Two Rabbis

Isidor Kaufmann, Rosh Hashanah – The New Year

The beautiful thing about the Internet (besides the phenomenon of RickRolling, of course) is that every now and then I encounter amazing art that was previously unknown to me. That was happened this week when I stumbled upon Artinconnu.com and the art of Isidor Kaufmann. Artinconnu.com is an artblog that focuses on artists that have been lost to history. But the more that I researched Isidor Kaufmann I discovered that he wasn't lost to history at all. He was just lost to a majority of the art viewing population. Isidor Kaufmann definitely has a following on and offline. There are auctions that are held just for Isidor Kaufmann artwork. Then there are auctions for artwork that could be Isidor Kaufmann or just look a lot like Isidor Kaufmann's paintings. This late 19th century Austro-Hungarian oil painter has a key demographic that keeps interest in his paintings alive and owning his work desirable. That small demographic of the populace is the same group that he spent his career painting portraits of. It is also the religious and ethnic group that he belonged to: Eastern European, Orthodox Jews. Kaufmann was the go-to-guy for painting all sorts of Judaica but his specialty was beautifully rendered depictions of rabbis. Kaufmann's portraits are peculiar in their intimacy because they take the vantage point of an insider. They are painted by the caring hands of a brother. The multicolored strokes that gathered to produce these portraits were composed by a brush that loved the individual beauty of each sitting rabbi. This artist knew that no two rabbis are the same. Judaism is a movement of diversity with a myriad of rabbinical opinions. It has been that way since the foundation of the Rabbinic period. Rabbinic Judaism is not just an era but rather a movement that the majority of contemporary Judaism finds itself within. The diversity of the Rabbinic Tradition goes back to its foundational days with opposing views like the School of Hillel and the School of Shammai. Hillel and Shammai were both what we know as Pharisees. The generations of scribes and Pharisees right before the ones we find in the New Testament basically invented the institutions of the rabbinate and the synagogue. So when we encounter stories of Jesus and the Pharisees, we are reading about the generation (or two) after Hillel and Shammai. The opposition between Jesus and his disciples and the Pharisees and their disciples is another case of two opposing rabbinical schools. In today's Liturgical readings there are actually two Gospel readings to choose from. They both deal with two very different interactions between Jesus and the Pharisees. So just to make things complicated today's post will not only focus on one of these readings but both of them. To help us understand their significance, we will also squeeze a Talmudic story about Hillel in the middle. Today we will share in three stories that illuminate the paintings of Isidor Kaufmann and illustrate the world of Jesus. 

Isidor Kaufmann, Portrait of a rabbi wearing a kittel and tallith

First we start off with a story from the New Testament Gospels about Rabbi Jesus and his ongoing debate between other Pharisaic rabbis concerning his continual breaking of the Sabbath to perform healing miracles. It is a debate between two rabbinical schools (the disciples of Jesus and the disciples of the Pharisees).

John 9:1-41

Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him,“Go, wash in the pool of Siloam”(which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.

Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, “Is not this he who sat and begged?”

Some said, “This is he.” Others said, “He is like him.”

He said, “I am he.”

Therefore they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?”

He answered and said, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me,‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight.”

Then they said to him, “Where is He?”

He said, “I do not know.”

They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”

Isidor Kaufmann, Rabbi with prayer shawl.

Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.”Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.They said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?”He said, “He is a prophet.”But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.” His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.”He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”Then they said to him again, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?”He answered them, “I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”Then they reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from.”The man answered and said to them, “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.”They answered and said to him, “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out.Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?”And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.”Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him.And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?”Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.

Isidor Kaufmann, Portrait of a Rabbi 

Next we will read a story from the The Talmud (The Yerushalmi or Jerusalem Version) surrounding one of the greatest rabbis in Judaism history, Hillel. He was one of the early sages of the Pharisees and therefore a forefather of the Rabbinic Judaism. He died around the time that Jesus was born and was fortunate enough to escape Herod the Great's massacre of rabbis and religious leaders by being out of the country (just like the infant Jesus escaped Herod's slaughter of newborns by a similar means), When he became the leader of the Sanhedrin council (and of Jerusalem, through the office of the Nasi) Hillel was known for his debates with his polar opposite, Rabbi Shammai (and his disciples, The House of Hillel, with Shammai's disciples, The House of Shammai). The following story tells how Hillel was chosen to be Nasi after advising the Sanhedrin on whether they should break the Sabbath to perform the Passover sacrifice.

