No cartoon on Good Friday, as usual for Tomics. Instead we'll have an Easter Sunday cartoon. See you there!
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NOT-SO-JOKE-OGRAPHY:
In Matthew 26, Jesus sits to eat a holiday meal with His closest disciples. As they begin eating, He reveals that one of them will betray Him. They argue, each one insisting they would never do such a thing, but Jesus assures them His betrayal is foretold in Scripture. However, He adds, "But woe to the one through whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born." To me, this is the most chilling sentence ever spoken, particularly because it's said by Jesus, Himself. For Him to declare that someone's fate is so bad that NEVER EXISTING would be preferable is straight up horror so vast I struggle to grasp it.
Psalm 41 contains a poem or song by King David about a betrayal he suffered. Jesus reflects on this song while He faces His own betrayal at the hands of His disciple, Judas.
The last few weeks of this Lent have been filled with pretty serious or contemplative cartoons, so here's a little levity to get us over the hump to Easter: Someone referred to my Jesus as a "Soyjak" because I depicted Him smiling with His mouth open, so remember to keep your Jesus's mouth shut at all times, sinners.
JOKE-OGRAPHY:
This cartoon references a lot of verses, so here's an explanation for them all:
Matthew 1:18-24 is about the Annunciation (Gabriel announcing to Mary that she will bear the Son of God). This takes place "when Mary and Joseph were betrothed but before they came together." In this context, the word "betrothed" is being used for the stage of ancient Jewish marriage where the bride and groom had entered into the marriage contract but did not yet live together. So Mary and Joseph are legally a couple, but Joseph doesn't take her into his home until the end of this section after the angel reassures him in a dream. The taking of the bride into the groom's newly built home was the final stage of the marriage.
Matthew 22:1-2 is the beginning of one of Jesus's parables where He likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a king preparing a wedding feast for his son. The Bible is just lousy with wedding imagery when it comes to God's relationship with mankind; or rather, marriage is lousy with imagery pointing to the ultimate destiny of humanity to unite entirely with God in life-giving, self-giving love.
Matthew 26:26-28 is where Jesus lifts the bread and wine at the last supper and declares them His Body and Blood of the covenant. Jesus's cup is the cup that all other cups and covenants reflect all throughout the Bible. THIS is the big one, where God pledges Himself once again to mankind, IN THE FLESH!
John 13:33 and 14:1-3 are where Jesus talks about leaving the disciples for a time, then assures them that He's going to prepare a dwelling for them in His Father's house. He adds that, once He's done, He'll come back for them, to take them to Himself. In light of the other verses compressed into this fun little amateur Bible study, we can see Jesus is once again using very wedding-coded imagery to speak about heaven and the anticipated union with the Divine.
Thanks for reading! As a reward -- and because I can't post something without a joke (per MY covenant with my patron, St. Lawrence) -- here's a classic: "What do you get when you eat all the potatoes?"
In this Bible story (Luke 24), Jesus has risen from the dead and is appearing to various disciples. Two of these disciples (one named Cleopas, and another unnamed) are leaving Jerusalem on the road to a town called Emmaus, still sad about Jesus's death. Suddenly, He appears beside them and asks what they're discussing. They -- being supernaturally unaware that this is, in fact, Jesus -- wonder how this guy could've missed the news of the huge execution in the city, and explain it to Him. Jesus then travels with them for a ways, but they only realize it's Him when He breaks bread over dinner and disappears.
It's worth noting throughout the Gospels that sometimes, when people see the resurrected Jesus, they know Him right away, and other times, they mistake Him for a gardener or a random traveler. Jesus going around pranking folks with His resurrection powers is canon. Make of that what God wills.
In this cartoon, Jesus appears to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and, instead of them being supernaturally unable to recognize Him, He simply puts on a set of goofy glasses. Maybe there's still some supernatural stuff going on, though, because I've depicted Him in His full glory with a halo over His head and a glow around His body, adding to the whimsy of the disciples not recognizing Him right away.
The flow of the cartoon essentially matches the marked verses (Luke 24:13-21). However, when the disciples are surprised by Jesus's apparent lack of knowledge about the recent crucifixion, the woman asks, "Where've you been? Under a rock?" This is an idiom that implies the person would have to have been buried underground in order not to have heard some widespread news. Jesus's reply -- "So what if I was?" -- is based on the fact that He actually WAS buried during the last couple days, laid in a tomb with a large stone over the entrance. So, by technicality, yes, He was under (or buried behind) a rock.
The exact identity of the two disciples in this story is not too important, but it's an interesting place where different interpretations open different dimensions of meaning. In this version, I depicted the two disciples as a married couple who share a resemblance with two other characters in my comics, because where one couple walked with God until their eyes were opened to their sin over shared food (Gen 3:6-7), this couple also walks with God until their eyes are opened to their salvation at the breaking of bread (Luke 24:30-31). This interpretation is borrowed from Dr. Tim Gray and Jeff Cavins (authors of Walking with God: A Journey Through the Bible). Again, it's only an interpretation, so take it or leave it. I thought it was cute.
