Icon of Jesus Christ in Prison – J74

Description

 The original of this icon is in the very Praetorium prison cell that the Lord was held the night before His Crucifixion, and shows the Lord as the Nymphios or the Bridegroom that we will all meet if we come to His Banquet in the Kingdom.  The Church’s tradition is that the robes Christ wears in Glory are resplendent with the humility of His humiliation, mocking, beating, and Death on the Cross, and that is why the Nymphios icon is put out for veneration on the first three days of Holy Week.

We see Christ bound at the hands, with His legs set into the two sockets bored into the solid stone shelf seat that can still be seen to this very day in the prison where He was held.  His feet are then chained together at the ankles so that He cannot move anywhere.   He holds the reed of the soldiers’ derision as a scepter, the Crown of Thorns as His wreath of victory, His opened robe as the raiment of transparent humility, and His compassionate looks as a regal demeanor of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, Whose Kingdom shall never end.  Here is that Most Holy Peace that passeth understanding in visible form right before us.