Meme Jesus
I know that many people will at some point be doing a post on Jesus being used in memes, but hopefully I can give a perspective and ask some questions that are somewhat unique to the topic. Here I have inserted a meme that is an image of Jesus and in this post I want to focus on memes, how they portray Jesus in general, as well as talk about this meme specifically.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a meme as, "an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media." In their simplest form, memes can be quite harmless, just something funny that is passed around the internet and grows. For some time now, memes and meme pages have become quite popular in Western Christian culture. For many years Christians have started things within their community to be funny such as funny television shows, comedians, and just jokes. The one thing that I am always wary of however is when jokes begin to focus on Jesus, not giving an accurate representation of who the god of Christianity is and sometimes even making him the "butt" of the joke.
I do want to say that I do not believe that this specific meme above is sinful or blasphemous, however I do want to look at this image and explore how others may see it. This meme is a joke highlighting the fact that some Christians and even just people with a religious background tend to only go to God for prayer when they need something in this case money. I believe this to be a true fact and one can see that the person who posted this was trying to use this image to show people what true relationship with Jesus is, however the question is, how does this joke portray Jesus to anyone who may see it even just briefly? To me, the tone that is placed on these two lines makes me feel like someone could see this as Jesus being a person who makes quick judgements on other people's actions in an annoyed way. Don't get me wrong, Jesus is judge and he will judge people when he returns, however this is a very shallow depiction of our Lord and Saviour.
Now some people who enjoy Christian memes (I personally would add myself to that group) may disagree with my perspective saying, "does that mean that every meme we put out has to be some exegetical analyses of the proper essence of Jesus Christ?" Well, I do believe that things can be proper and still be funny without being complicated. What I am also saying is that with technology today and the internet being so accessible, we never know who could be seeing a post like this. For example, I have heard of many stories of people growing up in the church but feeling hurt by it so they leave the church and they begin to have this really negative view of God and Christians being "judgemental" (again I believe that Jesus will judge and that Christians are called to correct people in their sin the "judgemental" feeling I'm trying to articulate is the image of Christians who like to gossip or almost "bully" people who are not yet saved, you know what I am talking about). Then, imagine if these people as they are scrolling through Instagram see this post. What do you think could happen the next time the Holy Spirit prompts these people to pray? Maybe they wouldn't think of the post, but maybe in those moments all that they will be able to see is this picture of Jesus poking his head around the corner saying, "So you praying again? money gone huh." This could be devastating to their relationship with God and hinder their attempts to connect with him.
Here is another quick point about this meme. The reality is, God can provide money when our money is gone. Maybe a Christian is struggling with finances and wants to go to God for it which they should and is in fact biblical (Psalm 102:17) but this meme almost makes them feel sinful for doing it, or even worse, when they pray they see Jesus being annoyed by our petty little petitions. I know that this may seem extreme, but my goal here is to just get people thinking and maybe be a little more cautious about what they share, like or create online.
In general, Western Christian culture often likes to focus on specific aspects of Jesus. With everything becoming very accepting and tolerant in our world, we like to focus on aspects like love, grace, mercy and the compassion of Jesus Christ. However, one thing that Christians should never forget is that Jesus is God. Jesus is God and should be treated as such. People today love to make jokes. Maybe they joke with their family and friends and maybe every once in a while they make a harmless one about them too. Maybe because we see God the Father as our father and Jesus as our friend we want to apply the same mentality. God is all of those things, but he is God.
Think about someone who you really respect. Maybe its a family member or friend, maybe its an older mentor of yours, maybe it's a celebrity or someone from history who you really respect. How do you act when jokes are made about them, or when they are shown in jokes not as who they truly are. How do you react? Is it the same way you react to memes about Jesus?
Tell me what you think? Did I go too far? How far is too far when making jokes about Christian things or even Jesus? Is it different based on your beliefs? If you are not a Christian how do you feel about all of this?
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