I am sure you have seen the
billboards: Jesus died to save us from
our sins.
Basic understanding of
Christianity, right? Jesus’ death saves
us from our sins.
I wrestle with what this
means. So, when Jesus died, were our
sins just erased? And now there’s no
more sin?
Well, obviously not, right? I
mean, there’s still sin. We still act
and think and talk in ways that put obstacles between us and God. So, what does it mean that Jesus died for our
sins? What does the cross mean?
Jesus lived and moved in the
Hebrew culture. It is the culture of his
family, his nation, his childhood. This
culture, as seen in Scripture, worked toward redemption and reconciliation
through sacrifices. Blood sacrifices,
food sacrifices, burnt offerings…..
We see this idea continued
throughout the New Testament as most of these writers also have the Hebrew
culture as their foundation; the idea that Jesus paid the ransom, that Jesus’
blood sacrifice “pays the price.” We’ve all heard this, right? We’ve all been taught this.
But, what does it mean? My understanding—which stems from a famous
argument put out there by St. Anselm of Canterbury---has always been that
somehow God is not pleased with humanity---that we have messed up
tremendously---and someone had to be punished. Ever since Cain and Abel, the
human way (which Scripture attributes to God as well) is the belief that blood
must be let for blood. That only a blood
sacrifice will appease God and make things okay again. Anyone else have this understanding? So, Jesus paid the price for us. Jesus made the blood sacrifice.
But, what if this offering of
life on the cross isn’t a transaction—a tit for tat. What if God doesn’t move
in a quid pro quo fashion. I know it is
hard for us to wrap our heads around this possibility since we move in the
world with a tit for tat, a quid pro quo, worldview. Humanity reacts from a “you hurt me, so I
hurt you,” mindset.
But not Jesus. Not God.
On the cross Jesus says Forgive
instead of Avenge. If God acted
according to quid pro quo---we would all be in big trouble. Theologian Richard Rohr reminds us that the
Franciscans have given us another way to understand the cross that has long
been a “minority” understanding in the Church, but one that I think is well
worth our taking to heart. This Franciscan atonement or “at-one-ment—becoming
one with God” theology of the cross lines up with the character of God being
less of a dictator judge and more of a parent who loves us sacrificially and
unconditionally.
So, what if, instead of a “tit
for tat” transaction, the cross is an act of transformation. What if God is saying: “Okay, humanity, you
demand blood for blood, then I’ll give you blood. But, I love you so much, it won’t be your
blood that pays the price. It will be
mine. “
What if God is saying that we
don’t have to spill blood to get to God.
God will spill blood to get to us, to show us, in our limited human way
of thinking, that God loves us so much that God will pay the price---even this
price. A price we demanded rather than one that God demanded. God asks us for our lives---but not in this
way.
God asks of us lives of obedience—the
realization that God is God, and we are not.
We are called to lose our lives by shedding behaviors, ways of thinking,
ways of being—to lose the lives of our false selves, willing to let die those
parts of us that are not in the image of God so that we may grow more and more
into the image of God. To lose our lives
by sacrificing prejudices, and greed, and our convenience when it comes at a
great cost to others, so that we can rise into new life in Christ, the life of
our true selves. But, God does not
require our blood. That is a human
reaction that goes back to Genesis 3.
Goes back to Cain and Abel. The
beginning of the violence that we cannot seem to get beyond believing is a
solution for every problem.
What if Jesus didn’t come and
live and die and rise again so that God would be good with us? What if God already, and has always been,
good with us?
John 3:16: “For God so loved
the world…..”
Genesis 1:31 “God saw
everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.”
What if God has always been
good with us, and Jesus came so that we would be good with God?
That we might finally understand how deeply and profoundly we are loved by God. What if Jesus didn’t come to change God’s
mind about us, but that we might change our mind about God? (Richard Rohr) And as witnesses to the cross, we might
respond to this transformational act of love by transforming?
By allowing our hearts to
soften, our minds to change, our arms to open so that we, like Jesus, may begin
to live this sacrificial love. And in
the living of this love, as the transformation deepens and makes inroads within
our hearts, minds, and spirits, we turn more and more to God, removing the
obstacles that stand between us and God---the obstacles that are our doing, not
God’s.
With the incarnation of God
made flesh, in Jesus, God makes it clear: as far as God is concerned, there are
no barriers between us and God. But we
do not seem willing to completely believe this.
To live this. We create distance
between us and God by behaving in ways that shadow God’s light instead of
reflecting it. And friends, God simply
will not accept our turning away. So, in comes Jesus---showing us what it means
to take up the cross and live out the sacrificial love that saves us. Jesus shows us what it means to respond to
the outpouring of God’s love on the cross, so all barriers fall down and we
take our rightful place as God’s people, beloved and free.
The entirety of
Scripture---our story within God’s story---calls out to us: God loves us. Completely.
Just as we are. Right now.
Julian of Norwich may have
said it best: "The Lord's meaning is love. Love is his only meaning. Who
shows this to you? Love. What did He show you? Love. And why does He show it to
you? For love. Stay in God's love, then, and you'll learn more about its
unconditional, unending, joyful nature. And you'll see for yourself, all manner
of things will be well."
---Julian of Norwich,
Revelations (from A Little Daily Wisdom)
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