Fifty Shades of Truth

I first became aware of him looking at a public washroom in New Zealand. An architect whose claim to fame was that he believed that no design should incorporate straight lines. This was a passionate conviction not merely a mild preference. Friedensreich_Hundertwasser called straight lines “godless and immoral” and “something cowardly drawn with a rule, without thought or feeling.” Furthermore, he pointed out that there are no straight lines in nature.

Despite Hundertwasser’s campaign throughout his life for conservation of nature and freedom from straight line confinement, architecture tolerated him as eccentric, keeping rulers and lines firmly embedded in the foundation and execution of their trade. They recognize that most of humanity is more comfortable with clarity of form, order, definition, predictability, and even uniformity. We know what we are getting, what to expect, no surprises.

Architecture is a great reflection of life, the values we hold dear, and our vision of the world we want to inhabit. I wonder whether Hundertwasser’s love of creation and freedom from the confinement of straight lines has similarities to Jesus’ life and teaching when it comes to reflecting on the nature of God and truth?

We live in a world where we prefer to define truth with clear straight lines. Good or evil, black or white, right or wrong, secular or sacred, holy or unholy. We brand people with all manner of sticky labels that we think defines them, places them in neat boxes according to politics, religion, work, and whatever else gives us a false sense of understanding and/or control. If neatness, clear definitions, tidy solutions to complex issues is your preference, it’s probably best that you don’t hang around with Jesus. He exchanges the ‘or’ for ‘and’ which immediately blurs the edges and smudges the lines.

Jesus was more radical than Hundertwasser by a mile. What Hundertwasser did for architecture Jesus did in greater volume for truth. In his day religion was all about straight lines, visible in the form of laws and traditions administered in the name of Almighty God the supreme architect (who created nature with no lines, by the way). People challenged Jesus frequently to live and teach within their lines of truth. A woman caught in adultery brought before him by straight line religious leaders demanding judgement. Jesus knelt in the dust and drew cooked lines with his finger. “You without sin throw the first stone.” To the woman he says, “Go, and sin no more, I do not condemn you.”

A rich young man came asking about the application of the law, wanting reassurance that he was on the right side of the straight line. Jesus stepped across the line and whispered, “One thing you lack, sell all you have and give it to the poor.” The man left dejected, unable/unwilling to comply – because the letter of the law was more clear than the application of truth in his life.

If we look we will find many instances of Jesus smudging lines, not to cancel the truth they may contain, but to invariably soften their application in the lives of ordinary people. What he was surely implying was that laws and clear straight line truths appear easy to define and apply in the abstract. But, when it comes to people, grace is offered when truth is revealed. The function of truth is to bring freedom rather than place huge heavy burdens of condemnation upon the shoulders of those who already know they fall short.

Perhaps in our tweeting chatter world it may be good to remember that the application of truth is best worked out within the context of relationship, where the multiple shades are most enhanced. Jesus warned us about casting stones, standing on corners looking holy when inside we are unclean, and taking the beam out of our own eye before pontificating about the speck in the eye of someone else.

I’m so grateful that Jesus revealed a God who is kind and gracious, one who is comfortable with confusion, mistakes, and mess. Having a sense of the big picture truth, even quoting Bible verses, is easier than discerning and applying truth’s essence in my personal life and context. For that we need humility, revelation, and one another to help us – preferably not clutching rulers to force the crooked into the straight. After all, our blind spots may be where our beams and splinters hinder our vision. And yes, even Jesus talking about the straight and narrow has nothing to do with lines.

This song we’ve played before. It captures God, the mess, the blurred lines, and the hope released with truth discovered in multiple contexts and shades.