Paradise: Better Homes and Gardens

Fin Garden, Kashan, Iran

Mark 1:10-15

For its Fall 2004 programming the curators at the Iran’s Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art sought to reassess one of the world’s most ancient conceptions of Paradise. They brought together several Iranian Contemporary artists to deconstruct this archetypal idea because Iran actually invented it. In its past glory days when it was known as Persia, Iran exported this notion of tranquility and perfection to front lawns and backyards around the world. It created a living work of art that every culture could possess if they were willing to put up with the weekly maintenance. If you are searching for this Paradise than look no further than the closest Persian Garden. That's the consensus of the United Nations’ educational, scientific and cultural emphasis arm. According to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites, five of the most historically significant places to visit in the world are technically Persian Gardens. These include the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, Humayun's Tomb in New Delhi, India, Shalimar Gardens in Lahore, Pakistan and in Generalife, Granada, Spain. The fifth name on this list is actually named "The Persian Gardens" and is located in Iran. These Persian Gardens are not one site but actually nine diverse sites spread all over the nation of Iran. They were built by various rulers in diverse empires at sundry points throughout the ages. Their fame led to the international esteem of the horticultural art form. They include the Pasargad Persian Garden at Pasargadae, Iran, Chehel Sotoun in Isfahan,Iran, Fin Garden, Kashan, Iran, Eram Garden in Shiraz, Iran, Shazdeh Garden in Mahan, Kerman, Iran, Dolatabad Garden in Yazd, Iran, Abbasabad Garden in Abbasabad, Mazandaran, Iran, Akbarieh Garden in South Khorasan Province, Iran and Pahlevanpour Garden in Mehriz, Iran. The reason that Persian gardens are the picture of Paradise for so many is because the concept of Paradise (even the word itself) comes from the tradition of the Persian garden. This specific approach to farming for aesthetic pleasure was invented by the Persians during the Achaemenid Dynasty. They called it paridaida in Old Persian and paridaiza in Median (the probable language of the Three Wise Men of the Gospels) and it meant “walled around” as in a walled garden. The Persians appreciated the beauty of a garden as an artistic medium due to its appropriation of raw creation and using it for further creative means. This being the case, the four design elements of a Persian garden are four of the foundational elements of Nature: Water, Sky, Earth and Plants. The contemporary world is not alone in its admiration of Persian Gardens. Several writers of the Scriptures found them to be the definition of Paradise. When the ancient Israelites were allowed to return home to Palestine from captivity (by the Persian king Cyrus the Great), they took this concept of Paradise with them. Many Jews had been scribes, advisors and government officials in Persia and had witnessed firsthand the sublime appeal of their gardens. So when they returned to their own homeland and traditions they brought with them a Persian perspective of perfection. These ideas would continue to be woven into the fabric of the Jewish consciousness throughout the following centuries. So much so that when they would read the earlier biblical account of the Garden of Eden they imagined it in a Paradise. When they read about God holding court as a king, they pictured him ruling from a Paradise. This practice lingered on until the lives of the New Testament preachers and writers. When they wrote about the Creation and Fall narrative of the Garden of Eden or discussed the Kingdom of God they did so with this new Persian verbiage. They dreamed of Paradise. They knew that the Paradise that their ancestors viewed in Persia was just a foretaste of the true space of enclosed peace, beauty and tranquility that God promised. We can even smell the scent of it lingering in the background of the story of Jesus' temptation in Mark 1:10-15. If we look at these verses in their full context we will realize that the story occurs in a retake on the Creation and Fall Narratives. It is not a Creation Story but rather the story of the Re-Creation. As the Apostle Paul would later explain, Christ was the New Adam. In this Gospel story Jesus personally engages the ancient garden story. He uses the four elements of Water, Sky, Earth and Plants in the pursuit to reconstruct Paradise. The beauty of salvation is that Christ artistically takes raw creation and uses it for further re-creative means. The Gospel reveals the Paradise of the walled garden of God’s grace.

