Saving Monticello...And Me!

Have any of you ever been to Monticello?  I love Monticello, the brilliant home of Thomas Jefferson.  Well recently I re-visited Monticello, and did something I’d never done before:  I “shelled out” the extra money for the behind the scenes tour, discovering parts of Monticello I’d had never encountered: the famed upstairs dome room, details of Jefferson’s affair with his slave Sally Hemming’s, and the ‘inside scoop’ regarding Jefferson’s bankruptcy.  

Jefferson’s bankruptcy was especially shocking.  Imagine:  one of our country’s most creative, intelligent Presidents utterly whipped out, broken, at the end of his life.  Why Jefferson was so broken, so bankrupt, that after his death, Monticello had to be sold, eventually falling into such disrepair, that cattle roamed Monticello’s first floor and grain was stored on its second floor.  But then came along Uriah Levy, a colorful U.S. Navy Commodore.  Why after seeing Monticello in utter disrepair, it occurred to Levy:  this was not Monticello “as it was meant to be”; this was Monticello fallen.  And so Levy and his family spent the next 89 years saving Monticello, restoring Monticello it to it’s original ‘form and frame”: the marvelous, iconic creation we know today!

In essence, Jesus Christ was the first Uriah Levy; Jesus was the first to save and restore.  Oh, not Monticello, but our ‘form and frame.’  For like Monticello, we too have been broken, bankrupt, fallen.   But Jesus knew what we were meant to be, and so Jesus restored us to our original creation.  

But how did Jesus know our original intent?  In sum: because Jesus knew the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, referring to Genesis at least 25 times, inferring themes from Genesis even more.  For example in Matthew 22 folks attempt to trick Jesus regarding taxes: “is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”  (Matthew 22:17)  And Jesus replies:  “…show me the coin used for paying the tax…” (Matthew 22:19). And they bring Jesus a coin. “…Whose image…is this?...Caesar’s. And [so Jesus replies]: “Render…to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s [bearing Caesar’s image], and to God the things that are God’s [bearing God’s image]…” (Matthew 22:19-21), an inference to Genesis 1:26-27 where humankind – us -- are identified not as broken, bankrupt, fallen, but as the very image-bearers of God.  

For in the beginning, our creation was marvelous, iconic! For in the beginning, to quote Genesis 1:26-27, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them…”  (Genesis 1:26-27).   

Increasingly, we need to get in touch with this original creation, life as it was meant to be.  Sure: brokenness and bankruptcy are real, but God’s intent is for us to be marvelous and whole!