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Etty
Hillesum, a young Jewish woman who lived through the appalling days of Nazi
occupation in Amsterdam, until her death in a concentration camp at the age of
29, has gifted us a remarkable diary of her intense spiritual journey. She struggled to
live a meaningful life, when all around her the very idea of ‘meaning’ had been
captured by the forces of evil. She lived every day with the terrible fear of
being arrested by the Nazi occupiers. Nevertheless, in a truly extraordinary
way, she reached into the depths of her inner self, and her inner world, in search of the Divine. A significant
element in her spiritual life was her discovery of the intense beauty of
flowers, a focus for her senses that reached deep into her inner being. She brought
flowers into her room at every opportunity; yellow and purple crocuses in a
tin, red and white tulips that bent gracefully towards one another, sprays of
flowering cherry, rose-red sweet peas, magnolia blooms, Japanese lilies, yellow
tea roses, and many more. She delighted in buying flowers for herself and
others. For Etty, her love of flowers
became a deep immersion in the possibility
of finding beauty in the darkest of times and the most dangerous of places. It
was surely more than a distraction, more than an emotional and psychological escape,
essentially nothing less than an expression of her own internal spiritual ‘flowering’,
as one commentator has said.
As the
season of Lent unfolds we inevitably are orientated towards the dark place of
Jesus’ final journey in his earthly ministry and the dreadful spectre of the
crucifixion. Can we really find ‘beauty’ here? Are there any flowers to be gathered in such a
place? A glance at the Oxford Dictionary reminds us of the many ways we use the
term ‘beauty’. Usage of the word demands a range of definitions, demanding
excursion into the realms of philosophy, poetry, psychology, art, theology and
many other fields. I suppose the underlying sense is that of a person, an
image, an encounter, a landscape, even a sporting moment, emotionally capturing
our attention and somehow changing us internally, at least for the moment, and
sometimes for the long-term. Lives have been, and are, transformed by an
encounter with the beautiful.
But what
of the cross ? There is surely nothing uglier than a crucifixion? But
sometimes true beauty lies in the meaning, not the surface appearance. How else can we measure the depths of a couple’s deepening love for one
another? As time advances the deepest
quality of the shared love lies predominantly in the meaning of the relationship, rather than just the romantic
attraction. Ultimately, in God’s creative order, we are bonded by the
underlying meaning of our relationships. And it is in the meaning of The Cross that an extraordinary
beauty lies. The first disciples of Jesus had to initially cope with only
knowing half of the story . The terrible spectre of the crucifixion, as far as
they could perceive, carried a piercing finality – the great adventure was over.
The Jesus they had obediently followed, the Jesus they truly believed would inaugurate
the establishment of a new personal, political, social, religious and spiritual
order, was now lashed and nailed to a cruel Roman cross, a terrible and
intended public spectre of failure and ignominy. They were yet to see the end
of the story, the empty tomb, the Risen Lord appearing in so many ways. And
above all, they were yet to experience the companionship and power of the
living Christ and the Holy Spirit in their transformed lives, the eternal reality
of the Resurrection and God’s infinite love. It was a reality that they were
soon to experience.
For us
today, as we journey through Lent, and into Holy Week, we can see the whole
story at a single glance. We already know in advance the end of the story! It
is a beautiful continuum, an extravagant
flow of Divine love, redemption, salvation and empowerment. For convenience of reflection we tend to focus
on the discrete elements of the whole story as we make our journey through Lent, but
the dazzling beauty of the cross lies in its embedding within the whole
story of Divine love’s self-outpouring, and self-sacrifice. In other
words, there is a beauty in
the Cross, but it lies in its meaning
within the Divine movement and purpose. The artist Vincent Van Gogh is reputed
to have remarked “colour isn’t everything in a painting, but it is what brings
life to it“. The seasons of Lent and Easter are our pathway into the ‘painting’
of Divine love and it is the dazzling colourful brilliance of the resurrection
that illuminates the whole story and brings beauty to the darkness of the
cross.
LORD,
This Lent and Easter season, may I see
deeply into the meaning of The Cross and Resurrection.
May
I take the time to look into the depths and not just upon the reflective surface.
May
your Spirit challenge me to respond to the complete story of the Gospel. May I
see again the beauty of Divine love, and commit my life to Christ and
servanthood.
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