Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central Podcast, making theology central. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I have to ask this question. How much would you pay for a banana? Come on, I want you to really think about this. How much would you pay for one banana? How much? $5? Would you pay $10 for one banana? Would you pay $25? Would you pay $50? What about $100? And I know at this point, some of you are already laughing at me thinking, that's right. No, no person, no sane person would pay $100 for a banana. But what if I took that banana and I put duct tape right across the middle of the banana and I taped it to something. I taped it to a board. I took a banana, took some duct tape, put it right across the middle of the banana, taped it to a board. Would you then pay $5,000? Would you pay $10,000? 50,000, would you pay $100,000 for a banana with some duct tape across the middle of the banana taped to a board? Come on, would you? Now, why wouldn't you pay that much? What if I was to tell you someone paid a lot more than that? In fact, probably far more than you could ever imagine. I'm not making this up. Someone paid a lot of money for a banana. taped to a board with duct tape. And I'm going to tell you all about it right after I say this. Good morning. It's still morning. Good morning, everyone. It is Friday, November the 22nd, 2024. It is currently 11.48 a.m. Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. While many people run around talking about how bad the economy is, inflation, this is crazy, I don't know how anyone can survive. While a lot of people have major concerns about the economy, while other people, well, they were doing this. And finally... We're going to begin at $800,000. At $800,000. Last night, a highly conceptual piece of art went on the auction block at Sotheby's. One million is with me already, actually. Bidders from around the world threw their offers into the mix. At $3,500,000. They pushed the price higher and higher until the winner clinched it. It's slipping through the auction room at $5,200,000, and I'm going to sell it here, the world's most expensive banana. At $5,200,000. A real ripe banana taped to the wall with duct tape sold for $5.2 million, plus another million in fees. The piece is by the artist Maurizio Catalan, and it's titled Comedian. We are looking at an ordinary banana and an ordinary piece of duct tape. However, what makes the ordinary extraordinary is the intention of the artist who put this together. Sotheby's head of contemporary art called Catalan a brilliant provocateur, and he has a history of shocking the art world. He once installed a solid gold toilet at the Guggenheim. He first debuted the banana duct tape piece a few years ago and said it was a satirical commentary on the art market and what art is considered valuable. The winning bid last night came from Justin Sun, a crypto entrepreneur who watched the auction from Hong Kong. He said for him, the piece bridges the worlds of art, internet memes, and cryptocurrency. And he said he plans to eat the banana. 5.2 million, but then it was another million dollar in fees. So that makes it a $6.2 million banana. with duct tape. you know, how crazy the art market is and how art is valued. And someone was like, you know, I've got to have that. I mean, instead of just recreating it for yourself, let me go grab a banana, let me tape it with some duct tape, put it on a board. Look, everyone, look at my satirical piece of art. Look at it. Come on, look at it. No, no. He had to buy the original for 5.2 million with a million dollar fee. So 6.2 million dollar banana with duct tape. I don't want to leave out the duct tape. And I'm assuming it comes to the board that it's taped on. So there you have it. What? Now, when I heard that, that was at the end of one of the news podcasts that I subscribed to. That was just like the very last story. In fact, I was getting ready to just turn it off because I'd already heard all of the major news stories. And then they threw that in at the end. And I was like, what did I just hear? Like, let me play that again. So I played it again and I'm like, what do we do? So on one hand, now here's where I kind of become conflicted here. On one hand, I don't want to undermine or play down the significance of art, right? I know art is very much in the eye of the beholder. What one person sees as brilliant, another person may see, what is that? And I know, especially when it comes to contemporary art, there's a lot of people like, I don't know what this is, and kind of, you know, market. And I understand that. So I don't want to sound like that. I don't want to sound like that. I do want to try to appreciate that this is a satirical piece that's supposed to show you how things are valued in the art world. Okay, great. But is it worth I mean, what is that worth? I mean, it may be worth the satirical message. It may have some value because of the satirical message that you're trying to get across. Or it could just demonstrate that anyone who would spend $5.2 million on a banana with duct tape taped to, you know, a board or tape to something. Does it say more about the person who purchased it that they've got way more money than they need and that they