Spiritual Hiccups - Judged by the Cross

I have to admit that for much of my life I struggled to makes sense of Jesus' crucifixion.  The typical, formulaic notion of Jesus dying in my (and everyone else's) place always seemed to describe a God who was bound by such formulas.  God couldn't simply forgive but was required to exact punishment.  Required by whom?

I was also bothered by what seemed to me a remarkable inconsistency on many Christians' part.  On the one hand we said that Jesus' death was a great and wonderful thing that broke sin and death's power over us, restoring us to relationship with God.  But yet people "blamed" the Jews for Jesus' death.  If the cross was somehow necessary for our sakes, then isn't God the one who actually required it?

And so as I became more serious about my faith, I was relieved to discover that the Bible talks in a number of different ways about the meaning of Jesus' death.  Even the Church, which usually likes to settle such matters definitively, never agreed on a single theology of Atonement, on how Jesus' death changed things.

I suppose I should have realized this much earlier than I did.  The mere fact that providence has bequeathed us four different gospels, each with a slightly different take on Jesus' life, ministry, death, and resurrection, says that a simple formula won't work.  And then the letters of Paul and other letters and writings in the New Testament further wrestle with the meaning of the cross.

All these thoughts came bubbling up when I read John's account of Jesus praying shortly before his arrest.  Unlike in the other gospels, Jesus does not ask that he be spared from the cross, instead rejecting such a prayer saying, "No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour."  And Jesus says his cross judges the world, and "the ruler of this world will be driven out."  He adds that when he is "lifted up," he "will draw all people to (myself)." 

In John, "the world" is not so much the earth and its inhabitants as it is a way of life that is contrary to God's will.  And here Jesus says that his death judges this way of living, reveals it for what it truly is, robbing it of its power to shape human behavior.  Hence Jesus "will draw all people" to himself.

I saw an intriguing quote the other day in the emailed devotionals I receive each day from Father Richard Rohr.  "The primary story line of history has been one of 'redemptive violence;' the killing of others would supposedly save and protect us. Jesus introduced and lived a new story line of 'redemptive suffering;' our suffering for others and for the world makes a difference in the greater scheme."  And when I read it, it struck me that we and our world are still very much caught up in the story line of "redemptive violence."  This way of the world is judged and condemned by Jesus' death, and yet we hold to this failed strategy, while rejecting the way of Jesus.  We seem remarkably resistant to Jesus drawing us to him and his way.  Perhaps this is why Jesus says so often that we must "Take up the cross and follow." 

But despite our resistance, despite our stubborn allegiance to the ways of this world, Jesus embraces the way of redemptive suffering for our sakes, not as a formula, but as the deepest embodiment of God's allegiance to us and our welfare.  Thanks be to God!

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