Mannequin Messiah:
The
Dress at will?
D
Do you remember paper dolls?
Children would get a cardboard doll
cut out of a cartoon character, film
star or action hero, packaged with
several paper outfits with bendy
tabs carefully located in order to
make it possible for you to dress and
undress your doll. A simple concept
that worked.
Today, we have virtual dolls that are
dressed on our mobile device screen
and we interact with them using
computer software. Apparently,
humans love this idea of reinvention
or “playing dress up”. We tend to get
bored and want to have a makeover
every now and then.
Fashion, A la Mode, Dream It - See
It - Be it, Fake It Till You Make It,
Keep Up Or Get Out, Reinvent Or
Die, Reflect The Status Quo, Image
Is Everything! This is the mantra of
twenty first century living. We are like
mannequins that societal pressures
dress at will.
Reinventing Jesus
Have we taken this attitude into
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SHARE|MAGAZINE
April - June 2016
Christianity? A look at the image of
Jesus Christ and how He has been
portrayed throughout Church history
seems to be consistent with the idea
of subjective representation and
marketed manipulation of His image
to the world. In short, we want Jesus
to reflect our values and attitudes, to
look and speak like us, to represent
us and our world view. Is this a good
thing or bad? The Scripture itself
says, all things are lawful but not all
things are expedient or conducive
to edification, 1 Corinthians 6:12.
Therefore, in everything it is a matter
of degree or balance. So then,
where have we veered off course?
Obviously, the many translations of
the Bible into indigenous languages
have made the Gospel very
accessible and that is a good thing.
However, when we feel the need to
change the text in order to fit our
context, we are beginning to cross
over into the dark side of ambivalent,
ambiguity that opens up a repository
of unimaginable hell. Jesus can only
be effective if He is portrayed as
He essentially is, within His original
context and from His own point of
view, not ours!
Jesus, The Grim Reaper
Let’s take some samples from Church
history beginning with the Middle
Ages or the Dark Ages. Paul and
Peter had prophesied that worldly
leaders would infiltrate like ‘wolves;’
causing the church to compromise
the gospel, thus allowing the
marriage of sacred and secular
ideology.
The Roman Emperor Constantine
dressed the Church in Romanised
garb and joined it with The State’s
ideology
which
portrayed
a
subjective Jesus that represented
its aspirations, norms and pagan
traditions. The Roman Empire
manipulated Jesus to fit their
purpose and used Him to Justify
their cause in pursuance of their
geo-political aspirations. Typically,
wars against the Muslim conquest
of the Holy Land under the banner
of Christ, using Jesus’ name to
conscript ignorant people ensued.
Well, you may say we had to defend