"And the Darkness Comprehendeth It Not..."

"The light shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not. (John 1.5)

Light and darkness, truth and lies, good and evil Jesus and the world; woven throughout the Fourth Gospel are the oppositions and contrasts that swirl around "the Word become flesh". From the very start John sets light and darkness within the frame of the cosmic drama between the Eternal Creative Word and the history of a universe called into being - "All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made."

There is brilliant irony in John's choice of words as he describes the opposition of light and darkness. The word translated "comprehendeth" could equally mean "overtake", "overcome", "extinguish". Darkness cannot smother light, cannot extinguish it at source, cannot overshadow it, cannot put it out. All that is clear enough. But 'katalambanein' is also about comprehension, understanding. Using contemporary language John could equally say, "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot get its head round it"; or "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness just doesn't get it."

Hence my preference for the older English translations which, quite intentionally, use the ambiguous "comprehendeth it not". Light cannot comprehend, understand, make sense of, light. Light baffles, confuses and finally dazzles darkness. Darkness, ultimately and finally, is at a loss as to how to defeat, extinguish, overcome, negate, the true light of the world. In that one verse, concentrated and compressed into that one negative term, "The darkness comprehendeth it not", is the diamond truth that glitters with unintimidated clarity all the way through the Gospel of John.

Light is inexplicable to darkness however brightly shining and clearly demonstrated; love is a closed mystery to hatred however embodied and eloquent; life is vitalised by the life that is the light of all people, and death is at a loss; truth shines with a persistence and permanence that no amount of lies can occlude, obscure or obfuscate. And the reason? The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has no idea that its own strategies are self-destructive, or that its existence is an absence not a presence. Darkness is blind to its own penultimacy, hostile to the creative purposes of eternal love, and invincibly ignorant of the fundamental truth that God is light and eternal light is prior and primary to all else, even its opposite.

Much of this I have thought and prayed, in a contemplative engagement with the texts of John's Gospel while working this tapestry, called "The Darkness Comprehendeth It Not." I began stitching on the edges and moved to the centre, all the threads mixed and varied and no thread self-coloured, each being mixed mostly of three colours of two strands each. The strong colour spectrum of the rainbow ellipse is deliberate, a striking and unsettling contrast, even though its darkest colours though muted, are woven through the darkness. The rayon threads of the rainbow are startlingly bright, and glimmer against the duller cotton; this is an attempt to capture the incomprehensible brilliance of the light that shines in the eternal Word become flesh, and whose light illumines all of life.

The pervasive recurrence of red signals the cost and consequence of light penetrating into the darkest places, and the promise of redemptive love expensively and expansively present no matter what. The rainbow evokes a whole spectrum of scripture, from Noah in Genesis, to Ezekiel's vision to the throne scene in Revelation 4. In Genesis it is promise, in Ezekiel majesty, in Revelation the it flares in the throne room, and in the midst of the throne, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world". The red that permeates the darkness serves metaphysical and theological notice on all other accounts of reality and all other attempts to impose or banish the meaning of human existence. Stated with unabashed wonder by that other John in John's Gospel, the Baptist sees eternal truth incarnate in human history, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."

The rainbow ellipse encloses much more muted shades and shadows, while nearer the centre still the metallic gold and silver inner ellipse surrounds the inner space in a chain of light. God's created world, fragile but fraught with divine purpose, fallen but not forsaken, is central to the redemptive purposes of the Father. The surrounding darkness is not absolute, but relative; the encircling rainbow is God's yes to his own purposes and the purpose of the Word become flesh, "I have come that you might have life, and have life more abundantly."; and that inner chain, the shining glory of love, truth and life resurrected, encircles a universe in which redemption is gift, reconciliation is accomplished, and life triumphs over death. And in that universe, the light goes on shining in the darkness, and the darkness has not, and will not, overcome it.,

None of this was thought out in detail beforehand, but evolved over the 10 weeks of working the tapestry. Looking at it now, as a finished piece of needle art, it offers another way of exploring the disconcerting ambiguity of John's text. Given the power and works of darkness in our own time, John;s words come to us again and again as words that see the world through a different lens.

Darkness is real; evil, lies, violence, cruelty, greed, death, all are real enough. But they are not ultimate, and their power is not final. Each has its antithesis, so that goodness, truth, peace, compassion, generosity, life, these are of the light, and these are the true reality..."and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it."

Comments

[Glen Cook]

Excellent.