"Komm Herr Jesus, sei unser Gast"
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I love this image. It so inspiring for interpretation. This will be long but worth it (or watch the video).
To explain this motive, I have to go all the way back to the beginning of the story. It goes back all the way to the year 2453. So it's actually forward in time. In 2453, a scientist, whose name is of no further importance, actually developed a means to travel in time - backwards as well as forwards.
It so happened that he was afraid that his invention may be used for the means of warfare. So he decided not to tell anyone for the moment. Instead, he pondered what to do to actually test his machine. He thought of a variety of events he thought worthwhle visiting. His list included all the important events from our past: the assassination of JFK, the day of the moon landing, the victory over Hitler, the sinking of the Titanic and a couple of events that wait for us in our future.
The crucifixion of Christ was another event he wrote down on his list. It was then that he hesitated. What if his presence was noticed? Shouldn't it be recorded in the Bible? He went and looked and found nothing. Which either meant that his presence wasn't detected or that he never went there.
Which is exactly what made him decide to travel to that point in time. While he began to prepare his trip, he kept the bible open so he could check whether there was a change. Which is completely useless, of course. If he changed the past, he'd change his own knowledge so he would never see the past changing. It would be as if had always been like that.
He was about ready to go when he took some time to think the whole thing through. He decided that no one should have access to a time machine apart from him. He simply didn't trust anyone. So he destroyed his complete documentation.
Then he thought about Jesus. Our scientist wasn't a very religious man. He still thought that if Jesus existed, it wasn't right for him to be cucified. On the other hand, saving Jesus from being crucified would probably change the history of man and the results might be devastating. So he probably couldn't do anything about that. What else could he do?
Another hour of thinking and his plan was ready. He mounted his machine and set the dials to the approximate time and location (which was the trickiest bit, since he had to calculate the position of earth in relation ti it's position in the year 2453. Thank's to quantum computers, it was a difficult but possible task.
He took with him some clothes that matched the clothes of anyone living in that area around Jesus' time. He took with him some valid currency for that time (fortunately the ARG Scence had taken on a rather real feel, so near authentic items were available for almost all ages and times. This also enabled him to acquire a translator with the right sort of language and dialect.
He packed tranquilizer and medicine as well as a power source to allow him to keep looking for the exact right time and to travel back into the future, which was part of his plan. At last he put on two exo-sceletons that increased the strength of his arms. Just in case ...
His geographical and temporal jumps back and forth can be neglected for the purpose of this story. Let's jump right to the point when he arrived at the right location the day before the crucifixation.
He spent some time finding out where the cave was, into which Jesus body would be dragged after he died and he hid the machine in there. Then he waited and observed. He was trembling heavily most of the time because he was afraid of being discovered, of ruining it all. He was also afraid to make a mistake and get into some quarrel and be injured or even killed. He didn't dare eat because he was afraid that the food might make him sick. SO he went hungry - very hungry.
Then the crucifixation came. Our scientist watched Jesus drag his cross along the path. He witnessed Simon coming and helping Jesus. "My god", he thought. "It is all true." When Jesus was nailed to the cross, he had to turn because he felt very sick. The sheer brutality of the act shocked him profoundly. He didn't even dare to look back. He didn't want to see Jesus suffer because the pain the crucigied must feel had never been part of his imagination of that scene. So he waited near the cave until the body oif Christ was brought and laid down in the cave.
In a moment when noone was looking, he moved the stone covering the entrance and slid in. He managed to move the stone back thanks to a powered exo-sceleton he had brought for his arms. As soon as he was in there, he started working fast. He found the body of Jesus and injected the medicine he had brought, without even checking for pulse. He undressed Jesus and dragged him over to the machine he had hidden further back under stones and gravel. He set the machine to a specific time and location in the future. Not his own time but some time in bewteen and also to a place in between.
He powered up the machine and watched Jesus dissappear into the future. He himself dressed in Jesus clothes, he burnt holes into his wrists and feet with the laser knife of his swiss army knife, he injured his rib cage. Then he laid down and waited - hungry and shivering ...
