Meditation 3: Tesseract
The concept of a Tesseract is a hypercube that people have used to produce a visualization of a four-dimensional space. You can think of the dimensions as right and left, up and down, closer away and further away, and movement. An example that many may be familiar with is Salvador Dali’s painting Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus). This concept is something that has made an appearance in a variety of mediums and as we continue our third and final meditation, we once again return to Interstellar to see a Tesseract in action. At the climax of the film, the main protagonist Cooper is making his way to the giant Black hole, Gargantua. This happens as a result of a sacrificial act that he makes on behalf of the surviving crew to ensure they can continue the mission.
As he is crossing the event horizon, we see light and space stretched and Cooper is transported through the event horizon into a tesseract. It is in that hypercube space that Cooper realizes that he can see his daughter Murph at various stages in her life simultaneously. The four dimensions in that Tesseract are x, y, z, and time. He is able to move up and down, closer away and further away, right and left, and through time itself, specifically in Murph’s life. However, he discovers that the same beings that planted the wormhole in the solar system that allowed them to have Interstellar travel are the same beings that brought him into this Tesseract.
Cooper and the audience realize that these beings are actually humanity, able to work and operate as 5th dimensional beings, transcending time and space itself. As Cooper is navigating and reliving moments of his life with Murph, He recognizes mistakes that he has made, time that he has lost with his daughter, and regrets many of his actions and decisions that led him up to this point. However, Cooper figures out that he can communicate with Murph through gravity. It is clear that gravity is a force that transcends the four dimensions of the Tesseract that Cooper is in. He then also figures out that the reason why he is connected to Murph in this way is love. As stated in the earlier meditation on gravity and light, love, for the protagonists, is the transcendent force in the universe, even surpassing gravity and time. This declaration is confirmed with Cooper’s time in the Tesseract and the communication of vital information to Murph to help save humanity.
Murph, through her love for her father, visits the strange gravitational forces in her time and dimension and gradually puts together the information that Cooper is sending across time through gravity and the Tesseract. Ultimately, that love they share is what reunites them in the end as Cooper survives coming out of the wormhole back into our solar system, albeit many years in the future when Murph is at an advanced age and near death. Cooper kept his promise to Murph that he would see her and return from his Interstellar mission. Murph never gave up hope that her dad would keep his word. And as Cooper says goodbye to Murph as she lays dying from old age, they both are comforted in the love they share.
As Christians, this idea of Love transcending all dimensions is something that we intrinsically know by virtue of who God is and what he has done. And as we think on the Tesseract, the hypercube that goes beyond the typical three dimensions we operate in, serves as a good starting point to contemplate the incarnation.
When we see the Word becoming flesh and making His dwelling among us, we are seeing God, who indeed is THE 5th dimensional I Am. He is the one who exists outside of time and space, he is the fountain and source of all dimensions and forces that are seen and unseen. As we see in Colossians chapter 1, he is the image of the invisible God. Jesus, in his incarnation is embodying in our dimensional reality and understanding the fullness of the glory, the gravity, and the light of Yahweh. For us lowly humanity, who through sin and death can only perceive reality and the cosmos in a limited fashion, are now able to see eternity and trust in the love of God that will carry us through all dimensions of reality and beyond.
Jesus, in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ensures that the transcendent love of God that is at the very core of who he is, is made known to us. However, not just made known to us, but also renewing us and restoring us as humanity. He allows us to truly live in the fullness of the weight of Glory, the perfect time dilation of eternity, and in the fullness of life, not just in three or four dimensions, but in the most important and transcendent dimension of them all, The 5th dimension. This where the Triune God is and where his perfect Love that transcends every force, including time and space itself, is found.
Even as we may not be able to comprehend how this works in a perfect fashion, we know that in Christ all things hold together. We know that while we were still sinners, while we still are bound by time and space itself, while we still face the prospect of the grave, Jesus, the image of the invisible God, the transcendent Word who became flesh, dies for us. The third day he rises from the dead. He ascends into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father so that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Yahweh. He is love; love Incarnate that both transcends and breaks into our perceived dimensions so that our sin and fragile reality are removed and we can truly know and experience the eternal glory, light, and love with God and all the saints who have gone before us. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.