Pictures...

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about pictures…you know, snapshots, images, portraits, photographs. Pictures are everywhere, due in part, no doubt, to the fact practically everyone always has a camera (phone) with them. When I was growing up we had senior pictures and wedding pictures and that was about it…except in the country where my folks were from. They always took snapshots of their dead kinfolk in the casket. But these days we take kindergarten graduation pictures, engagement pictures and even pregnancy pictures where women show off huge, bare-skinned baby bumps. We take pictures at sporting events and banquets where our children receive trophies not for winning but for participating. We have become a society which immortalizes every event and non-event with a 10 megapixel memorial (perhaps because the pictures we take are reminders of events that are so insignificant they would be forgotten within minutes otherwise).

I read a few weeks ago that high school and college students are leaving social media sites like Facebook for sites which focus on pictures like Instagram. These sites use text and words sparingly…the story is told with a snapshot, and most of the time that story is an autobiography told with a picture of oneself. The unrestrained use of “selfies” (self-portraits) is a symptom of pandemic self-interest and self-love. It is no longer enough to take a picture of oneself, but now pictures are taken in front of mirrors so multiple self-images can be captured simultaneously. I even saw a news story this weekend about a famous photographer who has gone back and “photo-shopped” herself into famous pictures of people like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and The Beatles. Talk about making ourselves the center of attention! Camera shyness is a long eradicated disease.

There have been those who have noted the trend from text to image in our culture and have advocated for an image-based language of Christianity. I think a few years ago, maybe even a few months, this made perfect sense and represented an astute observation of our society. I would argue, however that our culture has moved past one that speaks in images to one that speaks in self-images. If an image does not represent in some way, does not connect on some level with the person looking at it, it will most likely be ignored. The marriage of self-centeredness with devices that make self-adoration so accessible has created a hideous monster-child who cannot get enough of himself.

So how is the church to respond? How can we communicate the truth about something greater than ourselves when what we are most enamored with is...ourselves? To even suggest that the gospel must start somewhere besides focused on the Cross of Christ seems at first glance like heresy. However, I would contend that a gospel that is solely focused on a subject to which no one is paying attention, is a gospel which will be ignored, passed over and go unnoticed. We sometimes think if we say it louder, with more flashing lights, in “costume” or using hipster language that somehow the gospel will become more relevant. In short…no it won’t. And not because it isn’t relevant, but because no one is looking where we’re pointing.  If we’re going to ask people to watch and listen, we must be pointing to an image they’re already interested in…and that image is them.

I would suggest this is not drastically different than what Scripture already does. If our approach is exegetical, isn’t Romans 3:10 and 3:23 a portrait of the condition of humankind? More importantly isn’t the metanarrative of Scripture a portrait of the brokenness, not of the world in general, but of us in particular? Aren’t the snapshots of Moses, David, Jonah and Peter images of the self-centered, terribly-broken human condition? Can we not assume that if the greatest of biblical heroes are tainted with moral failure, emotional breaks and cowardice in the face of peer pressure, that we are not at least equally flawed?

The difference is we have allowed the gospel to be contaminated with the “photo-shop” mentality. I saw a picture of someone I knew the other day on the internet but realized quickly the picture had been altered in order to make her look “thin.” In our obsession of a “better-than-we-really-are” falsified self-image we justify altering our image to meet criteria which we really do not meet. We in the church have fallen into the same trap. We are preaching a “You are somebody” gospel instead of an “all have sinned” gospel. We have put a “glamor-shot” spin on the image to help a lost world feel more comfortable in their “condition.” This is a fatal mistake. On the other hand however, we must never confuse the legitimate use of spiritual imagery with brow-beating, hateful attitudes, or drawing conclusions which are not ours to draw. Christ-directed imagery must show those who are broken a clear, monochromatic picture of themselves with no make-up, no colorization added after the fact, and no airbrushing out the imperfections, to help them see what is hiding behind the forced smile and blurred pixels, to see what is genuinely there, or not there, to realize the most important relationship in their quest to be fully human is broken. Remember a picture is worth…a thousand of our memorized, religion-laden words.

Once we see ourselves as we really are, we may become willing to look outside ourselves for a solution to our imperfections. This is, perhaps, when a different image, one of a Savior with outstretched arms and a healing touch, can be brought into focus. I am told by those in the “selfie” generation that photos of friends are often “compared.” If we could learn this lesson it could be the Church’s finest hour. We must learn the power of helping the world compare their “selfies” with a portrait of the Savior who came to wipe away the imperfections and the flaws not from our faces and bodies but from our spirits; a Savior who loves us in spite of our spiritual pimples, warts and big ears.

As I say, I’ve been thinking a lot about pictures lately, and I’ve found one I really like. It’s a picture of Jesus, laughing and smiling, inviting and forgiving, offering to make me over, from the inside out. It’s a picture I’ve chosen to share with others…I only hope they will take time to look.