(if you are viewing this via email, the website has a recording of this poem and commentary; click the title above)
Do You Find This Offensive?
Please read my partial defense below*
Commentary
On a couple of occasions recently, I have seen short videos of myself walking—in checking the footage of security cameras I was setting up or reviewing church services I participated in. Seeing myself thus elicits embarrassment: “I look so ridiculous!” That response isn’t unusual. People often cringe to hear recordings of their own voice. As a photographer, I’ve had to put up with people rejecting perfectly representative photographs of themselves (“representative” isn’t always flattering!).
As I thought about this, it dawned on me that one could find ridiculous traits in just about anyone. We’re all just a little bit clownish.
From there my thinking went to that most profound event in the history of man: Jesus’ emptying himself, “by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man” (Philippians 2:7).
This poem is a prayer that Jesus will remind me of the glory He stooped to share with us despite our ridiculous state.
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*Although I wrote this poem very quickly, I hesitated to publish. It contains some words and concepts that are calculated to startle, to provoke thinking–in myself first and then in my readers. I asked seven of my very smart, theologically astute friends to comment, especially on the second stanza. Here’s what I wrote to one of them:
Ben,
I’m very interested in whether or not you see theological problems in the second stanza of this poem. Another friend (DTS prof) responded to me that “There are some implications that could be drawn from the second stanza that would compromise a classical understanding of Christology.” He didn’t elaborate.
If I understand Isaiah correctly, Jesus was not a classically beautiful human specimen. Per Hebrews, He learned obedience. You can probably think of other evidence of His thorough-going Incarnation. Can we go so far as to speculate that He might even have had some quirks like the rest of us?
I write poetry to plumb the depths of my confusion about man, including the Son of Man. I must confess being double-minded about the relationship of imperfection and sin. There’s a judgmental little jackass in my brain that always wants to attribute physical imperfection to moral imperfection. (It gets worse: I then take that inferred moral imperfection and use it as a basis for assigning relative authority. But enough about this dumb sinner….).
Thoughts?
None of the seven friends condemned me as a heretic. Most of them found the poem sufficiently thought-provoking to excuse some of its questionable wording.
One of the friends–a theologian and prolific poet–said that he’d grant me poetic license for “mannerisms odd.” But “merely God“? For him, that was a bridge too far. (His objection reminded me of my father, who protested when the word “awesome” was used to describe anything other than God.) My faltering defense: before the Incarnation, Jesus was “merely” God as opposed to God-Man.
Here’s my ultimate out: late in the writing process, I turned the whole second stanza into a question, not a statement: “Can I believe…?” In other words, is it appropriate to believe what follows? I hope you struggle a little with that, and that the struggle tips your heart toward loving God and loving your neighbor. That’s certainly what I hope for myself.