Piss Christ

I met a guy recently who knew I was a Christian, and this made him want to have a little fun with me, I think. To test out what that means and what it doesn't. He asked me if I knew about Andres Serrano's controversial photograph, Piss Christ. The artist took a crucifix and submerged it in a jar of his urine and then photographed it. The results are striking. What is in fact his urine looks like it could also be amber. He asked me what I thought. I said that I thought it was a beautiful photograph, and that the joke is on the artist. Christ will be fine. Meanwhile this guy is fooling around with his own waste. 

Our conversation made me think more about what we do when we try to degrade Christ (and I don't mean to ascribe intent to the artist. I know nothing about him. The scenario itself posed the sacrilege interpretation). It seems to me that humans could hardly bring Christ lower than be brings himself, willingly and for our sake. In Mark 7, when Jesus heals a deaf and mute man, he puts his fingers in the man's ears. He touches his tongue. This suggests Jesus isn't afraid of our bodies or of what comes from them, our ear wax, our spit, our piss. But he longs to see us, bodies and souls, healed and put right. And he lets his own body be broken and his own blood be spilled to bring that about.

It strikes me that there is a crazy hubris in imagining we can cheapen Christ. I don't mean to suggest that irreverence isn't a real thing. But when Christ's premise is to impoverish himself so that we can be rich, it seems like the joke will always be on us if we oppose him.