One of the striking things about paintings of public executions in
earlier times is the contrast between the French and the English approach.
French artists typically ignored the gathered crowd and focused in detail on
the face of the one about to be executed (there is, indeed, one picture of a
woman about to be executed where her face has one of the most haunting
expressions I’ve ever seen). By contrast, English artists focused on the
crowd, whether jubilant, mocking, or distraught, and left the victim a somewhat
shadowy figure. Public execution was after all, in part, public
entertainment; and English artists had the courage (or lack of good taste) to
represent it as precisely the kind of popular entertainment that it was.
I was reminded of this recently, when I switched on the news and
on every channel/website the focus was on David Bowie’s death. His death
is very sad -- whatever his problems or faults or sins, two children have lost
their father, siblings a brother and, if his parents are still alive, mum and
dad have lost a son. What is interesting (though hardly unpredictable) is
the way in which the media have focused on the grief of the wider public, on
people who never knew him and many cases presented a person’s death as
entertainment.
I didn’t always enjoy Bowie's music but he was clearly a popular
and talented entertainer. And he continues to entertain in death -- not just because
his records will get some major airtime (including the just released album Blackstar) but because the
media are able to play his death as one more showbiz event, burying the tragedy
of real death, real bereavement, and terminated relationships. Of course, apart
from grief, a good response to Bowie’s death (as with any other death) is to
reflect on our own death and to ask how prepared we are to meet our Maker. As
the poet John Donne movingly puts it:
“Any man's death diminishes me, because I
am involved in mankind,
and therefore, never send to know for whom
the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”
Wonderfully in Jesus Christ and by believing in Him, the Bible
assures us that we receive forgiveness of sins and are made ready to stand
before a Holy God (John 3:16). It is in taking this simple yet life-changing
step that we can be made ready for that day, when the bell shall toll for
thee.
Parish magazine article for the Second Sunday of Epiphany 2015 AD (with thanks to an article by Rev Dr Carl Trueman)
