“I am the good shepherd; I
know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
St. John 10:14-15
“It may well be the only tattoo that
pays for itself” read the boldly colored sign.
Last Sunday my family and I were down in North Carolina for my college
reunion. We met up with some friends for
lunch at Bull City Burger and Brew, one of Durham’s many new hipster
eateries. The poster on the bathroom
wall was advertising the restaurant’s latest marketing campaign, a partnership
with a neighboring tattoo parlor. A Bull
City Burger logo tattooed on your body (in one of the authorized forms,
measuring at least three inches in diameter) would get you a 25% discount on
all burger orders, for the rest of your life.
A new frontier in advertising, perhaps—certainly more staying power than
a Facebook ad. I walked out of the
bathroom, scanning the biceps of my fellow patrons, to see if any had decided
to take the plunge.
Of course, when you begin looking
around at any establishment that serves a mostly younger crowd, you will see
plenty of tattoos. The most recent stats
I discovered indicate that 21% of American adult admit to having a tattoo and
the totals for people my age, in their thirties, go up to 38%, nearly 2 in 5.[1] Tattoo parlors show more growth than nearly
any other kind of retail establishment.
Long gone are the days when only bikers and sailors got inked, and
increasing numbers of women, professionals and celebrities have gone under the
needle in recent years.
One of my best friends, a priest,
got a tattoo a few months ago, Saint Benedict’s raven on his forearm. I was
talking with him about it. It was a bit
hard for me to get my head around his decision, being rather skittish about
needles and uncertain about anything on my skin that lasts forever. But my friend was sure it was the right
decision. He had chosen the symbol
carefully, and it was a way of marking a new phase in his life in a way he
would never forget. My friend had enjoyed talking with the tattoo artist as
well over the several hours it took to etch it into his skin. The artist talked about how there’s a story
behind every job, something deeply felt and spiritual. People get tattoos to show what means the
most to them, and they are a way to belong to something deeper and more significant. “You’re a little bit like a priest, you
know,” my friend joked with the tattoo artist.
“You might be right about that,” he replied.
There’s something in all that about
a need to belong, a need to be claimed by something bigger and more significant
than yourself. My generation is notoriously
skittish about institutions and commitments.
We put off marriage, ridicule authority figures and hesitate to join
organizations, the church included. And
yet, unlike any generation in recent memory, it seems right to us to mark our
bodies with these indelible symbols: the flag, the name of our beloved, an
ancient Chinese character or a Celtic knot, maybe even the Cross. At the deepest level, I don’t think we
believe that rather foolish story about being a self-made man, a woman of our
own mind any more than any generation before really has. We just want to belong, to know a kind of
commitment that will not be broken.
When I was doing one-on-one visits
in the prison a few months ago, one of the inmates told me that when he gets
out, the first thing he will do is go and get a tattoo of the Cross on his
arm. He’s met Jesus behind bars, and
he’s found Jesus more steadfast and reliable than anyone else who has ever been
in his life. He finds great joy in his
faith and in being part of His Body, the Church. You should see how they make their communions
in the jail—such reverence and attention.
They put most of us to shame. He
wants a tattoo of the Cross to show the world that he has been claimed by Jesus
Christ. And when he first started tell
me, I was going to suggest that maybe a nice cross on a necklace might be a
better idea, but I stopped myself—or maybe the Holy Spirit stopped me, and let
him go on and nodded my approval.
Because why not get a tattoo of the
Cross? What better sign of belonging, of
unbreakable commitment, of profound love could there be? I read somewhere recently that Egyptian
Christians have begun tattooing their children with a cross on the
forearm. These are dangerous days there
with radical Islam rising in power. The
temptations to renounce Christ may be strong there in the uncertain days
ahead. “The people of the cross”—that’s
what the ISIS terrorists called the Libyan martyrs. Why not put it out there
for all to see: marked as Christ’s own forever.
“I am the Good Shepherd,” Jesus
tells his disciples. “I know my own and
my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my
life for the sheep.”[2] The Good Shepherd marks out his own, like a
rancher brands his cattle. And this is
the sign of belonging to Him, the sign of the price He has paid for us—the Holy
Cross.
“His Name shall be written on their
foreheads.”[3] That’s how Saint John described the company
of the saints in heaven. His Name—the
sign of His possession, the mark of His saving work. His name was written upon us in Baptism, when
the priest took the holy chrism and marked His sign on our foreheads. The hymn puts it this way:
Each
newborn servant of the crucified
Bears
on the brow the seal of Him who died.[4]
He is the Good Shepherd because He
leads us in the right paths, and He is the good shepherd because He feeds us
with wholesome food. He is the good
Shepherd because He protects us from danger and stands by us in the darkest
days. But there are others who also can
care for us in those ways. What is
distinctive about Jesus our Good Shepherd is that He lays down His life for
us. This is the price He has paid. This is how far He will go, even to the Cross
for us. As Saint Paul told the elders at
Ephesus, He has “purchased the flock with His own blood.”[5] And this is a price He pays freely. “I lay it down of my own accord,” He tells
His disciples. “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up
again.”[6] Our Epistle lesson makes explicit what lies
behind those words, “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us.”[7] The sign of the Cross endures forever because
nothing in life or death is stronger than the love of God in Jesus Christ our
Lord.
The Cross shows what has been done
for us. It reveals the grace that has
delivered us from sin and death, made us free in the beloved. And it also marks out the path we must follow
behind our faithful Shepherd. “He laid
down his life for us-- and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.”[8] We must love, “not in word and speech, but in
truth and action.”[9] John speaks of the person in need, the one
who lacks the help we can provide. How
can we refuse him our help when we have been helped so completely, loved when
we were so unworthy? Christ has made us
part of His flock so that we may be shepherds for others—so that we may guide
them when perplexed and feed them when hungry, and stand by them in the valley
of the shadow of death.
This is the call of the Stephen
Ministers, who will talk about their work among the distressed during coffee
hour today. And it’s part of the
ministry of hospitality we will plan about tomorrow, and the work we are doing
together this month at the Lord’s Table and at the Jail. It’s what we do as parents and employers,
teachers, coaches and Scout Leaders, fireman and police officers: laying down
our lives, giving freely because we have freely received. We have been marked. His sign, His Name, is etched on our
brows. It’s the only tattoo that truly
lasts forever.
In the Name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
[1] “One in Five Adults Now Has a Tattoo.” Harris Interactive. http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom/HarrisPolls/tabid/447/mid/1508/articleId/970/ctl/ReadCustom%20Default/Default.aspx. 23 Feb 2012.
[2] John 10:14-15.
[3] Rev. 22:4.
[4] Hymn 473, “Lift High the
Cross” (1982 Hymnal).
[5] Acts 20:28.
[6] John 10:18.
[7] I John 3:16.
[8] I John 3:16.
[9] I John 3:18.
No comments:
Post a Comment