The Final Frontier

The Final Frontier Comparative commentary by Mark Scarlata Cite Share Show Bible Passage In Joshua 3–4, at the edges of the river Jordan, the Israelites stand on the verge of entering into a new moment in their history. Just as they transitioned from the death of Egypt when they passed through the Reed Sea, so now do they stand on the brink of moving from the barren wilderness to the fertility and life of the promised land. The narrative conveys a sense of liminality. The Israelites have been released from their enslavement in Egypt but they are yet to settle and worship YHWH in the land. The Jordan is the last physical and symbolic threshold that they must cross before they can experience the covenant promises of God’s blessings. In Howard Finster’s work, we see a Christian representation of the Jordan crossing. Though the painting visualizes the movement from death to life in Christ, it also conveys this through the power of words. Finster represents the Word of God through literal words that dominate the painting. This creates another level of preaching in his work. In the land of sin and death, we read words like FEAR, HATE, DEVILS, BRUTES, LIARS. Negative words also lie along the shores of the Jordan which act like a barrier. Yet, we also find positive words in white and at the bottom right the phrase MY ONLY ESCAPE IS HOPE. This is the hope of the person pointing towards Christ while praying DELIVER ME OH LORD. Finster captures the theological motifs of the Jordan crossing through words and images. As for the creators of many African-American spirituals (Smith-Christopher, n.d.), hope and deliverance come through the power of God alone. Finster presents this as a Christian hope of crossing the Jordan and entering the heavenly kingdom through Christ alone. The Jordan crossing is also a place of silence. The liturgical drama of the priests’ procession with the ark, the waters receding step by step, and the passing of the Israelites all point to a sacred moment in time. This sense of hope and sacredness is conveyed through Fujimura’s expansive use of mineral layers painted across the canvas. The painting, in some ways, represents the layers of insights Fujimura gained in his reflections on Christian suffering and trauma through his study of Shusaku Endo and the Japanese culture. The pain and experience of ‘ground-zero realities’ in life can also offer a place of hope where beauty might rise from the ashes. Fujimura’s work captures a sense of the silence and the holy found in the Jordan crossing. It expresses a sense of hope in passing through the waters, leaving behind the ‘ground-zero’ of Egypt for blessing and life in the land. The earthiness and colour of the minerals also draw to mind the waters, the feel of the riverbed, and the stones brought up for a memorial. The work helps connect the reader of Joshua to the elements of the land and its critical role in the narrative. The Jordan crossing ends with a stone memorial being erected to remind all generations of Israelites that it was by the hand of the Lord that they were saved (Joshua 4:7, 22–24). The stones represent a permanent sign of YHWH’s mighty works on behalf of his people. Though the Israelite stones no longer remain, a small community of people on the outer isles of the Hebrides created a stone monument over a millennium before God’s people crossed the Jordan, and it still stands. The Calanais stones, though created with different intent, are a compelling reminder of the longevity a physical monument can have. Every generation living on the island will have been struck by their dominating presence and no doubt, like the Israelite children, will have asked ‘What do these stones mean?’ (Joshua 4:6, 21). By using natural materials from the island, early peoples harnessed their artistic creativity, time, effort, and communal organization to construct a lasting memorial for countless generations. Israel was instructed to do the same with the specific intent of being a reminder of their faith and of why they worship YHWH. Though the memorial by the Jordan is gone, the powerful acts of God have been enshrined in the book of Joshua which stands as another type of monument, witnessing to the salvation and deliverance of God’s people. References Higgingbottom, G. and Clay, R. 2016. ‘Origins of Standing Stone Astronomy in Britain: New Quantitative Techniques for the Study of Archaeoastronomy’, Journal of Archaeological Science, 9: 249–58 Smith-Christopher, Daniel L. n.d. ‘The River Jordan in Early African American Spirituals’, Bible Odyssey, available at https://fr.bibleodyssey.com/articles/the-river-jordan-in-early-african-american-spirituals/