The Cross

Bete Giyorgis, Church of Saint George, Lalibela, Ethiopia

Matthew 16:21-27

From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer...

If you happen to travel to Lalibela, Ethiopia you will encounter a hole in the ground. I am sure that you would not notice any difference between it and any other hole in the ground... until you see the cross in the middle of it. The cross is the reason for the hole in the ground, since it was sculpted from the surrounding rocky landscape. I am sure that you would not notice any difference between it and any other cross made out of stone...until you notice the church that lies beneath this cross. The cross that formed the hole in the ground is actually the roof of a church that was sculpted from the that same rocky terrain. This house of worship is the Church of Saint George, Lalibela. It was "carved from solid red volcanic rock in the 12th century" by the bequest of King Gebre Mesqel Lalibela of Ethiopia (whom it is named after). He was inspired to construct several rock cut churches in the area and structure the city of Lalibela after the design of Jerusalem (based on his memory of a trip there). The Church of St. George is part of the greater Oriental Orthodox Church tradition, specifically the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Despite its creative construction this isn't the only church that uses the cross in its design. Above any of the early Christian aesthetic symbols for Jesus (such as the Ichthys fish, the anchor, the shepherd, the lamb or even the portrait of Jesus) the cross is the most universally recognized and utilized Christian image. Why do so many churches throughout the ages, around the world and across denominational lines use the design of the cross? Why is this image and structure so enduring in the Church? Matthew 16:21-27 may give us some insight into this intersection of theology and aesthetics. In today's Scripture Jesus delivers the foundational call for all of his Church to be shaped by the cross. In doing so, Jesus teaches us that there is much meaning in his suffering.

Crucifix, Cimabue, Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence, Italy

Creed: The Memory of the Cross

From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day...

When I visit my wife's Catholic church I encounter the cross design. Specifically it is in the form of crucifixes. Cimabue's painting Crucifix, ironically is not considered a crucifix in the Western (Catholic) church tradition. Unlike the Eastern (Orthodox) church tradition where the body of Jesus (called the "corpus.") can be painted on the cross. Western crucifixes must feature a three dimensional Christ. In his suffering, Jesus leaves the two dimensional world of illustration and invades the viewer's three dimensional world. The presence of the cross is real and interacts with the space of all who see it. These sculptural images of Jesus fixed to the cross are not only objects for aesthetic appreciation but also objects used in worship. Like the church in Ethiopia, my wife's church in Los Angeles is part of a faith community founded in the pre-Modern era. A time when tradition was sacred, faith was expressed in ceremony and authority gave meaning. Both churches continue the ancient Christian practice of using ritual in the worship liturgy to appreciate the significance behind the cross. Ritual and repetition are powerful tools in remembering Jesus' salvific sacrifice. The viewing and handling of the cross object are not the only rituals that remember Christ's death in the liturgy. There is also the taking of the weekly Eucharist (communion): another act that remembers the Lord's death. And then there is the reciting of the creed. Whether it is the Apostle's Creed or the Nicene Creed, the parishioners weekly testify in unison to what the Church across the ages believes. The word "creed" comes from the first words of the Nicene and Apostle's Creed in Latin, "credo" or "I believe." When the Nicene Creed gets to the section about Jesus it mentions:

"he was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures"

In this document the early Church Fathers testify to what Jesus prophesied in Matthew 16:21-27. The reason that followers of Jesus throughout the ages have repeated this narrative is the same reason why Jesus told it to his disciples. It is because there is no way to overstate the significance of what Jesus did on the cross. The importance of what Jesus did by suffering, dying and rising from the dead does not only make up the foundation of the Church's creed but also Jesus' own creed. Jesus did not only believe that the cross would happen as a historical event but he also believed in its power throughout eternity. Jesus believed that more than any other good thing that he did in his ministry (preaching, healing, showing kindness, forgiving), this was the great thing. This was the great thing that gave meaning to all of the good things. This was the saving act that his preaching, healing, showing kindness and forgiving testified to. This was the death that would birth eternal life for all of humanity. Jesus repeatedly prophesied and foretold his disciples of his forthcoming sacrificial death. After his resurrection and ascension, his disciples (turned apostles) repeatedly preached the significance of his sacrificial death. Both Jesus and the Apostles had a ritual surrounding their creed of the cross. Whether the parishioners at my wife's church consider the story behind a crucifix, share in the Eucharist meal that commemorates Jesus' broken body and blood or speak the historic Church's collective memory of the Passion and Resurrection, in effect they all practice a living out of the creed. They all testify "I believe" what Jesus believed. Creed is what we believe about Jesus. Jesus' surrendering to the cross was about what he believed. Jesus' cross was his acting out of the creed that his death would lead to new life.


Neon Cross, Pacific Garden Mission, Chicago. Illinois 

Catechesis: The Message of the Cross

...Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”
But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men....”

