6. The Crucifixion If we could go back in time, and if we could take a camera with us, we could achieve all sorts of wonderful things that would be important for scientific and cultural reasons. Could we possibly take a photo of a dodo? Could we take a photo of the Parthenon, complete and painted in the earthy colours of Polygnotos, with the ivory-golden statue of Athena inside? Could we take a photograph of Socrates and decide for ourselves if he was as ugly as he was reputed to be? Could we take a picture of the Temple of Solomon or the Ark of the Covenant? Any of those photos could solve many historical mysteries and would be invaluable. What if we turned our lens to the life of Christ? We would love, of course, to take a photo of Jesus Christ himself, and yet perhaps we would be disappointed if we expected to look at it and recognise the hidden divinity inside him otherwise, he would have been recognised by all as the Son of God, and he would not have been crucified. But while we are at it, what would we see if we were able to take a photo of one of the most influential events in universal history, the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ? Probably not much. A photo would show us a man tied and nailed on a cross or on a wooden pole. Perhaps we would see two other crucified men, on his left and on his right; perhaps more are in the background. The man in the middle would be naked, beaten and bleeding, barely able to support his weight on the cross. If we looked very carefully, we might see that someone had placed a thorny crown on his head. There should be an inscription nailed above him, in languages that could be read and understood by everyone there. Since nobody would care to make this a very big inscription, and if the soldier who placed there was ordered to write the reason for the death sentence of that man in Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic, that inscription would not be very legible. This might be a realistic description of the scene of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. If we were able to go back in time and capture
6. The Crucifixion 63 The Crucifixion, Antonis Fragkos, St George, Livartzi, Greece, 2000
64 Gazing on God this scene in a photo, we could find all sorts of information that would be useful for the archaeologist and the historian. There is nothing however, that would contribute to our understanding of the significance of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. There would be nothing to indicate that this death changes the entire perspective of the universe on death. That corpse became a joyful event, the reversal of natural and spiritual death, but no photograph would ever be able to capture that. This is precisely why iconography does not try to be realistic, and has no interest in recreating a scene as it would have been seen by the bystanders. Instead, it tries to convey all of those things that are not seen by the unsuspecting eye. John the Theologian and the soldiers, who tied and nailed the condemned man to the cross, saw the same thing. And yet, what they read into the scene was completely different. It is the same for us. Setting aside this futile quest for historical precision, we can see that what is not provided in a photo is provided in an icon: a visual analysis of the represented event, and an exposition of all the reasons that make it what it is. Most of all, to show why the dying man on that cross changes the rules of life and death, once and for all. It is difficult to speak about the Passion and the Crucifixion of Christ in the Eastern tradition, separately from his Resurrection. In the way they are presented in Scripture and in the early Church, these events were always taken together, as two aspects of the same event. In early iconography the victory of Christ over death was expressed by a triumphant depiction of the Crucifixion, which showed the conquest of Christ on death, with his own death, while the icon of the Resurrection emerged only in the ninth century. When that happened, the two images shared the role of the triumphant Crucifixion and started representing the divine drama in two different stages: the icon of the Crucifixion expressed the Passion and the icon of the Resurrection, the redemption. Nevertheless, the two icons remained intrinsically connected. There are many elements of the Crucifixion in the Resurrection icon, and a lot of the Resurrection in the Crucifixion icon, even if this is not always obvious. In the Crucifixion icon we can see a very clear anticipation of the Resurrection. The Crucifixion, the Passion and the Resurrection of Christ were the culmination and the fulfilment of his earthly ministry, as a series of events that lead to each other and anticipate each other. Liturgically, it is one long celebration. The Holy Week, the week of the Passion and the Resurrection, is now as it always has been, the most intense religious period in the East, much more than Christmas and it was also the case in the English-speaking world until the
