Sermon On The Mount

Matthew 9:35-38   And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harasses and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest is to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Behind the choir loft is a scene that must have been repeated often as Jesus went about teaching and healing.  The background is a hilly landscape, reminiscent of the setting for the fifth chapter of Matthew which begins with the Beatitudes.  The central standing figure is obviously Jesus, though no halo identifies him.  He faces forward, but his eyes are looking down toward the woman kneeling a short distance in front of him.  His right hand is extended upward and out toward the persons on his right, as if in gesture while teaching.

All persons in this window are facing Jesus, except one.  In the foreground on Jesus’ left are two young girls, one with her arm around the other’s waist, the other holding a small bouquet of flowers (to offer to Jesus?) In front of them are two men and a woman looking over her shoulder at the two girls.  One man is dressed as a man of wealth, the other white-haired and on crutches.

In the two left panels are seven attentive adults, five seated in scattered locations and two standing in the left foreground.  In the third panel a woman in red kneels and looks up expectantly, her open right hand raised toward Jesus, as if pleading for healing or forgiveness.

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