The crucifix is fairly different from the crosses in the Baptist churches of my youth. Those New Orleans churches had crosses but I don't remember any featuring the body of Jesus. Their cruciforms were not used as ritual devices but rather as signage that illuminated the point of their preaching: the cross. Some even included text and light that highlighted the message of the cross. Such a cross like this hangs outside of the famous Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago. Illinois. In neon lights it reads "Jesus Saves", as if to infer that Jesus is the light of the world and in his cross he saves. Birthed from the Reformation, Protestant preaching shares something with all thought that emerged from Modernity: that reason did not necessarily come from authority but rather it yielded authority. Like much of the Renaissance, the Reformation's reasoning came from illuminating an ancient text. The text that illuminates the Christian is the Bible. The job of the preacher is to illuminate the mind of the listener through this ancient text. The drive of solid textual exegesis is the message the cross. Like the neon cross outside of the Pacific Garden Mission the text (of Scripture) enlightens the cross. Preaching is authoritative when like the Nicene Creed it defers to "according to the Scriptures." In Protestantism a lot of "preaching to the converted" occurs. Even though many of the church members have read the Bible and heard it's stories over and over, the preacher continues to direct them to the text that illuminates the cross. It's a book club that never moves on to a second book. Now the pre-modern Christian approach of Catholics and the Orthodox also feature preaching in their liturgy, but the modern Christian approach (excluding Anglicanism) structures the worship experience around the preaching act. A sermon that lasts an hour is not unheard of or even record breaking. The act of preaching to initiated Christians (as opposed to evangelism) can be looked at as a form of ongoing catechesis. Catechism is what we teach about Jesus. It is an acting out of the creed in worship. Peter's rebuke of Jesus for embracing the creed of the cross and Jesus' subsequent condemnation of Peter's thoughtless theology was in itself a confrontation over catechesis. Peter had just confessed his belief that Jesus was the Christ a few verses earlier. Then he followed it by showing that he didn't understand what it truly meant to be the Christ. If he misunderstood the impending job of God's Messiah, then he also misunderstood the nature of his Kingdom. If Peter misunderstood the nature of his Kingdom, then how could he understand his role as a disciple? If he misunderstood his role as a disciple, then how could he preach the foundation of God's Kingdom as an Apostle? The future catechesis of the Church, the preaching of the Gospel, was contingent on Peter understanding that Jesus' message was not self-centered but rather shaped in self-denial. The plot of the Gospels is Jesus' ministry through the cross, but the subplot is the Disciples' gradual full embrace of this ministry. When Peter rejected the creed of the cross he was rejecting the "things of God." He had not escaped the aspirations of the "things of men" to survive and thrive. Peter had unwittingly aided Satan by deterring Christ's surrender to self-sacrificial love. Peter thought that the cross was an accidental misfortune that could befall Christ but Jesus saw the cross as the real-life performance of his greatest sermon ever. Jesus' cross was the catechesis of God's love in action.

Celtic Cross Tattoo from Tumblr 

Conversion: The Mission of the Cross

...Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?...  

Lately I have been visiting a congregation that is a member of the Emergent Church movement. In many of these experimental Christian communities one would be hard pressed to find a cross on the wall but could easily find cross tattoos on the congregates. Potentially unbiblical taboos and nontraditional scenes like this are why many conservative Protestants question the prudence of some in this post-Modern take on Christianity. If a cartographer were making a map of Christianity, then she would probably place a warning next to the area for the Emergent church that read "Danger: There be dragons here." The danger that mapmakers warned tattooed sailors, explorers and conquistadors against was not really dragons per se but the danger of the unknown. Maps empower the user when the cartographer has been empowered by information: solid descriptive data about the area described. There are no dragons in this developing section of Christianity... but there is danger. This church serves as an outreach to a new kind of person that we do not know much about. The emergent (and emerging) church is an effort to engage in discussion with the post-Modern person. Post-Modernity is many things in many fields but in theology it is the recognition that the contemporary person increasingly does not believe in the idea of the metanarrative. Wikipedia states that

"The term was brought into prominence by Jean-François Lyotard in 1979, with his claim that the postmodern was characterized precisely by a mistrust of the grand narratives (Progress, Enlightenment emancipation, Marxism) that had formed an essential part of modernity."

 Many today do not believe that they can find meaning in a text (like the Bible) or a story (like the Gospel). Scripture seems to be a incongruent collection of stories and writings that say conflicting things. The strength the Emergent movement is not that it disbelieves in grand narratives but rather that it engages in conversation with contemporary culture about our place in the grand narrative. The Emergent church is not a denomination but rather a cross-denominational community that emerges from this conversation of many parts in the appreciation of the story. It not only believes that the Scriptures have a "big story", a metanarrative, that it is telling in all of its seemingly diverse parts but that we are part of that grand narrative. Our personal stories, with their apparent inconsistencies, moments of meaninglessness and chaos are parts of God's story. The narrative of our lives find meaning when they are connected with the narrative of God's life. The cycle of creation, fall, redemption and restoration is the grand narrative of Scripture. It is the big story of man on the species and individual level. It is the love story where the life of the Creator and the lives of the created intersect at the cross. The life of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross bring meaning to all of eternity. It tells us what it is all about. God wants to save you from Sin, but greater than that He wants to save you to Himself. Sin separates Man from God, but mankind's separation from God is what the substance of Sin is. The theme of the grand narrative of Scripture is bringing you back in community with God. Pursuing this community with God also leads us to form community with each other. If Jesus' cross was God's love in action then the mission of the Church, God's people, is acting out love to spread God's community... His Kingdom. This call to missional living starts when we observe the cross' call to abandon self-centered lives to eternal life through self-denial. The cross must be intimately applied to our personal lives and metaphorically tattooed to our bodies. Our will must be exchanged for God's will. In Matthew 16:21-27 Jesus offers his disciples an exchange. In exchange for their own temporary lives Jesus offers an eternal one. A life that he bought for them with his own (literal) cross and they embraced through their own (metaphorical) crosses. The cross of their suffering was not something to be avoided but was their baptism by fire that was predicted. The cross for many of them was not a cross but rather another form of martyrdom. You may find it interesting that the Greek word for martyr literally translates as "witness." So a martyr/witness is one who suffers for advocating or refusing to renounce one's faith. For several, like the disciple/apostle John, the cross was not the death of a martyr at all but other trials that pruned and proved his faith. God is not interested in your death for Him as much as He is interested in you showing your steadfast trust of God in the midst of life factors that call you to renounce it. Even Job in the Old Testament displayed his faith by not denouncing God "yet though He slay(ed) (him)." Job had the faith of a martyr. Everyone's cross is different in its particular manifestation, however, they are the same in that are all the point of dying to the self. Denying one's self is accepting God. Trials produce witnesses. Witnesses testify to the glory of the cross of Christ. This exchange of a life for a life is a change. By change I mean to say a conversion. Conversion is how we live because of Jesus. It is an acting out of the creed that we believe and the catechism that we teach in the world around us. It is the fullest act of worship to a God who calls us to go out into the world. It is the liturgy that we practice outside of the walls of a church building. It is where we answer God's call to be the Church. It is living our public life as God's mission. Conversion is not a one time event when you walked up and shook a preacher's hand. Conversion is a life long process sanctifying us from Sin and reprogramming our hearts to live a life outside of ourselves. Conversion is God forming a selfless love in us: intended for God and expressed toward mankind. Conversion is not just the changing of what our minds think. Conversion is also the changing of our how hearts feel, what our eyes can see, where our feet walk and what we have a taste for. When Christ has converted our minds to be full of trust in Him, our hearts to be full of love for our enemy, our eyes to see the Kingdom of God, our feet to follow him, our ears to hear the suffering of those around us, our mouth to profess the truth of God and our appetites to hunger and thirst for righteousness, then he has converted (changed) us into a whole new man. The old man has passed away. The new man that lives within us is Christ Jesus. Conversion changes our will and our ways. Conversion changes us from living in our death to living in Jesus' life. Like Christ it leads us to pursue the good of those around us. Conversion is bearing the image of the cross. Jesus' cross is the way of life that we must continually be converted to.