could probably have done something far, I don't know, more beneficial even to themselves and they're going to just eat it? So they're just going to eat the banana, meaning that the piece of art is just going to be, they purchased it just to eat it. I don't know, like the whole thing is just crazy. I'm like, so what do I do with this? Like, I had to sit there and think about it and think about it and think about it. I'm like, how do I even process this? So I started thinking, is it possible that the story about the duct taped banana sold for $6.2 million, again, 5.2 million, but a million dollar fees, Could it possibly, and now I'm throwing this out there, all right? Is it possible that this story of this banana, that it could highlight maybe issues about value, meaning, perception, Do you think it has something to say about what we value, about what we give meaning to, how we perceive things? And is it possible that we could explore this from maybe a more theological or biblical perspective? Is that even possible? I don't know. I'm going to try. Is it even possible? Is it possible that this entire story about this banana, that it raises questions about maybe how you and I, as human beings, how we determine the worth of something, especially when what we value may appear to be absurd or even meaningless? I mean, how do we determine what is valuable? Because what you may determine is valuable, I may see as absolute meaningless junk, right? And what I value, you may determine as meaningless and absolute junk. Right? Like if I was to go pick up my headphones and the amplifier that I have connected to it, if I was to go downstairs to my Yamaha amp that is down there, and the different things I have for stereo equipment, if I was to go through all the different things I have for music, Many of you would be like, what in the world? That's all just useless and meaningless because music doesn't mean anything to you. I mean, you may say you like to listen to it, but you don't really care about any of it. You don't care about how it sounds. Like you're just, you're kind of indifferent. You may think if you, if I walk down to where my Yamaha amp is and you turn to the right and you see my 65 inch television, you may go, who cares if it's this and it can do 4k or ultra high def or Dolby Atmos. And who cares about any of that? You may see that as meaningless, but then I may walk in and look at some of the things you have, and I'm like, really? That's what you think is valuable? So we already know that there's very much a, there's no, like, we have different perceptions. We have different things that mean something to us. So we definitely know that, but how do we look at it from a theological or biblical perspective? Maybe from a biblical perspective, the story of the $6.2 million banana, maybe it could challenge us to consider the nature of true value and maybe how it aligns with God's standards rather than, well, our own human whims, our own human ideas. So let's consider it, or at least throw out some possibilities from a theological reflection. I mean, this is the Theology Central podcast, right? We can make Theology Central to any story, even a story about a $6.2 million banana, right? When I saw the story, The Six Million Dollar Banana, I thought of The Six Million Dollar Man. Do you remember that show? Do you remember it? You can watch it on Peacock, right? I loved that show. Now, I don't know. It doesn't really stand the test of time in 2024. It's very dated. But yeah, you can go watch it on Peacock. But there was the $6 million man. Now that story was about this test pilot, right? Astronaut, test pilot. He's in a horrible accident and then they decide to use him basically as an experiment. We can build him back. We can make him stronger and better because it was showing the advances in technology and medical advancement. Well, he became the bionic man. six million dollar man. It took six million dollars to build him back. So you saved a life, you preserved human life, and you made it better. Okay, all right, that maybe is worth spending six million dollars on, but a banana that just has duct tape on it? You're going to peel the duct tape off, peel the banana, and just eat it? I don't know. But how do we look at that from a theological perspective? Well, Does this have anything to say, possibly, about human misplaced value? When it comes to humanity, when it comes to us as human beings, do we often assign value to that which is fleeting, that which is trivial? I mean, don't we have a tendency to assign great value to that which is temporal, that which is... earthly, that which is fleshly. And it's so much not about being earthly or fleshly, it's just that it's fleeting. We assign great value to something, but it's trivial. It's only going to be here for now, and it's going to be gone. And we do that. Just think of all the things we assign great value to, things that we think are so important, things that we get so caught up in and so concerned about. There's a lot of trivial things, right? I mean, we can do this in lots of different ways, right? I mean, it's not just, I want you to try to see beyond, well, I would never pay $6.2 million for a banana. Well, one, you probably don't have $6.2 million to spend on it. Now