Water & Sky

Chehel Sotoun, Isfahan,Iran

And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

 

The beginning considerations for a proper Persian Garden incorporate both Sky and Water. The nurturing ingredient of sunlight must be coupled with a sustainable source of hydration. That being the case, the centerpiece of a Persian Garden is always a pool, fountain or some other type of water reservoir. Since it is placed in the aesthetic center it also doubles as a compositional anchor. Without these two elements a Persian paradise cannot be formed. In Genesis, Moses tells us, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." In constructing Paradise in Eden, the Hebrew God began with similar principals as the Persians. In the pre-Edenic phase of Creation God’s Spirit loomed over the abyss. Within the Essence of the Creator their lay not only a desire to create but a longing to create that which is “good.” In the beginning of the Gospels the writer of Mark depicts the New Creation’s genesis emerging from the water. This New Creation was a rebirth of the Old Creation. It arose from the Jordan River and met with God’s Spirit as it descended from the Heavens. The Spirit of God no longer hovered above humanity’s haven but penetrated the populace through the Person of Christ Jesus. And just as in the book of Moses, there spoke a voice from Heaven. Once again it found pleasure and goodness. It is the same goodness that we find in Jesus, the paradisiacal dwelling place of Divinity.

Earth

Qavam House, Eram Garden, Shiraz, Iran 

Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.

The next foundational element to constructing a Persian Garden is earth. At its heart the garden is an architectural enterprise. Most other engineering feats toil in the earth to remove it and replace it with a foundation of stone, steel or wood. The horticultural architecture of gardening tills the earth to use it as a building material. It is an artistic medium unlike any other for it does only give form (as in earthenware ceramics) but in gardening it gives life. Earth not only gives stability to gardening’s foundation but it as soil it transfers nutrients to every stem that arises like a skyscraper from its substructure. In the Creation Narrative we are told the dust of the earth was also the source material for the creation of Mankind. Moses wrote, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.” We know from personal observations that when men die they eventually return to being dust and future generations of gardeners create beautiful Persian Gardens from the ashes of those who gardened before them. It is what we call the circle of life and it’s a beautiful thing. Yet in the story that teaches us about the beginning of the circle of life we also learn about the source of the circle of death. The ancestral inhabitants of Eden (a gardener named Adam and his wife Eve) succumb to the wiles of Satan. Due to their submission to temptation God exiles them from His Paradise. They no longer have access to the enclosed garden, the glorious Tree of Life carefully planted in the middle or its fragrant fruit of eternal life. Access to this Paradise is guarded by an angel (the messenger of God).  Their punishment was passed along to their children and the wild beasts that they once were called to care for. The Gospel of Mark picks up on the imagery of the Creation and Fall narrative and recognizes when it reappears in Jesus’ own temptation. For as the New Adam he was responsible for ushering in the age of a New Earth (and a New Heaven). All of the old things were to pass away. This New Earth would be forged from the trials and tribulations of a man that was the offspring of the original man that was formed from the dust earth. Christ was the beginning of the new humanity. When Christ reversed the curse of Adam by resisting Satan’s temptation he rewrote the fate of Mankind. Christ created a new humanity that is not driven by its own sinful urges to capture God’s authority but rather a humanity that is driven by the Holy Spirit to capture God’s heart through humility and submission. When Christ created a new narrative for Mankind he also determined a new destiny for all of Creation. Christ was in the wilderness with the wild beasts and prefigured the day when all of God’s creation can sit together in the peace of God’s original intention. As the prophet Isaiah testified “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” The promise of God is the promise of peace between all. We even see that after conquering the temptation of sin, the Angels (that once were used to guard Mankind away from the fruit of eternal life) come and serve Christ (the bread of Life). They do this as always in their role as he messengers of God. The message of God is that because of Jesus there is once again peace in Paradise.

Plants

Dolat Abad Garden, Yazd, Iran

Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

The final necessary ingredient to a Persian Garden is plant life. Plants are what keep a lush Persian Garden from devolving into a Japanese rock garden. Unlike their Zen counterparts Persian Gardens are not just a place for meditation and reflection but rather for growth. That is component that plant life brings to a garden. The other elements may nurture and sustain life through air, sunlight, water and the nutrients of soil, but plants are the actual life itself. Plants are the manifestation of the gardener’s intention. A gardener orchestrates all of the architectural details of a garden so that it will facilitate the creation of life. The whole of Scripture after the Creation and Fall narratives of Genesis are the story of life without Life. The Bible discusses Sin so much because documenting its various manifestations is a means of illustration the absence of God’s Spirit. The implantation of God’s Spirit into the life of Man is the change agent that creates life in its fullest form. It is Eternal Life. It is life-giving life. It is a communion with the Creator to create a garden. That is what Christ’s Kingdom is. That is what the Gospel announces. It is an appeal to turn away (or repent) from anything that hinders you finding the fullness of life in God. It is an invitation to believe that you were created to help create more beauty, grace and love. It is an chance to grow. In Adam, Mankind was created to be gardeners. God invites you to share in the labor of Paradise.

