Category: Typology/Symbolism/Biblical Parallels

Doug Wilson says that the Church needs more tattooed men in our midst. And what he means is that we need to have men who come into the Church from rough and turmoiled places. What fascinates me is how few, if any, of these men would actively encourage their own children to get tattoos. They may not express the anthropology of the thing or even the worldview behind the act. Still, instinctively they know that tattoos are acts of bodily deformation to some extent or another.

It reveals uncertainty about the future by forming a present iconography to still the present. Further, it creates a world in which baptism is not enough. If the font reforms, bodily paintings deform. So, blessed are the tattooed who come into the Church, but may their children leave the paint brushes behind.

With few exceptions, among them imposed, there is no rationale for getting a tattoo that cannot be lived out without one. In many cases, they are revelations of a self-formed liturgy which is why they are so common among military and gang members. But in recent years, they seem to also branch out to other bonds among gamers and other identifying markers among the very young. These go beyond arm tattoos to what some consider to be the dominating trend of 2023– finger tatatoos. It is unmistakable that these are offered as bonding ceremonies.

I sought some advice from a tattooed friend I know, who offered the following observation, which confirmed my suspicion:

“Young men and women who are struggling to find identity see tattoos as a way to individualize themselves or set themselves apart while still wanting to belong to something greater or more important than themselves.”

I argue that those desired bonds can also be built around other more lasting liturgies sealed by a covenantal marking not made with human hands.

The reason virtually every Christian parent I meet with tattoos discourages their children from getting one is that they see a better way to find identity and communicate than a permanent bodily image. The trend among the youth reveals a desire to tell a story. And while there may be plausible reasons for tattoos under unique circumstances, we should affirm that the body is a gift from God and tattoos are attempts at telling stories. For the Christian, baptism is God’s story over our body. Therefore, tattoos are not ordinarily necessary. The story of redemption is told more beautifully and eternally in the body-markings of Another.

Parables have a way of shaping our imagination. They are stories designed to give materiality to our concerns. When Jesus uses parables in the Gospels, he promises judgment upon people if they fail to heed his commandments. He offers a rich image of destruction with tangible consequences to the hearers. You do not want to be on the receiving end of Jesus’ parabolic ministry.

But parables often summarize phases of history. This is the case in Mark 12. Jesus’ parable is more than mere condemnation of the religious leaders, they summarize Israel’s history of beating, ridiculing, and killing God’s servants, the prophets. As they have done to the servants of Yahweh, so will they do to Yahweh’s beloved Son.

Mark records Jesus’ familiarity with the parables of old in both Isaiah and Jeremiah. Jesus uses parables because the prophets parabolyzed in expectation of Jesus’ parables. The prophet’s condemnation through parables was only a type of the true parables to come. In Jesus, all parabolic instruction reaches its judgment crescendo.

In the beginning, God forms man out of the dust of the earth. Man is made out of the mud. When Jesus spits on the ground, makes some mud with the saliva, and puts the mud on the man’s eyes. The man uses water to wash off at the Pool of Siloam and the man is born anew.

Early in his ministry, Jesus attends a wedding party and in the absence of good wine, he takes water and transforms it into the finest wine. Later Jesus would meet a woman at the well and offer her to drink of a certain water that will never make you thirsty again. Jesus’ most delightful and glorious acts come from playing with dirt and water.

The Bible has a fairly developed view of bread. Bread appears as a gift, such as in Melchizedek’s gift to Abram; it shows up when Jacob deceived Esau and gave him some bread with the lentil stew; bread is also a protagonist in the Passover Feast; it’s what fed the Israelites in the wilderness; in fact, sharing bread in the Psalms is an expression for close friendships; in the Book of Ruth, dipping bread in the vinegar is given as a ritual that brings Boaz and Ruth together. There is so much more.

If you were to put all that data together, you would see that the purpose of bread—whether literal or figurative– is central to the relational life of the church. In I Corinthians Paul says that we are one loaf, which is to say we are bound together as one. And finally, in John 6, Jesus is referred to as the true bread from heaven.

At the Lord’s Supper, we eat from one bread as a fulfillment of this beautiful typology. God uses this theme to invite us to his Son, the bread of life. We come together today as one loaf offered to God. May God hear us and accept our offering.

 

The first use of mountain in Matthew is found in chapter four when Satan takes Jesus up on the mountain and offers him all authority if He only bows down and worships him. The last mountain is in Matthew 28 when Jesus gives forth his Great Commission to His disciples on a mountain. Jesus begins on a mountain in Matthew four being offered all authority and He ends in Matthew 28 with all authority in heaven and earth. He does not submit to the devil but conquers the devil by giving His life through death.