Identity Crisis

Christ of the Breadlines, Fritz Eichenberg

Luke 9:18-24

^"And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” So they answered and said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.” And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."

There are two things that I have been a fan of my whole life... Jesus and Art. I was an art kid and a preacher's kid ("P.K.” is the official term if you are fluent in "Christianese"). My schedule consisted of going to Church for several hours and coming home and drawing pictures. Now of course these two were broken up with other activities (like losing at basketball games with my friends, having Asthma attacks and watching cartoons) but I did art and church so much that it was known as my identity...Jason who draws or Rev. Smith's son. So naturally I owned books of children's bible stories and gigantic family bibles with the paintings of the Masters.I would read and copy pictures from them. My connection to these two never left me. As I aged I grew in my faith and in my artistic training and ability. However, during all of this I still occasionally had periods where I struggled with both School and Church... Now don't worry, this will not turn into a rant against the U.S public educational system or Christian organized religion, nor is it an endorsement for Home-schooling or Home-churches (although if those work for you, then good for you). My particular problems, lapses and periods of being lost were not usually attributable to any outside factor ("The Man" was not keeping me down). They usually surrounded some lack of direction, character or focus on my part...things that all combine to make discipline. Discipline is one of the major ingredients in being a good artist...and the foundation of being a disciple. So it is with this confession that I start the second week of this blog: This is going to be a journey with an imperfect guide. Even though I've been a Christian and an Artist my whole life I must confess that far too often I have been an amateur in following both pursuits. I have been guilty of letting the cares of the world distract me from dedicating myself to discipline, study and practice in both. So this blog isn't about me sharing what I know as much as me learning what I don't and doing what I dare not.

Before starting this blog I talked over its basic premise with a few people. One of those conversations was with a college friend, via Facebook inbox. I spoke to this friend because he is light years more experienced than I am in writing in general, and writing on Christian matters in specific. My greatest writing samples probably consist of an assortment of themed Facebook status updates. I mentioned to this friend that my potential blog had an identity crisis. He asked me who my intended audience was. Who was going to read my blog? I answered "probably my Grandma." So I'm not sure what the identity of my readers will be, or for that matter, if this blog will have a single easily understandable identity. So overall this is an experiment of hybridity. This is an experiment to see if I can successfully merge two subgenres of internet literature into one: an Art blog and a Bible blog. As I mentioned in the first blog entry Art has been used by Christians over two millennia to aid their cause in several ways. Art was used as a teaching tool especially in the earlier centuries to assist the promulgation of the Gospel and explanation of Church practices to the non-literate majority. Art has also acted as a recording device of sorts, encapsulating in an accessible form each generation's varied thoughts about God, mankind and His other creations. Christian art has been used for veneration of Saints and meditation (reimagining the scriptural stories as if we were there) by Catholics and Orthodox Christians, while in contrasting response Art has been used to protest these practices by Protestants (mostly Calvinist) and earlier iconoclastic Catholics. Also Christian Art has been used by Christians of all stripes as tools of evangelization. However I feel like there is also a value to a discussion of Christianity and Art to non-Christians and non-Art aficionados. First of all for non-Christians there is the laugh you can get out of watching a bunch of Bible thumpers and Holy Rollers geek-out on Church talk (come on Christians, you know that you've noticed a few goofy details about your fellow "Awkward Christian Soldiers"). Once that gets old (does it ever?) you can get the theological and cultural background about some of your favorite masterpieces with Christian themes. Remember that there is a difference between knowing the background reference of a piece of art and understanding the desired impact that the narrative exerts upon a believer. Consider it anthropological study. For the non-Christian, non-Art aficionado I believe that this can be a safe place to ask questions and engage in discussion for both subjects.