Wilderness

Tomb of Cyrus the Great in Pasargadae, Fars Province, Iran

All of the great Persian Gardens of the world can trace their creative lineage to the legendary gardens once built by Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae. Yet a modern day visitor to this site would discover

that it is presently a garden in name only. It is a barren wasteland that hoses both the tomb of Cyrus the Great and the aspirations of bygone gardeners. It once flourished with trees, flowers and grasses, neatly designed into geometric excellence. However now what once was a garden has now become a wilderness. Interestingly enough the Old Testament and the parables of Jesus are filled with images of gardens in disarray. We are told of vineyards that no longer produce, vinedressers that rebel against the landlord and gardens whose tower and walls have been broken down and trampled asunder. This would be anathema to the aesthetics of the Persian Garden designers. The Paradise of a garden is founded on the principal of protective seclusion. The intimate privacy of a walled garden is the source of its strength in fighting off erosion and other foes hat would consume the fruit of the gardener’s horticultural toil. After his baptism Jesus found himself in a literal and theological wilderness. It was the same wilderness that Israel continually found itself in. It is the same wilderness that we find ourselves in. It is the same wilderness that all of Creation has found itself in since the Fall. Like Pasargadae it was a wilderness that ended with only a King's tomb. But unlike Cyrus the Great, Christ Jesus was a king who did not stay in his tomb. When Jesus looked around that wilderness he didn’t get lost in the despair of the past but pondered the destiny that would unfold with the promise of the present. Jesus dug his nail pierced hands deep in the earth and rediscovered the foundation that the Creator of this garden had laid. He raised its tower once again and gathered the stones together to rebuild its gate. Jesus dug the trenches that would once again flow with the River of Life. Jesus delved his reach below the soil of sin to unearth a recreated man and a woman fashioned in his own image. Jesus rebuilt God’s Paradise in his own sweat, his own tears and through his own blood.

Tomb of Cyrus the Great under reconstruction, Fars Province, Iran

Medical Illustration

Leonardo Da Vinci, Anatomy of human body

Mark 1:40-45
Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean”...

The Renaissance Master Leonardo da Vinci was always universally recognized as a genius even when he was not fully understood. He was obviously a master painter and sculptor. We can gather that assessment by viewing his finished artworks housed churches, museums and monasteries all over the world. But what about his unfinished work? What about his sketches, ideas, musings and writings? If we were to view those we would get a better vantage point into how Leonardo's brain operated without restraints, censors and need for commission. Luckily we do possess Leonardo's notebooks. They reveal Leonardo to be polymath, having expertise and visionary insight into such diverse subjects as painting, sculpture, architecture, music, mathematics, engineering, weapon and mechanical design, anatomy, geology, cartography and botany. Leonardo's genius sprouted from the fertile soil of a mind that asked questions. After asking questions he asked more questions. Leonardo Da Vinci was the Scientific Method personified. Leonardo was always studying, investigating and documenting the world around him... and the one within him. In the pursuit to understand and illustrate the human being, he sought to understand the workings within the human body. Da Vinci documented the skeletal structure that houses the mind, the muscles and their movement, the womb with internal fetal development and the organ of the heart. Leonardo dissected, analyzed and documented the details of cadavers and in doing so furthered the discipline that we now know as Medical Illustration. The writer of the Gospel of Mark also uses medical illustrations. When he tells the story of Jesus' healing of the leper he is using an illustrative tool that he has been building throughout the course of the book. Mark documents the skeletal structure of Jesus ministry (before the crucifixion) as being composed of two major parts: preaching and healing. Jesus healed people's physical ailments and preached about their spiritual ailments. Without oversimplifying the matter the reader can take notice that there is a parallel between the two. Yet the two parts are not separated by time; there is not a point when Jesus only practices a "healing ministry" and stops to begin his "preaching ministry." The two occur in the same stories throughout his ministry. If it were not already evident, Mark frames it to make it emphatic: these two halves were different views of the same thing. The Gospel is the good news that God is interested in redeeming the whole man. When Mark shows Jesus healing a person's condition it is to highlight the parallel antidote that he provides for their spiritual condition. So when Jesus cleansed the man of the all-consuming physical disease of Leprosy it was a medical illustration of Christ's ability to cleanse us all from the all-consuming spiritual disease of Sin. 

