Stained Glass Windows: The Cross and the Bible

The Cross

Last year I began a series. It is finally time for the second sermon in this very intermittent series of sermons about our stained glass windows. As I said in my introduction before sometimes people get distracted or bored during sermons. That’s ok, I do too sometimes. When I do I find myself looking around our beautiful sanctuarry and wondering sometimes about some of the imagery on our windows. They are all Biblical images, so even while being distracted from what I am supposed to be listening too, my mind still is drawn upward. So lets take a look at the second window in the series. The Cross and the Bible.

I think it is a fitting time to be looking at the cross as we have just celebrated Jesus death and Resurrection. So of course the cross, the symbol of death, has become to us a symbol of life. For us to celebrate a thing like a cross is like celebrating an image of the gallows, the guillotine or the electric chair. It is a symbol of oppression and death. The means by which the ancient world was kept under the heel of Rome, and yet it became and remains today a symbol of freedom. Let’s look though a little closer at this particular cross. We are used to crosses in our churches but in our tradition it is generally an empty cross, showing that Jesus is not there, for He not only died, but rose again. This cross is nearly empty but it does add one little detail of which I was not certain of the meaning. I assumed what it meant, and I was correct. Notice the sign on the cross which has the letters INRI. What is that sign? Well lets look at the scripture.

John 19:19–22 KJV 1900

And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.

The INRI stand for the Latin phrase Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum or in English, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Pilate wrote this and at first thought it would be that Rome had condemned this man to death for He had tried to rule over Israel and free them from Roman rule, and yet the opposite is true. Rome found that Jesus had not tried to start an earthly rebellion and was guilty of nothing according to their law. It is further seen in Pilate’s refusal to add the words, He said, to the inscription that it was not to show Rome’s power over Jesus that Pilate wrote the inscription but rather to prick the hearts of the Jews for turning on their own king. Pilate seemed to recognize Jesus authority though the Jews rejected it. Jesus is indeed King of the Jews.

But of the Jews only? No indeed, Jesus is King. There need be no qualify, no of for Jesus is King over all. Philippians 2:9–11 “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The Bible

The other symbol on this window is the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”

The Bible is the living Word of God. It contains all that we need for life, and more importantly all that we need in death. It is not a collection of the wisdom of man, it is breathed out by God. It does not contain truth, it is truth. It does not aid in our understanding of God but it is our understanding of God. It is beyond the collective wisdom of all the wisest men of all ages for it communicates the infinite wisdom of God to finite man.

Yet I notice something about this Bible. It is open. How much good does the Bible do if we never open it to see what it contains? None whatsoever. Joshua 1:8 “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

The Bible is not a book to be looked at on a shelf but a book to be meditated on, to be studies, to be known and to be followed. It will make our ways prosperous and give us good success for it will lead to eternal life. Yet we ought to do more than to simply meditate on it.

Psalm 1:2 “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; And in his law doth he meditate day and night.” It is to be delighted in. Not just in the parts about God’s redemption of fallen man, but also in the law of the Lord.

I remember years ago one winter as we were headed to church we came to a mountain. It is a hill on boundary of two counties and neither county wanted the responsibility of plowing it. We were driving on a Saturday night as my dad pastored 2 hours from our house, and it was in the middle of a snowstorm. We were following a chevy s-10 pickup that was 2 wheel drive. As we headed up the hill the pickup slid off the road on the first turn on the uphill side of the road. We all jumped out and got it out of the ditch and a man came by in a Jeep with chains. He towed the s-10 up the hill. But now we were stuck, having stopped in the middle of the road. So we got behind our van and pushed it up the hill until it got enough momentum to go on its own. We were left to walk up the road, since it was too risky to stop the van or we might not be able to get it going again. As we came around the next corner, walking up the mountain there was a car that had slid off the road on the way down. We easily could have pushed it back onto the road, but we left it. It was only inches from a drop off and there was no guardrail. It had to be terrifying for the people in the car. I think they would have much rather bumped a guardrail than almost fallen to a snowy grave!

That is the law of the Lord, that is why it is a delight. It is a guardrail for our lives. It may block certain paths that we might take, but those paths lead to death. On the bridge over the river there is a guardrail. I delight in that guardrail for I would not want to drive over the bridge without it! As we learn to see why the law of the Lord exists I promise that those guardrails take on a different view. They become delightful and beautiful to us! They do not restrict us but rather allow us to safely traverse the path we are already on! The guardrails only keep us from danger and allow us to travel with safety.

There is one final symbol on each window I want to mention quickly. It is subtle and hidden. It is the image of a dove descending from the top of the window. Perhaps I will look at that in more detail another time, but that is certainly a representation of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus and perhaps also a prayer for Him to descend upon us as we gather each service.

So next time your mind wanders during service, I hope it wonders to the cross, the inscription, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. To the Bible, not closed on a shelf, but open for us to meditate on and delight in, and to the dove of the Holy Spirit that descended on Jesus and whose presence meets with us in each service.