you say, well, if I had it, I wouldn't, but if you had $100 million, if you had a billion dollars, I mean, the more money you have, something that's 6.2 million, If you have enough money, that may seem like just going to the convenience store and go, oh, here's a little toy I want to buy. Well, because it doesn't appear to be that much. So then it really determines on, well, you know, the more money you have, the more you can get. And it can just seem insignificant. I can go to the store and buy something insignificant because, well, it's not that much compared to the amount of money. that I have. But consider it from this perspective, just in life, right? Just in your life and my life, I want us to see that we spend money, we spend time, we spend focus, we spend effort on so much that is trivial and temporal. I used to, I used to, I've talked about this so many times. When you, when you, when you're in any place of employment, right? People get so caught up in their jobs, right? And every, and people, there'll be drama and arguing and fighting and, and, and all of this. People are fighting for position. They're fighting for this. They're fighting for a raise, for a promotion. They want credit, this, and everybody, and people can get so worked up, but in the end, none of it matters. In the end, it's all irrelevant. You're going to walk out of that building one day, you're going to retire, and nobody's going to stink and care that you got employee of the month. Nobody's going to stink and care that you were this or you accomplished this. Sometimes all of these accomplishments that we value, they're just going to burn up. Now, we can see it when it's a $6.2 million banana. We're like, well, how ridiculous. Sometimes we can't see it that we are showing that we value things that are really trivial, that are insignificant, that are temporal. Is it possible that as human beings, we have a distorted understanding of worth? And it is seen, we can't see it, but we can see it when it's something absurd, like someone paying $6.2 million for a banana. then we can see it. But can you see in your life your distorted understanding of worth? And is it possible that this could originate from our focus on materialism, pride, a desire for status and recognition? Is it possible that we all have a distorted view of value? Is it possible that all of us, as humans, we have a distorted view of value? Every single one of us. We are born with a distorted view of value. And the reason we have a distorted view of value is because of our sinful nature, which gets us to focus on materialism. We focus on the material, what we can touch, what we can see. On pride, will it make me? It's about me. It's about me. It's about me. I want everyone to know that it's me. Is it possible that that could be an issue? Could it become we want a desire for status? Oh, I want to reach a certain status and I want recognition. I think that we value material, pride, status, and recognition. Is it possible that the banana, taped basically to a wall, symbolizes how the world can celebrate the futile or absurd while ignoring lasting and meaningful truths? I think that there's something. I think this is simple. I know it's just a... you know, a banana taped to a wall, a board, whatever it was taped to. I think we can all see, man, that's absurd. But again, it's easy to always criticize others. We sometimes have to look, when we're criticizing something else, we have to look at ourselves. I'm not going to pay 6.2 million for a banana taped to a wall. not going to value that. I don't care about that. But it doesn't mean I don't have misplaced values. It doesn't mean that I can be just as much as placing value concern over things that are temporal and futile and be just as foolish, but in a different way, especially if we look at it from a theological perspective. Now, we do have Now, some of these scriptures, I don't have time to put them in their historical context in this episode, but there's some scripture that comes to mind. How about... I'm not saying that this fits perfectly, but Isaiah 55.2, now obviously there's a historical context here, but Isaiah 55.2, these words are being spoken. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." Now this seems to speak at least to some part, it's a critique, and to some level, that we have a tendency to invest in things that bring no real fulfillment, and in some ways it could speak to people to seek that which truly satisfies, which is God's wisdom and God's truth. We have a tendency to invest which doesn't really bring fulfillment. Now, that person paid 6.2 million and he's going to eat the banana. Now, obviously, He's playing along with the satirical nature of the piece of art. So he himself will become basically a part of the satire. He himself will be kind of playing along. Hey, the piece was to demonstrate how meaningless things can be seen as of great value in art. It's kind of making fun of it. And now this man who paid $6.2 million becomes a part of the satire. So maybe that's why he did so. And he's got the money to do so. But it symbolizes, though, for us sometimes the futility and that we misplace value. We give value to that which is futile, which is meaningless, which is empty, which doesn't truly