Holy Juxtapositions for Lent

This post was written by Joel Buursma, and posted on March 12, 2008 | Filed Under religion | Double-click any word for more info | View other posts by Joel Buursma | | For info on this author, visit http://www.sdgmusic.org/voices/2007/08/19/introduction-joel-buursma/

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ our Lord.

We have the stories in the Bible. We have the church traditions. We have the scholars and theologians who have studied them in detail… and are still studying. We can learn and understand much, but, at the same time, this crux of history brings heaven, earth, and hell together in ways that we can only begin to comprehend. For the artistically-minded, there is plenty of space for the imagination to soar. For the Christian, it can all be devotion to the Holy Son of God.

In this post, I journey toward comprehension of the cross through juxtapositions that are present at it. For example:

Guilt punished Innocence for Guilt’s own crime.
The Incorruptible One took on corruption to defeat corruption. As a result, we who are corruptible can put on incorruption. (c.f. I Cor 15)
The Lion of Judah became the Lamb that was slain. (c.f. Revelation 5)

These are just some of my own. For more, I draw from the riches of Western hymns and Eastern liturgy and tradition.

Cross of Jesus from John Stainer’s The Crucifixion

Once the Lord of brilliant seraphs, / Winged with love to do His will,
Now the scorn of all His creatures, /And the aim of every ill.

Alas! and Did my Savior Bleed? by Isaac Watts

Well might the sun in darkness hide / And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died, /For man the creature’s sin.

Selections from an Eastern Orthodox Holy Saturday liturgy:

In a new tomb He is laid, Who empties the tombs of the dead.
Light of salvation, how art Thou hidden in a dark tomb?
By dying, O my God, Thou puttest death to death through Thy divine power.
Hell was wounded in the heart when it received Him whose side was pierced by the spear.
The most pure Temple is destroyed, but raises up the fallen tabernacle.
The second Adam, He who dwells on high, has come down to the first Adam in the depths of hell.

Joseph of Arimathea receiving the body of Jesus from Pontius Pilate.

St. Epiphanius says: “…A mortal went in before a mortal, asking to receive God; the God of mortals he begs; clay stands before clay so as to receive the Fashioner of all! Grass asks to receive from grass the Heavenly Fire; the miserable drop seeks to receive from a drop the whole Abyss! Who ever saw, who ever heard such a thing?”

A hymn of Joseph of Arimathea speaking to Pilate:

Give me this stranger, who from infancy has been as a stranger, a sojourner in the world.
Give me this stranger, whom His own race has hated and delivered unto death as a stranger.
Give me this stranger, who in a strange manner is a stranger to death.
Give me this stranger, who has received the poor as guests.
Give me this stranger, whom His people from envy estranged from the world.
Give me this stranger, that I may hide him in a tomb, for as a stranger He has no place to lay His head.
Give me this stranger, whose Mother seeing His dead body cries out: ‘O my Son and my God, I am sorely wounded within me and my heart is rent, seeing Thee as one dead; but in Thy Resurrection I take courage and magnify Thee.’

How now can we respond to such things, too wonderful for us by far? We cannot, if we hope that our response will equal them. But, by faith, we can simply embrace, trust, die, and be reborn. And give thanks, now and forevermore.