Church of Saint George, Lalibela, Ethiopia

Conclusion: Mankind in the Cross

“For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”

If you were to lead a travel discussion of the sites of Lalibela, Ethiopia and started to describe a large hole in the ground with a cross, then one of your listeners might infer that you were depicting a grave. But you would know that it isn't a grave because graves are where the dead are placed. The church is not dead. On the contrary it is very much still in use. Living worshipers who desire to connect with God dwell in it continually. This is where you and Jesus agree. But while you may be describing the church as a building, Christ is describing the Church as a people. Yet we as the Church can continue to learn from this church building. Jesus was the king who built his Church for living worshipers who desire to connect with God and dwell in Him continually. It is in dwelling in God, being part of the body of Christ and entering His kingdom that one partakes in the fruit of eternal life. Many of those that were present as Jesus spoke in Matthew 16:21-27 did not taste of physical death until they had seen Christ coming in his kingdom. There physical deaths are only temporary. Before they departed they partook in the fullness of life that Christ offered. Life that cannot be taken or expire. Life that is not invested in the Self but grounded in the Savior. The cross not only forms the foundation of St. George's Church but its walls, its ceiling and its entire structure. There is no part of this dwelling that is outside of the mold of the cross. The Church that Jesus testified of also abides in the cross. We dwell in it and without the shaping of the cross there is no Church. Like St. George's Church, Jesus body was taken from the earth and erected as a sign of salvation. Like Jesus' body, we the Body of Christ (the Church) arise from death and stand firm as a testament of God's power exercised in those who have given their lives over to the cross. Our King had his workmen chip away from the rocky earth to uncover a church that had been waiting there all along. It may have just seemed like any other regular stone, but it was a church waiting for it's glory to be revealed. It just had to be unearthed by its Creator from its temporary grave. You and I are the Church of God and He is salvaging us from our graves and inviting us to life.The cross creates the space where we dwell with God. The cross is what we are called to remember. The cross is what we are called to preach. The cross is how we are called to live. The cross is our creed, catechesis and conversion. Why do so many churches throughout the ages, around the world and across denominational lines build around the design if the cross? Why is this image and structure so enduring in the Church? It is the because Jesus' cross is the conclusion of Mankind's death and the beginning of our life in God. 

Church of Saint George, Lalibela, Ethiopia

Gossip and Gospel

The Gossips, Norman Rockwell

Matthew 16:13-20

Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.

If you are keeping score then you know that I have posted on the story of Peter's great confession two times already. The story is featured in Matthew, Mark and Luke (known as the Synoptic gospels for their similarities). This is my third time covering this story and I haven't even covered the Markan version. This will be my second time covering Matthew 16:13-19... and the last time was in June. You may be aware that I structure the posts on this blog on the Lectionary reading cycle (many Christian and Jewish groups do this) and in doing so some readings are repeated. There is an episodic nature to presenting the Gospel from the lectionary cycle. But truth be told, there is an episodic nature to preaching and presenting the Gospel in general. Both of these are just shadows of the fact that the Gospel narratives are episodic themselves. Christ himself was a preacher. The Gospels themselves are elongated sermons. If presenting the gospel/preaching/evangelizing/"sermonizing" is to have any fidelity than it must be messages that are centered around these long form sermons (the gospels) the testify of the life of a preacher named Jesus and his thoughts that were detailed through his own sermons. We are telling the story about the stories of a great storyteller. We are passing on the messages from the original messenger, and one day he will hold us accountable for what we said and did in his name. He will have us give an account for the distortions of his original message. That is the story behind Norman Rockwell's illustration "The Gossips." We see several episodes where a message is passed on and on and on. It is intentionally painted to illustrate the children's game called "telephone." This group game, which Wikipedia refers to as "Chinese whispers", is played by taking a sentence and having one player whisper it in the ear of another player who reciprocates the action to another player and on and on and on. At the end the final player repeats the message to the whole group. It is often warped and changed in hilarious ways. But as Rockwell has illustrated the real life telephone game of doesn't always end well. The bad news of misinformation can lead to destruction and hurt. Christ has called his disciples to spread the good news: information that lead to life and healing. Yet sometimes those who intend to spread the Gospel are unwittingly just spreading the Gossip. A slight misunderstanding of the secret treasures of God can lead to people valuing fool's gold. One seemingly small detail of Jesus' message can cause us to miss the essence of it all. Christian history is full of episodes like the Crusades where believers thought that they were fighting for the Kingdom of God by using the weapons of violence and oppression. There is one key textual difference between my post on Matthew 16:13-19 and today's post. That difference is verse 20. It is the verse that features what William Wrede called the Messianic secret. That one small difference that makes a world of difference. That is why I placed it first today. When you read it you are forced to reread the previous verses in its light. The proclamation of the Gospel must be read in the consideration of this mysterious episode. It must all be understood in the context of Jesus' secret. Why would the Rabbi who called his disciples to spread the message of his Kingdom at the end of Matthew ask them to conceal his kingship in the middle of Matthew? The narrative of Matthew 16:13-20 is based on rumors, confessions and secrets... and it teaches us the difference between the Gospel of Jesus and Gossip about Jesus.