My one worry with this blog (besides readers falling asleep from the horrendous length of this entry) is that this blog’s identity may not be fully understood. It is not just a place where I will post scriptures and Renaissance paintings that illustrate them. Yes, many of the great masterpieces of the "Great Church" era of Christendom will be shown and discussed. Yes, they will probably be a majority of the images (since that 1500 years or so produced a lot of great art). However this majority will probably be 60%. I will try my best to show as many Non-Western, Modern, Contemporary, Naïve, Abstract, Commercial, Street and Folk Art representations as possible. I will also throw in a few curveballs...Art that isn't Christian and/or may be created by characters that traditional Christians find controversial. Why? Because I want this to be a blog about art that has illustrated the Christian scriptures but also art that can lead to a Christian discussion. A "Christian discussion" does not always mean a safe one. A "Christian discussion" does not always mean one that you agree with. A "Christian discussion" does not always mean a traditional one. A "Christian discussion" does not always mean a Western one. I believe in a God that speaks to all of life and used people in scripture that confronted ease, close-mindedness, tradition and natural ways of viewing life. The greatest of these was Jesus Christ. Jesus’ speech was also full of imagery…like Art is. A "Christian discussion" is one that can both challenge and comfort. It can challenge the proud and exalt the humble. You may be surprised that a "Christian discussion" resembles an art critique and exhibition more than you previously thought.

The Annunciation, Fritz Eichenberg

^"And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” So they answered and said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again.”

In the above quoted verses from Luke, Jesus discussed his identity with his disciples. He discusses his public image: who do the crowds imagine him to be? People are visual thinkers. When they encounter something different they try and familiarize themselves with it by putting it in a context. Hence they were not just saying that Jesus sounded like John the Baptist, Elijah or one of the old Prophets, but he looked like them. We always associate similarities with visual pairings. So Jesus’ preaching, challenging religious authority, gathering disciples, extending mercy, healing and discussing the scripture resembled what you would see John the Baptist, Elijah or one of the old Prophets do. Some in the crowds saw his actions as so similar to the mental image of these holy men of old that they identified Him not only with them but as them. They were what theologians would term a type or shadow of Christ. Much like a real life shadow of an object, these theological shadows resemble the rough outline of Christ. However when light is cast upon them we realize that they only carry similar attributes because of the connection they have. The object that they are mimicking the shape of (in this case, Christ) is the fullness of that image. Scripture teaches us that in Jesus dwelt the fullness of God. So the godliness that emanated through these theological shadows is due to their connection to Christ through salvation history (yes, even though they technically came before him).

"He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.” And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, “The Son of Man  must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.”

After asking who the crowds identified him as, Jesus reveals his actual identity. He does this in two steps. First, He asks them their thoughts into who he was. After his disciple Peter correctly identifies him as the Christ (the Greek word for the Hebrew word Messiah… actually both are the English versions of Hebrew and Greek words. English always makes words from other languages change their names when they get off the boat at Ellis Island), Jesus admonishes them to tell no one. Why? The easy answer would be that Jesus hates people walking up to you in the mall and evangelizing as much as you do… but this can’t be the answer because later in the story he will commission them to go evangelize (malls weren’t invented yet). This is all part of what is called the Messianic Secret. It refers to the fact that at certain points before Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection he discourages people from announcing that he is the Messiah. The reason for this is much debated, but the following verses may give us a clue. They also show the second part of Jesus’ revelation of his messianic identity. He reveals to them what being the Christ/Messiah actually means. The disciples would have been aware that it meant that it referred to the long awaited king that would construct God’s kingdom. Messiah actually means “anointed one”, referring to the fact that the ancient Israelites would anoint their king at his coronation. It is akin to the British calling their monarch “the crowned one” or Americans calling the President “the sworn-in one” (if both countries were looking for awkward titles). However there is a difference between knowing what the word literally means and understanding what the role actually entails. So Jesus proceeds to define what it means to be the Christ by foretelling the upcoming events. You can imagine his tale of upcoming sacrifice and doom differed sharply with the images of glory and praise that they imagined were befitting a king who was establishing the greatest kingdom in history. But here lies the tragic flaw: what they, and we, imagine this kingdom to be. Later on in history St. Paul taught us that the kingdom of God is not anything surrounding possessions but “righteousness and peace.”

"Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."

