You guys all know what I’m talking about right? You’re maybe watching the news when it cuts to commercial. Then, an overhead sweep-in camera pans onto an immaculately made bed, with perhaps a gorgeous woman lying upon it—apparently asleep—as rather soothing and contemplative music plays softly in the background. Then, an authoritatively powerful and masculine voice sounds from off camera right: “Get the rest you deserve. You deserve a Sleep Number® bed.” Now, because I am a rather eccentric person in some regards (I mean, I am writing this blog after all), I tend to notice things about commercials (or at least with this one) that many others do not. I have discerned a connection between this commercial and Man’s sinful state. “Impossible!” you say. “You must be really reaching now, Deion; you don’t honestly expect us to believe that a bed commercial gave you some kind of special insight into the fundamental nature of Man-as-sinner, now do you?” Ah, but this is precisely what I mean. Don’t believe me? Read on and see for yourself: “and do not be unbelieving, but believe” (John 20:27).
(Yeah, yeah, I know that verse is taken from the story of Thomas and the Resurrected Christ, when Thomas expressed his doubt to the other disciples that Jesus had indeed risen. You’re probably wondering why I shamelessly made use of such an important line from Sacred Scripture for seemingly no other discernible reason than because I have a penchant for trivialization… and perhaps a smidgen of pride—and a dash of folly. Well, so am I; so just go with it!)
Anyway, back to how the bed commercial relates to Man-as-sinner. It is no secret that, in the Gospels, Christ demands of us true repentance. He wants us to be moved to take on a new life, complete with new habits and thoughts and desires. He is never more plainspoken in this regard than when He says to the crowd, “‘If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me’” (Luke 9:23). Christ demands that we die to ourselves each and every day and follow Him in love and obedience. He demands that we lessen—our wills, prejudices, meanness, bitterness, and on-and-on—so that He can increase in us. St. John the Baptist said this far before I write it now, and much more plainly and clearly: “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30).
Now, in contrast, what do these commercials tell us we need to do? They promise a “perfect night’s sleep,” “the best sleep you’ve ever had,” and (my personal favorite) “when you wake up and your back doesn’t hurt at all: wow!” (Note: what I say in the rest of this post has nothing to do, and is no way targeted at, those who actually have back problems, and may you all experience God’s tender healing and mercy.) I just really cannot stand that last quote! The commercial is literally indicative of the state of our entire society! We shirk hardship, reject pain and suffering, and seek only the easiest and shortest way to complete any given task (when we can even muster up the will to get off of our computers and phones and actually start said task!) Our sex is guiltless, string-less, loveless, childless; our elderly are “put down” in their frailty and infirmity—their utter vulnerability—not to lessen their suffering, but to lessen our having to be a part of that same suffering; and our children are made, not conceived in an act of total self-giving love, but in cold, economically viable business transactions among three consenting adults and a lab. Let’s just face it and own up to it: we are “all-in” on the business of minimizing suffering. Suffering is seen as a mark of failure, of shame, and it is to be avoided at all costs.
And guess what? I would be inclined to agree with that sentiment, if not for one small problem: Jesus. As tempting as it is to listen and give myself over to the message of a cleverly crafted, 21st century commercial advertising a product designed to make my life more leisurely, made by a corporation whose primary concern is their bottom-line, I cannot—in spite of myself (imagine that!)—seem to shake Christ’s words from my mind. I think (and I could very well be wrong here; you guys be the judge) that the Son of God ought to be heeded well before a mattress company is!
“The Sleep Number® conforms to you.” –some guy named Greg (probably). Again, the height of folly in our modern society, embodied in a freakin’ two-minute commercial! Gone—it seems—are the days where we conformed to others, when we genuinely cared for and worried about our friends and neighbors, when we would put such high-minded things as morals and the common good before the ravenous desire for comfort by our bodies. This commercial makes truly evident to me just how far our society has fallen from the ideal that is the Kingdom of God. There is no such thing as a self-centered existence that also aligns with God! For Christ Himself said:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” (John 12:24-25)
Christ is saying, somewhat paradoxically (and the Church absolutely eats this stuff up: true God and true man, Virgin Mother, death brings everlasting life, etc. etc.), that unless we live outside of ourselves—lives rooted in His eternal kingship, lives of love and obedience—we will die. We will remain grains of wheat, never to realize our true destinies as divinized (made more similar to God) sons and daughters of God.
None of us are long for this world, and it would pay dearly for us to remember that. Earth is not our true home: we were created for something far more wonderful and awe-inspiring. We must shake the fog from our eyes and tear away the glamorously gilded veneer of the modern world that so audaciously promises us heaven-on-earth. It is an effort doomed to perpetual failure, my friends. Heaven is where God is, and it is achieved only by conforming ourselves to God’s only begotten Son, Christ Jesus, “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation… the beginning, the firstborn from the dead” (Colossians 1:15, 18b), and principally by God’s grace, for we can do nothing apart from it.
(I would also like to add a small note about my choice of company with whose commercial’s I have chosen to malign in this post. Really, any mattress company would have been acceptable. I know it seems like I have an ax to grind with Sleep Number®. I really and truly do not: they were simply the first corporation (that also sold mattresses) that popped into my head. And for all you company execs, employees, sympathizers: take this as a mark of the effectiveness of your marketing teams, give them a raise, and, for the love of all that is good and holy, don't sue me! It could just have easily have been TempurPedic®, after all.)
Follow @DeionKathawa
0 comments: