Almighty and everliving God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.When he was translating the Bible into English for the first time, John Wycliffe had to invent a word to communicate the nuance of the Greek word for "sacrifice." That word is "atonement," or more accurately, "at-one-ment." On the cross, Jesus somehow made us at one again with God. He restored us to a right relationship with God. Still, the question remains. How is it that through the Cross we are restored to a right relationship with God Almighty when by our actions we condemn ourselves to eternal death? Was Jesus the substitute for us sinners, taking the heat of God's rage and wrath so that we ourselves escape annihilation by Almighty God? Did the Father order his son to come down and be that substitute for us? There are many who see in that picture, not our loving Father, but a bloodthirsty tyrant who demands that his own son spill his blood in order to satisfy his Father's thirst.
Recoiling from that image, some Christian theologians have suggested that Jesus's purpose was not to transact some legal business with his Father by satisfying his bloodlust, or paying off a debt that we ourselves could never pay back to God. They have said that what Jesus did on the cross was to show the human race what we are capable of. In this view, Jesus is the greatest example of love for all the world to see. Rather than breathing a sigh of relief for having escaped punishment, we are to be inspired by that example to love as Jesus loved. But is Jesus just an example? A child's lust for chocolate leads him or her to reach up for that cookie jar, which the father said not to touch. That jar slips out of the tiny hands and crashes on the floor in far too many pieces to be glued back together. Every single one of us has at least one broken cookie jar in the closet of our haunted memories. We cannot put it back together. We cannot make it right. Our father has every right to be angry. What good is an example?
So which is it? On this Sunday when we remember our Lord's death, which theology of atonement do we embrace: the bloody substitute or the example that leaves us right where we are, lost in our sin and loneliness? Neither by themselves: But together, they satisfy God's justice and God's mercy. And both are what we prayed in our collect.
"Almighty and everliving God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind…" or more clearly, "humankind." Note that everything which God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit did in relation to humankind was out of "tender love," not wrath. God is our Creator. Sin is rebellion against the very source of our life. If we are alienated from our Creator, then God doesn't have to destroy us in some fit of rage. We're already dead, the living dead, walking through this world alienated from our God and from each other. We are alone. And that is a living death. All that God has ever done has been to find a way to end the alienation between him and us. God knows the broken cookie jar cannot be ignored. But rather than those broken pieces creating a chasm between us and God, God decided to join us on the other side.
For God "hast sent thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross." God the Father and God the Son are one: one mind, one heart, and one will. God the Father and God the Son agreed that God would have to cross over to our side. "Though he was in the form of God," Paul writes to the Philippians, Jesus "did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited" (Philippians 2:6). Jesus and the Father agreed that God would have to take the decisive step to end the alienation between us and God. And so, God the Son "emptied himself, taking the form of a slave" (Phil 2:7). Jesus took upon himself our "flesh," the limitations of our finite "nature," and suffered death, "even death on a cross" (2:8).
Just in case we didn't hear it the first time, our collect reminds us of Jesus's suffering, when we pray that "we may follow the example of his patience," from the Latin pati, "to suffer." To be patient is to suffer with someone. Jesus was patient, even with those who nailed him to the Cross and who mocked him, but of whom Jesus pleaded, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). In his patient suffering, he shared our nature, our fear and even our doubt: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" (Mark 15:34).
What exactly occurred in the relationship between God the Father and God the Son in those three hours is something that no man-made "theory of atonement" can fully explain. But when we ask God to "mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of the cross," we are acknowledging that whatever hope we have in this world and the next is entirely dependent on the mercy of God. Some theologians have written that Jesus made "satisfaction" for our injustice. He submitted to God's justice so that God's mercy might be freely extended to us sinners. Other theologians have speculated that Jesus gave his life as the "ransom" (Mark 10:45) owed to our "accuser," which is what the word "Satan" means. In doing so, Jesus spreads his divine mercy over us to protect us from the Accuser. Whatever "transaction" occurred between God the Father and God the Son on that cross, the purpose was not to always remind us of our sin, but of God's mercy, revealed in Him who shared the entire human experience, save sin.
But is that all there is to atonement? Is the Cross simply a get-out-of-jail card? Are we free to just walk away? Hardly: Having witnessed the "example of his great humility," we pray that we might follow his example and walk in the way of his patient suffering. Does this seem impossible? " Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus" (Phil 2:5), Paul writes. Jesus's example is not some interesting historical fact that is now nearly 2,000 years old. Every time we eat the bread and drink the wine, we receive the crucified Christ into our minds, our hearts and souls. And as Jesus patiently suffered with others, so God mercifully grants us to patiently suffer with others, with those we love, with those who make us uncomfortable, with those who disagree with us. Jesus Christ cannot heal the alienation between us and God if we remain alienated from each other.
Jesus Christ did not, and does not, ignore the broken cookie jars. But we need not keep them in the closet. I invite us all this Holy Week to take the broken pieces out and look at them under the shadow of the cross. Look up at that broken body, and then look down again, to see the pieces no longer there. Then we can see ourselves, and each other, not as broken jars, but as companions on the way of patience, and resurrection.
No comments:
Post a Comment