Mind

Leonardo Da Vinci, Study for the Sforza Monument

...Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed...

The treatment and perception of Leprosy has changed a lot since Jesus' time. First of all, we have 

Leonardo Da Vinci, View of a Skull

another name for it. Doctors now call it Hansen's disease. Unlike the ancients, we no longer look at Leprosy as fundamentally being a skin disease. Sure it heavily involves the skin and the external body but its original point of impact is something far more internal. Leprosy is a disease that ends with the skin but starts with the mind. By the mind I don't just mean the brain housed in the skull but rather the full reach of the brain that stretches throughout the body: the nervous system. Leprosy starts with an infection caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. So when Jesus exerted his will to cleanse the leper he was both reversing the ravaging affects on his epidermis and also refreshing the nervous system that spread the infection. Those looking at this leper's external body would see that his skin had been cleansed but those studying his internal body would also discover that his mind had been renewed. But as an evangelist Mark isn't only concerned about this leper's physical mind because the Gospel isn't just concerned with our physical mind. Like the Apostle Paul, Mark is concerned with the spiritual condition of the leper's mind. Mark alludes to Jesus' concern cleansing the ailment that afflicts the leper's mind. Like Leprosy, Sin is a disease that afflicts the mind. Paul further illuminates Jesus' means of spiritual healing in his letter to the Romans when he states, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed bythe renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is thatgood and acceptable and perfect will of God." When Christ heals us of our sin he starts with our mind. 

Muscle

Leonardo Da Vinci, sketches of muscles and skeletons

...And He strictly warned him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them”...

Leprosy is a disease of muscle and movement. It restricts muscles and movement by cutting off muscles and movement. At least it was that way in Jesus' time. The ancients viewed Leprosy as a disease that eventually led to fingers, noses and other members and muscle structures falling off. 

Leonardo Da Vinci,
Studies of the Arm showing the
Movements made by the Biceps

They understood that Leprosy was a communicable disease so they set up various societal rules and structures to restrict the spread of the disease by restricting the movement of the infected. In the Torah (Leviticus)we find Moses and Aaron sharing Divine Law concerning the quarantine of lepers. For hundreds of years lepers were banished to the outskirts of Jewish cities. They were also commanded to dress the part and warn travelers of their infected status from afar off. These Levitical commands did not end in excluding the infected but rather they also incorporated their return to society if by chance they were healed. Once the required rituals were performed with the priests and the community's fear of losing limbs was assuaged, the former leper could be restored as a member of society. We now understand that Leprosy does not necessarily make one's limbs fall off. Leprosy moves from the nervous system and numbs regions of the epidermis. The leper may injure the same body part several times and not feel any pain. The result us that body parts are eventually worn away 
or break off from repeated damage. Like Leprosy, Sin  is a disease that spreads to all of the members of our body and affects our movement. Sin us both contagious and eventually numbing to the affects if sin. After Jesus tends to the leper's physical affliction he brings his spiritual 

Leonardo da Vinci, Anatomical drawing of a hand

health to the forefront by asking him to observe the commandments. Christ asks the leper to do what was required of him in the Law for him to be readmitted into society. He wants the whole community to know that this man has dealt with the contagious condition that affected everyone. Then Jesus follows it with a command of his own. The command that Jesus gives is an instance if what we term "the Messianic Secret." We will go into explaining that a little later, but so far there are several points in thus narrative that have parallel spiritual applications. As Christians we follow the precedent of ancient Judaism in its following of the Torah and other Hebrew Scriptures (which we call the Old Testament). To these we add the thoughts if Jesus and his initial followers the Apostles (which we call the New Testament). Yet these cannot be fully seen as a part one and part two or a replacement of something passé. Rather both must be seen as complimentary: Jesus is the full revelation of the God testified to in the Old Testament. So when Jesus heals the leper he requires that he do what God said in the Old Testament. Jesus' healing was the missing element in the Old Testament ritual. Christ's touch was the link between the command that the leper be placed outside of society and the practices for his eventual return to society. Similarly, when we sin we affect more than ourselves. We sin against God and more often than not we affect those around us. When we learn to deal with and abstain from our struggles we must remember that we not only have to be reconnected to God but also those that we have sinned against. We must seek their forgiveness. We must restore our relationships. At all points Jesus is the link that brings us from rejection in our relationships to reconnection. When Christ heals us of our sin it allows to move closer to God. 

