Trinity Lutheran invites public to experience Jesus’ last days through art

You might be familiar with the Catholic Stations of the Cross, a tradition during Lent and the Easter season.

Believers travel from station to station, taking in depictions of spots along Jesus’ journey from just before he was betrayed through his crucifixion and death, to his eventual resurrection.

The Protestant analogue, often called the Protestant Way of the Cross, was the inspiration for Trinity Lutheran Church’s display in its building on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway. There are 14 displays in all, created by church congregants and tenants in the building, which houses charities and businesses.

“I had seen the idea in a Lutheran magazine where a church had done it differently,” Pastor Diane Krauszer said as she gave a tour of the display Thursday. “The one that I had seen in the magazine was much more professional artwork. We didn’t go that route because this is us.”

The Trinity displays are coupled with pieces of scripture and aren’t quite the same as the Stations of the Cross or the more typical Protestant analogues. So they dubbed it the Scriptural Way of the Cross.

“Each place, each way of the cross, each setting, comes straight from scripture rather than some of the traditional things that were said to have happened to Jesus as he walked,” Krauszer said.

The artwork is done in a variety of mediums. The idea is that it will help in contemplation of the scriptures, which are also provided. Krauszer said she didn’t provide much in the way of artistic direction.

“I just said to everyone, use whatever medium you want to use, use your creativity and we’ll see what happens,” she said.

She’s pretty pleased with how it turned out and, she thinks, the public is, too. The pieces are in the public portion of Trinity’s building and people on their way to the various tenants have also seen it

“It’s fun to have people stop and say, ‘Oh, what’s this?’” she said.

The path starts in the garden with a piece the preschool in the Trinity building created.

“Jesus is in the garden, he’s just finished celebrating the Lord’s Supper. He’s praying to God, ‘Take this from me,’” Krauszer said. “Judas and the high priests meet him in the garden and he’s arrested.”

From there, Jesus is brought to the Jewish court, then the Roman court. He’s stripped and flayed and made to carry his own cross.

Phyllis Gielarowski and her friend made one of the pieces at this stage in the journey. It’s a cross with a crown of thorns and a purple representation of Jesus’ robe.

“The cross and a crown of thorns represent how Christ suffered for me and for everyone,” Gielarowski said.

She said she’s not an artist and hasn’t done anything like this before. She and her friend, Cathy Hart, just brainstormed awhile and came up with it.

“Our building is not a traditional church building, other people come into it and we thought that would be a way of expressing our witness to Christ,” she said.

The next few stations depict his crucifixion, the time he spent on the cross, his entombment and resurrection.

As of Thursday, not every station was complete. Krauszer maintained hope they would be by the time of its big, official unveiling Easter Sunday.

“I hope so, but if we don’t we’ll just hold open spaces and complete it next year,” Krauszer said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

What: Scriptural Way of the Cross with artwork depicting Jesus’ journey from betrayal to resurrection.

Where: Main entry of the Trinity Barns on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway toward the Palmer end.

When: Business hours. The display will be up until about six weeks past Easter.