Faceless Christ, Headless Disciples

By Bishop Peggy Johnson

In Berlin there is the Chapel of the Reconciliation. It was rebuilt after the reunification of Germany and the destruction of the Berlin Wall that divided East and West Germany from 1961 to 1989.

Originally, there was a much older church building located in that same space, which was built in 1894. It was destroyed in 1985 by the Communist government because this abandoned church blocked strategic security site lines on the Berlin Wall. The church was in the way.

During reconstruction of the chapel in recent years, excavation of the rubble from the original church miraculously revealed the entire chancel piece that use to hang over the original altar. It was still intact. Today it hangs in the center of the reconstructed chapel, giving the this sacred space a poignant connection between the past and present.

The altar piece had an elaborate carving of a scene from the Last Supper below the cross, which sadly had taken a beating during the church’s destruction of 1985. The face of Christ is missing, and several of the disciples have no heads. It was decided that the damaged parts of the chancel piece would not be repaired but left as is to remind congregants and visitors of the dark history of the Nazi regime and the Cold War.

A Christ with no face is a curious thing to see. There is no expression, no hint of personhood. Headless disciples too conjure up disturbing thoughts of decapitation and suffering. 

During this Holy Week I look at the picture of this altar piece, imperfect as it is, as a call for me to strive to be the face of Christ to a world that suffers from much painful alienation and division. We are the face Christ uses and shows to the world. And as his disciples, we can expect to enter into the fellowship of his sufferings as we take up our own crosses for the ministry of Christ.

But through it all, we know and are convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s great love for us in Jesus Christ. Nothing. “Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation.” (Romans 8:38-39)

As the Apostle Paul reminds us of that timeless truth, let us also remember, during Holy Week and henceforth, that while inseparable from God’s great love, we should also remain inseparable from one another in Christ Jesus. May it always be so. Amen.

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