Gumby Jesus



Okay, I'll admit it. I like Gumby. Not the snarling angry Gumby played by Eddie Murphy, but the infinitely positionable toy Gumby. The Gumby of Saturday morning cartoons. You could make him do almost anything. He was revolutionary. When other dolls—sorry, action figures—had only a severely limited range of motion, Gumby could do anything you wanted him to. At least until the wire armature inside him disintegrated from metal fatigue. He was yours to do with as you pleased.

I was reminded of Gumby while talking with a friend recently. Martin French is an incredibly talented illustrator and the Chair of the Illustration department at PNCA, and we've been friends for more than 30 years. He recently painted the image you see on the left. It's entitled, Slave King. You can see his post about the art here.

We were discussing people's reaction to his painting, and he mentioned one in particular. The person said they didn't like the image because it portrayed Jesus as too strong. This person isn't a Christian, but they are attracted to the idea of a meek, mild, and vastly tolerant Jesus. This individual didn't like the fact that a slave could come to serve the ones He created, full of the very life and power that created them. If I had to guess, I'd say they'd be entirely comfortable with a Jesus who was more like Ben Kingsley in Gandhi. A designer Jesus. Made to order. Their very own Gumby Jesus.


This is a modern example of an ancient reaction to God's offering of Himself, and it's not limited to unbelievers. In the book of Jeremiah, we read an account of those who reject the living God in favor of a god they've fashioned.


for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.

The passage mentions two related evils. The first is forsaking God, who offers Himself freely, anticipating the day when He will do so humbly in Jesus Christ. But that's not good enough, and people say, in effect, "No thanks. We've got a much better idea of what god should be like." This is the second evil; fashioning a replacement for the One they've forsaken and treating God like a jilted lover. This disdainful treatment of God is a dominant theme throughout Jeremiah.

While God's patience is long-suffering, it's not infinite. Eventually, He declares that His offer of love must solicit one of two possible responses: embrace or enmity.

That's what I love about Martin's painting. It makes the same offer. He captures the powerful life of God in the figure above—barely contained within the bounds of flesh. All while he also shows us a person who comes not just with power but also a humble desire to serve, which is rooted in unimaginable love. He shows us the same God the Scriptures do, and it's a take-it-or-leave-it proposition.

Those who find this portrait of Jesus attractive will never understand why others would rather play with their Gumbies.

Comments

nicklas said…
How much nicer if God would only compromise with our design for Him... and then there are scriptures like Isa 55:8.

So who will yield?
2:01 PM
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