Punctum
I was surfing around istockphoto.com this morning, when I came across an article about “Punctum.” A term coined by Roland Barthes (not necessarily a man to emulate), “punctum” describes the moment when “the picture makes us stop, the photograph arrests us, the drawing makes us forget what we were just doing.”
The article goes on to say, “It's the sensation that floods over us, stops us in our tracks and, if only for a second, blots out everything else. We feel something new and indescribable, suddenly alone with the image. Punctum is not the sudden understanding of what the image 'means'. It's our sudden availability, for whatever reason, for the image to create a new meaning in us, just for us. A one-time flash of something we hadn't felt or understood before. For that moment of interaction we are free and flying and somewhere altogether new.”
I know that this term is meant to describe images, but if it is possible for “punctum” to describe a person, it would perfectly depict the life of Jesus. In Mark 2:4, we read, “As [Jesus] walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.”
There was something about Jesus that IMMEDIATELY GRABBED Levi. He was stopped in his tracks and suddenly nothing else mattered. He became completely surrendered and available to follow this man ANYWHERE. The focus of this account isn’t on Levi’s obedience… the focus is on the punctum of JESUS!
Deitrich Bonhoeffer says, “At the call, Levi leaves all that he has—but not because he thinks that he might be doing something worth while, but simply for the sake of the call… This act on Levi’s part has not the slightest value in itself, it is quite devoid of significance and unworthy of consideration. The disciple simply burns his boats and goes ahead. He is called out, and has to forsake his old life in order that he may “exist” in the strictest sense of the word” (p. 58).
Can I be honest? I constantly lose sight of Jesus’ “punctum.” I might say that I am “overwhelmed”… but my life often reveals that I am actually underwhelmed. I need to stop focusing on me and my family and my situation, and focus on the ONE who causes me to forget all else.
The article goes on to say, “It's the sensation that floods over us, stops us in our tracks and, if only for a second, blots out everything else. We feel something new and indescribable, suddenly alone with the image. Punctum is not the sudden understanding of what the image 'means'. It's our sudden availability, for whatever reason, for the image to create a new meaning in us, just for us. A one-time flash of something we hadn't felt or understood before. For that moment of interaction we are free and flying and somewhere altogether new.”
I know that this term is meant to describe images, but if it is possible for “punctum” to describe a person, it would perfectly depict the life of Jesus. In Mark 2:4, we read, “As [Jesus] walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.”
There was something about Jesus that IMMEDIATELY GRABBED Levi. He was stopped in his tracks and suddenly nothing else mattered. He became completely surrendered and available to follow this man ANYWHERE. The focus of this account isn’t on Levi’s obedience… the focus is on the punctum of JESUS!
Deitrich Bonhoeffer says, “At the call, Levi leaves all that he has—but not because he thinks that he might be doing something worth while, but simply for the sake of the call… This act on Levi’s part has not the slightest value in itself, it is quite devoid of significance and unworthy of consideration. The disciple simply burns his boats and goes ahead. He is called out, and has to forsake his old life in order that he may “exist” in the strictest sense of the word” (p. 58).
Can I be honest? I constantly lose sight of Jesus’ “punctum.” I might say that I am “overwhelmed”… but my life often reveals that I am actually underwhelmed. I need to stop focusing on me and my family and my situation, and focus on the ONE who causes me to forget all else.
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