6. The Crucifixion 65 nineteenth century, when the Victorian emphasis on family values was expressed through newly instituted Christmas customs such as exchanging gifts, sending cards, the Christmas tree, the roast turkey Christmas dinner, etc. (popularized by the imagery of Dickens s A Christmas Carol) shifted the weight to Christmas. The Resurrection is not only an older feast than Christmas, but it has also extended itself to a weekly celebration: every Sunday is a liturgical reflection of the Resurrection, and every Friday is a weekly memory of the Crucifixion, and also a fasting day. The Crucifixion icon tells the story of the death of Jesus Christ on a narrative level, but it goes further. It includes certain details of theological interest, which are not very central within the Gospel narrative. Such minor deviations, as it were, from the literal level, include two angels that are often portrayed on the left and on the right of Christ; a representation of the sun and the moon; the representation of Adam s skull under the feet of Christ (which actually echoes the identification of Calvary/Golgotha as the place of the skull (Matthew 27:33); the inscription on the top crossbeam of the Cross, and, especially in Russian iconography, the footstool, which is sometimes slanted. All of these elements urge us to consider a reading of the icon beyond the narrative/historical level. In addition, the icon of the Crucifixion often includes representations of the soldier who pierced the side of Christ or the soldier who offered him a sponge with vinegar and gall. It often includes two soldiers and the centurion Longinus (often identified by name on the icon), who according to tradition after the death of Christ believed in him, saying In truth this man was the son of God (Matthew 27:54, Mark 15:39), became a Christian and was later martyred for Christ. The Biblical text gives us two distinct persons, the centurion who saw the divinity of Christ, and the soldier who pierced the side of Christ. Nevertheless, the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus that gives us the name of Longinus (the name literally means lance ), identified him with the soldier who pierced the side of Christ. In the tradition of iconography we see both the version of the two distinct persons, as well as the one person who combines the attributes of both. In addition, the icon also includes three soldiers at the base of the Cross, along with John the Theologian and Mary. This recalls the way Christ trusted his mother to John and John to his mother (John 19:26-27). This image, which is often placed at the top of the iconostasis, above the Holy Doors, shows us the connection between the cult of Mary and ecclesiology. Following the scene, we identify with the gaze of the narrator, in this case none other than John the
66 Gazing on God Evangelist himself. In this passage, John identifies himself not by name, but as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Whenever he uses this expression in his Gospel, he invites us to share his point of view, to become ourselves the disciple whom Jesus loved. The scene of the adoption identifies Mary as the Ecclesia, the Virgin Mother who continuously forms inside her and gives birth to the body of Christ. She is the mother of Christ and the mother of his people at the same time. This detail is stressed and appears in all depictions of the Crucifixion, not so much because of its historical significance (if we approach it merely as a historical detail we do not see much more than Jesus making provision for his elderly mother after he dies), but because of the liturgical significance of the adoption of the members of the Church by Christ, in the context of the Crucifixion. The cross, the lance and the sponge are, in fact, often grouped visually as representations of the instruments of the Passion, especially in scenes of the Second Coming of Christ, or the (hetoimasia), the Preparation for the Second Coming. Often represented in the middle of the icon of the Last Judgment, next to the empty throne of Christ, they remind us the strong connection between the salvation of humanity and the death of Jesus Christ, leading to his Resurrection. The instruments of the Passion are also found in a prominent position in the celebration of the Eucharist, as icons of a different kind. One of the parts of the Orthodox Divine Liturgy is dedicated to the ritual preparation of the bread and the wine that will be consecrated later. Some of the utensils used in the preparation of the Eucharist are called lance and sponge, and the tone is recalling much of the Passion narrative: in the preparation of the bread for instance, the priest pierces with a knife (which is known as the lance) the side of the piece of bread known as Lamb, describing the act with the words of the Gospel one of the soldiers pierced his side (John 19:34). Christ himself during the Last Supper referred to the bread and the wine he shared with his disciples as his body and his blood, but we understand this as specifically to his broken/crucified body and to his spilled blood (Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:21-25, Luke 21:17-20, 1 Corinthians 11:24-25), even if his Crucifixion had not taken place yet. There are three more soldiers in the icon, the ones who cast dice and divide the clothes of Christ among themselves. The soldiers are usually placed at the foot of the cross, under the skull of Adam. The skull of Adam in itself represents death, Hades, Hell, the fate of humanity before the Incarnation of Christ. Yet, this death is being