satisfy. And I think we all, every single one of us, we do that. So does it symbolize, and I think at first I thought about humanity, but let's just do this. Does it symbolize you and I and are, let's speak directly to us. Let's look in the mirror. Does it show us how we pursue and we give value to the wrong things? And think of the things you give so much value to, your attention, your time. And does it deal with, well, Pride, position, recognition, materialism. Come on. Where do you give the great? Look at your life. Your life shows you what you value the most. And I think what we can see by our lives, we don't value God or the things of God more than we value other things. I think this can be spoken to all of us. Could it be that this banana for $6.2 million, could it possibly symbolize or speak to the vanity of worldly pursuits? Is it possible that the banana taped to a wall, to a board, could it echo maybe some things we hear in the book of Ecclesiastes? where you have someone lamenting the vanity, the meaningless, meaningless of worldly endeavors and the pursuit of menial temporal things. I mean, Solomon's trying to figure out the purpose of life and he's like, vanity, vanity, meaningless, meaningless, meaningless, meaningless, meaningless, meaningless. Could it be that the taped banana represents kind of the The emptiness, in a sense, of wealth and of human achievement, which ultimately does not satisfy nor can it endure. If you look at Ecclesiastes 1.4, I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind, to borrow from that translation. It's meaningless. Everything done under the sun, it's meaningless. It's empty. Could it be that the absurdity of the art's value underscores how you and I chase after that which lacks any internal or Now, eternal, I think you should say it that way, eternal significance, not internal, but eternal. We definitely value the external more than the internal, but in this particular case, doesn't the banana seem to indicate the absurdity of the value of that banana? Could it underscore you and I, us, us, how we chase after that which does not have any eternal significance? Let's state it that way. Does that make more sense? I think that makes sense. Is it possible that the banana, right? So now today, this is what I want you to do. I want you to get a banana, get some duct tape, and just tape it to the refrigerator. And when everybody walks by, what is that? Well, that demonstrates how all of us in this family, we have misplaced values. And number two, it shows you the vanity of worldly pursuits. Now you can try it. I think your family is just going to be like, you're out of your mind. Are you listening to that stupid podcast again? Why are we taping a banana to the refrigerator? Because maybe we need to be reminded that you and I, we tend to value the wrong things and we give value to the wrong things. And let's be honest. We're very much involved in worldly pursuits. Could it be that when we look at a banana selling for 6.2 million dollars, could it be that this is symbolic of a misplaced treasure? Could it be? Remember, Jesus taught that we should prioritize eternal treasure over earthly wealth? And why? Because earthly wealth can easily distract and deceive us. The duct tape banana, could it not serve kind of as a metaphor? of how worldly treasures, no matter how expensive or celebrated, are temporary and will fade. I was thinking Matthew 6. verses 19 to 21, reading from a different translation. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Wherever your treasure is, identify what you treasure. That's where your heart is, ladies and gentlemen. If you treasure a banana taped to a wall and you're willing to give $6.2 million to purchase it, that's where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. If you can identify what you treasure, you will identify the location of your heart. And this is why over and over and over, I know and you know, if we're even remotely honest, my heart is not loving God with all my heart, mind, body, and soul. My heart is typically found somewhere in what I treasure. and it tends to be very earthly, it tends to be very material, and it tends, materialistic, and it tends to be very self-serving. I love what the thing that I get something from, pleasure, acknowledgement, whatever it may be, because my heart is going to be what is going to give me the greatest amount of whatever I'm looking for. Maybe, The banana shows us how, as you and I, that we misplace value. We give value to the wrong things. Maybe it shows us the vanity of worldly pursuits. Maybe it shows us misplaced treasures. Could it be, could it be that the banana shows us futility without God? So, when you look at the valuation of the art piece, doesn't it reflect a world increasingly detached from the grounding reality of God? The more you become detached from a reality grounded in God, then what happens? In the book of Romans, Paul seems to explain how once humanity, when it's separated from God, it exchanges his glory for foolish things. It misdirects his worship and value. That would be what Romans 1, I think you can look at that entire section starting around verse 22. If I was to read it from a different translation, The duct tape banana could possibly then