Art,  Featured,  incarnation,  metaphor

Every Poem Wants to Be Jesus: Why Christians Need Art

How mysterious is the incarnation of God in man in the person of Jesus Christ! God, who is spirit, makes Himself known in the body of Jesus.  Making the word flesh is, of course, the aim of every poet.  The goal of art is to turn what is spirit into a poem, a painting, a dance, or a song.  It is the same impulse, to turn what is ineffable into something concrete. To turn the abstract into something that can be lived within the body. The Greek word, Logos, which means the Word and the Deed, is an attempt to explain the mystery of metaphor and the nature of incarnation. The symbol and that which it represents somehow one. The word, love, and the experience of love married in meaning.

To put this simply, all artists attempt to convey intangibles by turning them into tangibles. We feel love.  How to describe it? God gives us the Bible and the life of Jesus to illustrate what love is. Of course our artistic attempts to artrepresent what love is fall short, but the impulse is the same, to help the audience experience with the poet or the painter, the human emotion of love anew.

If our love is a red, red rose, do we not understand love as fragrant, beautiful, and thorny?

This is a mystery that man has struggled with over the millennia; that is how to convey one man’s experience to another? How does one build a bridge from one heart to another, one spirit to another? I am reminded of the bewildering experience on Mount Sinai.  The Hebrews want to see God for themselves. So God commands them to line up, and He instructs Moses to build barricades around the mountain. The people purify themselves in preparation. Touching the mountain is an instant death sentence. They gather and suddenly lightning and thunder, trumpets and clouds descend on the mountain and everyone is duly terrified. God is not yet approachable; He is not yet available to be touched. Jesus is not yet come.

So instead, because no mediator yet exists between God and man, Moses brings down the Ten Commandments written in stone. The Ten Commandments receive a bad rap today. At least it seems so by the accounts on the news of monuments of the Ten Commandments being torn down or vandalized. But it in metaphor, the rock of the law is important. If God is love, the Ten Commandments show us what love looks like in community. He is the rock upon which we stand, the rock upon which men fall.

Metaphor bridges the gap between human experience and human relationship. Jesus bridges the gap between humanity and God, and art seeks to create unity between people.

The artists say to us, “Here is what sadness sounds like.  Here is what joy looks like. Do you have ears to hear and eyes to see?”

The first five books of the Bible are written in verse, handed down to Moses art and violinword for word.  God’s first words to us are in poetry. “Experience Me,” He is saying. “Feel My rhythm; sing My songs,” He invites.

The other work of the artist is the work of redemption, the resurrection of the dead. Our attempts at resurrection serve as important markers of the human experience. We turn our losses into music and our sorrows into novels. Jesus resurrects from the dead and makes all things new. Our art is weak compared to the Lord of the Dance, and yet it is part of our calling as humans to create, to make memories, to seek out the beautiful in the wretched. For some of us, this is how we make disciples of all nations.  This is how we incarnate the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We are made in the image of God, who from the beginning shows Himself creative.

And if the Word of God is an extended metaphor for the person of Jesus Christ, we must learn to partake in the Bible on art’s terms.

Arguments about Jonah and the whale and the specifics of species or how many animals were in Noah’s ark fall into a category of logical fallacy, specifically ad ignorantum. If something is not known to be true, it is assumed to be false.  Likewise if a thing is not known to be false, it is assumed to be true. It is ok to not know how the Red Sea parted. It is ok to not understand why Samson’s hair made him strong.

I do not know what kind of fish Jonah encountered. I don’t care. I am too busy trying to understand how to escape from my own damp prison, a consequence of running from God in this or that area of my life. Metaphor arthelps me understand and enter into Jonah’s experience. I receive manna from heaven. I cross the Red Sea. I am headed towards the Promised Land.

Understanding how art works helps me understand on a deep level the experiences of my brothers and sisters in the Bible.

Art in history served as a proclamation of the Gospel. Stained glass windows told stories to illiterate penitents. Icons preserved the stories that had to be told for few owned books and fewer could read.

I tell my students that every piece of art is an argument for or against the existence of God. Is there beauty? Is there truth? Or is there chaos and descent into human hells of our own making? Today, it seems Christians are afraid of art because they are afraid of the battles involved. To make art as a Christian is to encounter resistance. So Christian writers write for Christians. Christian artists sing for Christians. I am not criticizing. I like Christian books and music.

But to participate in art is to seek out the sacred.  The world and the flesh and the devil oppose this. To create is to war. God spoke order and light into the cosmos, the chaotic swirling darkness.

If, as Christians, we begin to participate in the artistic process, as our brothers and sisters have throughout the last two thousand years and more, we begin to bring in the Kingdom.

That Kingdom is best expressed through metaphor; the pearl, the treasure, the wedding feast. That is the Kingdom which we must manifest from within, a kingdom of spirit made flesh, God incarnated through Jesus in our very souls and through our bodies. Let there be light! Let us make art!

art

17 Comments

  • Tracy

    THIS IS AMAZING! I especially love “Making the word flesh is, of course, the aim of every poet.” AMEN.

  • Josephine

    Oh my word! I love this, so beautifully written. Thought provoking. I have never thought of art in this way before. Thanks for the article!

  • headcasechristian

    I think one of the greatest things that a lot of denominations do now is to encourage their teenagers to do Christian art. They will have an annual competition where books, written word, canvas, dance, etc. is displayed. When you do missionary work, you realize that it is often art that helps across those language barriers. It’s just awesome.

  • angie

    what a creative way to share the love of Christ. I love the sayings very well chosen

  • jesusglitter

    I LOVED this post! Art comes in many forms and God loves it because He created it within us. Art is so healing and gives hope to those who haven’t found the beauty of Christ. All you have to do is look around and know something greater than yourself has made something beautiful. Writing is art anf your writing is a beautiful piece of Art! Blessings!

  • birdsandberry

    YES! As an artist, I’m so often reminded of why I create and how my art points to our creator.

  • tara8910

    “The kingdom is best expressed through metaphor.” This really proves your point. You make me want to go be creative!

  • nevayinger

    Beautiful thoughts! I once saw a quote that made me laugh and that this reminds me of: “All great Renaissance works are basically fan art of the Bible.”

  • Kathleen Louise Burnett

    I loved this! Beautiful!

  • Caroline

    Well goodness, as someone who isn’t good at art, I must say it’s hard when the talent doesn’t come naturally 😉

  • Alyson

    Such a beautiful post! Definitely thought provoking!

  • Jennifer

    You always see things in such a unique way. I know that capturing the essence of a moment was always my goal as a poet, finding just the right phrase to help my reader share my experience. But I never would have combined that with Jesus being the Word incarnate.

  • Jill Martin

    What I love about art is that you can create it, enjoy it, or both!

    I agree, the God paints pictures for us page after page throughout Scripture, calling us to remember His Word in a way that mere words can not.

  • livingtreepoetry

    Thank you from the depths of my poet heart. Very well written, insightful and encouraging to us writers and artists.

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