Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem
The Names and Titles of God (Image of God) 2 Corinthians 4:4
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
King James Version
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Boston's Symphony Hall is renowned for its wonderful acoustics. Stadiums, on the other hand, are considered a nightmare for Sound Technicians. Imagine my wonder and delight last Thursday when the SOUND at Gillette Stadium (Home of the New England Patriots) was perfect for the Rolling Stones Concert that I attended with two of my sisters. The Sound Engineering was so excellent that Mick Jagger was actually able to converse with the audience of over 35,000 Boomers and be understood by all. He mused that this was his 100th Concert at the venue, and that the Stones were the first act to play the Stadium 60 years ago. He quipped that "We played here even before the Patriots did!" Not only could we hear every note of every song, but the huge crowd sang along, and their voices could be heard as well. I had gone to the concert expecting a noise level like that of a Jumbo Jet taking off, or echoes across the stadium that would spoil the music, but that is NOT what happened at all. Of course, if you do something every day for 60 years, you are bound to get it right.
But...let's get back to Symphony Hall. Even on a Travel Site, there is talk about the Magnificent Acoustics. It is a mystery to me, how this can possibly be, as the theater is a huge, shoebox-shaped cavernous space. There are balconies, but they hug the walls and don't do much to baffle the sound. No matter where you sit (and I have sat just about everywhere in Symphony Hall) the Sound is great. Except for the seats and the velvet handrails on the balcony, it's all hard surfaces, a nightmare for any Sound Technician. What's their secret?
Perhaps the secret to the sound is in the statues that surround the hall just over the second balcony. Done in the Classical manner, these statues represent the gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece, in various stages of undress. As a child, I spent many Saturdays at the Young People's Concerts, usually conducted by Harry Ellis Dickson, but occasionally by Leonard Bernstein. And, of course, there was the Pops with Arthur Fiedler. While I should have had my eyes on the stage as I enjoyed the music, my eyes kept wandering up to those naked statues. Dad explained that the Ancient Greeks worshiped the Human Body, and depicted their gods this way because they thought it was beautiful. Well, OK, that made sense, but to a little ten-year old girl, those statues were quite distracting.
There was a reason God gave us the Commandment concerning Graven Images. When we depict God in Art, we can't help but create Him in our own image, and make Him look the way WE want Him to look. The fat little many-breasted fertility idols of Ancient Mesopotamia may look offensive to us, but the perfectly proportioned Adonis is just as much a human invention. I even cringe a little when I see some pictures of Jesus of Nazareth, that depict Him as a golden-haired waif-like youth, when He probably looked more like a Rugged Middle Eastern Jewish Carpenter. In fact, Isaiah says in his "Servant Songs"
"He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.(Isaiah 53:2 NIV)"
There was even a movement in the Early Church to destroy all depictions of Jesus, called the Iconoclastic Controversy. That is one extreme. The other extreme is that there is actually a depiction of God The Father with a bare backside on the Sistine Chapel Ceiling. As magnificent as Michelangelo's work is, he was definitely creating God in his own image with that one.
In Today's Passage of Scripture, Jesus is called "The Image of God". Knowing how the Jewish People felt about images, how do we make sense of this Name?
Once again, context is important. The sentence speaks of the activities of satan the "god of this world", who blinds people to the Light of the Gospel. This is like the Greek Statues in Symphony Hall, distracting me from the Music. The statues themselves are gorgeous art, but they are the invention of human beings. The Greek Word that is used in this Passage describing Jesus is εἰκών (eikon, Strong's 1504)
In this context, it means that Jesus is an exact representation of the Godhead. When we look at Him, we are looking at God.
Come and Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.
For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. (Mark 4:22)
God Bless America.
Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.
Hallelujah and Amen
ML/LTOS