I was thinking today about Thomas Kinkade and the fact that I don't seem to despise him nearly as much as many of my friends do, and about art in general, about which we've discussed some thoughts before in the past.
And I was pondering one of my favorite paintings, by Norman Rockwell:
Here is a blurb about this painting:
Some of Rockwell’s most powerful creations came out of his years with "Look." One such piece was inspired by the unjust murders of three civil rights workers near Philadelphia, Mississippi. The painting, “Southern Justice,” was done in 1965 and depicts the horror endured by three young men, two white and one black [James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwermer], who had come to Mississippi in the fight for equality. One man is seen lying dead in the foreground; the next is standing in the glow of the attacker’s torch while defending the third man, who appears near death.
Though this painting is not very "Kinkadian", the question for me is whether the sentiment it expresses is Biblical, and whether it's a skillful work, worth thinking about. I think so, for two reasons.
First, its goal (as a work of art) is to promote racial equality (Rockwell left the Saturday Evening Post after working for them for 47 years, because they told him "never to show coloured people except as servants". Rockwell's decision fits with the Bible's portrayal as all the world of ONE race and endowed by the Creator with unalienable human rights, contrary to the racism inherent from the theory of evolution. And it fits with the mission of "seeking justice" and "defending the fatherless" that God has commissioned His people to engage in. Our primary task is "making disciples" of Jesus - fishing for men in light of the extremely high stakes of eternity. But meanwhile we are the salt of the earth, and without a doubt this influence cannot ignore our host country's political structure.
Second, I find so much beauty in the portrayal of the standing man holding up the other man. I remember standing in front of this painting in the Norman Rockwell museum being literally stunned by the force of the standing man's gaze (he has piercing blue eyes, which are hard to see in the online pictures). The look in his eye says, "Go ahead. Shoot me. But I will not run away - I will not cease from helping this black man who is my friend." This "rugged individualism" is not really "American" in origin, although it is one of the most beautiful things that the American culture has preserved for the world. (...though particular strengths are often tied to related excesses/sins...) Instead, this insistence on doing what is right even when it is unpopular or "goes against what society considers right" is Biblical (contrast with the atheist/agnostic's relativistic/cultural view of morality if you have some time).
I find myself empathizing strongly with the standing guy. Of all ways to die, how wonderful it would be to die while helping someone else, seeking justice and the glory of God and others' salvation, in an ending which the world might consider "tragic" but which God remembers with approval. (Indeed God Himself experienced this... He died on our behalf while saving us from our sins... He voluntarily submitted to death at our hands, so that He could save those of us who believe in Him...) Truly "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
Yet it is amazing to realize that I can glorify God even in the mundane, everyday moments of life... choosing to die to self and obey God's direction... and amazing that God will not forget even the slightest act. Not just the moment of our death, but literally everything is significant and will be scrutinized on that Day.
Soli Deo Gloria - To God alone be glory. May God be exalted in my life.
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