represent how the world, how you and I, evaluates the trivial or the absurd, and we place it almost to a place of reverence. It's almost a folly of misplaced priorities. Now, I don't want to just say the world. All of us, all of us do this. We constantly, we claim to be wise, and we constantly prove ourselves to be fools, and we exchange the glory of God for the fleshly, for the tangible, for the material. We do that constantly. We evaluate the trivial. almost to an absurd place of reverence, where we, I love this, and I need this, and I want this, and I desire this, and the things of God get pushed to the side. I think it shows the futility without God. Once we kind of abandon God, which we abandon God constantly, okay, don't act like Christians, we don't do this, and then we begin to do what? Well, we begin to give other things this greater, attention, worship, adoration, love, pursuit, we become consumed with it. So what would be like, so that's kind of looking at the banana from like a kind of a theological perspective. What if we try to really try to create a biblical perspective here? What if we try to create a biblical perspective? Well, then we would need to establish God's standard of value, right? Or God's standard of worth. Maybe we go with that language. So, I'm telling you, get a banana, duct tape it to the refrigerator today, because it symbolizes all the things we just talked about. And then we can try to establish what would be a biblical perspective. Well, God's standard of worth would be the true value, true worth, is not determined by how much something costs or human praise. but by God's standards, right? If you think about how does something valuable, how is something deemed to be worthy or valuable, how is that determined? It's sometimes by how much it costs or by what people think about it. Well, if people think it's good, then it's good. If people think it's bad, it's bad, right? Or how much something costs. There's different ways. But for us, what we should say from a biblical perspective is, well, God's standard, God determines value and worth. The Bible would seem to teach that what is truly valuable often appears insignificant to the world. Right? Is it 1 Samuel 16, 7 that says something like, the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. If you look at the Bible, the Bible emphasizes things like humility, love, turning the other cheek, things that would appear weak, foolish, insignificant to the world. But God values that. See, God sees not as a man sees. He judges. He values things differently. The world may value a banana at $6.2 million. God's valuation would focus on purpose and substance, on something differently. So maybe we have to try to begin to see worth and value from God's perspective and not our own perspective. We tend to determine value and worth of something on how it makes us feel. not from an eternal perspective. Come on, I know that's the case. So maybe a biblical perspective would be we have to look at it from God's standard and not man's standard. Second, we have to have an eternal perspective, which I just alluded to, I just hinted at. See, the seeming absurdity of this art is when you… Well, how I'm kind of conflicted on this. On one hand, I want to say, you look at the art, it's completely absurd when you contrast it with eternity. But everything seems absurd and useless when you compare it to eternity, right? And in some ways, I think we would say the banana is absurd even from the most pragmatic and practical perspective, right? But I think it can symbolize that we do need an eternal perspective. All of us have a very much a temporal, earthly perspective. But if we saw things from an eternal perspective, we'd be like, well, should I be really upset about that? Or we're really focused on this if I look at it from an eternal perspective. But it's hard to have an eternal perspective. We have the parable of the Pearl of Great Price, I think in Matthew 13, right? This reminds us that the most valuable treasure is God himself. It's worth everything we have. God, eternity, that's what has great value. We should be willing to give up everything for that. What we should value above everything else is God, that which is in eternity. That's what we should value. But what we have a tendency to do is we'll sacrifice the eternal, we'll sacrifice the spiritual for the fleshly, for the earthly, and for the temporal. I do it, you do it. Let's not pretend that we don't. I know we have a tendency when this kind of thing is preached, well, the world out there, but we've got it all. Man, I've been going to church forever. Christians are just as consumed and preoccupied and loves the world, love the things in the world. They have a temporal perspective. They have misplaced value, misplaced treasures. They pursue that which is vain. The church even does that. The church will cancel the preaching of God's Word for anything fun and entertaining. We know that. For crying out loud, churches close down on Christmas to supposedly celebrate Christ. By closing down the church, they won't open the doors. Everyone's home exchanging gifts and drinking eggnog. Come on, it's okay to be honest when it comes to, oh, we can't do Halloween because it's bad. What do we do? We have the