On my work one day I saw a man painting a mural high on the corner of a building near a parking lot. I was curious as to what it was exactly that he was painting, as the mural itself looked to be a bunch of flesh tone boxes. As I drove on in my confusion I began to be annoyed by what passes for art in today's society. Throughout my shift I was annoyed by this, at that time unfinished work, admittedly more than I should have been. It wasn't until the following Monday on my commute that I saw the finished product
I was a traffic light and I stopped and looked at it and realized what it really is, a painting of the Savior with his face pixelated. Commentary of religious censorship in America not withstanding, the work of art has stuck with me for weeks and I find myself reflecting on this faceless Messiah. Ultimately I came back to this:
Just as many were astonished at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men.- Isaiah 52
Have you ever thought about this? That man was created to bear the image of God, and there on that cross God was unrecognizable as he bore the image of a man? Our Christ, Yeshua, the Savior, the Messiah, King of Kings and Lord of Lords who was there at man's creation and said:
“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” - Gen 1
We were born to bear the image of God. I cant help but think about how in our sins, we are the ones that are unrecognizable to our purpose. We are the ones that act like animals, carnal, rebellious and unreasonable. In our flesh we are hostile to the purpose of God, and Christ on that cross took all of that. There is no forgiveness without the recognition of sin, and we must look upon that cross knowing that it testifies that our behavior has not been of God. We must recognize that when we continue on in our sin we make the Christ unrecognizable in the world. I think about Moses
So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; intercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.” And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.- Numbers 21
Could it be said that they were looking upon a reflection of their action? That they were looking at heir deeds and acknowledging that they had walked in the manner of the serpent, the adversary, the enemy. When they recognized that God was the only one that can save, just as we look at our Beloved on the cross, when they accepted their guilt, then there and only there can there be redemption. One cannot have forgivingness if they refuse to acknowledge that they have committed an offense. Our pride and our self will and our arrogance in defiance of God makes unrecognizable as His children. Our rejection of the sacrifice of the Messiah, makes us unrecognizable as believers.
Our rejection of God's ways, God's commands, and God's Law, makes us unrecognizable to the Messiah
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ - Matt 7
I'm fortunate for the pixelated mural on the way to work, because it puts me in the mindset that I can be recognized as a Son of the living God, redeemed, forgiven.... because of his work becoming unrecognizable as a man.