Tosefta Pesachim 4:13–14 (The Talmud)

Once the fourteenth [day of Nisan] fell on the Sabbath, and they did not know whether the Passover supersedes the Sabbath or not. They said, "There is here a certain Babylonian named Hillel, who served Shemaya and Avtalion. He knows whether the Passover supersedes the Sabbath or not. Perhaps something good will come from him."
They sent and called for him. They said to him: Have you ever heard that when the fourteenth falls on the Sabbath whether it supersedes the Sabbath or not?

Isidor Kaufmann | Portrait of a Man with Streimel

He said to them, "Do we have but one Passover alone throughout the whole year that supersedes the Sabbath? Do not many Passovers throughout the year supersede the Sabbath?
Some tannaim teach "one hundred" [Passovers]. Some tannaim teach "two hundred." Some tannaim teach "three hundred."
They said, "Thus we thought that something good would come from you."
He started to expound [the law] for them based on a heqesh [topical analogy], a qal va-homer [inference], and a gezeira shava.
[1] "From a heqesh [topical analogy]: Since the regular sacrifice is a communal sacrifice that supersedes the Sabbath, so too the Passover is a communal sacrifice that supersedes the Sabbath.
[2] "From a qal va-homer: If the regular sacrifice, for which one is not subject [to the punishment of] excision, supersedes the Sabbath, then the Passover, for which one is [subject to the punishment] of excision,—is it not logical that it supersede the Sabbath?
[3] "From a gezeira shava: Just as the regular sacrifice, in connection with which it says At its appointed time (Num. 28:2), supersedes the Sabbath, so too the Passover, in connection with which it says At its appointed time (Num. 9:3), supersedes the Sabbath.

Isidor Kaufmann, The Rabbi

They said to him, "Did we think that something good would come from a Babylonian?
"The heqesh [topical analogy] that you stated can be refuted: What you say of the regular sacrifice, which has a limit [of two per day], you cannot say of [=apply to] the Passover, which has no limit [in the number that may be offered].
"The qal va-homer that you stated can be refuted: What you say of the regular sacrifice, which is of the Most Holy [class of] sacrifices, you cannot say of the Passover, which is of the Lesser Holy sacrifices.
"The gezeira shava that you stated—one may not create a gezeira shava from his own study [but only if he received it as a tradition from his masters]. ..."
Even though he [Hillel] was sitting and expounding for them the whole day, they did not accept it [the ruling] from him until he said to them, "May [harm] befall me if I did not learn thus from Shemaya and Avtalion." As soon as they heard that from him, they rose and appointed him nasi over them.
As soon as they appointed him nasi over them he began to rebuke them with words saying, "What caused your need for this Babylonian [=me]? Is it not that you did not serve the two great men of the world, Shemaya and Avtalion, who were dwelling with you?"
As soon as he rebuked them with words the law was concealed from him.
They said to him, "What will we do for the people—they did not bring their knives?"
He said to them, "This law I heard and forgot. But leave Israel be. If they are not prophets, they are the sons of prophets."
Immediately, he whose Passover was a lamb stuck it [the knife] in its hair. He whose Passover was a kid tied it between its horns. It turned out that their Passovers brought their knives with them.
As soon as he saw the event, he remembered the law. He said, "Thus I learned from Shemaya and Avtalion. 

Isidor Kaufmann, Untitled 

Our final story is also from the New Testament Gospels. Once again it is a story of two rabbis from opposing schools (Jesus and the Pharisees). The Pharisee, Rabbi Nicodemus comes to Rabbi Jesus acknowledging that his miracles (many that had broken the Sabbath) testified to the Divine source of his teaching. This leads to Jesus revealing what he believed the essence of religion to be. Jesus shares his thoughts on what God does for Mankind and what Mankind must do for God. In the following story two rabbis discuss how God chose to show Himself in Scripture past and our present lives.

