Religion

IMAGES OF JESUS 

Where do you see Jesus? How do you see Jesus? If you were to portray Jesus what would you focus on? His face, the crucifixion, the shepherd, the teacher, storyteller... ? And most importantly why is this relevant today? We all have a personal image of Jesus, and asking students to consider their image of Jesus is the Term 2 Assessment Task for Year 9 RE; ‘Images of Jesus’.

Traditionally this task has been one of the teachers and students favourite tasks. Students are asked to produce a creative representation of Jesus focusing on a certain aspect of his life and a characteristic or trait Jesus possessed. Over the years there has been some excellent ‘images’ designed and not only visual representations, we have had poetry, music and other digital and multimedia works.

This year for the first time I have seen, a student created their image of Jesus by making a piece of jewellery. Student Shrithi Dayanand’s focus was on ‘Jesus the storyteller’, and to portray this she designed a bracelet that represented the story of Jesus’ life. Every bead on the bracelet represented an event or aspect of Jesus’ life. As part of her written explanation Shrithi wrote;

“Jesus told so many stories about being wise and virtuous and this bracelet tells his story. His story can show  us that He was humble and patient. His giving and forgiving nature show us His values,  and so much more.”

This dot painting image of Jesus by Shaelea Randall has a powerful connection to Aboriginal Spirituality and the Dreamtime. Shaelea wrote in explanation of her image;

“My portrayal of Jesus in my painting is Jesus as a new life in my belief and Aboriginal spirituality. Jesus was given life by his mother Mary, in Aboriginal culture the mother is earth and the earth is the Aboriginal peoples mother, therefore the earth, like Jesus gives Christians life.

In explaining the paintings relevance in the world today Shaelea writes:

 “...if you were to have nothing the only thing you would ever want is a family for support, love and compassion. And I really hope that is what people can gather from my painting this is my representation of what Jesus is to me and why I chose this aspect of his life.”

At the time of publishing this the Studies of Religion 1 Unit cohort have completed their Preliminary Course and their End of Preliminary Exam. It has certainly been a steep learning curve for these students and the SOR1 teachers collectively congratulate them on the way they have met this challenge. We also keep in kind Mrs Fellows Studies of Religion 2 Unit class as they reach the midpoint of the Preliminary Course and undertake their Mid-Course Exam next week. Year 11 return to class next week and SOR2 continue their Preliminary Course and SOR1 undertake the HSC Course moving towards the HSC Exam in Term 4 this year. We wish all senior students the best as we head towards Semester 2.

Mr Mark Gilham

Religious Education KLA Leader