Jesus the Great Pharmacist is a simple thought reflection from Isaiah 9:6 about the way that Jesus, like a pharmacist, can prescribe the best healing medicine.

 “For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6, HCSB)

In his book, Christ as Pharmacist (Christus als Apotheke in German), Wolfgang Hagen Hein shares a variety of paintings showing Christ as a pharmacist. Christ appears as a pharmacist standing behind a pharmacy table used to compound medicine, and He has a medicinal balance in his left hand. The Christian terms, such as faith, love, and hope, and the drug’s name are written on each of the drug vase labels. The purpose of displaying these paintings in a pharmacy was both to propagate Christianity to the poor who bought medicine at their family pharmacy and to win their respect for the pharmacist.

When I visited Heidelberg, Germany in 2006, I went to the famous castle with my wife’s family. While there, we visited the Das Deutsche Apotheken Museum (German Pharmacy Museum), which was next to the castle. There, I saw many of these paintings. I had always heard Jesus was the Great Physician. But apparently, He was also the Great Pharmacist. What does a pharmacist do? He or she dispenses the proper medicine and also proper advice to help others. He is our “Wonderful Counselor” because He is the “Great Pharmacist.”