david hayward, a.k.a. naked pastor, is pure. one of those deeply good people with no guile in them. a very rare breed.
and once in a while, david’s cartoons speak more in one panel than an entire sermon could ever hope. like, this one he posted today:
seriously. more to think about, more to feel convicted about, than the sum total of ten average sermons.
buy david’s book of comics, btw.
Interesting, never heard of this guy before. I think it depends on what Mr. Hayward means by ridicule, despise, denigrate, and arrogant and rude. I could interpret quite a bit of what Jesus said in the Gospels as Jesus ridiculing those who disagreed with Him, despising people of other backgrounds, denigrating women, and just plain being arrogant and rude. Unless you want to argue that He never said such things and were just made up teachings/conversations.
In fact, the cartoon itself is in a sense ridiculing those who disagree with Mr. Hayward, isn’t it?
To me, it’s not as simple as Mr. Hayward presents it.
tim, interesting perspective. the only people i see jesus ridicule are religious leaders who are missing the point. where do you see him despising people of other backgrounds, denigrating women, and just plain being arrogant and rude? that sure doesn’t sound like the jesus i know.
There’s a difference between rebuking and ridiculing. Jesus didn’t make anyone feel bad about who they were. He may have chastised their behavior, but never the people themselves. If I may be so bold, you could interpret any way you please; but, if you saw any of those things in the gospels, you’d be wrong. And, I refer to the above definitions again for the interpretation of this cartoon: If you want to say that Mr. Hayward is rebuking, I’ll agree… but there’s nothing ridiculing about it.
The fact is that too many Christians either don’t see the simplicity of the gospels, or they choose not to follow it. There isn’t a lot of wiggle room in what Jesus said. I could point out specific instances in which Jesus performed exactly the opposite to the ways described: From the way he rebuked one of his own followers for cutting off the servant’s ear (Matthew 26), to teaching about the good Samaritan (Luke 10), to publicly defending the adulteress (John 8) and providing for his mother at the end of his life (John 19). Since arrogance and rudeness are hard to quantify, I leave those for you to decide: his words and actions convince me that he possessed neither.
At any rate, I believe you’re missing the point of the cartoon. Too many people say they believe in Jesus — which, presumably, includes his words; however, their actions completely deny his existence and example. And if you want to believe it’s not as simple as Mr. Hayward presents, what would you say to the story of Jesus and the rich young ruler (Luke 18)? I’m pretty sure he must have been thinking, “But, it’s not that simple!” Put simply, too many people want excuses to act totally contrary to the example laid out by Jesus in the gospels. And if you choose to do that — more power to you! Just don’t claim to be a follower of Christ if that’s your choice…
Sorry, was too tired last night to respond back. I agree w/marko that most of the time, Jesus’ ridicule was to the religious leaders who didn’t get it–but I would also add it wasn’t always just them. He also “ridiculed” businessmen, people of other nationalities that didn’t belong to His race, people in government positions, rich people, poor people, people who didn’t agree with His theology about a resurrection, etc.
I also agree with Brian that there’s a difference between rebuking and ridiculing. In fact, that’s pretty much what I was trying to say in my previous comment. It depends what the cartoon author means by “ridicule, despise, denigrate, arrogant, and rude.” Is it despising to believe and to publicly affirm that the practice of homosexuality is a sin? If so, Jesus despised a lot of people, because He regularly called out their sins publicly. Is it denigrating to women to choose only men in official leadership roles at a particular local church or organization? If so, Jesus denigrated women when He made His 12 official messengers all male. Is it considered ridiculing people who disagree with you when you say that one must put their faith in Christ in order to have eternal life and be rescued from eternal destruction? If so, Jesus ridiculed people when He said that you can’t come to the Father except through Him and that those who don’t believe in Him stand condemned already (John 3:18). I think most people today would consider it arrogant and rude to go through the temple and overturn tables selling sacrificial animals.
What about Jesus’ response when His mom and siblings arrive asking for Him? Or when His mom wants Him to do a miracle at the wedding? What about when someone wants to bury His father before following Jesus? Or how Jesus responds to the Phoenician woman and calls her a dog? What about Jesus calling Herod a fox? What about all the countless times Jesus warned his listeners of the reality of a place of outer darkness where there is weeping, gnashing of teeth, people being cut to pieces? What about when Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you”? A few verses later, He says, “Does this offend you?” I think it would offend many people today, and would be considered ridiculing, denigrating, arrogant, rude, etc. Jesus had an edge to Him. He wasn’t always Jesus meek and mild.
Like I’ve said, I don’t think Jesus was ridiculing, denigrating, despising, arrogant, and rude. But in today’s sensibilities, He might very well be considered those things. From my reading of the cartoon, Mr. Hayward is trying to make a statement toward those whose faith teaches them that faith in Jesus is the only way for salvation, practicing homosexuality is a sin, only men are to assume leadership roles in church, etc. While I personally don’t hold to all three of those views, I think it’s a mistake to say if you do and you make that known, that you are somehow guilty as charged in the cartoon. Based on some of the other artwork and content on his site, it seems to me this is the angle he is coming from in this cartoon. If you do believe that you must profess faith in Christ to escape hell, in today’s society you will be labeled as a judgmental, rude, arrogant, ridiculing, denigrating person, no matter how hard you try to share that message in love.
If Mr. Hayward is referring to how one shares those beliefs, I would agree with his cartoon. If he thinks that Jesus’ message of love, mercy, kindness is being hijacked if you hold to those beliefs and share them, I respectfully disagree.
I think this 5 minute video by Penn (an atheist) from Penn and Teller hits the point home I am trying to say here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhG-tkQ_Q2w Is it possible that sometimes tackling someone is the loving, humble, merciful thing to do?
brian, can you clarify for me who the “you” is in your response? were you responding to ‘tim falk’? i’m in complete agreement with what you write, so i’m really confused if the “you” is me! :)