fall festival. We can all dress up and have food and fun and candy and games because we want what the world has. Now, we'll try to spend Spiritualize it so we feel better about ourselves, right? Hey, when Christians sit around a table and shove food down our throats, we call it fellowship. Well, the rest of the world just says you're sitting around the table talking and eating food. We say fellowship because we got to make it spiritual, when in reality, we just want to hang out, make friends, and eat food. We have the same temporal perspective. Come on, we know we do. We know we do. So we need to have, we need to see, we need to establish God's standard of determining value, which is going to be very different than the world. And we need to establish an eternal perspective. It's Philippians 3, I think it's verse 8, says something along, and I'm paraphrasing, I count everything as loss. I count everything as dung because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. Everything else, I count everything else as useless. Compared to what? Knowing Christ. What the world deems as priceless is often meaningless in light of eternity. You can take something that you think is of great value, that you think is so important, it seems useless, meaningless, and trivial when compared to eternity. So what are some questions we could ask? How do you, how do I, how do us, how do we evaluate what is truly meaningful in life? How do you truly evaluate what is meaningful, what is valuable? And what ways do you assign value to temporal things? Come on, what are some ways? How do you evaluate what is truly meaningful in your life? Come on, how do you truly evaluate it? If you're honest, it's gonna be about how it makes you feel, right? Come on. But number two, I don't wanna answer these questions for you, but I want you to at least think about them. So how do you evaluate what is truly valuable in your life? Now, what are some ways in which you assign undue or wrong value to temporal things? What are some ways that you assign too much value to temporal things? Come on, identify some ways. And what are some things we could do to ensure that our lives reflect the eternal values God has set forth? What are some ways that we could really show that we are pursuing the eternal values? Now, it's a story about a $6.2 million banana. We could find it humorous. We could find it absurd. We could laugh at it. We could be dismissive of it. Whenever the man finally gets this great work of art, he says he's going to eat the banana. probably do it on TikTok or YouTube or some social media and probably a 50 bazillion people will tune in and we'll laugh and mock it. But could it possibly be, possibly, somehow a very profound commentary? Maybe it could be a profound reflection on me. and my misplaced priorities. Maybe it could challenge me to, well, reconsider what I give great value to and attention to. Maybe it could challenge me to look at things from an eternal perspective and not a temporal perspective. Maybe, just maybe, well, maybe I should say it this way, I will never pay $6.2 million for a banana with some duct tape taped to a wall, a board, or anything else. But the reason I will never spend $6.2 million on a banana taped to anything, because I don't have $6.2 million. So I could sit here like I'm morally superior, thinking that I'm so much more, you know, insightful and I'm more profound and I have a better perspective. Or instead of looking at the $6.2 million banana, what I do is understand that the $6.2 million is just symbolic. And so I look at what all the things I spend my focus, my time, my attention, where I would spend my money, what I would do, and then ask myself, am I really better off? because I'm just as consumed with earthly, fleshly, temporal things as anyone else. So that person spent 6.2 million on one banana. I have spent my life, which is far more valuable than 6.2 million, probably focused, preoccupied, and pursuing the wrong things because that's a part of our sinful nature. And maybe we'll never have the right understanding and the right perspective until we are in eternity. Aren't we grateful that what determines us being in eternity is not that we have it all figured out about what to value or not value, but because, well, because of what Christ did for us. So what do you think? about the $6.2 million banana. Get a banana, duct tape, put it on your refrigerator, and let the conversation begin. Because I think it's a conversation that you could have not only with yourself, even with your kids. They'll be like, what's the banana? Well, let's talk about the things we value. and because they will be much more honest. I think kids will be like, give me a break. I value my toys far more than going to the church or the Bible or God or heaven. What are you talking about? I value the, get a, get a, now they, now if they're, if they're raised as church kids, they'll give you the right answer. Oh, I value Jesus. Come on, stop it. Just, this is where the family can be brutally honest. All right. There's the story of the $6.2 million banana that I found a way to turn into a 41-minute podcast episode. So maybe, just maybe, I've demonstrated my own foolishness. Only you can determine that. Thanks for listening. God bless.