The Party Wire, Norman Rockwell

Rumors

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Norman Rockwell captured the pulse of Americana so well because he often was illustrating for publications that sought to share stories that identified the identity of a people. Before he became famous for his Saturday Evening Post illustrations, Rockwell illustrated covers like the The Party Wire for Leslie's Monthly Magazine...which would rename itself The American Magazine. Rockwell was integral solidifying the look of Americana because he depicted the American people when they were at the beginnings of their self awareness as a historic people. America realized that they were being recorded for posterity, but who would be their scribe? Rockwell would step into the shoes of one compiling a hagiography: documenting this nation in its selected golden age as it transitioned from rural/urban to suburban, manual to electronic and homogeneous to heterogeneous. In The Party Wire, Rockwell the documentarian depicts an older woman (the presumed town gossip) doing a little documentation of her own. A party wire (or line) was a discounted service offered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by telephone companies. The benefit was that several parties could use one line and thereby split up the billing cost. The drawback was that all parties could also listen to each others calls. This new feat of communication was the breeding ground of gossips. When Christ started his ministry to communicate the new covenant he to met gossips. Their were gossips among the Pharisees who spread lies about him and also well meaning gossips who spread partial truths about his message and identity. The harm of a well intentioned half truth is that it is still effectively misinformation. So halfway into his ministerial efforts Jesus calls in his lieutenants for a powwow. He asks them what was being said on the party wire? What was the general consensus about who he was? Now you may critique Jesus for doing a poor branding effort, because how would they know who he was unless he told them? Well Jesus appears to place value on his works themselves as a testimony of his identity. He also believed that Scripture itself was his greatest advertisement. So after assessing the misinformation of those who had heard the gossip about Jesus, he investigated the consensus of those who had been given the Gospel. He asked his disciples who they thought he was.


The Lineman, Norman Rockwell

 Confessions

Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

When I was just a young boy growing up in the small Black Baptist churches of the mid-1980's we were still singing a song called "Jesus is on the mainline." We sand it ALL THE TIME! It seems like it was at least two times every church service. It was a message about Jesus deeply embedded in a metaphor from the Norman Rockwell era. Jesus was a telephone operator that would patch your calls to Heaven through. It encapsulated in 20th century imagery our confession that Christ is the mediator between God and Man. He is the great high priest of the book of Hebrews. So that is what the song says and pictures, but it is not what my imagination heard as a kid. Remember, by the 1980's telephone operators largely were not as present in the average telephone conversation. They were largely behind the scenes. So when I heard "mainline" I thought "telephone line": the pole that held the actual circuits that ran into everyone's house and delivered the communication capability. I imagines Jesus to be more of Norman Rockwell's The Lineman than Lily Tomlin's "Ernestine the Operator." I had heard the gospel song about Jesus but didn't understand the image that the lyrics communicated. When Jesus asked his disciples who they said that he was, he was concerned with this very same phenomena. His disciples had heard the song of the Gospel but what had they imagined its words to communicate. When Peter responds by confessing the truth about Christ's messianic identity Jesus responds by confessing what Peter's identity was to be.  If you will allow me to make a Black Baptist preacher point, the text here shares that confession leads to profession. When a follower of Jesus makes a mental assent that Jesus is the Messiah then counters their claim of belief with his belief about them and with a call to action. This entails both definitions of profession: a set of proclaimed beliefs (as in a profession of faith) and a vocation that you are called to (as in a profession that you are employed in). Let us not discount the value of vocation in the ministry of God, since the word literally means a calling or a summons that God gives us. "Faith" is what justifies us before God, but a belief of a certain set of facts about God is just the beginning of what this saving "faith" is. The fullness of faith equals belief, action and love. Faith without works is dead and charity (love) is the foundational gift of God. Jesus celebrated the beginning of Peter's faith and challenged him to fulfill it through the calling that God summoned him to.

Norman Rockwell, Doctor and Doll

Secrets

Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.

When we list the advent of telephones as a step in the history of communication devices, we are usually discussing tools that have helped us talk to one another. However, communication is about more than talking. Part of successful communication is listening. Sometimes it is about listening to a communicator that only speaks and we must only listen. In Doctor and Doll, Norman Rockwell focuses on the magic of the stethoscope, the unsung medical device that allows our bodies to communicate. In this painting the doctor listens to the imaginary heart of a doll so that he might win over the metaphorical heart of a little girl. When I use symbolic words like "imaginary" and metaphorical" to describe "heart" I think that many readers may take them to mean that I am downplaying the "realness" of the heart. It is actually the opposite. When we use the word "heart" it is used as a metaphor to describe something realer than the "real" organ that it takes its image from. The heart is the core, the essence of the thing, the center of the will, the soul. The heart of Jesus' message is the heart of his messianic calling. Why did Jesus often keep his messianic identity secret? He kept it secret for a time because those who had the gossip and not the gospel did not understand the heart of his message. If they would be told that he was the Messiah at this point then they would only misunderstand what the job of the messiah was and what the job of the messiah's disciples was. Peter would later show a misunderstanding of the job of the messiah and therefore his job as a disciple of the Messiah. Christ would pull him aside and inform him that the calling of the Messiah was to suffer for the kingdom and likewise Peter's calling would be to suffer to spread the message of the Kingdom. Jesus was wary to quickly associate himself with the title of Messiah/Christ because the public had a faulty understanding of what that even meant. So Jesus would labor for three years to provide the multitudes with a correct perception of what the Messiah actually was. The Messiah was one that would teach about God, love, sacrifice. humility and forgiveness and then suffer a humiliating, sacrificial death so that we might know the forgiveness of sins and the love of God. The secret about the secret is that it had a secret of its own. Jesus sought to make known the secret truth about what it looks like to be the Messiah before he revealed the secret that he was the Messiah.

