Words of Christ

Some Bibles print the sayings of Jesus in red, so that a reader can find his voice on the page at a glance. This collection does something similar on the wall. Most of its prints carry his own words: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden”, painted as Jesus kneeling beside a weary traveler at a doorway; “Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid”, as he walks across the water toward the disciples' boat; “I am the light of the world”, with a small flame cupped in his hands; “I am the bread of life”, as a still life of a chalice, a host, grapes and wheat.

The Sermon on the Mount has three prints of its own. Jesus teaches the crowd on a hillside for the Beatitudes, and again above the lake for “Ye are the light of the world”. An oil lamp glowing in the doorway of a stone house at dusk illustrates the next line, “Let your light so shine before men”. Matthew 25 appears as Jesus pouring water for a poor man by the road, a reminder that he is found in the least of these. John 3:16, perhaps the most quoted sentence of the New Testament, is painted as a cross on a hilltop at sunrise.

Around these sayings are a few apostolic verses that explain them: love that suffers long and is kind from 1 Corinthians 13, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord from Romans 10, and two paintings of the fruit of the Spirit, one a tree heavy with pomegranates, figs and lemons, the other a grapevine over a garden gate. They suit a living room, a Bible study, a pastor's office or a kitchen table where people are fed.