XII Jesus Dies on the Cross
Doug Jaques

Readings Influencing the Effects of Light in the Station Twelve Painting

The light shines in the dark, and the darkness has never mastered it. (John 1:5)"I am the light of the world. No follower of mine shall wander in the dark; he shall have the light of life. (John 8:12)

There in heaven stood a throne and on the throne sat one whose appearance was like the gleam of jasper and cornelian: and round the throne was a rainbow. bright as an emerald. (Revelation 4:2-3)Heaven's light is not natural like the light of our world, but spiritual. It actually comes from the Lord as the sun, and that sun is divine love. While what emanates from the Lord as the sun is called divine truth in the heavens, in essence it is divine good as one with divine truth. (Emanuel Swedenborg in Heaven and Hell)Since heaven's light is divine truth, that light is also divine wisdom and intelligence. Consequently, "being raised into heaven's light" means the same thing as "being raised into intelligence and wisdom" and "being enlightened." So too, light among the angels is at exactly the same level as their intelligence and wisdom. (Emanuel Swedenborg in Heaven and Hell)The deeper levels of their minds are perceived and even seen as transparent to the light, with a bright color, fiery or azure, like that of clear diamonds or rubies or sapphires, depending on the support they derived, from their learning, for the Divine and divine truths. True intelligence and wisdom look like this when they are presented visually in the spiritual world. This comes from heaven's light, which is the truth emanating from the Lord, the source of all intelligence and wisdom. The focal planes of this light in which the shadings stand forth like colors are he deeper levels of the mind; and it is the validation of divine truths through what we find in nature that produces these shadings. (Emanuel Swedenborg in Heaven and Hell)…the stars thick as daisies on an uncut lawn, reigned perpetually with no cloud, no moon, no sunrise to dispute their sway. There were planets of unbelievable majesty and constellations undreamed of: there were celestial sapphires, rubies emeralds, and pin-pricks of burning gold; far out on the left of the picture hung a comet, tiny and remote; and between all and behind all, far more emphatic and palpable than it showed on earth. the undimensioned, enigmatic blackness. (C.S. Lewis in Out of the Silent Planet)The Expressionists…were attempting to restore psychological content to painting. Their creative aim was to represent internalized and spiritual experience by means of shape and colors. (Johannes Itten in The Art of Color)

Readings Influencing the Symbolic Content in the Station Twelve PaintingThen he called the people to him, as well as his disciples, and said to them, "Anyone who wishes to be a follower of mine must leave self behind; he must take up his cross and come with me. Whoever cares for his own safety is lost; but if a man will let himself be lost for my sake and for the Gospel, that man is safe. What does a man gain by winning the whole world at the cost of his true self?" (Matthew 8:34-37)From midday a darkness fell over the whole land, which lasted until three in the afternoon; and at about three Jesus cried aloud, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachtani?" which means, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"…Jesus again gave a loud cry and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. There was an earthquake, the rocks split, and the graves opened…And when the centurion and his men who were keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake and all that was happening, they were filled with awe, and they said, "Truly this man was a son of God." (Matthew 27:45-54)So now, my friends, the blood of Jesus makes us free to enter boldly into the sanctuary by the new, living way which he has opened for us through the curtain, the way of his flesh. We have, moreover, a great priest set over the household of God; so let us make our approach in sincerity of heart and full assurance of our faith, our guilty hearts sprinkled clean, our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19-22)Now, at the end, Jesus again pulled himself to the top of his cross. Again he spoke. "Father," he cried, "into your hands I commit my spirit!"…From Jesus' lungs came a final cry: "It is finished!" The body sagged on the cross. Jesus willed himself to die.…The earth trembled and a small crack fissured the earth from the west toward the east and split the big rock of execution and went across the road and through the gate of Jerusalem and across the town and through the temple from the top to the bottom and went on east and rocked the big wall and split the tombs in the cemetery outside the walls and shook the Cedron and went on to the Dead Sea, leaving fissures in the earth, the rocks, and across the mountains. (Jim Bishop in The Day Christ Died)When Christ, the second person of the Trinity, became, in Jesus, wholly man, he had to experience death for us, just as he had to experience being born, and breathing, and eating, and eliminating, and sleeping, just like all mankind. But why on the cross? Why despised and rejected by the majority of Jews, his people, forsaken by most of his friends? Why a total failure? (Madeleine L'Engle in The Irrational Season)And here again I bump headlong into God's failure vs. man's success, and man's success is worth noting, in comparison with the glorious failure of God. (Madeleine L'Engle in The Irrational Season)The veil is symbolic of the incarnate life of Jesus, and the tearing of the veil was his death on the cross. The death of Christ opened up a new and living way into the presence of God. (Wil Pounds at www.abideinchrist.com/messages/ex26v31.html)
The temple veil was made of four different-colour yarns: purple - the color of kings, scarlet - the colour of blood and sacrifice, white - the colour worn by the common man, blue - the colour of God's abode. All these colours pointed to the Messiah. We have four Gospels which tell us of Jesus: in Matthew we have the King of Kings; in Mark we have the suffering servant; in Luke we have the perfect man; in John we have the son of the most high God. (home.intekom.com/cleassen/templeveil.htm)