Finally, after Jesus asked about the popular consensus on his identity amongst the crowds and revealed his secret identity to his disciples, he exposes his disciples and our identity. When he says “anyone desires to come after Me”, he is saying “anyone who wishes to identify with me.” Jesus went from demolishing what others imagined him to be and revealed himself as the image of the one true God. This God is one took up a cross and embraced sacrifice in his love for mankind (and yes womankind). A true disciple who identifies with Christ will be willing to look like him. Should I be willing to die for Christ? Yes, but most instances in history have not called for that. Most have asked for his followers to live for him. Live for him, love through him and resist the selfishness of sin and a life without a compassionate concern for his creations (starting with people…sorry PETA. Christian mercy is strictly M.O.B., Mankind Over Biologically-subordinate-creatures). Christ said “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” In an age where success driven pop-Christianity encourages us that God wants us all to be winners, Christ is begging for a few losers.  



St. John from The Catholic Worker, Fritz Eichenberg

The image at the beginning of this blog entry that I chose to illustrate the scripture is “Christ of the Breadlines” by printmaker artist Fritz Eichenberg. Born into a secular Jewish family in Cologne, Germany, Fritz eventually fled to America due to the rise of the Nazis. He eventually joined the Quakers, a Protestant group known for its centuries long embrace of pacifism (they were also the backbone of the Abolitionist movement in America a century earlier). Fritz Eichenberg may be most famous for his work with the Dorothy Day doing illustrations for the Catholic Worker, a newspaper that promoted the social justice tradition of the Catholic church especially amongst the poor and marginal populations (simultaneous disclaimer and namedrop warning: he was introduced to Dorothy Day by my grandfather who happened to be one of his best friends).

In this wood cut print you see a Christ figure that has been totally engulfed in shadow but the light of His halo illuminates all of those who surround him. Instead of the normal scenery of miracles, nativity, crucifixion or a last supper, Christ is pictured amongst the homeless and beggars in a breadline. Is this an accurate illustration of the narrative in Luke 9:18-24? No. But it is more than that. It is an accurate theological painting. It illustrates the gist of the message that Jesus was communicating to his disciples and to us. In this dark print is surrounded by shadows and engulfed in a shadow yet he still emanates a light. As we discussed earlier there were theological shadows, holy people from scripture, that marched us through salvation history up to Jesus. Of course they include Elijah, other Prophets of old and John the Baptist but the also include other figures like Abel (the murdered son of Adam and Eve), Moses and King David. All of these characters were imperfect of themselves and struggled in some degree of sin and imperfection but the godliness that did shine from them were all reflections of the soon to come image of God in flesh, Jesus Christ. Now there is a second value to the dark shadows in Fritz’s woodcut. Notice that Christ himself is still obscured from our view. It is reminiscent of the epistles teaching us that our knowledge of him maybe imperfect, obscured and hazy now but one day we will see and understand God and his precious gift of love perfectly one day. The actual quote is more beautiful and poetic: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” The disciples came to know Jesus as the Christ even clearer when he revealed what it entailed. It entailed suffering with and for his children. It is appropriate that Fritz Eichenberg pictures Christ among the humble and destitute. There is never a point in the Gospels where Christ doesn’t identify with the poor, the suffering, the oppressed and the sinful. In his greatest act he did this by taking upon our lack, our hurt, our subjugation and sin and bearing it on the cross. Even though we call him our Master, he became suffering servant to save us. So in return he asks us to accept his saving mercy and to recognize his image in those who are the least among us: To remember him by loving the lowly and forgiving the guilty. That is how God is glorified. That is the basis of Salvation.

So... an Art blog meets a Bible blog, that’s the identity of this blog. Has this been done before? Probably so. Will this be the best one? Probably not. But as a Christian I am called to bear my cross and as a Painter I am inspired to paint my pieces, so in like fashion the most I can do is write my humble blog about what I know: Jesus, Art and an occasional awkward joke. I speak with no official Church authority or Gallery representation. So don't take my thoughts as pastoral advice or a curatorial critique. Like you I am only a pilgrim painting a portrait, hoping that my image will one day conform to that of Christ's.

St. Francis' Prayer, Fritz Eichenberg