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Light, darkness, & the Cross

Light, darkness, & the Cross

Last updated on: April 14, 2017 at 5:45 am by Gene Veith

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Light, darkness, & the Cross 2017-04-13T22:35:28-04:00 Gene Veith

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S. J. Masson, a new Patheos blogger at Hawkeye, has written a wide-ranging, thought-provoking post that you should read for Good Friday. He begins by pointing out an allusion to the Cross made by J. R. R. Tolkien in a footnote to Lord of the Rings. He then reflects on the symbolism of this time of year, just after the equinox, when light begins to prevail over darkness. And he then explores the meaning of the darkness that came over the land when Christ was on the Cross.

I have some excerpts after the jump, but you need to read the whole post.

Photo from Pixabay, CC0, Public Domain

From S. J. Masson, Tolkien’s footnote to the cross in The Lord of the Rings, Hawkeye (Patheos):

. . .In a scholarly note buried in Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings, where we learn that the ring was destroyed and Sauron overthrown on March 25th.

Even for a Catholic like Tolkien, the date might seem irrelevant. March 25th is Lady Day, the day of the feast of the Annunciation to Mary. Yet as a Medievalist, Tolkien knew that in patristic and medieval tradition, March 25th was also the historical date given for the Crucifixion. As Augustine explains:

‘He is believed to have been conceived on the 25th of March, upon which day also he suffered; so the womb of the Virgin, in which he was conceived, where no one of mortals was begotten, corresponds to the new grave in which he was buried, wherein was never man laid, neither before him nor since.’

The coincidence of these apposite events is crucial: the life and death of Jesus thereby formed a perfect circle, beginning and ending on the same calendar day. . . .

The Venerable Bede adds a possible further layer of meaning (p.25), making the date of the incarnation an unambiguous natural sign from God. Bede reasons that March 25th marked the fourth day of creation, the day in which the ‘luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night… (were) for signs and for seasons, and for days and years’ (Gen. 1:14). (my italics) For more, see here.

The sign of the Christ-light

And what precisely did the heavenly sign depict? The triumph of the light over darkness in the conjunction of the solar and lunar cycle four days after the vernal equinox of Spring. John alludes to it both in his reference to Jesus as a sign that ‘the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not understood it’ (Jn. 1.5) and that ‘The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.’ (Jn. 1.9). . . .

In the Jewish system, the first hour of the day is 6 am, at the dawn’s early light. So when we are told that the time of the crucifixion was ‘when the sixth hour had come, (and) there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.’ (Mk 15.33) it means that it was noon, and the sky was pitch black until 3 pm.

Clearly it is an astonishing event. But what does the sign mean?

Some people suggest that it was an eclipse. But solar eclipses never last more than 7 and a half minutes, and this darkness lasted three hours. Furthermore, we are told that Jesus was crucified at Passover. Passover always falls on a full moon when solar eclipses cannot occur.

No natural explanation suffices. So, something supernatural was taking place. The light that we have seen connotes God’s presence and blessing was replaced by the darkness that connotes his wrath and his curse. (Ex. 10.21-22)

But, astonishingly, this sign didn’t point where we would expect.

It is clear that God’s wrath and his curse were not directed at those who crucified Jesus, but upon Jesus Himself: ‘at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Mk 15.34)

God’s wrath was poured out upon Jesus.

[Keep reading. . .]

light & dark symbolism

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