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Symbolism in Stained Glass
Linda Lamp, with valuable counsel and assistance from artist Sherry Waters, designed the stained glass window in the Worship Center at Central Christian Church.
The stained glass window above the baptistry has been designed with the purpose of uplifting the beauty and attributes of Jesus. In designing and executing these pieces, the creators have only become all the more overwhelmed with their own unworthiness to even attempt to illustrate such an indescribable Majesty.
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In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth and all the creatures to fill the seas, sky, and earth. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, though already dwelling as a perfect community in unapproachable glory, chose to crown creation with man and woman, making them bear His holy image. But even before the first word was spoken, bursting forth beautiful life into the utter darkness, God, the master Storyteller had His masterpiece in mind. Before the first star twinkled, we were breathing in the mind of God.
Genesis 1-2 • Ephesians 1:3-10 • Colossians 1:15-20
Cast Out
It was in Eden, the perfect garden of the Lord, that man and woman first transgressed the Word of God. Being deceived by the crafty serpent, they ate of the forbidden tree. Death came through the trespass of the first Adam and spread to all men, bringing with it a curse upon all creation. But in God’s master plan, there would come a second and better Adam, Jesus Christ. Whereas in the first garden sin entered the world, it would be in a different garden, Gethsemane, where Christ would bear the curse for all creation, bringing life to the world.
Genesis 3 • Romans 5:12-21 • Galatians 3:13-14
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Obedient Sacrifice
God tested Abraham, commanding him to sacrifice Isaac, his precious son of promise, on Mt. Moriah. Abraham laid the wood for the burnt offering upon Isaac to be carried up the mountain. Binding his son and placing him upon the altar, Abraham readied his blade for the offering, but the angel of the Lord stayed his hand, saying, “Now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” Many years later, God placed a wooden cross upon His own Son, Jesus Christ, but did not stay His hand. Jesus carried that cross up to Golgotha and gave His life as a ransom for many.
Genesis 22:1-19 • Colossians 2:13-15
Free From Bondage
Moses, an Israelite raised as Egyptian royalty, was shepherding his flock near Mt. Horeb, years after escaping Egypt. The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame out of the midst of a bush. God called out to him saying, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings.” God would send Moses to release them from slavery. But in the fullness of time, God would free His people from even greater captivity to sin and the devil. This He accomplished through the death of Christ, who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows.
Exodus 3 • Isaiah 53:3-5 • Luke 4:18
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An Unlikely King
David’s ascension to the throne mirror’s Christ’s. Like Jesus, David was an unlikely King. When the Prophet Samuel arrived at the house of Jesse, the youngest son was anointed, an unexpected and unorthodox choice. Similarly, Israel was waiting for a sword-wielding warrior king, who would cast off Roman rule, but the Messiah came in meekness and poverty. King David prayed in his Psalm (69:9), “Zeal for your house has consumed me,” but Christ, the eternal King, was actually consumed, even crucified, by His zeal for the house of God.
1 Samuel 16:1-13 • Psalm 69
The Son of Man
During a bitter time in Israel’s history, when they were carried off to distant lands, exiled by the conquering armies of enemy nations, the prophet Daniel set his face to seek the Lord with three weeks of fasting and repentance, interceding on behalf of God’s people. God heard Daniel’s prayers and sent angels to minister to him and to grant him glorious visions and prophecies concerning Christ Jesus the Lord, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
Daniel 7:1-14 • Daniel 10
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He Bore Our Sin
Isaiah, widely regarded to be one of the greatest Old Testament Prophets, prophesied of the virgin who would conceive and bear a son, who would be called Immanuel, meaning “God with us.” Of this Immanuel, Isaiah prophesied, “But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds, we are healed…Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied; by His knowledge shall the righteous One, My Servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and He shall bear their iniquities…He bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”
Isaiah 9:1-7 • Isaiah 53 • Matthew 1:18-25
Behold The Lamb
John the Baptizer, the last Prophet and final forerunner of Christ, was, in fact, Jesus’s cousin. He had the honor of welcoming Christ at the beginning of His ministry, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John witnessed the coming of the Kingdom of God, and preparing the way for Christ, he preached the only fitting response to Christ’s Person and work: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
John 1:29-34 • John 3:22-36
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Garden
Bearing the weight of the sin of the world, and of the wrath of God against all sin, Jesus entered loneliness deeper than any man has known. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus Christ did what Adam failed to do in the first Garden: perfect obedience. Sweating drops of blood in dire agony, “Not my will, but Yours” He prayed. His disciples, slumbering in a deep sleep, abandoned Him in His time of need. Even still, Immanuel, God in flesh, did not abandon us. Armed with cosmic resolve and profound love for His creation, He went to His death to atone for sin not His own to redeem an undeserving people.
The Cross
The cross of Christ was the bloody epicenter of kingdoms warring for dominion. Pontius Pilate was threatened by civil unrest, and the Jewish Sanhedrin was threatened by Jesus’s renown. He was mocked, whipped and spit upon. Dressing Him like a king in mockery, they placed a crown of thorns upon His head and executed Him in the place of a criminal following His sham of a trial. In crucifying Christ, they fulfilled the prophecies concerning the Messiah; the blood their hands had shed became the river that wakes the dead.
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The Resurrection
Taking with them spices to anoint His body, the women of Jesus’ ministry went to the tomb on the third day after Christ’s burial to anoint His body. But finding the stone rolled away and Jesus’s body missing, they encountered two dazzling angels, fearsome in stature and presence. Falling down in reverent fear, they heard the angels ask, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen…” After providing purification for sins, Christ rose from the dead, appeared to His people for 40 days, ascended to heaven, and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.