John 3:1-21

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Isidor Kaufmann, Young Rabbi from N

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Reading Rabbi in the Courts of the Temple, Isidor Kaufmann

In the gospels of Jesus Christ, the talmudim of the ancient Sages and the paintings Isidor Kaufmann we encounter a perspective rarely appreciated by a mass, contemporary audience. Some would say that it has been lost to history. But it has been there throughout the ages waiting to be discovered by spiritual seekers. It waits for seekers like the man blind from birth who grow tired of stumbling through the spiritual darkness. Those who long for God to act in a mighty and healing way, even if it were on the Sabbath. It waits for seekers like Hillel who spend their days and nights diligently searching the Scriptures in search of answers. Those who understand that applying God's word often calls for sacrifice. It waits for seekers like Nicodemus who pursue Jesus Christ as the source of Godly wisdom. Those who discover that God's Spirit is making a new creation through the death of God the Son. As we discovered in Isidor Kaufmann's masterful oil paintings, no two rabbis are the same. The strength of the Rabbinic tradition is the wisdom that emerges from study, debate and discussion. Yet nearly two thousand years ago two rabbis within this tradition but from differing schools of thought came away from a late night conversation believing the same thing. After that evening both Rabbi Jesus and Rabbi Nicodemus understood that the Sabbath and all religious obligations had been made to enhance Mankind's life and not to restrict it. Both rabbis believed that the Messiah had not come to judge Mankind but to save it from judgment. Both understood that this Messiah was Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. So the challenge to us, the readers and viewers, is to read, study, debate, discuss and decide if we too have discovered this long lost treasure that few find. 

Yard Display

Bob Marley mural at Tuff Gong studios, by Jonathan Lamb, LK MNDD and Michael Ortiz

John 2:13-25

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business... 



"I remember when a we used to sit

In a government yard in Trenchtown."

These words are how the Reggae musician Bob Marley introduced the first and second verses on "No Woman, No Cry." That hit record was how a worldwide audience was introduced to Bob Marley back in 1974. The popularity of Marley also introduced Reggae music to a much broader audience that was slowly loosing its appetite for the sleek, synthetic sounds of Disco and longed for something more earthy, exotic and authentic to appease their auditory palates. Along with its underlying

Tuff Gong studios, the Reggae record label that
Bob Marley and the Wailers first started. 

syncopated rhythms and wailing harmonies, Reggae was also introducing listeners to the narrative of Rastafarianism ( a religion that borrowed certain structural elements from the stories of the Old Testament, bound them with the 20th century message of post colonialism/Black Liberation and found the focal point of their worship in a belief that Haile Selassie I (the last emperor of Ethiopia) was the Messiah. All of these converging themes serve as an introduction to contemporary life in the city of Kingston, Jamaica in the 20th century. But it wasn't all of Kingston that fueled the creativity of the Jamaican Renaissance that inspired the world. It was just a humble, poor yet innovative section that Bob Marley and several other musicians and artists grew up in, called Trenchtown (or Trench Town). When Bob Marley introduced us to Trenchtown he was introducing us to what Jamaicans call a "yard." These government planned, single story, urban, family domiciles were  built in groups and shared cooking areas. They are similar to what is known in other areas as housing developments, tenements or projects. Trenchtown was the hood. Now if you grew up in or frequent the hood near you, then you may know that in of it's difficulties their is some beautiful to be found in the hood. Whether it's Compton, Hollygrove, East 1999, the Marcy Projects or Eight Mile, music has taught us that their is beauty in the struggle. Before Hip Hop made this idea marketable,  Reggae made it plausible. It all started in the yard in Trenchtown. The power of Reggae came from the fact that it was

Bob Marley and friends sitting on his
Volkswagen bus in Trenchtown

 just one part of a multifaceted art culture that was being formed there  in the yard. It turned the greater city of Kingston (the capital city of Jamaica) into a cultural center and in a sense the spiritual center of Reggae. The world may be familiar with the music of Reggae but the citizens of Jamaica know the overall artistic context that it arises from: Yard Art. When Bob Marley lived in Trenchtown, he knew that something dynamic, that would change the world in a few short years, was happening in this yard. An even longer time ago a similar thing occurred in the even more far away location of Jerusalem, Israel. Like Kingston is to Jamaica, Jerusalem is the capital city, cultural center and spiritual center of Israel. There arose from Jerusalem a movement whose message introduced listeners to the narrative of Christianity. ( a religion that continued the salvation history structural device from the stories of the Old Testament, bound them with the 1st century message of universal spiritual liberation and found the focal point of their worship in a belief that the Jewish rabbi Jesus was the Messiah. The Gospel of John tells us that the tense, prophetic relationship between this Savior and this city when Jesus entered the outer courtyard of the Jerusalem Temple one Passover. The gospel shares that during this tumultuous episode (that followed the Wedding at Cana), Jesus' disciples sensed that something dynamic that would change the world in a few short years was happening in this yard. In both stories the yard was the meeting place where geography and history cooperated to forge destiny.