Models for The Gossips. Gene Pelham

When I was searching for images for The Gossips I came across an item at a Sotheby's auction. It was the original photographs of the Models for The Gossips that Rockwell's right hand man, Gene Pelham, had taken for the artist to use in constructing his painting. Maybe this erases some of the myth of the genius of the artist for some of you. You get to pull back the curtain and see that the wizard of Oz is just a clever man using the advances of technology. The truth is that since the invention of the camera most artists (especially illustrators) use photographs to create (or at least fact check) their paintings. David Hockney  proposes that before the invention of the photograph the Masters used such trick devices as the camera obscura. Both devices (the photographic camera and the camera obscura) are used to make the art faithfully reflect the everyday world around us. That is where we get uncomfortable with the Bible. The literary artworks that we call the four gospels are not just created to document the historical person of Jesus but also to faithfully reflect upon the everyday world around us. When their is a discrepancy between the depictions of Christ's admonitions in Scripture and the lives of contemporary believers it is of no fault of the artist. The error does not lie in the one who was called to write the gospel but rather we who have been called to live the gospel. The gospel is not only spread to the world through our sermons but through our lives. So I ask you: are we spreading misinformation about Christ? In our words? In our deeds? In our lack of love? Can onlookers clearly see Jesus through us? Are we promoters of Gospel of Jesus or perpetuators of the Gossip loosely surrounding Jesus. The second epistle to the Corinthians testifies that we are the actual epistles of Christ. We are a Jesus' living, breathing, walking letters of recommendation. If this is the case then what job would Jesus get with us as his references? Christ is the incarnate Word of God yet he has called us to be word on the street about him. What are we saying about him? Jesus asks us "who do they say that I am?" The answer is probably what we have told them, showed them and neglected to show and tell them. Do they think that Jesus is bigoted? Do they think that Jesus has limits to his love? Do they think that Jesus is the purveyor of Western Imperialism? Do they think that Jesus preached materialism? Do they think that Jesus doesn't care about the sick and the lonely? Because that is what they think about us... because that is what we've told them. If that is your view of the Messiah then please keep that Messiah secret. But let allow me to tell you about my Jesus. Let me tell you about the Christ of Scripture. The Messiah of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The real Messiah is the Jesus who served the stranger as his brother and preached about the faith of the foreigner. The real Messiah reveals that their is nothing that can separate us from the love of God that is found in Christ Jesus. The real Messiah tells us to eschew violence by turning the other cheek. The real Messiah was homeless yet has a big tent that all humanity can dwell in. The real Messiah constantly calls the hurting and downtrodden to come to him for peace. If that is the Messiah that you believe in then spread that Gospel to all in words, action and love. That is the secret that Jesus is calling you to share.

New Testament Word & Image: Romans 11:33-36 & M.C. Escher

Relativity, M.C. Escher

Romans 11:33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

Hand with Reflecting Sphere, M.C. Escher

“For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has become His counselor?”

Drawing Hands, M.C. Escher

“Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?"

Sky and Water, M.C. Escher

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

 

 

 

 

The Design of a Diptych

Paradise and Hell, Hieronymus Bosch

Matthew 15:21-28

They say that there are always two sides to every story. I guess that is why they (whoever "they" are) invented the diptych. What is a diptych? I'm glad that you asked theoretical blog reader! Too put it simply a Diptych as a narrative tool used to show two parts. Mostly diptychs are used as an artistic narrative tool. In the above posted panel painting, Paradise and Hell by the Dutch oddball Hieronymus Bosch, the diptych is used to show the polar difference of the paradise of the Garden of Eden and torment of Hell: an illustration of communion with God and eternal separation from Him. This image is drastic yet effective. It is also part of a historically evolving tradition in presenting images and ideas through the structure of the diptych. Like Bosch's panels the Diptych has also been used as a theological narrative tool. Most times this has been done without the aid of painted illustration. Scripture is full of diptych ideas where reality is depicted as two options: sheep and goats, wide and narrow roads, elect and heathen, Heaven and Hell and Jews and Gentiles. Matthew 15:21-28 is the narrative of one such diptych. One that starts off as odd as Hieronymus Bosch's name or one of his paintings. The diptych in this story is not just to be appreciated at cursory glance, for it is in analyzing the two that one finds the full truth and beauty of the Creator's masterpiece. Just like Bosch's painting it discusses those who share community with God and those who suffer separation from Him.


One of the consular diptychs of Areobindus Dagalaiphus Areobindus

Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.”But He answered her not a word.

As creative as Hieronymus Bosch may have been he was still not responsible for the creation of the diptych. It's history predates him by at least a thousand year, although in another form. The diptych started off as a rather ornate carrying case for government documents... a book cover of sorts, or if you rather an elaborate Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper. The two sides of the diptych were a front and back cover in which the official seal of the Roman consul would be enclosed. The ornamentation of the ivory case was to mirror the importance of the consul's authority. Even though the Canaanite woman in today's verse lived in an earlier period of the Roman Empire than this particular use of diptychs, she still lived in a time under the same power of the Roman Consul. In this she understood authority. She even understood where true authority lay in the Roman province if Judea, the land of the Jews. Even as a Gentile, she recognized Jesus' authority over her life and all of life. She may not have been a Jew but she still understood the concept of authority in its larger context. A consul was the highest elected office that one could hold in the Roman empire, second only to the emperor, all that lived under his jurisdiction would bow to his power. Likewise, the Emperor of the Universe (God) had given Jesus power over all things in His rule. Scripture tells us "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth."
If this was the case then sure demons would submit to his authority, as they had done so many times before. That is exactly what she needed at that moment as a mother. She needed someone that could free her precious daughter from spiritual torment. It is with that need that she called out to Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of David. And Jesus was silent. Jesus didn't move his lips to speak nor his will to act. If you are like me then your soul just exclaimed "He did what? Not my Jesus!" Because this depiction seems far from other depictions of the caring Savior that we have entrusted our life to. So either we can doubt the authenticity of the text or read on and entrusting that it will reveal something deeper about God. Maybe it will answer why God sometimes been silent to some.


