This death, burial, and resurrection of Christ have esoteric meanings that transcend beyond imagination and the power of human reason to comprehend. They can only be described as “Crazy Love,” a plan of redemption so perfect; a light so brilliant and blinding that the Spirit of inner vision is necessary just to behold its beauty and splendor. Has Crazy Love touched you? Let us examine this pure and sacred Love, with the disclaimer that words alone can scarce communicate its magnitude or full scope of implications. It must be received and metabolized into the heart in order to be discerned and experienced in the mind.
Christ appears crucified in the upper left quadrant of the artwork. This pictures His death, which reconciled sinful man with perfect and Holy God. The Savior’s Great Sacrifice atoned for every sin ever committed past, present, and future for every human being that ever was or will be born. Just to be clear, unlimited atonement provides that even the sins of condemned unbelievers are covered. Sin is no longer an issue between man and God. God essentially transformed Christ into sin. Christ became sin itself so that sin could be judged: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21).
Unbelievers shall be condemned for rejecting the Savior. This is the only sin not covered on the cross, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, for Christ cannot deny Himself. Thus, refusing to accept Him into the heart leaves one in the precarious position of standing upon his/her own works. Even the most saintly life falls horrendously short of God’s glory. Only God can satisfy God. Only the imputed righteousness of Christ received through faith shall stand on the Last Day. He became sin, and through faith, we become His righteousness. How mind boggling! Crazy Love purchased the whole field—the whole earth and everything in it—for just a few buried coins: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16).
The three men who remove the Savior’s body from the cross portray the burial of Christ. They carry the corpse down the ladder to prepare Him for the tomb. In the believer’s life, this pictures death to self and sin. We are buried with Christ, baptized into His death in anticipation of being raised with Him in resurrection: “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it” (Rom 6:2); “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death” (Rom 6:4).
The burial of Christ represents that the soul is hidden with Him. The old carnal nature is put to death daily on the cross, and the spiritual nature is resurrected in the heart. In this respect, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ may be viewed not as chronological events but as different aspects of the believer’s life that are simultaneously experienced daily: “Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor 4:16); “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with” (Rom 6:5-6).
The resurrected Christ is pictured at center ascending to heaven. He appears upon a mirror depicting “…The brightness of His glory and the express image of His person” (Heb 1:3). An explosion of light emanates from the mirror, symbolizing His victory over death and triumph over the world. The Morning Star blasts throes of angels in every direction, some blinded by His brilliance, others staring into His countenance. Juxtaposed between His suffering and glory the caption celebrates His victory: “The world treated Him so nasty. But in the end it was the world that got beat.”
A man reaches out to the resurrected Christ in “sweet surrender.” He stands just outside the mirror upon the shores of eternity. Christ points to Himself crucified at left. The message here is that death to self and sin is the path to glory; that through humility is one exalted.
The glorified Christ and the mirror represent a gateway to another world, a spiritual dimension. The mirror drips down to earth, enclosing a division between heaven and hell on the right side of the artwork. A church is born out of the fires of hell and delivered to the glorified Christ. The church represents the collective body of believers past, present, and future. Christ prepares a place in heaven for His church, and through the power of His resurrection, believers shall one day be glorified in His likeness. The fires signify the trials and adversities of life. The church is born out of these fiery afflictions, baptized into His flaming Spirit: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Mat 3:11). The fire purges the dross of sin and refines one into a pure and virtuous character.
Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night provides the dreamy skyline in the upper right corner, a portrait of heaven. The fiery hell beneath is clearly sectioned away from the tranquility of heaven, as if they were two different realities. A chameleon gracefully blends into both worlds, halfway between heaven and hell. Its bright red colors are immersed in the flames of hell, while its mosaic of blue-green tones befit the starry night of heaven.
The chameleon signifies the believer’s metamorphosis and transformation from hell into heaven. Halfway between worlds, believers live on the earth but we are not of the earth. Though locked inside flesh-and-blood shells, mundane and terrestrial, in our hearts we have been re-created a spiritual identity in the likeness of the starry firmament: “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament…like the stars forever and ever” (Dan12:3); “Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mat 13:43).
Christ knocks upon the door of the heart and invites people into personal, covenant relationships based on trust and Love. This is His mission and Great Work, depicted in the upper left corner of the artwork. Christ knocks upon a door in the sky. The door emits a translucent sheen, suggesting the light of the Day Star contained therein, the resurrection behind the stone that covers the tomb (Ezek 11:19; Jn 20:1; 1 Pet 1:19). These pictures symbolize spiritual regeneration, a new identity quickened to life in the heart offered in “sweet surrender.”
In response to Christ’s knock, a child offers his heart to the Savior under a faucet of running water. This signifies the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit, the Living Waters of eternal life (Jn 7:37). The fact that the child proffers his heart to Messiah is also significant. Christ said, “Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it” (Mk 10:15). The child pictures the open-mindedness, humility, and innocent trust in which a new believer must come before the Lord. We are “born again,” spiritually begotten of that Inner Being to whom we have opened the door of our heart. We receive the Holy Spirit of adoption, the Living Waters of eternal Life, by which we cry out, “Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15).
A procession of believers stand in line to meet the Savior. They celebrate, overwhelmed with joy and praise for the “Good News of the Messiah.” Crazy Love touched their hearts and they will never be the same. At the front of the line, a father instructs his son, pointing to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. This fulfills the mandate to teach the salvation and deliverance of God to each succeeding generation: “…teach them to your children and your grandchildren” (Deut 4:9).
Crazy Love bought the whole field for just a few buried coins. The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ provide that sin is no longer the issue between man and God. Christ became sin, and the only sin not covered is rejecting His grace. Every sin ever committed has been atoned for. The question now is one of faith. Do you trust God? Are you willing to receive Him as a child? For those who accept Christ, we have a home in the starry firmament and the fires of adversity shall not burn us but are meant to mold us into His express image. May His Crazy Love touch your heart.
Larry Word
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