Womb



Leonardo Da Vinci, Study of a Womb

...However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter...

Since it is caused by bacteria, Leprosy is highly contagious especially with skin to skin contact? But what about in the womb? Can mothers with Leprosy spread the disease to their children? TheCenters for Disease Control asked this very question in 2013. 

Views of a Fetus in the Womb

Working from research gathered from the United Nation's World Health Organization, they determined that a fetus cannot contract leprosy while in the womb; however without preventative treatment the child can contract Leprosy after birth from skin to skin contact with the mother. This is where the parallels between the spiritual and physical conditions fall apart. Sin actually is a genetic disease that we are predisposed to from birth. As King David shared in the Psalms, we are born with Sin. It is the Original Sin that we inherit from the forefathers of our human species. Even if we were quarantined from our sinful parents, the inclination to sin still flows through our spiritual veins. Sadly this proclivity to disobey God continues beyond the point where we are saved. Christ took the punishment for our sin and endowed us with the Holy Spirit but at the end of the day following Jesus is summed up in willfully and consistently following Jesus. Following Jesus means doing what he says. So after the former leper was physically healed by Jesus he followed it by displaying his need for spiritual healing.  Jesus commanded him to not speak of the healing and he disobeyed. He went from endangering the community by spreading Leprosy to endangering Jesus by spreading his fame. Normally we might look at this as a good thing: he was an accidental evangelist. But Jesus wanted obedience more than he wanted popularity. Sometimes I fear that our zeal for evangelism and church growth may come at the expense of acutely listening to and comprehending Jesus' message. When we don't listen to what Jesus says then we won't know what Jesus wants and we will break the very commandments of the one that we think that we are representing. The leper only required a onetime encounter with Jesus to rid him of his bodily sickness but his soul sickness would require a daily treatment. It would require a relationship with Jesus. Jesus heals us from the deteriorative punishment of sin and allows us to return to community with God but this balm is fully active to treating flare ups when we daily seek the counsel of the Holy Spirit through the daily application of God's Word. When Jesus heals of our sin it is a long-term process of a lifelong condition.

Heart


Leonardo Da Vinci, Illustration of a heart

...so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places; and they came to Him from every direction.

It is said that before Leonardo Da Vinci dissected, studied and illustrated the human heart it was popularly thought two only have two chambers. We now know that there are four. Being that I am not a cardiac specialist or medical history expert I cannot fully confirm this. I just heard a guy that was smarter than me say it on a professionally made video. It is said that Leonardo made a cast of an animal heart and ran a medium through it that hardened. With the resulting model he was able to create glass replica of the heart (with the exact same openings and chambers as the real one). From here he ran an experiment where he mixed water with grass seed and watched as it flowed through the components of the glass heart. The see through glass and translucent water allowed him to see the path of the visible grass seed. Thereby Da Vinci was able to study the movement of blood, see the composition of cardiac chambers and understand the nature if the human heart. I have discussed Leprosy's detrimental effects on the mind/nervous system, muscles/external organs and the danger that it poses to offspring of its victims. In addition to these Leprosy attacks the respiratory system and eyes. All of this is in addition to the obvious damage it does to the skin. However in all of my reading I have not discovered any affect that it has on the heart. Yet Jesus' healing of the leper involved repairs to his heart. Jesus' spiritual healing always involves the heart. Sin is a disease that affects the heart. By heart I do not mean the literal, central organ that controls the flow of blood but the metaphorical, spiritual mechanism that controls the flow of love. Sin shows our love for God and others. Like Leonardo Da Vinci, Jesus could understand the human heart because he could see inside of it. He knew the leper's heart and he knows our heart because he also has a heart. Even before Jesus took physical form, God the Son had a heart. Deep within the core of the Eternal God there lies love… so much so that the Apostle John claimed that "God is love." Sin not only affects our hearts but it affects God's heart. The separation between God and Mankind called Sin so grieved Christ that he was willing to die to remove it. Jesus took our place and relieved the wrath due to all sinners... though he was without sin. He lovingly took our plague and healed us. That is the end of the story of Jesus and the leper.  Jesus takes the leper's place on the outskirts of town as an outcast. In the beginning of story the leper stood outside of the town for fear that his sickness would kill those that he would encounter. In the end the leper's telling of Jesus' miracles (after he was commanded not to do so by Jesus) forces Jesus to live in the outskirts as an outcast due to the danger of being killed by any religious authorities that he might encounter.  That is the story of the leper, you, me and all of those who are saved by the blood of Christ. We are saved by a hardship that was placed upon him. We are saved by him taking the punishment of our disobedience. When Jesus healed from Sin it was through his living, self sacrifice. 

