[Power of the Word] Knowing the Subject of the Painting
Daniel Brady
I have a picture in my bedroom, hanging on the wall above my headboard. There are two people in the picture, and if these people were strangers to me, or if I only casually knew them, the picture really wouldn’t mean anything to me. It would be nothing more than a nice picture hanging on the wall.
But this is a picture of my grandparents. So it means a great deal to me, particularly now. Grandpa passed away in July of 2005, and my grandma is now in poor health, expected to live less than another year. So this picture is very special to me.
Why do I mention the picture of my grandparents hanging on the wall? As I shared with you previously, each of the four Gospels is a portrait. And in my own feeble way, I am about to begin painting a portrait of my own. But in order for any portrait to mean anything, you have to be familiar with the subject. You have to know the person portrayed in the painting. You at least have to know who the person is, even if you don’t know them personally.
For illustration’s sake, if you have a dollar bill in your pocket, I want you to take it out and look at it. Whose picture is on the dollar bill? George Washington’s. Now, do you have any emotional attachment to George Washington? No. He lived a couple hundred years or so ago. Obviously none of us ever knew him personally. So we have no real emotional reaction when we see his picture, as we do when we look at a picture of our loved ones.
But we all know who George Washington was. We know his significance in history. We recognize him as the first President of the United States, and a man who was instrumental in gaining independence from England. And we know all of this so well that whenever we see his picture, we automatically say, “That’s George Washington, the first President of the United States.” We don’t have to think about it. We just know it.
As we enter God’s art gallery and begin to look at the masterpieces that were painted by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we need to know who the subject of the paintings is. Whose picture is on display here? “That’s obvious,” you say, “it’s Jesus Christ.”
Yes, but who exactly is Jesus Christ? In order to fully understand the events of His life, we need to be certain of His true identity. And the problem is that, within society, if you ask people, “Who is Jesus Christ?”, you’ll receive a wide variety of answers. Most all will say He was a good man. Many acknowledge Him as a good teacher, perhaps even a prophet.
However, it is only a Christian who will say that Jesus Christ is God. Even certain other religious groups that claim to follow Him will say that He is the Son of God, but He is not God. According to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, He existed as the archangel, Michael, before His earthly ministry.
My presumption, hope, and prayer is that I don’t need to convince you of the deity of Jesus Christ. However, it is important to know not just what we believe, but also why we believe it. In addition, we need to be equipped to give an answer to those who come knocking on our doors, wearing suits and ties with name tags that say, “Elder Johnson.” Rather than simply closing the door on them because we do not share their beliefs and regard them as a nuisance, we ought to be able to invite them in and share with them the true identity of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, I would beg your patience as, before delving into the Gospels, I take some time (hopefully not too much) to focus on the deity of Jesus Christ as it is presented within the Bible.
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