Scene

Mural on the fence surrounding the Digicel construction site in Kingston on the waterfront, Artist Unknown

When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves,“Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written,“Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.” 



Yard Art is art that illustrates a scene. Like the Sometimes the most captivating scene to depict is the one that captures the colorful beauty of everyday life and the ornate, subtleties of tradition. In this mural painted on a metal fence an unknown Kingston artists depicts the daily activity of the yard. Jamaican women, clothed in vibrant colorful textiles that flirt with their West African ancestry, buy produce at a market. The visual narrative comes alive in the viewers imagination as you picture them taking their wares home and preparing meals to their family based on recipes handed down from their ancestors. You can almost smell the frying plantains and taste the curry seasoning: a spice that Jamaica's British forefathers had conquered the East Indies for and spread to the West Indies. This was more than commerce and cooking, this was the power of tradition and the potency of heritage served on a plate of Jerk Chicken. The artist who painted this mural was commissioned to conceal an eyesore construct site but in doing so he revealed the beauty of the yard. The artist changed the scene by painting a scene. The scene in that Jesus walks into in the Temple is much like the scene painted by this Jamaican mural artists. It was the depiction of a marketplace. Merchants were buying and selling their wares as they had always done. Problem was that for some the activity in the Temple had devolved into just that: a business transaction. Truly this commerce was necessary in some facet because it aided the worship rituals that had been prescribed in the Law of Moses but somewhere in the flurry of all of the religious activity the heart of religion had been abandoned. The place to connect with the Creator had been corrupted. The meeting ground for mercy had been compromised. Like this Jamaican mural the scene of a marketplace was blocking an area that was originally designed to be a spiritual construction site. The building of the Temple was initially created to build up the Jewish people spiritually through acts of sacrificial sacrifice. So in fidelity to what naturally occurs at a construction site, Jesus enters the temple and starts demolishing things. Jesus is changing the scene in the yard by making a scene. Like the God of the Old Testament, Jesus is exacting judgment on His house. This leads to him engaging in a discussion about God's impending reconstruction plans. God was creating a new temple for His children. It was one that could not be corrupted by commerce. It was the One that was standing right before their eyes, yet they could not see.    

Sign

Marcus Garvey mural, Art by Mohamid

So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” 

Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”
But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

Yard Art is an Art that acts as a sign. Walking down the streets of Trenchtown you might encounter a piece like this one that fulfills the sign requirement quite literally. In its depiction of Marcus Garvey, the great Jamaican proponent of Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism, this mural includes actual text from Garvey. Though he was also very popular in the United States and all over the African Diaspora during his lifetime, Marcus Garvey still maintains a reputation of mythical proportions in his native country. The great forefather of Jamaican art and art education Barrington Watson painted his portrait and every Jamaican creative, intellectual and religious figure since then has been required to consider him. Yet when Barrington approached the subject of Garvey he did so in a much more figurative and less textual way. Yet since his work is of such a profound thinker it still speaks as a sign. The visual presence of Garvey conjures up his text and authoritative presence. So what makes something a sign? What do signs do? Signs are an encasing medium that presents text. Text is an encasing medium that presents a message. So even when text is not featured in Yard Art if it incorporates symbols and images that are universal enough it still speaks a message.  A parallel truth can be found in John 2:13-25. After his display in the Temple, the onlookers (we can safely assume that they are the Jewish religious authorities) ask for a sign to justify himself. Like Barrington Watson, they are not referring to a literal sign that features text. They are speaking figuratively. They understood that when Jesus caused havoc in the Temple courtyard he was following in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets who would act out their Divine messages through performance and symbolism. And some (like Moses, Elijah and Elisha) would prove the Divine origin of their message by performing miracles (also known in Scripture as signs and wonders). The Temple officials were asking for the message in the medium of the miraculous. The medium of miraculous signs would be understood as the encasement of authentic, divine revelation. Jesus response was that he would perform of resurrecting a destroyed temple in three days. The crowd took him for a fool but later on Jesus' Disciples would understand that in that moment he was declaring himself to be the true Temple of God. Jesus was claiming that the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in His body. The temple sacrifice that God required would be met in the self-sacrifice of the Jesus Christ.

