When God is mocked

Photo by Peter Robbins on Unsplash

The last time I tuned into the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony live was 1998, when I heard an archer was going to fire an arrow into the air to light the Olympic Torch.

Before then, my only other memory of watching an opening ceremony live was in 1984, when someone flew around the grounds in Los Angeles with a jetpack.

“That will be how we get around soon,” my dad said while we were watching.

So no, I did not watch the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Games while it was happening.

But I did DVR it.

Just in case.

The way-too-close-to-be-accidental parallel to Da Vinci’s The Last Supper began to make its way around social media before the ceremony ended. I went back and looked at it for myself and then scanned the rest of the ceremony and this was my conclusion:

Yes, the feast motif was meant to evoke the feast of Dionysus in Greek mythology (the Olympics originated in Greece) and it was a nod to French history (think the late 1800s and Moulin Rouge, etc.).

But the similarities between the positioning of the talent in the ceremony along with Da Vinci’s depiction of the Last Supper are too many to be accidental.

“My wish isn’t to be subversive, nor to mock or to shock,” Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the Opening Ceremonies, told the Associated Press. “Most of all, I wanted to send a message of love, a message of inclusion and not at all to divide.”

If you — as I — believe the scene was a subtle message about Christianity, the inference is the artistic director sees much of Christianity as exclusive and divisive.

Newsflash. He’s not wrong.

Yes, Jesus beckons whosoever to come to faith in Him (Mark 8:34). The Bible says He loves the entire world (John 3:16). The invitation to follow Him is open to anyone. That’s quite inclusive.

However, Jesus plainly states that the only path to salvation is through Him (John 14:6). That’s exclusive. He says He will acknowledge in Heaven those who acknowledge Him before men, but will deny those in Heaven who deny His father here (Matthew 10:32-33).

So the message of Jesus since He walked the earth has been one that some have chosen to follow, while others have rejected. As a result, Christianity has been mocked since its inception.

The term “Christian” was actually a term of derision put upon the early followers of Christ. It was not a compliment. Jesus was mocked at the crucifixion. Pockets of society have mocked Christians since then.

Maybe events such as the Olympic Ceremony or the recent “unholy” performance by Sam Smith at the Grammys is a shock to our system because it hasn’t been common to see it mocked on such a grand scale on national television because, well, Christians buy things too and why go out of your way to offend a whole bunch of consumers?

And yes, maybe there is a societal slippage that gives some a little more comfort room to express these things. But, make no mistake, this isn’t new.

The exclusive claims of Jesus and His followers are offensive to some.

The central question, however, is how should a Christian respond?

The account of Jesus taken to the site of His crucifixion is mentioned in the 23rd chapter of Luke. Soldiers sarcastically call him King of the Jews and rulers mock his authority by telling Him to save Himself from the cross if He was what his followers said.

Jesus replied by praying to God: “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.”

That is much more than just a simple statement of passivity. Jesus meant exactly what He said. They don’t know what they’re doing.

Sin clouds minds and darkens hearts.

In the 17th chapter of Acts, Paul observed all kinds of pagan idols in Athens. The intellectual elite of the day called him a “babbler.” Paul responded by reasoning with those gathered at the Aeropagus. He delivered the gospel and did not hold the tough parts out. He urged them to repent.

Some still mocked him.

But some believed, including a man who scholars believe was the judge of the Aeropagus.

As it turns out, his name was Dionysius.

It was just understood for much of the last 2,000 years that professing faith in Christ meant opening yourself to being mocked (or worse). We happen to have lived in a pocket where we saw that less than normal.

Mocking will occur. I guarantee it did not catch God by surprise. Our response is to continue to spread the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ by grace through faith.

But Lance, doesn’t it make you angry that neither the Grammys, nor the Olympics, nor any other high-profile event could get away with (or even consider) mocking any other religion except probably Judaism?

Yes. I do not like seeing things that are sacred to me mocked. I don’t like double standards. I don’t like much of anything about this.

But billions were focused on the Olympics Friday. And thanks to an artisitc director who thought it would be cute to juxtapose an image of Jesus and His disciples sharing a meal before his earthly death with an LBGTQ+ advocate and a few drag queens, all of a sudden people are interested in the Last Supper and Christianity when they otherwise wouldn’t have thought about it at all.

And Christians blew it.

“Last Supper Olympics” was one of the most searched Google terms on the day after the opening ceremony.

The generic “Last Supper” search increased by a factor of 100 when compared to any time over the past year other than the Easter weekend.

“Last Supper” Google Search

Just as many or more went to Facebook out of curiosity where they were met with a lot of social media rage over the incident, but practically no sharing of the gospel.

Jesus said the soldiers and rulers putting Him on the cross didn’t know what they were doing. If they had known they were fulfilling a plan that would bring salvation to the world and crumble their own kingdoms, they never would have done so. Instead, they crucified Jesus, He rose, His spirit-led followers moved about telling everyone they could about Him, and Christianity exploded across the world.

Thomas Jolly had no idea he’d create such a spike in interest about the Last Supper/Christianity, and Christians responded to this opportunity by boiling over in anger.

We had the world’s attention for a moment and we responded with a tantrum.

What an awesome opportunity to tell the world that Jesus took a group of men and beckoned them to follow Him, but to do so they were going to need to give up their identity in exchange for His, and over the next 2 1/2 years they experienced things they never would have experienced by themselves in a boat or in a tax collector’s booth.

And He loved them, and they loved Him because they saw in Him what they could never be on their own. And because of that love, their last meal together was such a powerful moment that it later became one of the most famous works of art in history.

It does not matter if we are a tax collector, a fisherman, a teacher, a tentmaker, a radio show host, a plumber, a drag queen or the artistic director of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. Jesus beckons us to exchange our identity for His. He calls us to much more than we could be on our own and it’s the best exchange history has ever given us.

The world will turn its direction toward us again at some point. How will we respond?