On July 26th, the 2024 Olympics had their opening ceremony in France. From two days before the opening ceremony and since then, athletes around the world have begun competing with their all. But one moment continues to flame controversy. It has highlighted an important reality that hasn’t truly been addressed.

It happened during a parade down the Seine river. This parade showcased various aspects of French culture and experiences. Viewers around the world saw an act with drag queens and a nearly naked man who played the part of Dionysus, who was the Greek god of fertility, wine, and revelry. Known as Bacchus in Rome, as the Romans adopted the Greek gods and goddesses in their culture.

The image sparked worldwide controversy. It strikingly resembled the Last Supper. This name describes Jesus’ last meal before His crucifixion. This moment was most famously depicted in Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of Jesus and His disciples.

The Layers that we missed

In the midst of all the noise, I believe there are layers to this that are important for us as believers to keep in mind as we navigate this controversy. The first layer deals with the facts of what we saw. It has since come out that this performance did not intend to show the imagery of the Last Supper. As mentioned already, the image was of the feast of the Greek and Roman god Dionysus aka Bacchus. Next to that fact is the unfortunate reality of individuals and organizers using a false god and drag queens as part of an opening ceremony for athletic competition. It is something we as Christians reject and renounce, but understand will take place in a world that does not honor and worship Jesus. It’s also not surprising the Olympics would give a nod to the ancient Greek Olympics which had the worship of Zeus as the central meaning of their games.

The next layer for us as believers is that many of us are claiming this part of the ceremony disrespects the Last Supper. The very painting of da Vinci’s Last Supper hinders a true historical view of the Passover meal Jesus had with His disciples. If the Olympic organizers had actually tried to mock the Last Supper, they would only be working with a westernized and European vision of what took place on that sobering and holy night. Not what the Bible says took place, nor what it even looked like.

For their Passover seder, Jesus and the disciples were in an upper room. They reclined on couches in a way that allowed them to wash their feet. They did this while they ate. This allowed Jesus to offer to wash the disciples feet after He initiated the bread and wine of the new covenant. It wasn’t this grand palace that was high and tall, and this picture causes us to miss that. For years, Christians have sought to resist a Eurocentric Christianity, yet still we get upset when there appears to be a mimicking of a painting that is European in its art.

A Challenge worth Taking

We are in a time where it is more difficult than ever to grow in our discernment and good judgement of information. When outrage and offense can be present at a moment’s notice on social media and in our communities, God is calling us as believers to challenge ourselves and each other to respond and think through things more diligently. Even if we see information that looks true from the outset, and the media reports it wrongly (some outlets wrongly reported that it mimicked the Last Supper), we have a responsibility to confirm what happened before we give our response to it.

There is also a need for us to challenge whatever Westernized views that we are used to, as we all have biases that are hard to work through at times. We are immersed in all kinds of imagery that we’ve become used to, to the point that a controversy can happen like this around the world, and many of us don’t even bat an eye at the contradictions we’re experiencing. My thoughts here are not meant to encourage us to be apathetic to any form of disrespect, nor is it to normalize or celebrate the ceremony many of us witnessed. It is for us to remember to engage the life we live in the layers that it exists in.

Sometimes, the situations we are ready to respond to need more time for us to discern what is truthfully going on. There will be times that a situation we witness will expose the error in how we view Christ Himself, which is what I believe is what has happened here. When we declare that we are believers, we must engage our thoughts honestly and diligently. This engagement displays how we practice the discipline of surrender to the Lordship of Christ.