Below are quotes of Tim Schmalz from our interview with him, he explained what he tried to express through the Homeless Jesus statue:
“People say this sculpture is shocking but what I have to say is this: Yeah, they are right, it is shocking. But it is only as shocking as the Gospels are shocking, and they are. But it’s only to that extent. And so if you’ve found the sculpture shocking, the Son of Man as a homeless person? That’s how Jesus wants us to think about right?”
“I do perfect Jesus all the time. There should be artwork like that of Jesus, to show the triumph of Jesus, but that’s not the only part of Christianity. The other part is the message is that He has come to serve, He lowered himself down, so everyone could be raised up.”
“If Jesus came back today, He wouldn’t be hanging out with the presidents, or the rich, He would be on that street corner, with the homeless. And so, if it’s that way, why can’t the art show it? Why do we only have Jesus the Superman? I like Jesus the Superman, but there is also the Jesus that challenges me.”
“In Matthew 25, Jesus says, he presents the idea and then they asked, ‘When did we see you hungry? When did we see you thirsty? When did we see you with no clothes? When did we visit you in prison?’ And then Jesus says, ‘Whenever you have done that to the least of my brothers, you have done that to me.’ That’s how he said in the Gospel. He says, ‘Whenever you have done this to the least of my brothers, you have done it to me.’ So He is saying in a sense, He is within all of those poor, suffering people. That’s where you will see Jesus. So I put it in a sculpture, just the text that Jesus says.”
“If you cannot see Jesus, within the homeless people, then how can you see him in the Church in a sense? If you can’t see Jesus in the least of our brothers, and you aren’t really truly seeing him, right?”