6. The Crucifixion 67 overcome by the death of Christ: Adam is soon going to be raised by Christ in the icon of the Resurrection he is the one that Christ draws out from his grave. The placement of the soldiers underneath the skull therefore, identifies this place as a place of death; or rather their condition as the real death, death as it may be understood as distance from God, and not just as physical death. This iconographic place of death anticipates the icon of the Resurrection, where the corresponding space at the bottom, below the feet of Christ and the broken gates, is clearly marked as the prison of the beaten Hades. We see this connection as early as the 6th century illumination from the Rabbula Gospels, which features the Crucifixion on the upper part, and three scenes of the announcement of the Resurrection underneath. Nevertheless, as the fresco of Antonis Fragkos from the Church of St George in Livartzi, Greece demonstrates, while the style and the technique of iconography has evolved considerably throughout the centuries, the basic structure and the grammar of this image remain the same. The presence of the angels, as well as of the sun and the moon (at the same time, against dry realism), which are quite common in the scene of the Crucifixion, are not supported by any biblical references. They are a reference however, to the cosmic dimensions of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of Christ. The Gospel mentions signs that show that the whole of nature was shocked and reacted at the death of Jesus Christ. Such signs were the darkness that lasted three hours before the death of Christ, the earthquake, and the resurrection of many people (Matthew 27:45-52). Some icons of the Crucifixion include a depiction of open graves by the side, but the earthquake is difficult to portray. However, the sun and the moon represent, by synecdoche, the entirety of nature that witnesses and is shocked by the death of God. The angels, similarly, about whom there is no mention in the Passion narratives, represent the invisible world, which was puzzled by the sacrifice of Christ. Very often, the angels turn their faces away, as if it is difficult for them to accept what they see. The inscription above Christ, according to the historical account of the Gospel, should read Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, or INBI according to the Greek abbreviation, or INRI according to the Latin. However, this ironic inscription does not correspond to the iconographic or theological significance of the Crucifixion, and for this reason it is replaced in the Byzantine tradition by the inscription The King of Glory. This is a bold statement that reveals a lot about the Crucifixion, but also about iconography. Iconography shows things as they really are, not according to a realist perspective, but as
68 Gazing on God they are seen within the Kingdom of Heaven, from the perspective of God; yet, the expression glorification is a word that in John s Gospel means the manifestation of the divinity of Christ through his voluntary sacrifice on the cross (Cf. When therefore Judas was gone, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him; and God shall glorify him in himself, and straightaway shall he glorify him, John 13:31-32, but also similar references in John 7:39, 12:16, 12:23, 17:1, 21:19). The death of Christ was an act of glory and divine revelation, and the Eastern understanding of the Crucifixion is based very much on this concept. The Crucifixion and the sacrifice of Christ were never interpreted in the East as the ransom that was paid to Satan, in order to appease the wrath of God. For the East, the Crucifixion was not an act that reinstated the fallen glory of humanity after the fall of Adam and Eve in a legalistic way, but the very act of the salvation of humanity from the sickness of sin and death. Original sin, or ancestral sin as it is known in Eastern theology, did not reduce humanity to a sexual beast that propagated the original guilt through procreation. Instead, it is seen as a disease that spread to the entire humanity after the fall, whose effect is death. John s Gospel (John 3:14) and the Patristic tradition saw the Crucified Christ as something analogous to the bronze serpent that Moses raised in the desert, in order to heal the Hebrews from the poisonous snakes that had been sent to punish them (Numbers 21:4-9). The Crucified Christ was a similar paradox to that of the bronze serpent: the Hebrew people were healed by looking at the serpent, that is, by recognising their sin. The Crucified God is the antidote against the death that is the separation of man and God: by looking at him and by believing in him, humanity recognises what spiritual death is, and trust him to save them. The hymns of the Resurrection stress that Christ conquered death by his own death. Although Christ died the physical death on the Cross, he never died the spiritual death that is the effect of the fall and alienation from God. Physical death could not prevail where there was spiritual life, and for this reason it lost its meaning. The New Creation that Christ as the second Adam signified for humanity involved the death of the old man with his own death, to be followed by the Resurrection, as a new start. Christ gave, with his death and Resurrection, new possibilities for humanity, completing, as it were, the creation of the human being. In John s Gospel the last word of Jesus Christ on the cross is (tetelestai) which means it is finished, or it is completed. This refers to the completion of the creation of the
