Readymade

While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” – Mark 14:22-24 (NRSV) 

If you visit the Museum of Modern Art in New York and head up the fifth floor, you’ll find a room with an ordinary snow shovel suspended from the ceiling by a nearly invisible filament of wire.  

It is a work by Marcel Duchamp. He didn’t make it. He got it from the hardware store.  

He called it a “readymade.” 

“An ordinary object,” Duchamp said, “can be elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist.” 

The world around Jesus was full of people who wanted to be remembered. Emperors had their armor-clad bodies chiseled into granite. Heroes struck their stoic profiles onto coins.  

Jesus made his memorial out of bread and a cup, a couple things just about anyone could buy at the corner store.  

Jesus isn’t looking for anything too dramatic from us either. He doesn’t need staggering genius or heroic deeds. He doesn’t need us polished up, or framed in gold. He loves readymades.  

His joy is to see in us what we cannot even begin to see in ourselves. And on the days when your life doesn’t exactly feel museum-quality, he will pick you up and say:  

“What a masterpiece.” 

Prayer
God, thank you for seeing in me what I cannot. Help me begin to see others the way you do. Amen.

About the Author
John Allen is the Senior Minister of First Parish Church UCC in Brunswick, Maine.