Statement




Street Art in Kingston, Jamaica, C215

...Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

Street Art in Kingston, Jamaica, C215

Yard Art is Art that makes a statement. Making a statement is a decisive thing. Making a statement is a proclamation of your belief about and appreciation of a certain thing. Making a statement is a definitive thing. Therefore, making a statement can be a dangerous thing. One dangerous thing about making a statement is that it will be misunderstood. Understanding a statement is a complicated thing. To do so you must appreciate the nuances, subtlety and full implications of a statement. Sometimes we miss key details in a statement and misunderstand the whole matter. Such is the case with much contemporary Yard Art. Through either the accident of time or placement by Providence, contemporary Yard Art has found a peer in the worldwide phenomenon of Street Art. Street artists from around the world, like the French artist C215, have visited Jamaica to add their visual voice to the rich tapestry that is historic Yard Art. This phenomenon has an enemy in the local police force for two reasons. The first reason is that many Street Artists work illegally, playing the role of an aesthetic Pied Piper as they post their popular images around town without permission. The second is that on the streets of Kingston local artists have increased the inductees into their artistic pantheon. They not only include musical legends, political ideologues and religious icons but now also paint about local benevolent, drug dons who possess the allegiance of many in the populace and sunrise/sunset murals to those rude boys and shottas whose lives were taken by violence. So armed commando brigades of the local police forces have engaged in a campaign to paint over any unsanctioned Yard Art. The Authority over the people of Kingston do not always agree with the statements that are made in the yard.

Appreciating the scene (context), seeing the sign but not understanding the message. That is what happens when we don't get the overall statement. The gospel tells us that Jesus performed many signs in Jerusalem that Passover and this led many to believe. Yet the scene closes with a discontented Jesus. The crowds see the signs and believe on him yet he does not believe in them. The gospel writer alludes that Jesus knows better than this. Even in the midst of all of those who "believed" him due to the signs, Jesus is pictured as if he just sat back and looked at them with a knowing stare. As if to say "Yeah, they don't get it." Could it be that Jesus doesn't just want the crowds to believe in the miraculous signs but to believe in the merciful message that is encased in the medium of the signs? Could it be a case of appreciating the scene (context), seeing the sign but not understanding the message. Were they missing Christ's overall statement... his big picture?  If so, then what was (and is) Jesus' big picture all about?

Synthesis



Portrait of Bob Marley in his hometown. C215



The resolution of both of these stories meet at the same place: synthesis. When the street artist C215 brought his work to the heart of Trenchtown he showed that he understood the roots of the Yard Art movement. In his portrait of a young (pre-dreadlocks) Bob Marley in the Roots Reggae legend he salutes the aesthetic tradition that the music icon embodied in music. The contemporary Frenchmen produced an image that merged with the natural no frills cityscape while simultaneously honoring the vibrant traditions of the yard and crafting a street art piece with contemporary viability.  C215 captured the essence of what Yard Art always aspired to celebrate. He illustrated the story of the humble government yard that became the meeting place where geography and destiny cooperated to forge history. If we, like C215, go back of the beginning of this gospel story we find that Jesus is also performing a synthesis that captures the essence of the original intention. Before telling us about the location or the action the witer tells us about the time. He writes, "Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand." With that chronological detail in the setting of the Temple of Jerusalem, we as readers are pointed to the theme of worship. The context of the Old Testament stories of the Passover and the Temple form the two bookends of the story of Jewish worship. In the Exodus, Moses had initially asked Pharaoh to free the Israelites so that they might go and worship God in the desert. The actual wording was to let "God's Son" Israel worship Him in the desert. When Solomon constructed the original Temple in Jerusalem as a replacement for the traveling Tabernacle, it was with the understanding that it would be the House of Worship for all of God's children. All of those who God would call to be His sons and daughters. So when Jesus, the unique and firstborn Son of God, stepped into the yard he did so as a replacement of the temple that had been erected to replace the Tabernacle. Yet when he was resurrected from the grave, it was to be an eternal Temple for the Children of God. The Old Covenant had been synthesized with the New Covenant in the fulfillment of the original intention of God.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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