[This post begins a daily series for Holy Week. Today is Monday. Of Holy Week. So we’ll begin at the beginning, with creation.]
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all attest in their gospels that the “curtain” before the temple was torn in two when Jesus died. In Luke, the sun’s light is eclipsed. In Matthew, the earth shakes and the rocks were split. Mark keeps it simplest, Jesus breathes his last and the Centurion nearby declares “surely this man was God’s son” (either in earnestness or mockery we are unsure, but that’s a topic for another post).
So, what was this veil that was torn?
First-century Jewish historian Josephus described the Temple veil this way:
“The Temple had…golden doors of fifty-five cubits altitude and sixteen in breadth; but before these doors there was a veil of equal largeness with the doors.
It was a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue, and fine linen, and scarlet, and purple, and of a contexture that was truly wonderful.
Nor was this mixture of colors without its mystical interpretation, but was a kind of image of the universe; for by the scarlet there seemed to be enigmatically signified fire, by the fine flax the earth, by the blue the air, and by the purple the sea….
This curtain had also embroidered upon it all that was mystical in the heavens, excepting that of the twelve signs of the Zodiac, representing living creatures.”
So… when Jesus dies, the universe is torn in two.
I’m reminded of something Athanasius wrote in his Incarnation of the Word, meditating on the significance of Christ being crucified up on a cross, and therefore in the air.
For Athanasius, the air was the sphere of the devil. Even if today we may not connect air and the demonic (do we?) it’s worth hearing him out:
But the Lord came to overthrow the devil and to purify the air and to make "a way" for us up to heaven, as the apostle says, "through the veil, that is to say, His flesh." [Hebrews 10:20] This had to be done through death, and by what other kind of death could it be done, save by a death in the air, that is, on the cross? Here, again, you see how right and natural it was that the Lord should suffer thus; for being thus "lifted up," He cleansed the air from all the evil influences of the enemy.
I don’t think most of us walk around pondering the ancient divisions of air, fire, earth, water in quite the same way done in ancient philosophy or Avatar: The Last Airbender. But nevertheless we can pick up on a repeating thematic, that the death of Christ seems to have had a profound impact not just on God, and not just on us, but on creation itself.
We can keep going: at the Easter Vigil, the vigil lessons begin with Genesis 1, calling to mind the evening before Easter the creation of all that is. Then in a series of dramatic texts, we engage Scriptural passages that prefigure Christ’s death and resurrection. Most on point is Jonah’s three days in the belly of the whale, but equally resonant is Daniel’s description of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s harrowing of the fiery furnace and Moses and Miriam’s leading of the Israelites through the parted Red Sea.
Each in its own way is a death and resurrection, a life after death, and intriguingly they embody those classic elemental divisions: the waters of the Red Sea, the fires of the furnace, the breath of God hovering over the deeps at creation, the blood/earth motif of Adam.
But the creation motifs keep coming. There’s Jesus’ burial in the gospel of John, in a garden. You know, like, in a garden.
Or we can be reminded again of Luke, who says the sun dimmed, lessened, was eclipsed, reminding us of the far-off suns that led the wise ones from the east to the birth place of Jesus. Whether the sun and stars are conscious (as some recent science suggests) or angels (as some popular stories and theological proposals have posited) we can nevertheless at the very least pick up what Scripture is laying down for us…
All of creation is affected by and involved in the life of this crucified One.
It’s simply far too constricted to believe that Christ’s death on the cross is primarily about saving human souls for some future anthropocentric eternity.
Christ’s death impacts all of creation.
Of course, since Christ is uniquely God and human simultaneously, and us humans are intrinsically a part of creation, this should come as no surprise.
But it’s the kind of thing that needs to be said, because we humans have gotten so involved in thinking Christ’s crucifixion is primarily about us.
It’s not. It’s about God’s faithfulness and Christ’s faithfulness and the Spirit’s presence and it is then also about us because Christ is our brother but it’s also about… everything that is.
Every time you see a cross the rest of this week, try to imagine that immense, thick curtain painted to depict the universe ripping entirely in two.
What a great way to start with Holy Week than the description of the veil been torn asunder and the rest of the information. Thank you for delving into that description.
What stands out to me in this homily is the term "anthropocentric." One of the hallmarks of contemporary Christian belief is the United States is the "Me and Jesus" mentality. While Christ's sacrifice is salvific for us, it is not just about us, but ultimately about the glory of God. Thanks for putting us in our place.