Milan Diptych

And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.”
But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

The earlier Christian (and contemporary Eastern Orthodox) uses of the diptych were similar to the Roman consular use. They were the outer casing, like the Milan Diptych above, that were decorated with painted icons or ivory reliefs of the scenes from biblical narratives or the lives of the saints. Within the over was housed a document. It was not the regular paper or cloth scroll document that we are familiar with being housed in a codex. No this document was written in wax, so that it could be constantly revised. The document was a two sided list used for the preparation of the Eucharist (communion). Why would Communion need a list (besides a grocery list as a reminder to buy bread and wine)? Well because these particular Christians celebrated what we call a "closed communion." This means that access to partaking in the wine and the bread is not universal but rather restricted to those of the same belief and in good standing (this is where the idea of churches "being in communion" with each other comes from). So on one side of the document were those who were acceptable to receive the bread and wine and on the other side were the names of those who were forbidden from receiving communion. This is a very serious matter if you are of the thinking that the sacraments are "signs of grace, instituted by Christ...by which divine life is dispensed to us." If you are of that theological persuasion (as these believers were) then to be refused communion is tantamount to being outside of the community of God. The same place that the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 found herself. Jesus explained his silence (and his disciples' aversion) to the woman by sharing that he came to save and shepherd the House of Israel. In other words his ministry was a Jewish thing. Oftentimes theologically traditional Christians are criticized for being exclusive in their theological perception of the identity if God's people. Or to put it in a shorter way, "Who is saved." Well the notion the spiritual elect wasn't recently invented by a band of close minded Texas fundamentalist. Christians inherited it from our Jewish forefathers. The Old Testament concept carries over to the New Testament. So you may know that to be Gentile means to be "non-Jewish." But what does it mean to be Jewish? Jews are a multicultural, multinational group with a myriad of different theological conclusions. Since Jewishness is also an ethnicity their are also people who are fully Jewish and non-religious. As a fellow minority I would never disrespect the worldwide Jewish community by acting as if I, as an outsider, have the knowledge or expertise to define them in totality. Every people have the right to self definition. However like the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 I do know some things about the history of the Jewish people. The one thing that this diverse group shares universally amongst all if it's members is a connection to Abraham. Abraham was the Old Testament character who is called by God into friendship. Genesis records how he follows God's guidance and God promises His fidelity and blessing to Abraham's offspring. As Scripture goes on over several books we come to realize that Abraham's family are the Jewish people, the House of Israel. So over the Old Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures) God continues his friendship to Abraham through his children, grandchildren and so on until they are a nation. Throughout Scripture God's struggle with Israel and His call for them to live in holiness must be understood as one friend reminding the other to act in a way that testifies to their friendship: love. Yet in this epic depiction of the tumultuous yet passionate love between God and Israel, one can get the false impression that God isn't interested in befriending the whole world. But the Hebrew Scriptures themselves tell us that before Abraham was God's friend, Adam was God's sin... and Eve was God's daughter... and the People of the World are the Children of God that He longs to have custody of again. Communion with God is not closed for He longs to share His love with everyone


Jan van Eyck, Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych

Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!”
But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Hieronymus Bosch was not the only, nor the most famous, Dutch painter to approach the use of the diptych. By the time Jan van Eyck painted his famous Crucifixion and Last Judgement the structure of the diptych had both been fully adopted for religious imagery and fully divorced from its book binding function. The narrative purpose of the diptych was now completely operating on the exterior of the panels. Yet the two panels were still connected by a central hinge (which you can see between the two frames on the above posted Jan Van Eyck image). The artist not only shows a connection between Christ's sacrificial death and impending role as universal judge by placing the images near each other, rather he has bound them together with a clasp to show that they are theologically inseparable. The retort of the Canaanite woman highlights that their may just be a hinge between both Jews and Gentiles: a devise that attaches both people to God. When Jesus shares a metaphor with her explaining that He (the Bread of Life) had come to be given to the Children of Israel, she fires back her own metaphor. The Canaanite woman says that even dogs eat the scraps that fall from their Master's table. She declares that even though she is a Gentile she recognizes the God of Israel as her Master. You see the hinge that Jews and Gentiles share is the same thing that children and dogs share: they both rely on the mercy and provision of the One whose house the abide in. This acknowledgement of her reliance on God's mercy and willingness to be His servant is what Jesus admonishes as great faith! It is the same faith that the Gentile, Roman Centurion exhibited earlier in the gospel of Matthew. It is the persistent faith of another Gentile in the book of Genesis named Abram. Abram was a fellow from the modern day country of Iraq, that showed fidelity in his submission to God's will. The book of James says that he "'believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' And he was called the friend of God." Just like Canaanite woman, the Roman Centurion and other Gentiles, his faith is why God communed with him in friendship. If Abram the Gentile sounds a lot like Abraham the Jew it is because they are the same person. St. Paul argues that it was not Abraham's Jewishness that justified him before God (because "Jewishness" didn't exist yet), nor his family lineage (because he started the family that God would love) but it was his faith that made God accept Him...befriend him...love him. Faith is the hinge that connects either side of the diptych to God. Faith is what makes a Jew or a Gentile the spiritual offspring of Abraham. Faith is also what attaches us all to each other as the offspring of God. Though we are different, we are brothers and sisters.      

And then, and then and then and then and then, Takashi Murakami

The contemporary manifestation of the diptych is very different. But that's the beauty of an artistic idea isn't it? The thing that essentially started off as a book cover became a way to address two separate ideas in one image and then someone brought it back to its roots in expressing one idea. That is where the contemporary Japanese Pop Artist Takashi Murakami comes into play. His painting isn't one image repeated on two panels but rather one image that takes two panels to express itself one time. He takes his trademark anime spin on a Mickey Mouse-type character and reinterprets an American import as a Japanese export. Pop culture is an amazing exchange of ideas exported universally that return to us with each quadrant of the universe's reshaping of pop culture: America and British Pop lead to J-Pop, K-Pop, Bollywood and Nollywood. That's also what God's grace does. It is a beautiful and expansive thing that takes two peoples and covers them with the image of God to make them one expression of God's love. All throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, God called out for Gentile believers. This week I did not post images for the Old Testament reading of Isaiah 56:1-7, the Psalms reading of Psalm 67 and the New Testament (Epistle) reading of Romans 11:13-32 because I wanted to share them all here. I place them here because they all share one common theme: God's persistent love for all people (Jews and Gentiles) throughout history. Sometimes we fail to see the whole picture in the old testament. God may have recognized a diptych in the Old Testament but that was more operational than theological. The showing of His might with Israel was always intended to be seen by the nations around them. God's calling of Israel to holiness was always a work of mission to make visible His grace to the nations. When Jesus commissioned disciples after his resurrection, he commanded the Apostles to make disciples of ALL nations. If we only see God's love in a diptych then we are missing the whole picture. In actuality Hieronymus Bosch's Paradise and Hell is not properly a diptych. The two sides are just the wings to a triptych entitled "The Haywain Triptych." He and Jan van Eyck and all the great Dutch painters probably made mare biblical narrative paintings on triptychs and five and six panel altarpieces than they did diptychs... because God's story of love cannot be contained to just one or two groups. In the blood of Christ God has painted every nation, tribe, people group and any other segment of humanity that you can account for with the beauty of His Grace. Jesus saw the whole picture. 

