The Crucifixion Pattern

In Miracles C.S. Lewis commented on Jesus' imitation of the "Corn King", pointing to the way in which Christianity reflects nature and is the culmination of all previous religions. In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis observed, through the character of Screwtape, how all human activities experience a "transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing." What is not made note of in the latter case (perhaps because it would not be characteristic of Screwtape to make such an observation) is the way in which this transition is only parts one and two of the three-part crucifixion cycle which is present in all areas of life. Let us consider some examples.

First, there is the crucifixion of the intellect. There are many different ways in which our intellect is crucified but for now lets think of a young boy who asks all manner of questions about the world, considers many things on his own, and makes completely objective judgments without ever thinking about how they might make a person feel or how they might lead to consequences for him personally. All too soon, the boy starts to grow up. He is put in school and there his intellect is crucified. He is taught about formats and all his mental exercises become dull and restrained. He is taught to memorize textbook definitions and explanations and his originality dies. He learns that some thoughts are clean and some are dirty and his honesty is buried under a pile of manners.

Then one day the boy goes to college or gets a more demanding teacher. All of a sudden, rote memorization is not enough. All of a sudden, following the formula doesn't guarantee an "A". All of a sudden, he is asked why he believes what he does and expected to give a serious answer. Not only that, but he realizes that just because something is a quote doesn't mean it's true and he learns to think of the people who get quoted as not just "historical figures" but as people who really lived and had flaws and disagreed with each other and could be right or wrong. Moreover, he learns to be nourished by those thinkers and to take ideas seriously. In short, the boy has risen from death.

Yet those formulas are valuable and all those facts he memorized really are useful. In fact, if the boy had never gone to school and simply continued in his uneducated thoughts he would be lacking any organization to those, he would lack the ability to converse with all the great minds before him, and he would probably never be able to interact with the wisdom of past ages. In short, the death of his intellect was not only inevitable, but necessary, and he became a better thinker because of it.

Now, think of a writer. He scribbles poems and short stories on anything he can find. He sits and thinks for hours about anything there is to think about. Then he decides he's ready to write a book and he dies to writing. He becomes bored with his topics before he is even halfway finished with them. He is forced to follow a schedule. He works and works and when he looks back on his accomplishment he finds that it is full of garbage. And then he edits and edits and edits. Finally, if he is lucky, he gets published and he begins to feel some sense of reward. He now has an audience and has meetings with his publisher about his next work and he even makes money off of the art that he has loved all his life. Once again, he has died to writing and be reborn to it in greater beauty and glory than he had ever imagine before.

Finally, think of a pair of lovers. The two meet and fall in love and experience a tide of happy emotions. They exchange gifts and words of affection. They even decide to get married. Then comes the marriage and the honeymoon and they are more of the same... but then comes the death. As it turns out, neither of them are perfect, both have certain annoying habits, and both of them liked their old personal freedoms a little more than they thought. They yell and feud and act like angry two-year olds. Then they realize that they need to do something and they start to become more honest with each other, to make agreements, and to (hardest of all) forgive each other. At long last, they start once again to see each other as deeply beautiful and they develop a relationship of action and sacrifice with emotion serving as the product rather than the foundation.

Think over these examples and see if there is any part of your life that does not follow this pattern. What about that job you were so excited about at first? What about that class? What about that skill? The pattern is present everywhere and every time it emerges, it has three characteristic stages: life, death, and glorious rebirth.

The first stage, life, is a state of innocence. In this state we first approach an idea of some kind just as that: an idea. We turn it over in our heads and delight in it with our day-dreams. In many cases there is already some action involved but none of it costs much of anything and it is fairly noncommittal. Our conception of it is also rather indistinct and we may even romanticize our inability to define it adequately. In short, this phase is shallow.

The second phase, death, is pretty straightforward. This is where the real work and risk comes in. Death may manifest either as something that is a natural threshold, such as the rough periods of a relationship, or it may be something that is necessary in and of itself, such as school for the boy, but either way it must be passed. Also, death involves the risk of failure or the discovery that the pursuit in question is simply not worth it. If the case is the former, then this crucifixion leads only to a continued and pointless death.

Finally, there is rebirth. This phase is the one that really has the most being (as Augustine would put it) and as such it is actually the best way of understanding the previous two phases. For instance, the happiness of this phase is of a lasting kind that does not fluxuate wildly based on the circumstance such as the happiness of the first phase. In addition to this, rebirth also involves a deeper and more acurate understanding of reality. In fact, not only does rebirth of any type lead to a better understanding of the universe at large (physical, spiritual and abstract) but it also to a better understanding of one's own self. In short, to undergo rebirth is to become more of a mature, fully-developed human being.

With this improved understanding of human development we can also understand better not only the reason for Christ's crucifixion, but for our own as individuals living in a fallen world. Simply compare the description of Eden with the description of Heaven in given in the Bible. In Eden, Adam and Eve were wedded to each other but in Heaven we are to be wedded only to God. Now this may seem to some to be terrible news because of what it means for our relationships with other humans but in truth it is actually great news. Right now we are called to love only one person to the degree involved in marriage not because only one person deserves that love but because we cannot love more than one person at that level. In Heaven, by contrast, we will be able to love everyone just as much as those of us who are married now love our spouse, in fact we will be able to love them all (including our then former spouse) even more. As for the idea of a marriage to God, that would be a marriage to Love Himself, that than which no greater can be conceived, the One apart from whom there is no lasting happiness. In short, the Fall was not only necessary for the sake of free will, but was also one more stage of the grand creation of the world that is still not complete and will not be fully made this side of eternity.