6. The Crucifixion 69 human being, which started in the book of Genesis, but it is not completed until Christ showed in his death what it means to be human, and to lay down his life for the love of the world. Jesus repeats and corrects the creation of humanity. It is for this reason that the Fathers of the Church call him the second Adam. This is also shown by the precise place of his death: Calvary or Golgotha means the place of the skull, because it was reputed that this is where the skull of Adam was found. Of course, the icon of the Crucifixion includes a very prominent representation of the skull of Adam under the Cross, as if it were the roots of the tree of the Cross. This is going to be reprised by the icon of the Resurrection, where Adam and Eve are raised by Christ. Christ did not accept his death altogether passively although the prophetic vision of Isaiah 53 describes him as a lamb led to slaughter. In the garden of Gethsemane he reminds Peter that he could have more than twelve legions of angels if he wished so (Matthew 26:53). He walked willingly to his Passion, in order to complete his work: he assumed every bit of the human condition, down to his humiliation and execution, in order to reveal to us the Cross as the way to escape death and the bounds of sin. In a liturgical context, the Cross is the last symbol shown to the congregation at the end of the liturgy, as a reminder that its members would have to go out to the world now and let themselves be crucified, with the same active embrace of the sacrifice, as we see in Christ. The Cross was not so popular among the earliest symbols of Christianity (the Icthys fish, corresponding to the acronym that was formed by the words Jesus Christ Son of God, Saviour was more closely identified with Christianity for some time). But the way of salvation through the Cross and the participation in the death of Christ as a way to participate in his Resurrection was one of the reasons that made it the widespread and important symbol that it has been for centuries. Nevertheless, in addition to the theological significance of the sacrifice, the Cross is a symbol that unites what is above and what is below, what is left and what is right; it unites the entire world at the horizontal level, and then it unites the earth with heaven. Actually we do not know much about the historical Cross of Jesus, because there is no information as to its precise shape in the gospels. Historical information about the crosses used by the Romans at that time do not help. The cross on which Jesus Christ died could have been shaped as a T (although Matthew 27:37 refers to the inscription above his head in, which suggests that the Cross extended towards the top, even a little bit), or even as a simple pole. Nevertheless, the
70 Gazing on God familiar shape of the Cross gained its acceptance precisely because of its visual power, as the symbol of cosmic convergence. The four beams of the Cross symbolise the entire earth and the entire heaven that are drawn by the figure of Christ, in a cosmic invitation of union with him. There is a particular variant of the Cross, which we find in the Russian tradition. This version features a slanted footstool, pointed downwards, from left to right. According to the most popular interpretation, the slanted footstool signifies Heaven and Hell, and the fate of the two thieves who were crucified next to Jesus. The footstool is turned upwards at the side of the good thief (named by the Gospel of Nicodemus as Dysmas) who is sometimes identified by a halo, whereas it is pointed downwards at side of the unrepentant thief (identified by the Gospel of Nicodemus as Gistas some icons include an inscription with their names). It is noteworthy that although the Gospel states that the two thieves were also crucified, we rarely see them crucified properly, but rather thrown on their crosses. Their arms are tied back and certainly not stretched open, something that contrasts with the fully stretched open arms of Christ, who seems to invite and accept humanity. Very often the entire body of the unrepentant thief is contorted unnaturally, something that indicates his agony and damnation. The downward slanted footstool is an inseparable element of the Russian Cross, and yet it is a fairly recent iconographic innovation. The most ancient form of crosses with a slanted footstool points the other way, and therefore it indicates an upward movement. We can see this cross as early as the fifth century, and it spread in Jerusalem, Constantinople, Greece and the Balkans. Until the seventeenth century it was much more common than the Russian variant. The Russian Cross is certainly a part of the Christian rich multitude of symbolism, and yet perhaps the older variant with the upward movement sends a more complete message, as it anticipates the upward movement of the Resurrection of Christ.