My first solo exploration of downtown Seattle today. Needless to say, I got lost. I love getting lost. Sometimes just for fun, I purposefully go on a road trip with the sole purpose of trying to get myself lost. Rarely does it work, but when it does, it's the most exhilarating experience. I have found that life happens in the moments when one is lost. You meet people you would have never known before. You are put in situations where you have to think on your toes. Or, if you aren't in a hurry, you can slow down and see things you would have never seen. As the painter Bob Ross said, "There's no such thing as a mistake, just happy accidents." Well said Bob.
So, as I was saying, I got twisted and turned around in downtown Seattle. It was fun until I realized I was going to be late to an appointment and I had no idea where I was. Thanks to technology and the help of a friend back in Michigan, I was able to figure out where I was and get to where I was going. Afterward, I took the opportunity to explore downtown. The theme of the afternoon was art. After strolling through Olympic Sculpture Park, I wandered into a few art galleries. A few pieces really spoke to me. One in particular was a painting of multiple Jesuses hanging on the cross. I stood there and almost cried.
I cried for a few reasons, one being my lack of reflecting the true Jesus. I can't reflect someone I don't yet completely understand. I have been reading through Mark this summer. I dove into Mark due to a book I picked up titled, "Jesus, Mean and Wild." The book paints a picture of Jesus that goes against many of the current cultural portrayals. Reading it helped me see into my blind spots I have toward scripture. We all bring our biases and cultural lens into our interpretations or scripture, and equally into our picture of who we picture Jesus to be. Mark paints a wild, mean, may I say rude, Jesus. He is not afraid of controversy. He doesn't care what people think of him. He doesn't make sense and doesn't care. He didn't come to coddle the weak. And he sure didn't come to fill people's expectations, especially those that thought they knew what God wanted. Reading Mark trying to see Jesus for who he is apart from my American influence has been extremely challenging. Looking at the multiple Jesuses hanging on crosses again made me question which Jesus I am trying to follow. Which Jesus am I worshipping.
It also made me realize that others too are seeing the absurdity of there being multiple Jesuses. Only to them, it may not be all that absurd. Another piece that I fell in love with was at the Sculpture park. It was a long colored transparent wall with holes. It faced downtown and as one walked along the wall it cast different colors on the skyline. It showed me how different people see the world through different colors, different paradigms. It also reminded me of perspective, how things change the closer or further you get. The wall had holes, thousands of little holes you could see right through. Each of us sees only through our own hole. I don't know if we can change that. But if we can begin to see that maybe our hole isn't the full picture or that other people believe just as strong in their hole as we believe in ours, then maybe we can begin to see the whole picture.
Bringing this back to Jesus, I am wondering what it would be like to see in full. If, for the sake of the conversation, we allow that Jesus is God, and similarly we allow that God sees all, try to imagine how you would see the world. Then imagine what it would be like to enter into the world, moving from outside to inside the painting. How would your perspective change? What things would matter to you? What battles would you just avoid knowing that they don't matter to the full picture?
I am also wondering how we can possibly know Jesus. With all the different angles and slants we all bring into the world, how can we know Jesus? Is my little hole in which I see the world right? Is yours right? How can my view of Jesus possibly be the "correct" view, when there are millions of views all fighting for the same level of rightness. Yet, there has to be a Jesus that is the correct picture. There has to be a "right" way to see the world. The has to be a standard in which to judge all others by. This is not to say that I or anyone else in the world has stumbled on this view. This is just to say that in life as with all other things, there needs to be an gauge in which to measure by. When I ask the question, "What is a tree?" or "What is a dog?", we to be sure have different trees or dogs in our minds, but we still have something that would be classified as a tree or a dog because we know what those are. We can identify is someone is picturing a horse as opposed to a dog and pass a judgement on their picture as wrong. I believe the same can be applied to our worldviews.
This begs the question, "What, or whose, worldview is the standard to gauge others by?" And to that I would answer Jesus'. And to the question, "Which Jesus?", I will let you decide. I think Jesus would want it that way.
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