Jesus the Christ as Apothecary

From the 16th century forward, iconographic artwork depicting "Christ as Healer and Pharmacist" or "Christ as Apothecary" began appearing in German devotional, prayer, and meditation books, as well as in paintings. These soon became a common theme particularly in areas of southern Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.

In these depictions, Christ stands behind a pharmacist's counter or table and dispenses medicinal remedies. Often, the shelves lining the room are filled with quaint apothecary jars and instruments.  Often, Christ holds the scale of judgment in His left hand, while His right reaches for some sort of remedy to dispense. The jars or potions or bags of herbs however are meant to be metaphorical. The contents are frequently found labeled with "remedies" such as faith, obedience, kindness, or mercy, which when dispensed can cure the ills of sin.

Sometimes, a scriptural passage adorns the table or the icon, such as Isaiah:  "All you, who are thirsty come to the water; You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk! Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy? Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare."

The use of the Isaiah passage in the image of Christ as Apothecary equates the idea of the "final feast" with the healing of mind, body, heart, and spirit by the all-powerful Healer, the One True Son of God.

16th Century Germany typically was Protestant to the north and Catholic to the south.  In the protestant depictions, Jesus is depicted as dispensing the faith and scripture required for Lutheran justification. In Catholic depictions, the Eucharist table takes precedence with Christ holding chalice and oil for the sacraments of penance and anointing of the sick required with an emphasis on sanctification.  Often in the Catholic depictions, Christ is shown as man of sorrow or wounded healer.

Although it may be argued that an interest in Christ as Apothecary may have come during a time when early sciences of chemistry, alchemy, and medicine shared disciplines with the religious and visual arts  (early universities did not see a separation between science and religion but philosophy, science, pseudo-science, religion, and the arts, including literature were taught together as a holistic view) and at a time when the "folk" learned about Jesus, theology, and scriptures primarily through art and representational metaphor (only the authorities of the church could read until the protestant reformation and the advent of Luther's Bible and Gutenberg's printing press, but "folk" in Catholicism remained scripturally illiterate), still the theology of Jesus as salvific Healer above all else and dispenser of the transformational Eucharist or transformational grace was powerful in these depictions.  The message was clear --through Christ, you are healed wholly.

The beauty of the metaphors was that they did not separate body from soul.  But the apothecary or pharmacist in the person of Jesus treated body as well as mind and spirit.  The transformational power of the metaphor for mind and spirit echoed the transformational power of Christ to heal, save, quench, relieve.

The idea of quenching and refreshing, medically relieving in fact would have been an extremely powerful metaphor in an age when plague and other diseases were ravaging the population. 

Jesus is not only healer but dispenser of medicaments that purify, relieve, save, and offer a sense of rationality, control, and strength in a time when life felt very "out of control." What early science and medicine could not heal, only Jesus could.  Jesus had the answers and the remedies to every ailment --body and soul.

The idea of Christ as Apothecary for me as I create this blog for pastors and others is not so much a remedy for a sin-sick soul, but a medicine-chest of prayers, thoughts, recipes, scripture, and meditations, much like the early booklets in which the image of Christ as Apothecary appeared, that offer bodily and spiritual and mental refreshment.  I hope for you in your reading and thoughts, that these entries are nourishing herbals for your life and faith, as they have been for me in writing them.

Please join me in delving into the Pastor's Apothecary Chest.