Ofili’s Mary

Chris Ofili is a British painter who includes elephant dung and porn in his paintings. In 1999, his controversial painting, The Holy Virgin Mary, was displayed in New York’s Brooklyn Museum, causing a nationwide uproar. The painting showed a black-descendant Mary with elephant feces on her and surrounded by pornographic images. The New York mayor tried to stop its display, but the museum sued him and won. An elderly visitor threw white paint on it, but the museum was able to clean it up and recover the painting. Later, it sold for four million dollars!

For the Israelites, nothing was so graphically insulting than seeing a foreigner in the holy of holies or an unacceptable offering on the altar. Unfortunately, they had faced both. For example, in 167 B.C., Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a Greek king of the Seleucid Dynasty that ruled Babylon, entered the holy of holies and offered a pig on the altar. In 63 B.C., the Roman commander, Pompey, entered the holy temple but did not desecrate it.

The Israelites called such a violation of their sacred place an abomination of desolation. It is something so horribly detestable standing in the most sacred place and desecrating it.

Jesus had been outlining the temple’s destruction with birth pain imagery. The disciples shouldn’t be alarmed when they heard about wars, worldwide calamities, famines, and earthquakes or saw false Jesuses. They were just Braxton Hicks pains – false contractions. After that, the disciples would be persecuted for his name’s sake, but they should endure until the end. Now, the actual birth was beginning, intensifying everything.

“When you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not – let the readers understand – then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. Those outside the houses shouldn’t enter the houses to take their possessions. And those in the fields shouldn’t return to their homes. [Instead, everyone must flee to the mountains.] These would be difficult times for pregnant women and those who are nursing babies [who can’t flee fast]. Pray that this will not happen in winter [when it is difficult to flee]. The afflictions of those days will be nothing like whatever afflictions happened from the beginning of creation until now. If the Lord doesn’t cut/shorten those days, no one will be rescued/saved. God will shorten those days for the sake of his selected people.” (Mark 13:14–20)

Before offering a pig on the altar, Antiochus IV Epiphanes had killed hundreds of Pharisees and Israelites. Similarly, several died when Pompey seized Jerusalem. Again, before the temple’s destruction, an abomination of desolation would stand in the temple, causing severe disaster to the people. They would have to flee to the mountains to save their lives. Now, the end was near.

True to Jesus’s prophecy, within forty years, Emperor Titus, who conquered Jerusalem, entered the temple court, holies, and holy of holies, before ordering its destruction. People fled to mountains like Gamla on the Golan Heights to escape his anger. Were these prophecies concerning something future, another abomination of desolation would appear, indicating that the end was near. Nevertheless, God would interfere and not let the persecutions last long, and he would shorten them for the sake of his selected people.

Just as Ofili sacrilegiously portrayed Mary and Brooklyn Museum displayed it in the name of freedom of speech, abominable displays and actions will surround us. They may follow with intense persecution of Christians. Were these happening, we shouldn’t be afraid. They are happening just as Jesus predicted, and God will defend his people.