Jesus sent to the electric chair and not the Cross

Thursday, April 09, 2009
Jesus sent to the electric chair and not the Cross



Frankreich: Proteste gegen Jesus auf elektrischem Stuhl « DiePresse.com

France: Protests against Jesus in electric chair

A sculpture by British artist Paul Fryer shows Jesus in the electric chair. It is on display in the French town of Gap. The Bishop of Gap defends the work of art.

Crown of thorns, long hair, beard, a wound in the side, arms, feet and hands pierced, a downward sloping head: A picture of Jesus which can be seen in every church. But the sculpture "Pieta" by British artist Paul Fryer shows Jesus in this well known pose not on the Cross, but in the electric chair. Since the weekend the artwork can be seen in the Cathedral of Gap in the French Alps - and has guaranteed controversy, reported Kathpress. Bishop Jean-Michel di Falco has already received protest letters against the sculpture, the Paris newspaper Le Figaro reports.

Bishop: The sculpture is not scandalous

Di Falco, however, is a proponent of the "Pieta". If Jesus had been sentenced today, he would have to reckon with the electric chair or other barbaric methods of execution, says the bishop. Scandalous is therefore "not Jesus in the electric chair, but the indifference to his crucifixion."

The artwork belongs to the collection of the French entrepreneur François Pinault, who loaned it to the Diocese of Gap for Holy Week. Whether the work is then to be shown in a museum or a church is not yet decided, the TV station "France3" reported.
Cathcon: the same Bishop criticised the Pope over condoms so no wonder he ventures on the path of fideism where the historical reality represented by the wood of the Cross no longer matters in our Redemption.

http://cathcon.blogspot.com/2009/04/jesus-sent-to-electric-chair-and-not.html
New Testament professor D.A. Carson on the scandal of the cross (Cross and Christian Ministry):

What would you think if a woman came to work wearing earrings stamped with an image of the mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima?

What would you think of a church buidling adorned with a fresco of the massed graves at Auschwitz?

Both visions are grotesque. They are not only intrinsically abhorrent, but they are shocking because of powerful cultural associations.

The same sort of shocked horror was associated with the cross and crucifixion in the first century. Apart from the emperor’ explicit sanction, no Roman citizen could be put to death by this means. Crucifixion was reserved for slaves, aliens, barbarians. Many thought it was not something to be talked about in polite company. Quite apart from the wretched torture inflicted on those who were executed by hanging from a cross, the cultural associations conjured up images of evil, corruption, abysmal rejection.

Yet today, crosses adorn our buildings and letterheads, grace our bishops, shine from lapels, and dangle from our ears–and no one is scandalized. It is this cultural distance from the first century that makes it so hard for us to feel the compelling irony of 1 Corinthians 1:18: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

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