Some music for your auditory and visual pleasure

"Death In His Grave"
John Mark McMillan

Though the Earth Cried out for blood
Satisfied her hunger was
Her billows calmed on raging seas
for the souls on men she craved

Sun and moon from balcony
Turned their head in disbelief
Their precious Love would taste the sting
disfigured and disdained

On Friday a thief
On Sunday a King
Laid down in grief
But awoke with keys
Of Hell on that day
The first born of the slain
The Man Jesus Christ
Laid death in his grave

So three days in darkness slept
The Morning Sun of righteousness
But rose to shame the throes of death
And over turn his rule

Now daughters and the sons of men
Would pay not their dues again
The debt of blood they owed was rent
When the day rolled a new

On Friday a thief
On Sunday a King
Laid down in grief
But awoke holding keys
To Hell on that day
The first born of the slain
The Man Jesus Christ
Laid death in his grave

On Friday a thief
On Sunday a King
Laid down in grief
But awoke with keys
Of Hell on that day
The first born of the slain
The Man Jesus Christ
Laid death in his grave

He has cheated
Hell and seated
Us above the fall
In desperate places
He paid our wages
One time once and for all

Dual Credit

This is "Ma Jolie". I did a presentation over it not too long ago.

Are any of you familiar with Picasso? Did any of you know him personally?  Do any of you have his art hanging on your walls?  Have you ever taken a semester long course all about his life and works?  (Oh golly, quelle class!) << name that movie reference for extra credit >>

Well, if weren't able to answer yes to any of the above, then I hope you get the bonus points I just offered because I don't have the time to give a lecture right now. I know a lot about him, though, believe me!  You can study him all on your own here.

My professor's awesome. He knows tons of Picasso facts and he let us English speakers write our in-class essay tests in English!  He gets my vote as far as teaching goes and this post is not a criticism of his abilities. It's a criticism of mine.

I have this problem.  There's a filter in my brain that causes me to focus on information in my professors' lectures that to them is a minor detail.  For example, while I don't doubt that Byron's Manfred is simply brilliant and says oodles about whatever the Romantics had to say about life, all I think of is how the wretched guy wanted forgiveness and didn't go to the right places to get it.  My lit professor at the time didn't see this as a significant point.  In my cultural geography class (this is a field of study I find hard to explain, but it's fascinating), I saw how the phenomena of graffiti originated because the writers had a desperate desire to be known and to let the world know they exist. (Sound like Anyone Else we know?) My professor there doesn't disagree, he just hoped that I would take away something different from the video.

Sometimes I get so lost in what the material shows me about the human condition that I don't see what I am supposed to be learning until my teachers point it out to me bluntly (after I have raised my hand and answered the question, wrongly, for all to hear).

None of this bothers me.  I kind of like it, even, and sometimes I get kind of smug (which is wrong). I realize that I have knowledge my teachers don't have. I realize that I had the ability to better understand Milton's Paradise Lost as an untaught freshman than some scholars who have studied it for more years than I have been alive.  It shouldn't make me smug.  It should make me sad, probably a little angry, and mostly determined.

But I digress.  PICASSO.  Oh, that man!  Sometimes he makes me want to cry for his pathetic plight and other times I wish he were still alive so that I could shake him until he decided to fall to his knees and ACCEPT THE TRUTH.

Today we watched a video detailing one of his crucifixion paintings.  Look it up, if you want. I was frustrated, to say the least, of what this Catholic-raised man had made of it--he knew better. I was saddened by everyone else's ignorance. And then I got angry about the grotesque elements involved in its creation--namely, the many studies Picasso did on the subject.  Don't look them up.

I was so irritated with the whole lot of them (Picasso, the dumb narrator who pronounced "grimacing" as "grim-ACE-ing", my professor, and all the other people in the world that think he's just the bees' knees) that I was on a righteous tirade in my head to God.

And then, the boom-snap.  The, "Oh dang."  The, "Dude."

In other words: the conviction.

As the narrator talked about the many grotesque and blasphemous studies he said something like this: "It's really like looking at the journal of what Picasso was going through at the time, struggling with his faith and everything that was going wrong in his life."

Crap.

His journal.

I have a journal and I don't always write glorifying things in it.  Stupid pride.

That word made me remember that Picasso was a real man. He was a man in need of Grace and Mercy, just like I am in need of them, and all the while he drew those things and painted those things and went from woman to woman to find satisfaction in life, God was there the whole time, loving him, pursuing him, being sad for him, and always ready to forgive him.  When I thought of things that way, the sad irony of Picasso's crucifixion painting made me love Jesus even more, and it made me remember not to be so judgmental.

It was a weird and humbling moment when I identified with Picasso and I didn't really like it. But it made me remember that this whole class is really all about one man's struggle with not accepting the grace and lordship of Christ in his life and the consequences he and others suffered because of it. That makes it kind of ministerially relevant, doesn't it? How funny that I get college credit for it, too!

I don't really know what my professor wanted me to get out of the video or the painting, but his test isn't the one that concerns me the most :)