Campaign News



Cornell Capa with Robert Capa

Mark 1:29-39

If you have been following the News this week then you know that it is filled with bad news. Specifically it has been filled with bad news concerning a certain newscaster. The lead anchor of NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams, is currently embroiled in a controversy surrounding him allegedly fudging a few of the details of his reporting adventures in the Second Iraq War. The scandal of this possible lie is so large because it does not only cause viewing audiences question the authenticity of his story but also the veracity of his reporting in general. The news profession relies on factualness. Factualness relies on honesty and a commitment to authenticating details. That being the case, many in professional journalism and the amateurs of the blogosphere have taken to inspecting the photo record to verify Brian William's reporting. This fact checking practice has been the standard for well over a century. Since the early days of photography, Photojournalism has been means by which we decide if we will extend our trust to any Journalism. In the words of the modern day social media mantra "Pics or it didn't happen." Over the years there have been many great names to grace this profession but the greatest of these came from one family: The Capa Brothers. Robert Capa was the older and more famous brother who sacrificed his life in dedication to being known as the greatest living war photographer. He also created Magnum, a trailblazing company composed of jet-setting, photojournalists who were famed for possessing lives worthy of a Hemingway novel (and yes, they also were personal friends with Ernest Hemingway). Cornell Capa was the younger brother who followed in the footsteps of his great brother and rounded out the staff of Magnum. The difference between the two siblings is that Cornell Capa wasn't known primarily for covering wars but he was known for covering other types of campaigns. The documentation of an extended campaign through snapshots of its daily activities is also where we find the writer of Mark's Gospel. This book covers Jesus from the vantage point of a series of operations organized to reach an intended objective. In Jesus Christ, God was enacting an intentional, methodical and measurable campaign to achieve His aims. The question is: what is God's plan? I believe that we can understand them through these pictures of the life of Jesus in Mark 1:29-39.

Falling Soldier, Robert Capa/Magnum Photos

Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once. So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her. And she served them...

Robert Capa's life was immersed on war and conflict yet he found spaces for love. So much so that PBS labeled its documentary biopic about his life "In Love and War." And 

D-Day, Robert Capa

by "love" I partially mean what theologians would term "hanky panky"... But I also mean the type of lifelong love that only comes in family. Even the breaks that he took for engaging in famed romances or photographing celebrities were respites taken due the conflicts of the Cold War. Robert Capa was the picture of James Bond if James Bond ever took up the business of taking pictures. Like a spy he even had a fake name. He was born Endre Friedman, but eventually

US Marines landing on Omaha Beach, Robert Capa

the Hungarian Jewish refugee from the Nazis would take on the fictional persona of a famous American photographer named "Robert Capa."  In documenting war campaigns like the Spanish Civil War, the Allied invasion of Normandy on World War II, the Six Day War in Israel and finally the French Indochina War in Vietnam Robert Capa pictured the face of suffering and the fruit of violence. Yet on all of these images it becomes evident that he is not glorifying war but rather

Robert Capa,1954 INDOCHINA

fighting a war against war with his camera. The 

God of the Old Testament is often pictured as a God of war. Through the armies of Israel, plagues and pestilence he exerts His wrath upon the Earth. But that's a very limited view of God isn't it. Right under the nose of those who do a cursory glance of the Old Testament, this same God is exerting love, mercy and forgiveness far more than wrath. And those two sides continue to converge in the person of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Jesus is the full revelation of God. Mark and the other three Synoptic Gospels all present the story of Jesus healing Peter's mother-in-law. In viewing it we must understand it in context of the surrounding events. Jesus has just left the temple where he castes out a demon and follows it with casting out sickness. Jesus is engaging in a war campaign. His warpath is not set against men and women but against spiritual darkness, sickness, sin, violence and hate. Jesus is waging war with the weapons of love.

