Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20 KJV
Dave Bowen cited this painting by Warner Sallman as an element the Lord used to start Dave's quest toward discipleship. Although I had seen many reproductions many times, it was not until adulthood that someone pointed out to me for the first time that there is no external handle on the door. Dave explained the implication that the door must be opened from the inside.
Sallman is also the artist of this well known "Head of Christ" which was ubiquitously displayed in churches and homes in my childhood. To be honest, I never found it very appealing. Even as a child I found it overly sentimentalized. Ironically, the biography of Warner Sallman says that he was inspired to paint this way when the dean of Bible Baptist Institute, Dr. E. O. Sellers, said to him, “Sometime I hope you give us your conception of Christ. And I hope it’s a manly one. Most of our pictures today are too effeminate.”
Probably most of the people of my generation did find it too effeminate, even though it was Sallman's intent not to portray Jesus that way. By the time the defining moment of our Christian era came along, the Jesus Movement of the 60's and 70's, we were more comfortable portraying Jesus with somewhat shorter hair and a "revolutionary" style.
As Reformed Christians, a concern for the second commandment ought to discourage us from attaching too much importance to any visual representation of Christ. The danger, however, in a total abstention from Christian imagery, is the implied gnosticism it leads to. If Jesus can't be represented visually, it is tempting to forget He was a man, God Incarnate, in the flesh. The only danger I see of imagery, of course, would be the danger of worshipping a specific image of Christ.
At this stage in life, I prefer historic or iconic art; they give Christ a place in history without too much danger that such artistic depictions will become idols. I am fond of these two images by Reformation era artist Matthias Grunewald.
As for iconography, I stated earlier that it has the advantage of not being too close to human realism. Yet its colorful imagery conveys story and meaning in a delightful way. My very favorite icon of all time is this depiction of the Trinity by fifteenth century iconographer Andrei Rublev.
Finally, I close with this modern iconic version of the very painting that Sallman made famous. And we are thankful that it pleased God, in His Providence, to use Sallman's version to draw our brother Dave to Himself.
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