so...for everyone who doesn't live in vancouver, you should know that one of the things we're doing here at missionburnaby is exploring/thinking/reading together, most recently through a book called 'Exiles' by Michael Frost. for those of you here, you know that i'm posting because i said i would. ;)
this past week, we were talking about how Jesus is 'pictured' or portrayed in the xian tradition. and frost made this interesting statement; he said that if we choose 'pictures' of Jesus that are 'tame', we are betraying our own avoidance of what Jesus really said and stood for.
so i started thinking about my 'pictures' of Jesus. I realized that while i've 'imagined' some alternative pictures, i usually conceptualize him as serene, confident, calm, confidently affectionate, articulate, well-groomed, good with kids. more often than not, my pictured Jesus resembles a placid performer...a guy who always gets his lines right. i suppose michael frost would ask how i deal with such passages as Mark 3:21, where the gospel writer records that Jesus' family thought he was nuts. or how about John 2 where Jesus throws a rather conspicuous temper tantrum, violently 'disturbing the peace' in the name of religious purity?
the point isn't that we don't sometimes imagine Jesus doing these things; the problem is that we NEVER portray him this way. none of the pictures/plays/dramas/movies i've seen show this kind of Jesus (unless you count Life of Brian, but that's a different conversation). and i agree with frost...if we sanitize our pictures of Jesus, it's totally implicit that we would sanitize our rehashing of his teaching.
have you read through some of Jesus' teaching on justice lately? what about his railing against religion in Mt. 25? and how about his 'attacks' on materialism in Luke 10?
what Jesus do you see?
2 comments:
cool scotty..
funny cuz when i was in high school at a family counsellor, they had a drawing framed in their office of jesus.. a jesus i had NEVER seen before and from that day that's all i see; a jesus laughing hysterically and his eyes looking RIGHT into mine.. he's laughing with me.. wow.. that's a jesus i hold onto.
thanks for the reminder to pause and think about that one again.
t
that sounds like a really cool pic trace!!! and i know i've seen a handful like that...representations that 'strike' me and move me. i want to be reminded too...that Jesus isn't limited to my imagination.
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