Outrage is the easy road. We quickly become outraged by politics, cultural issues, and even the guy who cuts us off on the interstate. Outrage and harsh rhetoric color much of the discourse today. People automatically get offended by opposing views and take on the posture of a victim.
Love and the outstretched hand of fellowship take much greater effort. Love does not come naturally. Love requires humility and seeing others as equals. Love is the way of Christ.
The Olympic Opening Ceremony in Paris elicited outrage from many circles—especially Christians. Christians took offense to what they perceived as an effort to mock Da Vinci’s “Last Supper.”
Now that emotions have cooled, I want to address the controversy on three fronts. First, did the Opening Ceremony intend to at least evoke Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” painting? Yes, I believe it did. This leads to the second front to address. Was it meant to mock or imitate? I contend that the performance most likely intended to “echo” rather than mock the “Last Supper.” Third, even if mockery was the goal, was outrage the proper response from Christians? I contend that outrage was the wrong emotion.
Many people have joked about the surprising number of art historians who came out of the woodwork following the ceremony—you know, the art historians from Facebook University. Therefore, I need to state my credentials. I am not an art historian, but I did study art, art history, and design in my undergraduate work. I started with an art appreciation class, which exposed me to the world’s best-known artworks, and followed that up with two art history courses that went well beyond those known works—covering every Western art movement through the 20th Century.
While I am no Robert Langdon (wink wink), I have some art history training. However, it was not the art history courses that helped me know that the Opening Ceremony director intended to evoke the “Last Supper.” It was the 2D design class, drawing class, painting class, and any number of graphic design classes that informed my thoughts about the Opening Ceremony. It all comes down to composition. The composition of the scene confirmed that the similarities were intentional. The positioning of the characters was too perfect. Have you ever tried to recreate a photo from the past? It is tough to re-pose and recapture the scene. Yet, the “Last Supper” scene hit all the marks of the Da Vinci painting before transforming into the “Feast of Dionysus.”
The question of imitation or mockery is much more difficult. It was a provocative choice to have men in drag imitate a beloved Christian painting and to juxtapose the “Last Supper” with the “Feast of Dionysus.” Still, simple imitation could have been the goal. If the director is a humanist, he likely viewed both scenes as myths and meant to capture the art rather than insult my deeply held beliefs. I believe that Christ’s love compels us to give the benefit of the doubt.
While I love the Da Vinci painting, it is not Scripture. The painting includes anachronisms—Jesus and the Disciples are depicted as Renaissance-era Europeans rather than 1st Century men of Galilee. They are seated in a room that was contemporary to Da Vinci instead a Roman triclinium which was common in 1st Century Jerusalem. We overlook these issues and love the painting because of its story.
I confess that the Opening Ceremony “Last Supper” scene shocked and irritated me, but I don’t understand the outrage.
Even if the director of the Opening Ceremony held a press conference tomorrow stating that he intended to mock Christianity, I still would argue against outrage. Can you think about a time that Jesus showed outrage to an unbeliever? He did not show outrage to the solders who whipped him or centurion who drove the nails into His wrists. Instead, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” Jesus showed no outrage toward the demon-possessed man. Pilate did not receive outrage from Jesus.
Jesus did show His holy anger (not the same thing as outrage) when the people of faith were profiting from money-changing and selling sacrificial animals at the Temple. He directed His anger at those who should have known better—religious people who were not living up to what they knew to be true. Even so, this anger had a redemptive purpose.
In the face of unbelief and physical violence, Jesus showed love. He grieved lostness. He stretched out His arms on the cross for you and for me while we were still sinners and far from Him. I am not suggesting that we do not stand for truth or shy away from the gospel—quite the opposite. Let’s be bold enough to share the gospel with those so far from God that they mock Him.
Let’s choose love and proclamation instead of outrage.
Image Credit: Kelly Sikkema, Unsplash
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