Kenosis / by Justin Harrison


Revenant -one who comes back from the dead.

Kenosis - the renunciation of the divine nature, at least in part, by Christ in the Incarnation

I’m still struck by the scene in the movie ‘Revenant’ where Glass(DiCaprio) has accidentally ridden over a cliff in escape of pursuit and certain death. His fall is broken by trees and he lands in snow relatively unharmed. His horse however is not so fortunate as we discover when Glass crawls his way to its broken body.

The weather is worsening and a snow storm 🌨 is rising as dusk falls and night soon follows. Glass with what feels like no other choice enviscerates his horse, it’s huge stomach and intestines emptied out to make a shelter.

It’s this moment that I am especially caught on. Although not voluntary, the seeming sacrifice of the horse feels almost Kenotic. No I am standing on the threshold of Blasphemy,  however I am not saying Jesus is a dead horse 🐴 But the emptying out of the self, with a sacrificial element has resonances. Furthering with the sheltering in its breast. Its a physical and metaphorical emptying. Space is made. Yet there is also displacement and occupation. In the morning Glass emerges as though born again. The cavity encrusted with ice white and shining.Time and space also seem disrupted with the emergence of Glass in the morning, the landscape has changed a thaw has begun.

Again there is a form ‘passage’ but it also includes a scared motif.