The Haywain Triptych, Hieronymus Bosch,

Rowboats



John Biglin in a Single Scull, Thomas Eakins

Matthew 14:22-33

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.


When I first saw John Biglin in a Single Scull by Thomas Eakins it was my favorite painting for some years... or at least I think it was. You see I first viewed the image in an art textbook long before the Internet was the great resource of art history that it is today. So my only contact with this image was to look at it over and over in the book that I owned. I eventually lost that art book and had to try to recreate the image in my mind. The problem was that I couldn't really remember the name or many of the features. So when the Internet became a reliable source for finding and enjoying art I had a hard time finding this watercolor painting. I just remembered that Thomas Eakins had a picture with a guy in a rowboat, with strong compositional structure that made me happy. Googling "  Thomas Eakins had a picture with a guy in a rowboat, with strong compositional structure that made me happy" doesn't yield helpful results. And when I looked up Thomas Eakins' Wikipedia article it featured another rowboat (or should I say "sculling") picture: Max Schmitt in a single scull. I was fairly sure that this wasn't the one that I fell in love with some years ago. But this led to my discovering that Thomas Eakins did several boating pictures. Some were from a series about the Biglin Brothers, who were famous professional athletes when rowing was one of America's favorite sports (think of a Reconstruction Era NASCAR or a future that the Winklevoss twins long for). Other paintings were about other athletic rowers and some were just about fishermen who used row boats. The Gospels have a similar predicament because one of Jesus' most famous miracles is about fishermen who use a rowboat. Matthew 14:22-33 tells the story of Jesus' fisherman disciples (Peter, Andrew, James and John), along with the other non-fishing disciples, in a rowboat when they see Jesus crossing the water on foot. Like many other stories, this image is repeated several times in other Gospels (Mark 6:45-52 and John 6:15-21) but with different details highlighted. Now I remember dealing with the subject of repetition in the Gospels in my post about John 1:29-34 and Andy Warhol but I think that this post will allow us to do a bit more textual analysis of lining up the Gospel narratives next to each other. In this post I will be more heavy on the sharing of the text of Scripture. Jesus walking on water is one of the most famous stories in the Bible and the several different forms of this story may seem contradictory to some but I think that something different is going on with the differences...something intentional. Why do the Gospel writers repeat stories this miracle? Why did Eakins paint boat scenes so much? I think the answers to both of these questions may be the same.


The Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake-Boat, Thomas Eakins

 Matthew 14:22-33

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.
Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.
But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”
And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”
So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”
And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
Then those who were in the boat came and^[c] worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

"The Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake-Boat" is also known as "Turning the Stake." I prefer this title because it is a title that gets to theme of the picture...or should I say the objective of those pictured. The Biglin Brothers were engaged in a race and the "stake"is the wooden pole in the foreground that denoted the finishing line or a point of progress. If they are "turning the stake" then it denotes the point at which they should turn around and make another lap. Either way the focal point of their journey, the fulfillment of their hope was something outside of the boat and in the water, yet something that they were to pursue. In Matthew 14:22-33 Jesus tells his Disciples to boat to the other side of the water while he dismissed the crowds (after the miracle of feeding the five thousand). As they went off on the water a-rowing, He went off in the mountains a-praying. Even though they were engaged in two different activities, they were simultaneously pursuing the same goal: obeying the will of their Master. Later when the midst of a turbulent sea (lake) they see Jesus walking on the water. When Jesus affirms that he is not a ghost he allowed Peter to come to him (likewise walking on the water). It worked out for him for a little bit, but then Peter lost faith and focus and began to sink. He called out to Jesus to save him and Jesus was faithful to save him. After they both entered the boat the Disciples worshiped Jesus as the Son of God. The message that the writer of Matthew is communicating is the same that Thomas Eakins painted: focal point of their journey, the fulfillment of their hope was something outside of the boat and in the water, yet something that they were to pursue. The Disciples always realized that Jesus was their Master (Rabbi, teacher) but this episode allowed them to understand it in a deeper way. He was the Master of the Sea, he was the Savior of Peter's Life and he was the Son of God. Jesus is the stake that turns around their theological perspective of God and Jesus becomes the finish line in their pursuit of God.  

The Biglin Brothers Racing, Thomas Eakins

Mark 6:45-52

Immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He sent the multitude away. And when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray. Now when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea; and He was alone on the land. Then He saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them. Now about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea, and would have passed them by. And when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him and were troubled. But immediately He talked with them and said to them, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled. For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened.

In the "The Biglin Brothers Racing", Thomas Eakins creates a similar image to "The Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake-Boat." It has the same two main characters at the same point in the midground engaging in the same activity. Yet their is less detail and a different perspective... but somehow the power of this image is not lessened. Mark 6:45-52 has the same main characters at the same point in the Gospel narrative engaging in the same general activity as Matthew 14:22-33. Yet their is less detail and a different perspective... but somehow the power of the story is not lessened. With the painting and the Gospel story we could judge the second ones by what they have missing from the first ones that I shared: Mark's story has no account of Peter walking on the water and it doesn't feature the Disciples worshiping Jesus as the Son of God, while Thomas Eakins' "The Biglin Brothers Racing" has no stake in the foreground). One might also take into account that both of these works are believed to have been created prior to the former two and doubt the historical veracity of Matthew and "The Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake-Boat." Then there is the approach that one not judge these works by what they lack but rather for what they include. Uninterrupted by any major foreground elements "The Biglin Brothers Racing" Eakins has chosen to highlight (literally) those the boatmen. In like fashion, Mark allows us to focus more keenly on the Disciples when he includes "And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled. For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened." This insight into their spiritual ignorance is coupled with their hardship "straining at rowing, for the wind was against them." The storm that they struggled through was not a symbol for a man's occasional hard times and misfortunes but rather Man's hardship in seeking God and pursuing the Law. After all didn't the Lord (Jesus) speak the words that started them on this taskful journey? It highlighted their need for him and surely he was the only one who could lift this burden. Jesus was the one who had criticized the Pharisees for burdening their own disciples with odious tasks and requirements in their reading of the Law, yet they were unwilling to help them lift those burdens. So Jesus stepped into the boat and the wind ceased, the rowing got easier and his Disciples' burdens were lifted. The storm stopped because of Jesus' act of grace. Grace happens when Jesus stepped into Mankind's boat.



