How Do We Make Sense Of This?
Sermon
Sermons on the Second Readings
Series III, Cycle B
Object:
Good Friday is a hard day. It's depressing and it's confusing. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? How do we make sense of this? Christians have struggled with understanding the meaning of the cross ever since the very beginning and the struggle has continued through the centuries. We can see that from reading today's passage from Hebrews if we stop to consider the passage in its larger context.
The book of Hebrews tells us that the atonement day ritual, as it has been practiced by the Jews for thousands of years, is a ritual that has now been outdated. In fact, it was nothing more than a preview for the real thing that would come to replace it. In the traditional atonement day ritual, the high priest has an animal killed and then he enters the holiest room of the temple to sprinkle its blood on the Ark of the Covenant. Now, in the new covenant, it is Jesus who is the high priest. But the real change is that he is also the sacrifice. Jesus took his own blood and sprinkled it in the holiest place of all: before God himself. For the Jews, this idea being presented in the book of Hebrews was radical. It took the old ritual of the atonement and replaced it with something completely new.
This section in the book of Hebrews was written to help Jewish Christians make sense of the crucifixion of Jesus, to understand its meaning. That was done in a way that spoke to their understanding of the way God works through the atonement, while also attaching a whole new meaning to it. In the spirit in which Hebrews was written, there is a challenge to God's people in every time and place to make sense of the crucifixion and understand its meaning as well. How do you make sense of it?
Through the centuries, the doctrine of the atonement has remained the prevailing interpretation of the cross. That doctrine tells us that because we've sinned, we're going to have to face the ultimate punishment for our sin. Jesus knew no sin, so he didn't have to face that punishment, but he took it in our place. He died for our sins. That's the way we usually hear Jesus' death explained to us. It's the way we learned it in Sunday school, and it's the stuff we sing about in many of our hymns.
This doctrine grows out of a culture that practiced animal sacrifice as a part of its temple worship. A pure, unblemished animal was sacrificed on the altar to atone for the sins of the people. God offered up Jesus to be sacrificed on the altar of the cross to atone for the sins of the people.
The Bible was written by a variety of different people who had their own worldview. The books of the New Testament were written by people at least forty to seventy years after Jesus walked this earth, so they had some time to think about what his life meant for them and the church. Of course, their worldview influences the way they interpret the story, which also colors the way they tell us the story. And for the people at that time, the doctrine of the atonement was a way to make sense of what happened. But we don't live in a culture that practices animal sacrifice and the doctrine of the atonement makes no sense to most of the people around us.
The Bible gives us many different interpretations of God, and again, they are colored by the people who wrote it. In the Old Testament we read about a God who is gracious and merciful. But we also read about a God who is brutal and unrelenting in punishing his enemies. You have to wonder, who is God, really? Is God harsh and wrathful or is God kind and loving? It's confusing.
Jesus erases that confusion for us. He came to show us what God is really like. Just look at Jesus and you can see that God is about complete, unconditional love. It's a love that was extended even to the most unlovable, even to his greatest enemies. Saying, "Father forgive them," as he looked at those who had nailed him to a cross and hung him there to die.
There are a lot of things in the Bible that are open to interpretation, and we have to do our best to make sense of them. But one thing we can't doubt, now that we've seen the Word made flesh -- Jesus -- we know that God is love. So, why would a loving God allow his Son to be tortured and killed in such a horrible way -- to offer a sacrifice for our sins? Is a price to be paid for God's love? Would God require a human sacrifice as a condition for his forgiveness? Does that make sense if God is a God of unconditional love as we have come to know him in Jesus?
I'm thankful that the atonement isn't the only way that the Bible interprets the death of Jesus. There are other ways of making sense of it. After years of struggling with all of this, here's what makes sense to me....
