Concerning Himself, by Michael Mize

I feel like we just got to ride on a missile.

Mind. Blown.

Pretty much everything I thought I knew about Jesus is really nothing in comparison.

I am more in love with Jesus after that encounter than I’ve ever been.

Just a few of the comments I received after this past week’s service with Michael Mize. Before I get into some of it here, let me throw a couple of helpful links your way:

Follow the whole series here.
Listen to the whole service here.
Find more of Michael’s artwork here.

Incarnate
From the beginning, it had to be Michael to depict Incarnate. He is a deep thinker. He is well read. He is a passionate follower of Jesus. He also radically changed his life a few years ago to be more intentional with the festivals and feasts of the Old Testament. This comes out in waves in his painting and his explanation of it. As a family they observe these key events on the Jewish calendar. They worship on the Sabbath. When Michael speaks of these events, he does so from a place of immersion. It’s not just book knowledge for him. It is something that he has chosen to live out and experience as best as he knows how.

In some instances, this lifestyle choice can come across as legalistic or even judgmental. It’s possible to be so consumed by the rituals that one forgets what in the world they were established for in the first place. But you get none of that with Michael. There is a furious inquisitiveness that seeps out of Michael. This is cushioned by a gentleness of soul that invites you in on his journey. I felt like that is exactly what happened to us on Sunday morning. That furious inquisitiveness took us on a journey with his gentle soul.

The context for the work is Jesus walking with two disciples from Jerusalem to Emmaus after the events of the crucifixion and resurrection in Luke. We are told that these two disciples were still processing the events of Passover, trying to figure out how it all fit into their expectations of Jesus.

And Jesus (unknown to them at the time) spends a half day with these guys explaining to them how it all fits from the Scriptures. Of course, the Scriptures back then would have only been what we commonly refer to now as the Old Testament. Basically, Jesus takes their entire life experience as a Jew and shows them how it all pointed to Jesus.

Michael conceptualizes this through symbolically representing the 7 key events of the Jewish calendar. He works these in, working from the left foreground, back and around to the right foreground. Michael expertly navigates these in our interview with not just a deep understanding of what these days are, but how Jesus ‘incarnates’ them for the Jews. This is by no means an exhaustive list of what we talked about, but these were the highlights for me.

Passover – The blood on the doorposts is written in shape of the letter that represents the word ‘life’ in Hebrew. So as people are painting on the doorposts, they are actually painting the word ‘life’ on their house.

Unleavened Bread – Unleavened bread was grilled and broken and hidden and found. Just like Jesus – he was whipped, broken, buried, and found (resurrected).

First Fruits – Jesus was the first fruit of the resurrection, with the nod to the strips of linen.

Pentecost – When the law was first given, there was thunder, lightning, and down in the camp 3,000 people lost their lives while worshiping a golden calf. On the day of Pentecost in Acts, there was thunder and a great wind upon the people as 3,000 put their faith in Jesus.

Tabernacles – The concept that God has chosen to make His dwelling among us is central to the story of God. From the days of the exodus and the instruction to build the Tabernacle in the middle of the tribes, to Christ who made His dwelling in the middle of his people.

Day of Atonement – The two different but necessary goats. One goat to take away the sin of the people. The other goat to cover the sin by being sacrificed. Jesus does the work of both goats.

There are so many more details and nuances in the painting, but you NEED to listen to the whole interview to catch them all. At the bare minimum, what I hope people walk away with are 4 BIG THOUGHTS.

Big Thought 1: Jesus fulfills EVERYTHING foreshadowed in the Old Testament.
Every prophecy. Every festival. Every ritual. God put glimpses of Jesus inside all of it. He left so many clues – some obvious, some not-so-obvious – because He did not want His people to miss Jesus.

Big Thought 2: Jesus becomes the 2nd Adam, the physical sacrifice.
All throughout the story of God we are told that there is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood, AND that God will provide the sacrifice. This brings us all the way back to Genesis 3 when sin first enters the story. Sin has always cost an innocent life. And God has always had to provide that payment. The sacrificial system was set up to remind us of this. The Incarnation is God’s solution to handling this once and for all.

Big Thought 3: Puts physical nature of humanity in proper perspective.
So often we have this incorrect understanding of sin. “If it tastes good, feels good, or is physically pleasurable in any way – it’s probably sin. Only the spiritual is good.” Wrong. God created these senses. It was part of his design and heart for us to experience them. It’s been warped and abused and misused. It’s been weaponized and applied in the wrong contexts. By Jesus putting on flesh, it reminds us that we are wonderfully and creatively made. Physical. Emotional. Intellectual. Spiritual. And maybe the lines between these are not as clear as we would first think.

Big Thought 4: Jesus unequivocally answers the question, “What is God like?”
This is the most important Big Thought. God did not leave who He is or what He is like up to interpretation. He put flesh and blood on His answer. He put date and time on His answer. He lived out His character for all to see.

Lingering Thoughts…
For those who are investigating Jesus, I hope you are moved beyond the caricature of Jesus that you think you know. The good teacher, moral leader, nice guy that can be brushed off as someone whose followers have stepped off the deep end.

I hope particularly after this first word you begin to understand that Jesus was and is and will always be THE plan by God to redeem humanity. That Jesus didn’t just happen or was Plan B. I hope you can at least begin to recognize the detail and thought and planning that God went through to make the Incarnation a reality for us.

I also hope we Christ-followers see the ramifications of the Incarnation. Christ now ‘incarnates’ His church to live out the Gospel to all the world. The church is designed to incarnate God to a lost world. We don’t stand to judge the world – not our job. We aren’t here to be the morality police. We are here to live out Jesus. There will be some who resist and reject. There will be some who don’t understand.

But there are hundreds of people who don’t understand Jesus simply because they’ve never seen Him lived out in front of them. So, just as the Father sent the Son…the Son with the power of the Holy Spirit sends us.

Let’s go be the Church.