Hey Christian – Be Vexed By The Olympics Opening Ceremony. Be Very Vexed.

Be Vexed. Be Very Vexed.

I just assume now that any public performance across the Western world that is staged by super smart, progressive creative designers will contain some element of blasphemy. And it should vex us.

Some aspect that will say “up yours” to the Christian gospel or some underpinning Christian understanding of how the world is put together.

And sure enough, in that most secular of cities, given over to the separation and annulment of anything of spiritual virtue, we have the casual blasphemy of a recreation of the Last Supper – da Vinci’s famous painting.

Which it has to be said, has been casually parodied down the centuries because it is so famous. Like so much famous art, the post-modern world, devoid of any grand narrative, can only resort to parody and desecration. It cannot create – not truly create – as it has no structure upon which to do so.

So we have this:

Of course there are lots of “that’s not what it was meant to depict” excuses etc, etc, but if you are the creative genius behind this then you should be sacked for a lack of art-history knowledge. Clearly it was meant to depict the Last Supper.

I mean it would be like doing this:

Without knowing of the existence of this:

Oh my gosh!  What a coincidence.

Being Vexed Doesn’t Mean Not Being Confident in the Gospel

Now look, I agree wholeheartedly with Glen Scrivener’s excellent take on the issue. He argues that we can’t trump the shame of the cross, and that every attempt since to shame the Saviour is destined for the, er, silver medal, in light of the gold medal weakness of the cross

So I get that.  But don’t let that dampen the vexation you should feel.

I’ve read lots of Christians say “Oh it’s no biggie”, as if somehow those Christians who are vexed by it are somehow less mature, less hip and urban as Christians. Away with that idea..  Actually this is a biggie.  And if you want to read anything in Scripture that aligns with the feelings it should engender in you, it would be this from 2 Peter 2:

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell,^[a]putting them in chains of darkness^[b] to be held for judgment; ⁵ if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people,but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; ⁶ if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes,and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ⁷ and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless ⁸ (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— ⁹ if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. ¹⁰ This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh^[c] and despise authority.

We should be distressed.  Vexed, as the KJV puts it.  When was the last time you were vexed by the sin of the culture? Perhaps we’ve spent so much time being told “Don’t point out their sin, sort out your own” that we have forgotten what it feels like to be vexed. Or perhaps we’re just not vexed! Perhaps we are just inured with it all, and have kinda lazily slumped into a “Meh, what can you do?” attitude.  Which would be worse.

Father Judge Them Because They Know What They Do

Which brings me to another response; The Jesus on the cross response.  I get that too. But in actual fact, they DO know what they are doing. The soldiers crucifying Jesus were just obeying orders, even is somewhat gleefully and with a certain bloodlust. But they didn’t have 2000 years of compelling Christian history behind them.

No, this was done in the full knowledge that it was defying the foundational narrative that has swept the world for centuries. A narrative that has led to great deeds, great works of art, great scandals to be sure, but great transformation from the brutal paganism that preceded it. When Christ comes into the space, he is space-filler. He squeezes out all else, and leaves room only for mocking parody.

Without Christ there can be nothing new. Merely a return to the old, brutal, life-denying cultures of the past. And this performance during the Olympics was a prime example of that return.

Paganism

And of course it goes without saying that the ideals of the Olympics are not grounded in a Christian worldview. The paganism of the cult of the human body in full display is at the centre of the ideal.

Not that this means that all athletes see it that way. Indeed many are Christians, and many of their cultures are solidly Christian.

But paganism and the cult of the body is the crack cocaine of the modern world. And Christianity, which it seeks to douse, has a completely different way of looking at the body. A way that defines it in relation to the God of heaven, not the gods of Olympus.

Which is why blasphemy of this nature is not merely a rejection of the Saviour. It’s a rejection of the Creator. There is a very good reason why the presentation is gender-bending. It’s because those who reject the Saviour are rejecting the same Person who is their Creator.   The rejection of male/female binary is a rejection of God.

That is why the post-Christian and anti-Christian frame in our world is so excited about the destruction of the binary understanding of male and female, as well as the meaning and purpose of sex. Surely Romans 1 must be our North Star at this point about the rejection of God as Creator/Saviour:

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

I get why we’re too scared – and perhaps soon too litigated – to preach that passage with any form of confidence these days. We’ve had to caveat it out of existence. We’ve had to pull its teeth and our punches, just to ensure people know what we don’t mean. Which means we don’t even know what we mean. Or we do know what we mean, because we just can’t say it.

Maybe that’s a middle class evangelical thing, I don’t know. I was in our nation’s capital last week taking part in an excellent academy that focusses on training our next generation of Christian lawyers. What was impressive was just how unashamed – and unafraid – of being completely different and of being scorned – were the Catholic lawyers. A young Marionite lawyer asked me a hard question in words to this effect:

“So what about people not liking us for believing this stuff? Marionites have suffered for years. Why in the West should we care that people don’t accept us for being orthodox in our views of Christianity and creation?”

Yes, why indeed?

Why Not Islam? Because Truth Is Hated

The other vexing question I want to address is one that many Christians were asking on social medias. And it’s this: “Why didn’t the organisers have the guts to blaspheme Islam?”  As if somehow two wrongs would make a right. As if scorn of another religious community by a pagan would be either preferable, or a sign of bravery.

Well there’s been enough ink – and blood – spilled over that issue. Personally why would you think that would be a better thing? Or proof that the person in charge of the creative design teams hates all religions equally.

Well let me say it as respectfully as I can – the reason that Christianity is the target is that it is the truth. Jesus alone – as he states – is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to God – and therefore no one has the live-giving, light-filled Truth, without Jesus.

No disrespect to my friends who are Muslim – but the West has been committed to this truth for generations. It’s only as we reject it that we start to hate on it. Spiritually, the most blinded hater of God cannot hate Islam at the same level they hate Christianity. Why? Because first and foremost they hate the truth. And that means Jesus.

I’ve been doing reels on Instagram for a while, and here’s what I have found as I have trawled through John’s Gospel putting up ninety second sound and video bites: People hate Jesus. They hate him. I get more hate for what I say on social media around Jesus than I do for anything else.

Don’t give me the “They hate the church but not Jesus.” No. They really do hate Jesus. Tonnes of them. Millions. And at least the hundreds that write a comment on my socials to remind me of their hatred. Jesus himself said that he would be hated. So why the surprise when he is? And why the shock when we are hated also because of our love for him?

Imagine There’s No Olympics

And lastly. And this is something my daughter pointed out. The Olympics in 2024 had, as one of its theme songs during the opening ceremony, John Lennon’s Imagine.

Again. What a repeat offender. In 2021 during the delayed-by-a-year Tokyo games we got that same song on repeat during the opening ceremony there as well. It’s the perfect pagan homage for the perfect pagan event. How does it go again?

Imagine there’s no heaven/It’s easy if you try/No hell below us/Above us only sky

Actually it’s not. Not easy, that is. It’s not easy to imagine there is no heaven or hell. You have to put a lot of time and effort into suppressing the truth about those things. You have to build an alternate social imaginary that requires huge resources, an implacable educational and institutional commitment to the lie that this life is all there is, and a series of life-practices, particularly around sex and money and human ambition that say otherwise.

Where would we find the apex of such a zeitgeist, the vision of such a desire?:

Ladies and gentlemen – I present to you the Olympics. Let the games begin.