"Salvation" - Narthex Art by Betty Braig

"Salvation by Betty Braig

Christ died on the Cross for our sins and resurrected back to life.  I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die."  (John 11:25-26a)

• Christ on the cross is painted as a ghost-like form.  He did not remain on the cross but changed to the new life.  The red strokes of paint remain as the stains of Christ suffering on the cross.  
• The Butterfly is a symbol of the resurrection from the old body to a new body as visual evidence of eternal life.  It is painted as a beautiful soul.  "He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.  This is most certainly true."  (Luther's Catechism)
• The People of The Light, the believers are painted as spirits who have faith in Christ and believe in the living Word of God.
• Parable of the Sower - "He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them:  Listen, a sower went out to sow."  (Mark 4:3-9  The parables are painted in symbolic metaphors.  They show the words being picked off by birds.  The words die in the shallow, rocky and dry soil.  Wonderful things happen where the living words are accepted in the good soil. 
• Evil appears as a coral snake pattern  Evil is a dark element with its free will of human reason. Notice that evil is stopped in the mural when it encounters the good soil of good faith and reason.