Well here we are, in our hotel in what the locals call ‘le Boulevard du Crime,’ not an area of Paris we know very well and from its nickname, a boulevard to avoid!
In fact, the very opposite.
Le Boulevard du Temple in Le Marais district, it seems, was host to innumerable theatres before Baron Haussmann pulled them all down in his renovation of Paris in the 1860’s. They pulled in huge crowds, especially the many crime melodramas. And the name stuck.
However, this elegant boulevard does have a major claim to fame because here the very first photograph was taken of a human being, by Louis Daguerre in 1838.
The place seems deserted for the simple reason that the time exposure was over four minutes. During that time all traffic, indeed all movement, could not be captured. Had you known that at the time, just standing still for five minutes would have guaranteed you a place in history.
However, there was one man who did just that. Not that he realised the awesome significance of what he was doing, or more precisely not doing. This particular citizen was not moving because he was having his shoes shined, and so unwittingly became immortalised on the plate.
Actually, not quite because he kept moving his head. So, to this day no one knows the identity of this stationary subject, one of history’s great firsts, right up there with Everton FC’s first match against St Peter’s church in Stanley Park on 20th December 1879.
You could, of course, jump into your time machine and travel to Le Boulevard du Temple to advise this gent not to move. You would then describe the significance of that shoeshine. He would, of course, have no idea what you were talking about. A photograph, very much an integral part of life in the 21st century but then a totally alien concept.
« Une photographie, qu'est-ce qu'une photographie? »
However, when it comes to the most significant event in history, no one there would have had any idea, even the remotest idea of its cosmic significance. All they could see was a typical every-day Roman execution, three wretched human beings each nailed to a cross, writhing in agony.
Obviously rebels or runaway slaves, for only the very lowest merited such a lingering and humiliating death in the public gaze.
One criminal, more than the other two, was the object of particular scorn and ridicule, even from the leading citizens of Jerusalem. In fact, you may wish to move closer to read the notice affixed to the cross by Governor Pilate himself.
JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. written in three languages so that no one would be in any doubt: Aramaic, Latin and Greek.
In the last few years there has been an upsurge in interest in the crucifixion of Jesus. I am currently rereading Fleming Rutledge's excellent book The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ published in 2015. She writes: “The crucifixion is the touchstone of Christian authenticity, the unique feature by which everything else, including the resurrection, is given its true significance.”
Soon after, in 2019, Tom Hollard’s book Dominion was published. “It is the audacity of it—the audacity of finding in a twisted and defeated corpse the glory of the creator of the universe—that serves to explain, more surely than anything else, the sheer strangeness of Christianity, and of the civilization to which it gave birth.”He concludes: “Today, the power of this strangeness remains as alive as it has ever been.”
That this God-forsaken execution has become the turning point in history is a simple fact. Just look at today’s date, anno domini. Clearly something of huge significance must have happened, but what? The reality is that you could never work it out for yourself. No way.
In other words, the meaning and significance of the cross of Jesus is by no means self-evident, “a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (1 Corinthians 1:23). And yet the apostle Paul, himself a hugely significant figure in history by any measure, made it his goal not just to preach Jesus but to preach Christ crucified.
We need God, even his Holy Spirit, to open our eyes to understand the meaning, the significance of the cross. Not that our minds are able to take it all in. As C S Lewis concluded: “The central Christian belief is that Christ’s death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start. Theories as to how it did this are another matter.”
In the same way that the man in Daguerre’s photograph would have had no understanding of what was happening and its historic significance, so we can only barely understand the meaning of the cross of Jesus, even his overwhelming defeat of everything that would separate us from God’s love.
It’s the resurrection victory of Jesus which gives his cross its context in the purposes of God in healing his broken creation.
We may not comprehend but we can worship the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
Commentaires