This past Friday, The 930 (which is the building where Sojourn Community Church gathers) hosted a new gallery opening entitled “Ethiopia.” The gallery description given on the site is:

“‘Ethiopia’ is an exhibit of photos, video, and Ethiopian folk paintings exploring Ethiopian culture through the eyes of two traveling Louisvillians, photographer Jason Crigler and videographer Drew Layman…In the Ethiopia exhibit, Jason Crigler’s photographs make up most of the show. His photographs show a mostly rural Ethiopia, where traditions have remained strong through generations. Farmers plow with oxen and coffee is roasted over fires in small batches. Clothing is washed by hand in streams and made from homespun cloth.”

I missed the opening of the exhibit, but was able to look around later that evening while waiting for one of my favorite bands, Cool Hand Luke¹, to take the stage. The whole exhibit was wonderful, but there was something interesting that caught my eye. On the wall was an opened Ethiopian blessing cross, which you can see on the right below (sorry for the phone camera quality). Below it was this description:

“The cross at the left predominately features the crucifixion of Christ. John and the Virgin Mary are at his sides as well as the angels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. The squiggly lines making up the background of this image represents the stars falling from heaven, and you can also see the sun gone dark and the moon turned to blood. The bottom portion of the cross shows St. George killing the dragon, which is a popular image in the Ethiopian Orthodox churches.”

Now, I love this kind of stuff anyways, but I was particularly interested in the imagery found in the bold text above. Many of you will instantly recognize what is being pictured—the signs of the Olivet Discourse (see Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21). There are, of course, as many interpretations of this passage as their are of the millennium and other end-times events. For example, there are those who hold that all the events of the Olivet Discourse are still in the future, then there are those who believe that the events all occurred on or before the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. As always, a third group is a mediating position, where the evangelists, quoting Jesus, go back and forth between 70 AD and the future second coming of Christ, telescoping the two events together (I believe this is Bob Stein’s position in his BECNT commentary on Mark).

My own particular view of this passage is seeing the crucifixion and the destruction of the temple in 70 AD in its symbolism. I take this view because I see the two events as being intertwined, and it makes the most sense of the language as we find it used in the Old Testament prophets, which would have been the original audiences’ point of reference. Imagine my surprise then, when I saw this description of the icon in the cross, and saw that it, too, applied those signs to the crucifixion event. But why these signs? Why the cosmic signs in particular?

Obviously, I can’t speak for the Ethiopian Orthodox church. I have no idea why they brought these images together. I can speak for myself however. In my view (which, though I’m convinced of, I am the first to say that I could be wrong), the images, particularly together, are a powerful picture. The cosmic signs were used in the prophets as a picture of infrastructures, predominantly ruling powers, being toppled over in the sense of divine judgment. It’s used this way in Isaiah 13:10² against the nation of Babylon, and in Ezekiel 32:7³ against the nation of Egypt. It is even used against Israel herself in Joel (2:10, 31; 3:15).

If we look at the events of 70 AD as judgment, which seems to be behind the Olivet Discourse (see Matthew 24, which follows the judgment pronounced on the religious leaders and Jerusalem in Matthew 23), then the application of the sign seems clear. Just like in Babylon and Egypt, theses structures fell in judgment. The application to the crucifixion may not be so clear however. There was, if we trust the Gospels, a period of darkness that actually occurred, but I have no certainty if there is a connection to be found there or not. None of the evangelists decided to let us know with a comment like “this occurred just as Jesus had said” or something similar. I can see a connection, especially since it would still be fresh on the original hearer’s minds as the Gospel was being read to them, but I won’t be dogmatic about it.

The question we must ask ourselves is, “was there some sort of infrastructure or power that was overthrown in the cross.” The answer is “of course!” The kingdom of Satan, filled with sin and death, which was being robbed and plundered throughout the ministry of Jesus, was brought to a crashing halt at the cross. In the crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus defeated sin, conquered death, and crushed the head of the serpent under his foot. He also completed the old economy and ushered in the new covenant. It is both of these realities that made the image in the cross so powerful to me–in the middle of what looked like certain defeat was the most glorious victory the world would ever see. That is, until Christ returns and we see physically what occurred cosmically on that day so long ago.