Jesus was all about showing us the true nature of God. He was all about love. The way he showed that love was in direct conflict with the values of the culture in which he lived. Jesus lived in a brutal time. Crucifixions like his were common. People were ruled by intimidation and fear. It was a time of domination and submission. That's why the Jews were constantly hoping for a Messiah who would come and deliver them from their oppressors. They were waiting for a powerful warrior, like David, who would defeat their enemies and put Israel on top again. But that's not what Jesus was about. The way that Jesus confronted the powerful people of his day was not through violence, but through love that manifested itself in just the opposite way -- through non-violence -- by not returning evil for evil, by turning the other cheek, praying for his enemies and responding to hatred with love.
This doesn't mean that Jesus was a wimp. He confronted his enemies again and again. So much so, that they were angry enough with him to have him killed. That's where Jesus showed his love the most. Instead of fighting back and striking down those who would destroy him, he didn't resist them. It was the love of God that got him killed. A love that wouldn't back down when it would have been so easy for him to say, "Okay, this nonviolence thing isn't working; it's time for plan B." His was a love taken to the ultimate test.
Jesus' life on this earth ended the way it had to. It was consistent with the way he lived his life. He was about love and compassion to the nth degree. When his enemies came after him, he couldn't run. When they took him to trial, he couldn't defend himself. When they nailed him to a cross, he couldn't call up his troops and defeat them. He could only do what he was sent to do -- love. And so, they killed him. What they didn't realize was that even though they were the ones who would go home that night to have dinner with the wife and kids, while Jesus' cold body was lying in a tomb, they weren't the ones with the power. For them, power was something to be sought after and protected and held onto. For Jesus, power was found in relinquishing it. Even power had no power over him. I know this may be sounding a little deep here, but hang in there with me and think about it. It really makes sense.
Ultimately, what power is there in amassing power for ourselves so we can exert it over others? Then, doesn't the need for power have power over us? The ultimate power is in knowing you're so powerful that you don't have to hang onto your power. That's the power Jesus showed when he relinquished his power on the cross. It was love's power, the way it can only come from God. It was a power that is so much more powerful than anything else in all creation that it is able to defeat any other power in heaven or on earth.
Here's how it's described in Romans:
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, of distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, not height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-- Romans 8:35, 37-39
Yes, Good Friday is hard. It's depressing and confusing. Just like Christians who have struggled throughout the centuries to make sense of the horrible death of God's only Son, we have to make sense of it for ourselves. This calls for more than pat answers, and it demands more than the old answers we hear from another time and place. We need to make sense of it for ourselves.
Even while we struggle to interpret the crucifixion, we know that we will never know all of its implications for the world. Perhaps the best we can do is say that it is a mystery that involved the supreme act of God's love. It has changed our relationship with God and the world forever. Amen.
The book of Hebrews tells us that the atonement day ritual, as it has been practiced by the Jews for thousands of years, is a ritual that has now been outdated. In fact, it was nothing more than a preview for the real thing that would come to replace it. In the traditional atonement day ritual, the high priest has an animal killed and then he enters the holiest room of the temple to sprinkle its blood on the Ark of the Covenant. Now, in the new covenant, it is Jesus who is the high priest. But the real change is that he is also the sacrifice. Jesus took his own blood and sprinkled it in the holiest place of all: before God himself. For the Jews, this idea being presented in the book of Hebrews was radical. It took the old ritual of the atonement and replaced it with something completely new.
This section in the book of Hebrews was written to help Jewish Christians make sense of the crucifixion of Jesus, to understand its meaning. That was done in a way that spoke to their understanding of the way God works through the atonement, while also attaching a whole new meaning to it. In the spirit in which Hebrews was written, there is a challenge to God's people in every time and place to make sense of the crucifixion and understand its meaning as well. How do you make sense of it?
Through the centuries, the doctrine of the atonement has remained the prevailing interpretation of the cross. That doctrine tells us that because we've sinned, we're going to have to face the ultimate punishment for our sin. Jesus knew no sin, so he didn't have to face that punishment, but he took it in our place. He died for our sins. That's the way we usually hear Jesus' death explained to us. It's the way we learned it in Sunday school, and it's the stuff we sing about in many of our hymns.