It was sometime between 1900 and 1925, the exact time is of no importance. A husband and wife where coming home in their car. By that fact you can tell it was a pretty wealthy family. In that time, drinking alcohol and driving a car was no problem at all. So they didn't even think anything could happen when they drove home after a reception at the mayor's house. They were talking to each other and when they turned the last corner before they reached their house, she screamed and pointed forward.
Her husband tried to stop the car: In the middle of the street stood a man, naked and vaguely blurred (the husband put that down to the alcohol when he thought about it later). Of course, he didn't manage to stop the car in time and bumped into the naked man. Not heavily but it was enough to knock the poor guy unconscious. Both of them jumped out of the car and had a look. The naked man was quite dirty but seemed unhurt. They tried to wake him up, but in vain. The man was breathing steadily and so they though, the best thing they could do was bring him home. Running down a naked man in the street, completely drunk - that was too embarrassing a situation.
The husband covered the man in a blanket from the car and him into the car and drove the last few meters and up the driveway to the house while his wife was running to open the door quietly. She made up the guestroom quickly and called upon the maid to prepare some hot water and to bring fresh towels. Then her husband entered the room, the unconscious stranger in his arms. He laid him down on the bed carefully. Then the maid came in and nearly dropped the hot water bucket and the towels. The wife told her to go back to sleep and don't tell a word to anyone or else. She then shooed her husband out of the room. "I'll handle this." she said.
She then proceeded to clean up the sleeping stranger. When she had cleaned his face with warm water and a bit of soap, she dried it with a soft and fresh towel. The man looked somewhat familiar but she couldn't quite remember where it was she had seen him. She continued to wash him, blushing a little when she was about half way down. The stranger never woke up but his breathing seemed to have strenghtened. She pulled the blanket over him and wrote a note: "Please excuse the inconvenience. We can explain everything. Please ring the bell once you are awake. Everything will be alright." She placed the note on the chair beside the bed, turned down the lights and closed the door from the outside. She went back to her husband and because there was nothing else they could do, they went to bed.
In the morning they sat down at the breakfast table. Bot of them had been sleeping badly, nightmares of running down naked men haunted them both. In a calm voice she informed the rest of the family that they had met an old acquaintance last night and that he would stay for a while. They would introduce him as soon as he was awake.
Just when they bowed their heads to say the morning prayer together, the door opened. She glanced to the door and rose quickly. In the door, wearing one of her own nightgowns was the stranger they had bumped into the night before. He must have pulled the nightgown from the cuppoard, since she hadn't seen it in the room when she had washed him.
And in that instant, she realized why the man had seemed familiar and where she had seen him. It was the same man that was present in that same room, on a picture on the wall: The Last Supper. The man they had run into was Jesus Christ.
And it is this exact moment her son captured in the artwork he created many years later when he was working as a graphic artist for a bookmaker. He even sprinked some of the glittery substance on the picture they had found in the nightgown and in the bed Jesus had slept in. They had no idea that these were chrystals that form hours after travelling through time.
What happened to Jesus and why didn't he ring the bell instead of pulling out a woman's nightgown? Well, obviously, he didn't speak the language so he couldn't read the note. And how was he supposed to know it was a piece of women's clothing? He was used to wearing things like that. He stayed there for sometime and the dissappeared one day when taking a walk in the garden. No one had seen him since.
And what happened to the scientist in the cave, roughly 2000 years back? Check your bible. It's all in there. No one noticed. Apart from God probably. He must have noticed immediately, still, he played along. Otherwise the bible would read pretty different from what we're having today. And God probably brought Jesus back from where ever he was, too. At least that's the idea.
Now you know what this image is and how it came to being. And naturally, this is just something I made up ...
"KOMM HERR JESUS, SEI UNSER GAST"
VIEW A LARGER VERSION ON flickr.
MEASUREMENTS: 57 x 47 cm (w x h)
SIZE: 0,268 m²
BOUGHT ON: December 16th, 2007
IN: Schwanewede
AT: ebay
PRICE PAID: 5,50 Euro
DISTANCE TO STUTTGART: 648 km
Komm Herr Jesus, sei unser Gast - Part One from houdinination on Vimeo.
Komm Herr Jesus, sei unser Gast - Part Two from houdinination on Vimeo.
Komm Herr Jesus, sei unser Gast - Part Three from houdinination on Vimeo.
TOMMI BREM © 2008