Does Dave Sim Still Have Occasional Moments of Lucidity?
Apparently, shortly after
setting up the Taliban, Mullah Omar opened a sacred reliquary and appeared in
public wearing a cloak which had supposedly belonged to the Prophet.
This, to me, was one of the primary motivations behind God's use
of the Cross: it discourages (to say the least) the pretence of co-equivalence
with Jesus. To those who sought to follow in Jesus' footsteps--in the way that
Mullah Omar attempts to do with Muhammad: to assume the Mantle, to be popularly
deemed as being on the same plateau, to be perceived as co-equivalent (like
John and James mother asking that they be seated on the right and left hand of
Jesus in the worldly to come)--to any man so tempted, Jesus said "…let him
deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." The Cross is what
separates the men from the boys…. The Cross puts the story of Jesus on a
plateau so elevated above those sorts of petty worldly conceits as to render
those conceits beneath notice, to render them spiritually disgraceful, and
tread them into the dust. Not just at that time, but two thousand years later:
spiritually, going willingly to the Cross puts you way, way, way, way, way up
there. Anything else puts you way, way, way, way, way, down here. It would be
inconceivable (just to cite the most obvious direct analogy) for the Pope to
appear on his balcony at the Vatican with the Shroud of Turin draped over his
head.
Essay, "Islam, My Islam", Cerebus 280