jesus disappears and interview

October 15, 2012 by 8 Comments

jesus disappears cartoon by nakedpastor david hayward

Oh, the stir this caused when I first drew and published it in April of 2010! It still makes perfect sense to me. It’s about spiritual development.

Two things:

  1. Tonight a webinar at davidhayward.ca. A spiritually safe place. Sign up!
  2. Matt Oxley, the RagingRev, posted his interview of me. He used this cartoon. Check it out!

(more here)

Filed Under: cartoons Tagged With: , , , , 8 Comments
About David Hayward

David Hayward runs the blog nakedpastor as a graffiti artist on the walls of religion where he critiques religion… specifically Christianity and the church. He also runs the online community The Lasting Supper where people can help themselves discover, explore and live in spiritual freedom.

  • Jean

    I can see three different angles on that. One is you’re rejecting Jesus. Two is, Jesus as a church (church as you know it)has disappeared. Many churches appear to think that if you are not in certain churches, you don’t have Jesus. I like to think you simply moved on to different kind of fellowship. Three is, Jesus weaned you of dependency on Him while on earth so you could fuction depending heavily on FAITH (believing in something you can’t see). Kinda like a parent weaning a child so he/she could fuction in his/her own life.

  • Kris

    the Jesus you knew through the Church is gone but whose to say you cannot formulate another idea of Jesus.

  • http://www.prayerpunk.com PrayerPunk

    Maybe you could have had the two become one.

  • Trevor

    Sometimes I pretend he isn’t there.

  • Gary

    Great question Kris.

  • Caryn LeMur

    David: I read your interview on the other site. May I offer that there are times to walk without Christ (or God) within the visible realm?

    Elijah fled when he received the threat of death from Jezebel. An angel appeared, and gave him food. And then, Elijah walked for 40 days to the mountain of God. The walk was alone.

    It is not a collapse – it is a walk. It is not a denial – it is a walk. It is not avoidance – it is a walk.

    The angel could have carried Elijah to the mountain of God – instead, Elijah walked. The angel could have walked with Elijah as a companion – instead, Elijah walked alone.

    Yes, later, in a cave, all the paradigms of God were shattered, and Elijah heard a still, small voice. But somehow, in someway, the ‘walk alone’ was needed… the ‘walk alone’ was perhaps necessary for the total journey.

    Be strong, dear brother-in-Christ. Walk as long as you need to do so. You will be transformed at the end of the walk alone.

    Much love in Christ always and unconditionally; Caryn

  • gio

    I’ve very much been there…I would say tho, its not that God disappears, when we are ready, our projection (our idea, extension of our ego/mind of Him) disappears, and only when it does and we feel it, we are ready to start engaging who He really is. And it often begins with the mystery of no image, or label or definition, keeping us floating, until we are free of the addiction/tendency towards projection/perception/false control
    .

  • gio

    CS Lewismasterfully articulates it like this:
    Not my idea of God, but God. Not my idea of H., but H. Yes, and also not my idea of my neighbor, but my neighbor. For don’t we often make this mistake as regards people who are still alive–who are with us in the same room? Talking and acting not to the man himself but to the picture–almost the precis–we’ve made of Him in our own minds? And he has to depart from it pretty widely before we even notice the fact. In real life–that’s one way it differs from novels–his words and acts are, if we observe closely, hardly ever quite “in character,” that is in what we call his character. There’s always a card in his hand we didn’t know about