Modern Art

I am rewatching 'Mona Lisa Smile' for about the hundredth time.  It is one of my all-time favourite films.  The beautiful vintage clothes, the comments on the role of a woman and the attitudes and expectations of society.

 

Set in the 50s in America, it tells the story of Katherine Watson, a lecturer of art whose ideas and teaching methods are unorthodox.  Against the strict background of a prestigious college for girls, her teaching style appears controversial, progressive and subversive.

 

The Wellesley girls are used to looking at and analysing traditional classical art - Monet, Davinchi etc.  One day, Katherine shows them a piece of art work by Jackson Pollock.  With no discernible characters or 'storyline', the girls struggle to see the painting as 'art'.  It breaks all the rules and fails to fit into their preconceived idea of what constitutes art.

 

 

In the same way, the Jews struggled to see Jesus as being God.  He broke all the 'rules' and failed to fit into their preconceived classical idea of what God would or should be like. 

 

He was born, not in a palace, but in a stable, to an unmarried woman.  He ate with tax collectors and prostitutes.  He touched the 'unclean' and the dead and he reached out to heal those on the outside of society.

 

Perhaps the most scandalous thing was that this man, who claimed to be God himself, died.  Humiliated and disgraced on a cross, to take the punishment for our wrongdoings.

 

We can often have preconceived ideas about Jesus, too - about what He should be like and what He should do.  And, perhaps more importantly, what He won't like or won't be interested in, or won't do.  Jesus isn't interested in sex or sexuality or money or anger or hatred or jealousy or doubt or disappointment.  He doesn't want to hear our complaints.  In fact He doesn't want to hear about anything that's not 'religious'.

 

But the Jesus that we find in the Bible doesn't fit into these neat and tidy preconceived ideas.  He is not bound by religiosity or rules.  He came to set us free from those restrictions and to give us a free life:

"II came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.  I am the Good Shepherd.  The Good Shepherd puts the sheep before himself, sacrifices himself if necessary."

[John 10:10-11 MSG]

Like the Jackson Pollock painting, Jesus breaks the rules.  He invites us into a life not of sterile religiosity, but of messy and creative freedom.

 

As Katherine advises the girls, sometimes we need to lose our preconceptions and look at what's in front of us: look at who Jesus really is, not at who we think He is.

 

"Stop talking and just look."