The Blood was Red, The Pain was Real

January 3rd, 2009

Reading: Genesis 5-6, Matthew 2

Everyone is familiar with the story of the Three Wise Men and Noah's Ark. While I was reading these stories from the readings, I couldn't help but think about certain artistic representations of them.

First of all, let's start with a simple nativity scene made up of the tiny figurines that you set up every Christmas. I'm sure most of you know that the manger and "no room at the inn" story is more of a romanticized story of Christ's birth than actual fact. I won't go into detail on this, but I have heard several biblical translators explain that "inn" does not translate the way we think it does.

Also, Jesus was probably two years old by the time the Wise Men found him, so putting them in a scene of Jesus' birth isn't really accurate either.

If you really wanted to do a nativity scene that is accurate with the Wise Men, then it requires a little more figurines. You are probably going to have to make figurines of Roman soldiers, and they would have to be killing babies. I would suggest a lot of red paint.

Yes, that is gross, and no one would want to see a nativity scene like that. It might be a good way to scare off unwanted guests at Christmas time, though.

Like the nativity, Noah's Ark doesn't seem to get represented correctly in Scripture either. Generally, you see it as a neat little boat floating in a beautiful blue ocean. Absent are the bodies of animals and people that should be drifting on the sea because of the horrendous deluge.

Surely, these artistic representations of the Ark and the nativity were made for our children, but they are sadly not realistic, and therefore not real. It reminds me of a song that Christian singer Dallas Holm once wrote called "The Blood was Red". I can't seem to find the lyrics online, but here is what I remember:

...Such a pretty picture,
soften it up, make it light
They can't seem to paint the cross of Scripture
They just can't seem to get it right

But the blood was red, the pain was real
I can't imagine how it must feel
to be nailed to the cross, such an unfair deal
but the blood was red and the pain was real

Think about every crucifix that you see, and you will usually find a woundless Christ with the exception of the red dots on the hands and feet. Yet this isn't want it was like. There was a reason why The Passion of the Christ was R-rated. Even that film, accurate as it was, was not quite accurate enough. If you had been at the crucifixion, what you would have seen would be beyond an X-rating.

My point is that the Bible is full of stories that have been made soft throughout the years by Christian artistic representation. As a result, the true impact behind these stories is made light, and the true moral is being denied. Both the nativity, the flood, and the crucifixion show how ugly the world truly is, and remind of our need for salvation from it. This is what Jesus has given to us, and why we need to share his message of hope to the rest of the world.

Paradise, Tossed.

January 2, 2009

Reading: Genesis 3-4, Matthew 1

Yesterday, I asked you to use your imagination to visualize God creating the heavens and the Earth. Today, I want you to use that same imagination to visualize what would have been if not for that tragic Fall in today's Genesis reading.

Instead of violating the only commandment, Adam and Eve would have "been fruitful, and multiplied". Life would have been like a honeymoon vacation, and soon many children would have been born, all without labor pains or painful deliveries.

As the human race grows, so does the garden of Eden, and it spreads across the world. Cain never kills Abel, and Noah never needs to build an Ark. Babel is a holy city, as is Sodom and Gomorrah. Other Biblical figures enter in, as do other historical figures. Mozart and Einstein could meet together with Hilter, who would have never become the man that we know him as today.

The rest of history unravels as it did before, but is measured not by wars and empires, but advancements. I imagine that if the Fall had not occurred, we still would have technology, just not its dark side. In other words, we might have skyscrapers, computers, iPods, and other conveniences, but they would not be used against the will of God.

In fact, an unfallen world would have a God that we could see and walk with. There would be no atheists or agnostics. In fact, there would never be a need to invent those words. Also absent from the dictionary are words like war, disease, famine, prejudice, and crime.

