Waldorf, MD.
From the guidebook to the windows originally produced for their service of dedication in June 1982, I learned that the windows are the handiwork of the Willet Stained Glass Studios of Philadelphia, PA. The story they tell begins at the rear of the epistle side of the hexagonally shaped sanctuary—that's the left side as you face the altar. The summary of the Biblical story—and of our church’s story inside that larger Biblical story—unfolds as we make our way around the sanctuary. (The original design of the sanctuary envisioned having church in the round, meaning that the altar space and seating could be shifted throughout the year, so that the congregation’s focus could shift to different windows during different liturgical seasons, e.g., there are windows focusing on the events of Advent, Christmas, Holy Week, and Pentecost. However, conversations I have had with longtime members indicate that idea was quickly deemed impractical and was never actually done.)
Good Shepherd’s windows begin with scenes of familiar Old Testament stories, starting with Creation and moving through the stories of the Matriarchs and Patriarchs and of the Kings and Prophets. About one-third of the way around the sanctuary, we reach the New Testament, with a good portion of the panels dedicated to scenes from the Life of Jesus as one might expect, followed by several scenes from Early Church history (most of which are recorded in Acts and the letters of Paul).
After that, the windows conclude with a section that focuses in on the specific history of our local congregation. We begin with the Protestant Reformation (showing Martin Luther), then move to the Methodist movement (showing Susanna and John Wesley, Francis Asbury, among others), and then there are several windows specific to Good Shepherd UMC, which began in 1968—the same year the UM denomination was created from a merger of the Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) and Methodist churches. Several windows near the back of the church capture scenes of community life at Good Shepherd at in the late 1970s. They tell the story of our early years to all future generations that enter our sanctuary to worship. The final panel returns us to the larger Story of which our church is a part, with a representation of the consummation of all things predicted in Revelation.
Our windows come out of a long-standing tradition of presenting Biblical stories using images and icons to not only beautify but also instruct. In ancient and medieval times, when most worshippers were illiterate, such illustrations were essential to allow the worshippers to follow along with what the priest (who was literate) was reading from the Bible, which would’ve been in Latin. Today we live in a world where literal illiteracy is less common—but where it seems Biblical illiteracy is becoming increasingly normative. So, perhaps windows like these can serve an important outreach and teaching role in the church of 2019, just as they did a millennium ago.
This week is Holy Week, and so our attention is drawn to the depictions from the last week of Jesus’s earthly life, which begin at near the front of the church on the right side of the altar—see photo below. If you look at them you will see the events of Holy Week depicted: the entry into Jerusalem, Jesus’s encounter with Zacchaeus, the cleansing of the Temple, the last supper, the foot washing in the upper room, the prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, the crucifixion (two windows), the women at the empty tomb, Jesus’s appearing to Mary Magdalene, the walk to Emmaus. It’s all there—well, except onething. Did you notice what’snot shown? It’s actually a pretty big omission. I’ll give you a minute…
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| These are the colored glass windows at GSUMC. that depict the events of Holy Week. Note the bottom two windows in the vertical column showing the Crucifixion. |
Look closely... The actual resurrection of Jesus is not shown. It’s so obvious and yet we don’t notice. Paul says our whole faith rests upon it—and yet it doesn’t rate a picture on our windows? Why?
It might be because Scripture is pretty quiet about what exactly happened on Holy Saturday. In the words of John Dominic Crossan, “The major events from the Annunciation to the Ascension—are described in Gospel stories and so can be depicted in any medium.” But then he adds, “but there is one exception in that overall sequence, one event in the life of Christ that is never described in any Gospel story. Furthermore, this is not some minor happening, but the most important and climactic one of them all. This is the moment of Christ’s Resurrection—as it is actually happening. This—unlike all other Gospel events—is never described in itself. But if it is never described in the text, how can it ever be depicted in an image?”
Well, thank God for Christian imagination! Of course, there are plenty of images of the Resurrection. Maybe precisely because it’s not described explicitly, artists felt the need to speculate. Take a look at last two images in the bottom row of the sixteenth century Italian fresco shown below; these scenes are both commonly associated with the Resurrection.
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| This is a picture of a sixteenth century Italian Life of Jesuscycle in fresco with 21 scenes from Annunciation to Resurrection: Top row: Annunciation, Nativity, Visit of the Three Magi, Flight to Egypt, Baptism of Christ, Raising of Lazarus, Entry to Jerusalem, Last Supper. Middle row: Washing of feet, Agony in the Garden, Arrest of Christ, Trial before the Sanhedrin, Trial before Pilate, Flagellation. Bottom row: Ecce homo, Carrying the cross, Christ falls, Crucifixion, Deposition from the cross, Harrowing of Hell, Resurrection. Credit: Gaudenzio Ferrari, Stories of life and passion of Christ, fresco, 1513, Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Varallo Sesia (VC), Italy. |
I’ve been reading through Crossan’s book called Resurrecting Easter that traces the development of imagery depicting the resurrection. I got it last year after Easter and decided that Holy Week 2019 would be a good time to read it. Crossan makes the point that unlike any other event in the Gospels, there are two distinctly different (and competing) types of images (or traditions) that have emerged over the centuries to speculate what the moment of resurrection looked like. You can see them both illustrated in the fresco pictured above.
