Yesterday's post concerned the most popular understanding and answer to the question, "Why did Jesus have to die on a cross?" The usual answer is one of substitution, sacrifice, and satisfaction. Jesus serves as a substitute for our sin. Jesus serves as a sacrifice for our brokenness. Jesus action on the cross satisfies God's need for justice. In this theory of atonement, God's justice trumps God's love.
Yet, I think God's love trumps God's need for justice. The above oversimplification has those two qualities of God in the opposite order. In substitution, sacrifice and satisfaction, God's justice holds the trump card over love. I think it is the other way. God is willing to be in relationship with us, not because of what Jesus did, but because we are incarnate in the image of God (Genesis 2).
Jesus' birth and baptism reflects that truth. God claims Jesus as beloved, just as God still claims each person baptized today.
Jesus life sought to share God's love, peace, hope, and justice with those in power and those on the fringes of power.
Jesus faced death...as all of us who are incarnate will. More than that, I think Jesus faced death earlier because of the way he shared God's love, peace, hope, and justice. People just could not stand it. So, they hung him on a tree. The cross is our actions, the cross is directed at us, and we today still put people in places of death by our words, actions, and systems. You hear people today belittle those who need government assistance. You hear people today use fear when talking about gun control or people of other races, genders, religious, and sexual orientations. You hear people today still treat others as less than fully created in the loving image of God. There may not be physical crosses in our world, but there are plenty of places we still cause each other pain and even death. The cross looms large in those moments today. And on Holy Friday we are invited to be honest about that and about our participation in those moments.
So, if the cross is directed at us, does that mean the other theories of atonement are wrong? Perhaps not. Maybe you still find the one I described yesterday more meaningful because it is the one you grew up. To say the cross is an event that happened and is still happening is a different understanding. But I also think when we see the cross as directed at us, rather than at God, it opens the door wider for the need for resurrection. In some ways for those who find the substitution/sacrifice theory helpful, once Jesus dies on the cross, Easter is somehow...just not as important. It is neat. It is a cool trick God plays. But, really the gospel could end with Jesus' death and taking the substitution atonement to its logical conclusion, that should be enough.
BUT that is not where the gospel ends. The gospel ends with an empty tomb. But more on that tomorrow!
I pray you will take time today to ponder the mystery of the cross. And when you look at the cross, what do you see? How do you make sense of this Holy, roller coaster of a week? May the traces of God's grace sustain you and give you strength to be open to all the truth of God's presence on this holy day.
Blessings~
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