The Lamb at the top of the window is the Lamb the Apostle John saw in his Revelation when he said, “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain…” (Revelation 5:6). The glass highlights on this Lamb are the brightest and whitest pieces in the picture to draw your eyes to them and to know who this Lamb is. This is the Lamb…Jesus himself, spelled with a capital L. The halo around his head of orange shows his holiness. The glass used for the wound on the Lamb’s throat and breast is actually made from gold. (In the world of stained glass, the brightest and best hues of red and pink actually have gold used in their making.) When the light comes through it, this glass is a light purple color. It is the color between the white of the Lamb and the red in the river of blood that flows off the window and re-emerges on the right hand side to sweep down under the Good Shepherd and his flock of sheep. It is this blood of the Lamb that makes the sheep spotless and sinless…and white! Again in the Revelation of St. John we hear, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb…For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd ( Revelation 7:14,17). The Shepherd is, of course, the Shepherd! It is Jesus who says about himself, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Jesus is holding one of his little ones, a lamb too. Isaiah said about Jesus, the Shepherd, “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart” (Isaiah 40:11). The shepherd’s staff in Jesus hand looks like the Greek letter rho (r). There is a blue X which intersects this shepherd’s staff (the Greek letter rho). This blue X is the Greek letter chi (c). Together these two letters signify the first two letters in the name “Christ.” They are the symbol adopted by the Christian Church for Christ, the
Chosen One of God. The Lamb has his leg around the Shepherd’s staff showing that he accepts his role and work of being the Sacrifice for our sin. And the Good Shepherd has his hand firmly around the intersection of the letters of his name showing that he too accepts the fact that as the Good Shepherd he will not only be the shepherd who gives his life for the sheep, he will also be the Lamb. So in this picture from the Bible we see that Jesus is both the Good Shepherd who gives his life for the sheep and the Lamb who is the sacrifice.
W: THE GOOD SHEPHERD
THE GOOD SHEPHERD WINDOW