Mark Shea recently drew attention to some remarks by Mars Hill Pastor Mark Driscoll:
In Revelation (the last book of the New Testament), Jesus is a prize-fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is the guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up.
Shea remarked: “I’m sure the guards in charge of the scourging at the pillar felt the same way. Surely, the measure of our worship is ‘Can I beat up Jesus?’”
His comment prompted me to recall this ancient Eastern icon:
Its name? Christ the Bridegroom.
Think about that for a minute, especially in light of the Events we will commemorate a few days from now.
I, like most men on their wedding day, went to great lengths to look my best.
And yet, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ — the Bridegroom of bridegrooms — is here shown with His hands bound, stripped half naked, having just been scourged, crowned with thorns, and as a result so weak that He can’t even hold His head up straight.
Yes, Christ the Bridegroom, for He was preparing to perform the ultimate act of self-sacrificial love for His Bride the Church just a few hours later, the completion of which He would signal by crying out from the gibbet of the Cross words we rightly associate with marriage:
“It is consummated.”
Related
If you’ve never heard of Mark Driscoll, fellow Catholic Dads blogger Matt Yonke has some thoughts on his particular brand of “high octane Calvinism” here.
[Cross-posted at Lunch Break]
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I don't always like Mark Shea's style, but sometimes he is right on point. Like here. Masculinity doesn't mean tatoos and beating people up. That turns men into apes. That said, Christ was a man and as such he is the perfection of masculinity.
Great icon, John. The name fascinates me. I will be bringing it with me to prayer this week.
Agree with you too Rob.
Not sure if Pastor Driscoll read all of Revelation because I recall St. John revealing Christ as the Lamb who was slain in Ch. 5.
Seriously, I think we should all offer a prayer to St. Joseph that the men who encounter this terrible bit of reductionism will reject it and instead embrace a Christ who is both perfect man and perfect God.
I used to fight. Now I'm old. Yes, I've seen the movie The Quiet Man. No, I've never killed a guy in a fight. Yes, I did hurt someone, badly, and no, I was not prosecuted for it. Yes, it haunts me.
I hate fighting. Yet at the same time I acknowledge it is necessary in certain cases.
But the best fighters I've ever known were always the ones who were the most DISinclined to fight.
I've even seen a mauler stand there and take it from some stupid drunk wannabe bad boy half his age, half his weight, and half his sense.
When I came to Jesus, (no, it wasn't in prison) it wasn't about laying aside my nature. It was about living for something better than what I was living for.
But I read the Gospel, and what I see is a strong man letting the upstarts running their course, because the strong man knows who he is and what he's about. And them kids don't know what they're about, and they don't know what they do.
So when it comes to worshiping a guy I can beat up, people have no idea. I love Jesus with my whole heart and soul. I would die for him if he hadn't died for me first.
But I know he's the strong man who is disinclined to fight, and would let kids and idiots run over him without so much as making a fist. He knows his strength, and he used it only when it was the right thing to do, not for himself sake, but for the right thing's sake.
Jesus ain't no diaper hippie. He knew where he was at, and he knew what he needed to do.
Muchos Gracias for your article post.Really looking forward to read more.