There are number of Christians who are taking to their websites to interpret a recent skit on SNL called DJesus UnCrossed. The actor playing DJesus is Austrian actor Christopher Waltz who played key roles in Quentin Tarantino’s films Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. The skit is gory, ridiculous, and mocking both what is sacred and profane at the same time.
Most of the posts that I have seen say something to the effect of how this skit is a perfect satire of the gun-loving-uber-macho-nationalistic Jesus in many Christian congregations here in the USA. I disagree. Why? It is Saturday Night Live and if anything the writers sat around thinking about their guest host Christopher Waltz and wondered if their was a way to poke fun at his Tarantino films and in fact all Tarantino films. Then someone thought, “You know the Pope has been in the news a lot, let’s do a skit about his retirement” which led to talking about Christianity, and “You know Easter is coming up, wouldn’t it be totally offensive and hilarious to say that Jesus was raised from the dead and took his wrath out on the Romans?”
Look, if you see this skit as a critique of gun violence, the hyper testosterone laden Christian beliefs of some, and other stuff okay, but it is most likely that came to the surface for you, because it is what you believe to begin with and not because it was the intent of the writers of this skit.
Do you remember how Christians jumped on The Matrix film as the perfect modern tale of the Messiah only to have the Wachowski brothers say they did not intend to make a Christian film(series). They went on to prove their point by writing two more films in the series and it was clear that, they meant what they said, it was never a story about Christianity.
God is speaking, God is drawing to the surface of our being reminders about how divine love is filled with forgiveness, patience, and a willingness to provide for others as much as we would provide for ourselves.
Just don’t go crazy with interpreting what is in culture to fit your interpretation of faith. Sometimes it is simply material written to be shocking, profane, and a mockery of what we hold to be sacred.
Rev. Shawn J. Smith 