Supporters of Robert Kennedy in upstate New York during his 1964 Senate campaign. Cornell Capa

...At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him...

Cornell Capa is probably best known for his documentation of another pair of brothers. 

Cornell Capa, New York City, October 19, 1960

These were the political campaigns of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. Both of these were presidential campaigns but Cornell Capa's intimate portraits of the day to day rituals make us see this familiar phenomenon with new eyes. These black and whites evoke that a presidential campaign is about being pictured as the president. They are created to instill confidence in the voting public by showing him embodying the qualities that they will vote for in a new president. Jesus is pictured as holding court and exercising his government. He judges demons, sickness and every other evil that afflicts all of God creatures. This picture in the Gospels is a prefiguring of his future role in Glory, where he will judge the works of sin, shame and anything opposed the Sovereign God's love. Jesus is engaging in a political campaign. But it is not one where you will choose whether or not he is king. It is one where you discover that he is the king who us choosing you. John F. Kennedy was shown as

Robert Kennedy Presidential Campaign, Cornell Capa

intelligent, witty and cosmopolitan while Robert Kennedy was depicted as a compassionate seeker of justice and class equality. They could be seen as a future American president because they were already carrying themselves as the American president. Mark depicts Jesus as engaging in a political campaign. He was not running for any position because he was already the reigning King of Heaven and Earth. Yet his campaign was an attempt to convince the public of the reality of his kingdom. 

 

 

Russian Orthodox Monks, Zagorsk, 1958, Cornell Capa

...Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”

But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.”

And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons.

Cornell Capa's coverage of campaigns was not restricted to one's that are willfully chosen. All

Russian Orthodox, Cornell Capa

campaigns are not ones in pursuit if victory. Some campaigns are only designed to defeat others...to destroy them. Some campaigns are oppressive punishments that are placed on a populace from an outside force. Such was the case with Cornell Capa's coverage of the Russian Orthodox oppression by the Soviet government. The USSR was not only a secular state but a anti-religious state. Their communist rulers acted as atheistic fundamentalist in their repression of the religious practices of the Russian people. In the end the Russian Orthodox Church prevailed while the USSR crumbled. The Soviet government may hay ruled the Russian p

Russian Orthodox Church, Cornell Capa

eople's land but the Church represented the one who ruled their hearts. This ruler, Jesus Christ, was himself familiar with being the victim of a religious oppression campaign. That is one of the background factors at play in Mark 1:29-39. While Jesus moves from town to town engaged in God's campaign he encounters the campaign of the Pharisees and religious authorities. Jesus' traveling mission must be seen in light if it's impending political oppression and his eventual execution. Every campaign, be it military, political or religious meets a counter-campaign. These reactionary forces may be ruthless and persistent but in the end they will not prove victorious if they fight against love, if they fight against destiny, if they fight against God. So Jesus continued in his preaching throughout Palestine even with his persecution and martyrdom in site. He could not be distracted by the ups and downs of individual battles for his sights were set on winning the overall war. Jesus suffered from the oppressive campaign of intolerance and oppression. He knows the suffering of every martyr, victim of violence and political prisoner on a personal level. Yet Jesus also knows the truth that darkness only lasts through the night. Jesus is engaging in a campaign to bring back the light through the power if the rising Son of God

Pablo Picasso and son, 1948, Robert Capa

After this week of bad news comes the revelation of the Good News. It shines like the image of artist Pablo Picasso taken by Robert Capa in 1948. It is the image of an aged creator sharing the joy for life with his child. It is analogous with the vision that the Gospel shares with us. That of a eternal Creator sharing the joy of eternal life with his children. This good news is a look into the future after all of the campaigns are done. It is the good news that God is fighting for love. It is the good news that God rules through mercy. It is the good news that God's goodness outlives every evil. It is the good news that throughout all of history God has been enacting an intentional, methodical and measurable campaign to achieve to bring you be reunited with His children. This good news about God is found in the picture of Jesus. This Good News is the Gospel.