Adam & the Tree, Jesus & the Cross

Throughout history, Christian art has used various forms of imagery to convey Scriptural events, teachings or truths. Artists have used realism aiming for simplicity and clarity. Artists have also used symbolism to express deeper meanings that are often hidden in the artwork.

Both realism and symbolism have their place in Christian art.

This week our Christian churches are celebrating the season of Lent – a time of repentance over our sins and reflection on the suffering of Christ for those sins. The Old Testament lesson for the first Sunday in Lent is from Genesis chapter 3, as we read about Adam’s fall into sin.

Christian art doesn’t only have to be ancient, classical and well-known. It can also be modern, original and created by lesser known artists.

Epiphany Lutheran Church, where I serve in Racine, WI, has been blessed with new Lenten paintings that portray the events of Adam’s sin in Eden’s garden and Jesus’ death for sin on Golgotha’s hill. These paintings were created for our church last year by Melanie Schuette from Avignon Studios. Melanie also created the triptych in the Chapel of the Christ at Martin Luther College in New Ulm, MN.

Though Epiphany’s Lenten paintings portray realistic events, there is a great deal of symbolism conveyed in each painting. Symbolism that communicates greater and deeper truths.

The sky is bright, clear and blue. The morning began as just another day in paradise… But then tragedy.

The devil is described in Genesis 3 as a serpent. The serpent is lively and colorful. But God has pronounced a curse upon him — “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel” (Gen 3:15).

Adam has returned to “the scene of the crime.” He is repentant, looking at the bitten fruit. He is no longer naked in his perfection. He is now clothed with the skin of an animal. With his sin, Adam has brought death into the world. The first to experience death is the animal God killed in order to cover Adam’s nakedness and replace the fig leaves Adam had previously used.

Only Adam is portrayed in this scene from Eden, so that there is a contrast between Adam and Jesus, who is called the second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45).
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The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is purposefully shaped like a cross.

The peacock is the bird of paradise in ancient art. He is also called the bird of pride. Pride was the sin of both Satan and Adam, thinking they knew better than God.

The proper preface for Holy Communion for the season of Lent reads: “… who brought the gift of salvation to all people by his death on the tree of the cross, so that the devil, who overcame us by a tree would in turn by a tree be overcome.” These words are really the impetus upon which these paintings were created

Jesus on the tree on Golgotha

The sky turned dark while Jesus hung on the cross. Now that He has died, the sky is returning to its afternoon yellow. Tragedy would become triumph.

INRI — Latin letters for the sign that hung over Jesus’ head in Greek, Aramaic and Latin: “Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ [the second Adam] all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Jesus is the second Adam. Adam is portrayed in the Eden painting as having already fallen into sin. Jesus is portrayed in the Calvary painting as already died. His eyes are closed and the spear has pierced His side.

The serpent is pale and colorless. He has been crushed under the heel of the woman’s offspring — Jesus Christ. But the serpent has struck Christ’s heel. It is almost invisible from a distance, but as you approach the painting, if you look very closely at Jesus’ heel, you will notice two dark red dots. They are the fang marks of the ancient serpent, for the serpent has fulfilled God’s prophecy: “you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15).

The raven is a bird of death. The peacock is in a place of beauty that brought death to all people. The raven is in a place of death that brought life to all people.

The cross is cut from a tree. Jesus fulfills the prophecy: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree” (Galatians 3:13). The cross is purposefully set at the opposite angle of the Tree in Eden. The devil beat humanity on a tree, but Jesus defeated the devil on the tree of the cross.

The borrowed tomb where Jesus will be placed is in the background. In Epiphany’s Easter painting, the scene will be reversed with the open tomb in the foreground and the empty cross on Golgatha’s hill in the background.

Beauty, symbolism and realism – all fulfilling prophecy and promise: “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men” (Romans 5:18).