Shroro

The Syriac Orthodox Christian Digest - March, 2005

The Sword That Pierced Christ Removed the Sword Guarding Paradise - Part 1

By Dr. Thomas Joseph

During the Great Lent of 2004, we witnessed the Passion of the Christ turn into a popular topic of conversation—rather unprecedented in recent memory in our secular society. In Gibson’s movie, we witness the horror that imbued that central event in the history of human salvation. The gruesome last hours of the passion are depicted in all its vicious detail, with arguably much exaggeration over the Gospel narratives and other historical sources. Nevertheless, it offers us a glimpse into what the Word of God Incarnate suffered for the sake of mankind. Clearly, the movie depicts the “How?” of the Passion; however, it did not attempt to answer the question “Why?”

Today, I will spend a few minutes with you contemplating on the final moments of the passion on the cross and in particular upon a theme that our revered Syriac Fathers have dwelled upon in their mystical poetry—the piercing of Christ’s side on the Cross and the flowing of blood and water thenceforth. We are familiar with several hymns in our rich liturgical tradition, we owe to our Syriac Fathers, which allude to this event in various contexts. This event is recorded only by Apostle St. John in his Gospel (19:34) – he was the only one among the four evangelists who was an eyewitness to the crucifixion.

John 31-37: “Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, “Not one of His bones shall be broken.”2 And again another Scripture says, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.”3

Our Fathers depict this event as the definitive moment when the Paradise lost by Adam was regained for mankind by Christ, the second Adam. Mor Ephrem writes in one of his Hymns on the Crucifixion (IX.2): “The sword that pierced Christ removed the sword guarding Paradise.”

So then, we should ask, “What was the sword guarding Paradise?” Before we venture to answer that, we should understand how the Fathers envisaged the Paradise. It is, of course, the Genesis narrative of the creation that provides the basis for our understanding of Paradise. But at the turn of the Christian era, a much richer understanding of Paradise had emerged in Judaism, expressed in apocalyptic works such as the First Book of Enoch (c. 2nd cent. BC). Paradise was by then understood as a concept that applies to both the beginning of creation and its end as well as the abode of the righteous. Authors diverged on the location of Paradise. Taking the cue from Genesis 2:8: “And the Lord God planted a Paradise in Eden, in the East”, some held it to be at the eastern end of the earth and distinct from the Kingdom of Heaven. But the more profound writers such as St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Ephrem placed this Paradise outside time and space as we know them; it belonged to a different order of reality. (They must have anticipated Einstenian relativity! By locating Paradise outside geographical space and time, their imagery remains unaffected by modern advances in scientific knowledge.)

In his Hymns on Paradise, Mor Ephrem depicts Paradise as a mountain. Although Genesis does not offer such an explicit imagery, Ezekiel 28:13-14 describes “Eden, the Garden of God” as the “holy mountain of God”. In his poems, the mountain is circular (I.8); the great flood reached only its foothills (I.4), and on these foothills is situated the “fence” or “barrier” (syogo), guarded by the Cherub with the revolving sword (II.7, IV.1). This imagery is based on Genesis 3:24 – “After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”) This fence is at the lowest boundary of Paradise. Halfway up is the Tree of Knowledge which marked an internal boundary beyond which Adam and Even were forbidden to go (III.3); this Tree acts as a sanctuary curtain that veiled the Holy of Holies, which is the Tree of Life located higher up (III.2). At the summit resides the Divine Presence, the Shekina or in Syriac shkinto.

Mor Ephrem, as well as many early Christian writers, held the view that God created Adam and Eve as neither mortal nor immortal; if they had kept the commandment not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, they would have been rewarded later and allowed to eat of the Tree of Life to acquire divinity. In their intermediate state, Adam and Eve are not even aware of the existence of the Tree of Life higher up on the mountain of Paradise. Under the Old Covenant, the Tree of Life continued to remain hidden from humanity. Originally God’s commandment was sufficient to prevent Adam and Eve from straying too far up the sacred mountain. But their disobedience required a boundary or a fence guarded by the cherub with the sharp revolving sword as described in Genesis 3:24. In his Hymn on Paradise IV.1, Mor Ephrem writes:

The Just One saw how Adam had become audacious
Because He had been lenient
And he knew that Adam would overstep again
if He continued thus:
Adam trampled down
that gentle and pleasant boundary,
so instead God made for Adam
a boundary guarded by force.
The mere words of the commandment
had been the boundary to the Tree,
but now the cherub and a sharp sword
provided the fence to Paradise.

It was only with Crucifixion that the Tree of Life is finally revealed to mankind. In the Hymn on Virginity XVI.10, St. Ephrem writes:

Greatly saddened was the Tree of Life
When it beheld Adam stolen away from it;
It sank down into the virgin ground and was hidden
—to burst forth and reappear on Golgotha;
humanity, like birds that are chased, took refuge in it
so that it might return them to their proper home

The chaser was chased away, while the doves that had been chased now hop with joy in Paradise.

The Cross that was erected on Golgotha is thus the symbol of the Tree of Life. We find this theme in an ?eqbo from the Order of the Veneration of the Cross (p. 96):

Planted in the midst of Paradise,
in Eden, is the Tree of Life
The world bore the Fruit of Life
The cross became its symbol

At Golgotha, the Tree of Life was restored as the source of immortality; its fruits are now given to the baptised in the Eucharist. In the Syrian Orthodox liturgy of baptism, as the Eucharist is placed in the mouth of the baptised, we sing:

The fruit that Adam did not taste in Paradise
is placed with exultation into your mouth.

The Eucharist is described here as the fruit that Adam was denied, the fruit of the Tree of Life.

to be continued...

1 This was originally presented to the congregation of the St. Mary’s Church, Los Angeles, on the Holy Friday, April 9, 2004. It liberally borrows from the references provided.
2 Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12; Psalm 34:20.
3 Zechariah 12:10.

“The Sword that pierced Christ removed the Sword guarding Paradise”