I guess the question is, would people eventually wear clothes? I believe clothing was originally invented to hide shame. However, an unfallen world has no need of them, and people would walk around naked without any embarassment because the nude body would be appreciated, never lusted after. Of course, people would still have sex, but only within marital commitment. In a pre-fallen world, public sexual intercourse would probably not even be considered "dirty".

I realize that a post-fallen world probably shouldn't imagine that last paragraph, which is exactly my point. We simply cannot imagine that without our minds going into some pornographic realm. This is because we are fallen.

Part of me wants to say: "Nice work, Adam and Eve." For the sake of the taste of a fruit, they cast off a world without hardship. However, let us not be fooled. Every time we give into temptation, it will lead to some bit of paradise tossed.

The poet William Blake once wrote collections called "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience". In "Songs of Innocence" the poems are about happy things and no conflict, but "Songs of Experience" are not the same. My point is that we go from Innocence to Experience the moment we discover that there is even a world of Experience itself. From there, we cannot go back, any more than a prositute can return to virginity.

However, it is because of one virgin named Mary that we can go back. She had to carry the savior known as Jesus, who will eventually take us back to the unfallen world. Think of him as the Plan B.

Still, we will never know what it is truly like in Plan A. But what Adam and Eve did is done, and it can be undone with Jesus. He is the one who will take us back to a world without a fall, and he is ready to forgive the sins that tore the world apart.

Introduction and Imagination

January 1st, 2009

Reading: Genesis 1-2 and Proverbs 1

Yes, welcome my devotional. You're probably wondering what makes this different from other devotionals. Actually, you probably aren't, but I'll tell you what I think makes it different.

First of all, my devotional isn't full of all those flowery things in other devotionals. You see, if you live in the same world that I do, the one that was affected by the Fall (See tomorrow's entry). So I have no problem saying that world is a terrible place, and I will site specific examples.

Second of all, you will note the title "Irreverent Reverence". This means that I will be reverent, but I'm not going to go out of my way to do so. You see, I believe that when Jesus changes a person, he changes everything about that person. However, that person does not need to change himself to blend in to Christian mass culture, which is sadly the case of many Christians.

Therefore, I am going to do things on here that most Christians will not. I am going to allude to the movies and television shows that I watch, even if certain Christians will frown on them. Yeah, a few of them will be rated "R". I will also use words like "crap" and "sucks". Stop reading if you don't want to hear any more, but I will tell you there are certain four-letter words I don't use. Hey, just because I'm "irreverently reverent" doesn't mean that I don't have standards.

Without further ado, let's get to the Bible reading, because you don't want to hear me talk about myself anymore. Since we are at the beginning, we will start with Genesis 1 and 2.

First of all, I highly recommend that you let your imagination run wild when you read it. I mean, those boys at Pixar and Weta Digital can make some pretty cool computer generated worlds for the movies, but that was nothing compared to what God did!

While you are reading Genesis, try and imagine what it would look like on film, with a completely unlimited budget. Just think the ending of Titan A.E., but something you might actually remember. Think cosmic special effects, and subtle. For example, when God created man from dust, did he just blow it like a kiss, and the dust become man? Dang, that would look cool.

Also, how did it look when God got the rib out of Adam? Did He wave His hand and the flesh parted, and then he just reached in his hand and plucked it out like that evil priest in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? And then the rib morphed into a woman, sort of like how the T1000 grew out of a puddle in T2: Judgment Day.

Yeah, God's pretty much beyond my imagination, and God imagined and made all of creation. He literally made something from nothing. He didn't steal the idea of someone else's universe, reverse engineer it, and put his own unique twist to it. He actually came up with an idea that we can't come close to improving on it.

So how does that relate to the reading in Proverbs. It doesn't. Yeah, I'm not always going to be able to tie the two readings every day. I suppose I could segue something here, but I'd be going against my better judgment.

I suppose the real takeaway value is that God is truly above us. But you already knew that, didn't you? Now, take your life and compare it to what you imagined. If it doesn't mesh, this is not a good thing.