Piss Christ

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him.

—1 Timothy 1:15-17

B R E A K - I N S

Last week, I discovered a homeless man asleep in the educational wing at our church. Our church cares for the homeless on a regular basis, and these kinds of things happen from time to time. So when someone breaks in, we always treat them with grace and try to do everything we can to help them.

But this particular man was different. I knew him. He used to do some handyman jobs at our church, but ended up finding a full time gig as a sexton at one of our sister churches.

He and his wife began having trouble in their marriage and divorced. He took it hard and started drinking heavily, which ended up impacting his job at the and he was let go.

Not knowing what else to do, he began living on the streets.

I didn’t know this until I saw him asleep that evening in the educational wing. When I woke him, I startled him. He apologized for breaking in, but said if he slept outside that night, he might freeze to death.

And he was right. He would have.

I asked him to stand up. As I moved closer to him, he winced and put his fists up. I think he thought I was angry and was going to be violent with him, so I spread my arms open wide and said, "Come here. This is a very shitty season. I'm sorry. I didn't know you were on the streets."

He received my embrace, buried his head in my shoulder, and began sobbing. He wreaked of urine, feces, and layers of body odor.

I asked him to come downstairs and follow me into the nave. I gave him a blanket, a pillow, some money for food, and showed him how to get up into apse where the organ pipes used to live.

I told him that staying there couldn't be permanent, but that he could stay until the cold passed. He started sobbing again, hugged me again, genuflected by one of the pews, and headed up into the apse.

I went home that night smelling like piss, feces, and excrement from the hugs. The aroma was so strong that it was making me gag. I threw everything I was wearing into the wash… with extra soap.

A R T W O R K

There’s a photograph titled, “Immersion (Piss Christ)” by American photographer Andres Serrano. He took the picture in 1987. It depicts a small, plastic crucifix submerged in a glass tank of urine. It was the winner of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art's "Awards in the Visual Arts" competition, an event sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The work is blasphemous to many, but I’ve always found it to be beautiful. Why? Because it depicts the very environment that Christ is seeking. Christ wants to be with us in the waste of everything leftover from all that we’ve consumed. For this is, in fact what “piss” is— the leftovers— everything that our body neither wants, nor can use.

But Christ can.

G O B A C K

Jesus sought to meet people at the bottom. Not to change them, but to love them. And out of that love, reminding them of their worth, so that they might begin building a better life.

The Gospel Of Matthew says this;

Jesus asked, “To what can I compare this generation?

They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: “‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’

—Matthew 11:16-18

Perhaps you think there's more to Jesus than that? But regardless, this is where we have to start.

If all that you believe about Jesus only has to do with Heaven and Hell, who is right and wrong— turn around. Step back a few paces. You've skipped over a beautiful truth that should only get more beautiful with age.