I read a short article the other day about a new phenomena happening amongst people that can pay for it: the anesthetized tattoo. There’s a shop in Miami (and it seems a few others across the country) that specialize in tattooing people that have been completely put under medical anesthesia. As someone who has a couple tattoos, I will tell you that there is pain involved if you’re not put to sleep first. It’s sort of like an ant bite – depending on where your tattoo is.
The practice started because it was helpful for people with really big tattoo projects who couldn’t physically or mentally stand the pain of the tattoo process which could take hours and hours. Now, however, it has opened to people even with smaller tattoos who just want to avoid the pain.
It reminds me of a picture that was circulating a while back of a man who was carrying a life size cross across a room in a style that evoked Jesus walking to Golgatha carrying His cross. The only difference here was that the cross being carried by the man across the room had a little wheel at its bottom, making it easier to wheel it where he wanted.
There is something about painless tattoos and wheeled crosses that makes us grimace. Something seems “disqualified” about the lack of suffering in both pictures. Speaking in terms of faith, it might bring up the notions of discipleship and sanctification. We feel that there are dues to be paid sometimes, scoffing and scowling at those who we don’t feel paid (enough).
Sure enough, Jesus doesn’t promise His disciples an easy life. He says things like “take up your cross and follow Me,” and “blessed are the persecuted”. But He also tells us that we should take up His yoke “for My burden is easy,” and He tells us to rest in the knowledge that our sins are forgiven. So which is it? Wheeled cross, or unwheeled?
Ironically, my tattoos read “Law” and “Gospel” – and I think that’s the key for us in understanding this. Sometimes we need “Law”. When we have been avoiding pain just because we want an “anesthetized Christianity” where we only feel nothing at all, it it might signal something we need to repent of. But we also never run out of our need for the Gospel, which is more than a wheel stuck to the bottom of the our cross, but a Savior who comes and bears it for us.
As you continue this week, keep in mind that there may be places where God has put you in places where your discomfort is actually good for you. But also keep in mind that He has sent His Son to take your burden upon Himself.