Let's start with the image of resurrection that most people reading this post are probably most familiar with. The last image on the bottom row of the fresco depicts the individual resurrection tradition. As Western Christians, this would be the one we’re more likely to recognize—and maybe think of as the orthodox image of resurrection. The risen Jesus is shown coming out of the tomb, with the guards posted at the tomb either asleep or looking away. Christ rises from his tomb triumphant over sin and evil—and he rises alone. Interestingly, this line of imagery derives from the guarded tomb tradition, which Crossan points out appears only in Matthew’s Passion account—Matthew 27:62-66; 28:2-4, 11-15. According to this tradition the guards placed at the tomb entrance are the only eyewitnesses of the actual moment of Resurrection, but then they are coerced into denying what they witnessed. (The non-canonical Gospel of Peter fills in many of these details.)
While Good Shepherd's windows don't show the actual moment of resurrection. Two of the windows do show events that are typically depicted in most images of individual resurrection. The two photos are the two just to the right of the vertical panel in the photo of the Holy Week windows above. Both are shown below.
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| In Mark's telling of the story of the first Easter, three women (Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Salome) are the first to discover the empty tomb. An angel greets them with the amazing news that Jesus is risen from the dead—Mark 16:1-8. |
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| This image shows Mary Magdalene's encounter with Jesus—John 20:11-18; Mark 16:9-11. Note the empty tomb in the background, which is an important motif all individual resurrection imagery—though typically not drawn as a cave. |
In this tradition, the women go to the tomb on Sunday morning to finish preparing Jesus's body for proper burial, only to find an angel outside the tomb who tells them: He is not here, he is risen. Then the women enter the tomb and find that it is empty (depicted in the top photo above). All the Gospel accounts agree on the fact that one or more women were the first to encounter the risen Lord. The bottom photo above shows Mary Magdalene encountering Jesus. She at first mistakes him for the gardener. But when he speaks her name she recognizes her Teacher and friend. This second image could be viewed as a representation of the individual resurrection of Jesus, since it does show the tomb with Jesus standing nearby. But typically images of the actual resurrection show the tomb guards and have Jesus either sitting up in, emerging from, or hovering above the tomb.
Returning now to second-to-last image on the bottom row of the fresco to discuss the second type of resurrection image: the universal resurrection tradition. If you are familiar with this image at all, you've probably heard of it as “The Harrowing of Hell”, as it is referred to in the caption above. In the Western church, this event came to be viewed as happening before the actual Resurrection, but the images used are quite similar to those that have been used to depict the Resurrection in the Eastern Church for centuries. (Crossan explains how this came to be in his book.) In the East, the Greek word anastasis is often used to describe this type of image, which literally means "standing up again", or resurrection. Christ is pictured trampling down the gates of Hades (or Hell) to set free all who are held in bondage to death, and thus need "rising up". He sets free Adam (as well as Eve in many other images) as representative(s) of humanity; King David and King Solomon are also shown in the image, representing the saints of the past who also need to be set free from death. (John the Baptist, Abel, and the Apostle Paul are among those depicted in other images of the Anastasis.)
The idea behind universal resurrection is that Christ defeats death (often represented in imagers by Hades, gatekeeper of the underworld) once and for all, and rises up and/or leads out all of humanity—past, present, and future—from their bondage to death into glorious freedom. Matthew’s Gospel alone seems to hint at this version of the Resurrection—see Matthew 27:51-53—although Crossan contends that this is not really the source of the images. (Read Crossan's book if you want to know what he thinks the actual source these images is. The non-canonical Gospel of Nicodemus also fills in more details about this image of resurrection.)
So, which of these two images would be the best one to choose to fill in the “missing” Resurrection image at Good Shepherd?
As the book title suggests, Crossan contends for universal resurrection as being closest to what the New Testament writers would have envisioned when they pictured the Resurrection. However, I personally think the real answer is both—or maybe neither. Theologians have long regarded what happened on Holy Saturday as a mystery. And unlike an episode of Scooby Doo or a Nancy Drew novel, Christian mysteries aren’t always meant to be solved quickly—if ever.
So, while Christians all agree that something profound happened while Jesus’s physical body lay in the tomb, we simply struggle to find words—or even images—to describe it adequately. What the precise moment(s) of Resurrection actually looked like is interesting to speculate about, but I don’t believe it’s essential that we all agree on a single image to represent it. In fact, I think having multiple images of Resurrection might actually be helpful. Each image might offer a different perspective on what happened, and lead us to ponder the deeper meaning of the Resurrection—you know, beyond the standard Sunday School answer we all learn: "Jesus died on the Cross and rose again on Easter, so I can go to heaven when I die." Okay... it's true, but it means so much more than that! Or at least I hope it does.
Maybe there are other images we could create that would connect more people to the profound meaning of this mystery.
How would you illustrate what happened on Holy Saturday?
Easter rests on the reality of Resurrection—even if we can’t draw a single picture of it. One "scene missing" from the Life of Jesus can never mitigate the reality of the many scenes where we’ve encountered the Risen Lord in our midst. That why followers of Jesus can loudly proclaim not just on Easter—but every day: He is Risen!... He is Risen, indeed!