In this Bible story, Jesus is giving the disciples a sense of assurance before His passion and death. He explains He'll be leaving them soon, but once He's gone, He'll send them a paraclete (or an advocate) to guide them to the truth until He returns. This paraclete is understood to be the Holy Spirit, Who comes to the disciples as tongues of fire after Jesus's ascension to heaven.
Jesus's line in the first panel of this cartoon is a direct quote from John 14:20. The exact wording of the quote sounds a little like a paradox, since He says, "You are in me and I am in you," but Jesus is saying that the disciples will remain in His Body, the Church, and He will remain in the disciples' hearts in spirit.
In this cartoon, Peter's reaction to Jesus's apparent paradox is a full-on mental breakdown as he imagines him being within Jesus while Jesus is within him while he is within Jesus and so on and so on into maddening infinity. This is, mathematically, very funny and simply the cleverest.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This is yet another "Tomics Resurrection," where I take an old cartoon and make it new. The old version is from about 9 years ago -- crazy! -- but while the character designs and colors in the new version have been updated to match my evolved style, the writing and pacing of the comic have remained substantially the same. So you realize that the old is in the same script and the new is in the old and the old is in the new.
In this Bible story, Jesus addresses a parable to "those who were convinced of their own righteousness." In the parable, a pharisee (a respected Jewish teacher) and a tax-collector (someone hated by most common folk) go to the temple to pray. The pharisee proudly declares himself very holy and thanks God for making him so much better than the tax-collector. Meanwhile, the tax-collector beats his chest, praying only for God's mercy. Jesus says the tax-collector goes home justified, but the pharisee does not. "He who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
In this cartoon, a modern man reads this very parable. When the pharisee thanks God for making him better than the sinful tax-collector, the man reading the story smirks at the obvious pride and thanks God for making him better than the prideful pharisee. However, the man catches himself at the end, because by thinking he's better than the pharisee, he's committing the same sin the pharisee committed by thinking he was better than the tax-collector. Touché, once again, Christ!!!
Of course, the story isn't saying to abandon value judgments completely, because in order to do the right thing, we have to discern between different behaviors and actions and determine which are good, bad, better, and worse. The story is warning us against using comparisons as a vehicle for pride rather than actual growth, holiness, and love.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
The astute will surely see that this is a "Tomics Ascension," where I've taken an ancient comic that was already "Resurrected" (redrawn once before) and redrawn it yet again. This cartoon was inspired by my father nearly a decade ago when this reading came up in Mass. He mentioned this was exactly his thought process while reading, and I thought it made the perfect cartoon. I don't think it's ever been the most popular Tomic, but it's a near one and a dear one to me, so I'll continue redoing it every once in a while to keep it spiffy and fresh.
You can see the Original and Resurrected versions in the free post on my Patreon!
In Matthew 13, Jesus speaks to a crowd in parables. After opening with the Parable of the Sower, He continues with three more parables that kind of flow together, each beginning with, "The kingdom of heaven is like..." and going on to describe something unexpected.
Weeds Among Wheat
This parable compares the kingdom to a man who sows healthy wheat in his field, but before it grows, an enemy sneaks in and sows weeds among the wheat. The man decides to let the plants grow together until harvest, at which point his reapers collect everything, sorting the wheat into his barn and the weeds into a fire.
Mustard Seed
This parable compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed, colloquially known to the people around Jesus as pretty much the teensiest little thing ever. The mustard plant is a somewhat invasive shrub, and not very grand, but Jesus describes this tiny seed being intentionally sown, then turning into a giant plant so big that birds can nest in it.
Hidden YeastThis parable compares the kingdom of heaven to some yeast (fungus that eats sugar to release gas and expand dough) that a woman hides in an enormous measure of wheat flour to make bread. Yeast is technically an unclean ingredient to Jews, but Jesus describes this yeast causing the dough to rise as a positive. It yields a crazy amount of bread.
Altogether, these stories paint a strange picture. Jesus says these scenarios are each like the kingdom of heaven, and we're left with images of unclean or undesirable things mixed in with the good until the end of the age when everything is sorted out, along with images of small and unassuming things invading the world around them, expanding, and taking over, providing fruit or life or shelter or food by spreading out generously.
In this cartoon, each of Jesus's three parables (from Matthew 13:24-35) is summarized into an absurd one-sentence blurb that is technically accurate but a little more jarring than the wording we're used to. Some of us long-time Christians grew up with these parables, so their intended oddness can be lost on us. Hopefully this helps communicate how bizarre some of the imagery would've been to a listener back then. Anywho, a guy in the crowd notices Jesus's odd metaphors and complains, then talks himself into a theological awakening, then talks himself out of that awakening because it makes him uncomfortable. We all do be that guy sometimes, ahaintgonlieboutdatmaynsheeeewt.