Shad Fishing at Gloucester on the Delaware River, Thomas Eakins

Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.
Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them. Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing. So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid. But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.
On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one which His disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but His disciples had gone away alone—  however, other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks— when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?”
Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

"Shad Fishing at Gloucester on the Delaware River" is a totally different type of painting than Eakin's other sculling paintings and the Gospel of John differs about this much from the other three Gospels. But as we learned form the previous Gospel narrative and painting, we should weigh a work by its own merits. It is different because it has something new to tell us: it has a fresh insight to give us. "Shad Fishing at Gloucester on the Delaware River" is not about boating as a sport at all. It is about boating as a way of life... or rather a way to get food. The boatmen are seen by the perspective of the onlookers on the coast who are in the foreground. John 6:15-33 is not just a story about what happened to the disciples and Jesus in the middle of the water but rather what happened to them in relation to those who stayed on the coast and looked on. In the beginning of the story Jesus has just miraculously fed the five thousand, like the other Gospels. He also goes into the mountains to pray and his disciples leave by boat without him, like the other Gospels. All three narratives fill in the "what" they did but John explains the "why" they did it. John reveals that they were escaping the crowds that wanted to make Jesus a king by force. The John similar details of the walking on the water story that Mark 6:45-52 gave. But the end of this scene ends with different details, it is less of a "what" happened and more of a "when." The Gospel of John shares that "immediately the boat was at the land where they were going." With that literary device the Gospel author brings us back to the overall perspective of the story: relating to those on the shore. On the following day Jesus is asked by those from the other shore how he crossed over the water, since they knew that he had not travelled in their own boats or the disciples' boat. Jesus in return questions the motive of their questions. He says that they seek him for miracles that give food (like the feeding of the five thousand) when they should be seeking/laboring the food that gives eternal life. They respond by asking how they can labor for the works of God? I am not sure if they meant good deeds or the power to miraculously create food (miracles being a "work of God). Jesus seems to have taken them to mean the later. He responds that the work of God/labor/miracle that they should pursue is "that you believe in Him whom He sent.” The kingdom of God that we are to pursue is not the blessings or any other "things" of God .The kingdom of God is Jesus. Eternal life is Jesus. God is Jesus. If we believe in Jesus we will have the kingdom of God, eternal life and God Himself. This is the theme of  John 6:15-33 and the whole book of John, since it closes out with these lines "Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name."




Oarsmen on the Schuylkill (The Pennsylvania Barge Four), Thomas Eakins

Wikipedia shares the following comparison of the three gospel accounts under their article about "Jesus walking on water."

Matthew 14:22-34	Mark 6:45-53	John 6:15-21
22 ¶ And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. 23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.	45 ¶ And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. 46 And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray.	15 ¶ When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.
---	47 And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land.	16 And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea, 17 And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them.
24 But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.	48 And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them:	18 And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.
25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.	and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them.	19 So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship:
26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.	49 But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out: 50 For they all saw him, and were troubled.	and they were afraid.
27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.	And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.	20 But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid.
28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. 29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. 31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?	---	---
32 And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.	51 And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased:	21 Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.
and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered. 33 Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God. ¶ 34 And when they were gone over, they came into the land of Gennesaret.	52 For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened. 53 And when they had passed over, they came into the land of Gennesaret, and drew to the shore.	---

 As you can see only three Gospels feature the walking on water miracle and they share different details. There are many such cases like this with other stories in the four Gospels. Yet the "holes" in their stories should not be compared to holes in a boat. They are not a point of weakness but rather a point of strength. Maybe another Thomas Eakins comparison will shed light. Oarsmen on the Schuylkill (The Pennsylvania Barge Four) is a simple yet beautiful painting. The strength lies in the monotony of repeated vertical compositional lines broken up by the power of a single strong diagonal element. That powerful diagonal is four figures (all different) that move one vehicle to one unified location. It is a picture of the Gospel. By "the Gospel" I do not mean one of the four narratives about Jesus, but rather the unifying truth that they all illustrate: that God came to earth in the form of a man to die a sacrificial death for the salvation of Mankind. This Gospel message is the good news that is given to us by four different rowers, with different vantage points and different communities that they are preaching to. Yet in spite of their differences they all are headed to the same theological place: the Kingdom of God is in Christ. It is this Gospel message that saves us from the monotonous daily life of vertical living. Life is not just about life and death, start and stop, the left side of the canvas and the right. No, the Gospel is what interjects a strong diagonal compositional element into our story. The Gospel changes our degree little by little, removing each sin and creating every good work. Eventually those oarsmen that decided to chart a new path, to go diagonal, have rowed them selves into the horizon. They are no longer subject to the confines to the assumptions of the picture frame. That is what God has invited you and me to do? He has not allowed us to miraculously walk on water like Peter but He has promised to get in the boat with us. He has promised to remove the burden of the wind and the waves. He will no longer produce for us miracles of multiplied bread but He will be our bread. Why did the Gospel writers repeat stories this miracle? Why did Eakins paint boat scenes so much? It is only with repeating an image that it becomes normal to us...believable to us...beautiful to us...repeatable to us. The Gospel writers and Eakins depicted the heroic: Disciples, athletes, fishermen. But they did not show us images of the great so that we can stand on the side and admire or critique them but rather so that we can see something of ourselves in them. They inspire us to get in the boat and row. They inspire us to walk with faith in God.