This doctrine grows out of a culture that practiced animal sacrifice as a part of its temple worship. A pure, unblemished animal was sacrificed on the altar to atone for the sins of the people. God offered up Jesus to be sacrificed on the altar of the cross to atone for the sins of the people.
The Bible was written by a variety of different people who had their own worldview. The books of the New Testament were written by people at least forty to seventy years after Jesus walked this earth, so they had some time to think about what his life meant for them and the church. Of course, their worldview influences the way they interpret the story, which also colors the way they tell us the story. And for the people at that time, the doctrine of the atonement was a way to make sense of what happened. But we don't live in a culture that practices animal sacrifice and the doctrine of the atonement makes no sense to most of the people around us.
The Bible gives us many different interpretations of God, and again, they are colored by the people who wrote it. In the Old Testament we read about a God who is gracious and merciful. But we also read about a God who is brutal and unrelenting in punishing his enemies. You have to wonder, who is God, really? Is God harsh and wrathful or is God kind and loving? It's confusing.
Jesus erases that confusion for us. He came to show us what God is really like. Just look at Jesus and you can see that God is about complete, unconditional love. It's a love that was extended even to the most unlovable, even to his greatest enemies. Saying, "Father forgive them," as he looked at those who had nailed him to a cross and hung him there to die.
There are a lot of things in the Bible that are open to interpretation, and we have to do our best to make sense of them. But one thing we can't doubt, now that we've seen the Word made flesh -- Jesus -- we know that God is love. So, why would a loving God allow his Son to be tortured and killed in such a horrible way -- to offer a sacrifice for our sins? Is a price to be paid for God's love? Would God require a human sacrifice as a condition for his forgiveness? Does that make sense if God is a God of unconditional love as we have come to know him in Jesus?
I'm thankful that the atonement isn't the only way that the Bible interprets the death of Jesus. There are other ways of making sense of it. After years of struggling with all of this, here's what makes sense to me....
Jesus was all about showing us the true nature of God. He was all about love. The way he showed that love was in direct conflict with the values of the culture in which he lived. Jesus lived in a brutal time. Crucifixions like his were common. People were ruled by intimidation and fear. It was a time of domination and submission. That's why the Jews were constantly hoping for a Messiah who would come and deliver them from their oppressors. They were waiting for a powerful warrior, like David, who would defeat their enemies and put Israel on top again. But that's not what Jesus was about. The way that Jesus confronted the powerful people of his day was not through violence, but through love that manifested itself in just the opposite way -- through non-violence -- by not returning evil for evil, by turning the other cheek, praying for his enemies and responding to hatred with love.
This doesn't mean that Jesus was a wimp. He confronted his enemies again and again. So much so, that they were angry enough with him to have him killed. That's where Jesus showed his love the most. Instead of fighting back and striking down those who would destroy him, he didn't resist them. It was the love of God that got him killed. A love that wouldn't back down when it would have been so easy for him to say, "Okay, this nonviolence thing isn't working; it's time for plan B." His was a love taken to the ultimate test.
Jesus' life on this earth ended the way it had to. It was consistent with the way he lived his life. He was about love and compassion to the nth degree. When his enemies came after him, he couldn't run. When they took him to trial, he couldn't defend himself. When they nailed him to a cross, he couldn't call up his troops and defeat them. He could only do what he was sent to do -- love. And so, they killed him. What they didn't realize was that even though they were the ones who would go home that night to have dinner with the wife and kids, while Jesus' cold body was lying in a tomb, they weren't the ones with the power. For them, power was something to be sought after and protected and held onto. For Jesus, power was found in relinquishing it. Even power had no power over him. I know this may be sounding a little deep here, but hang in there with me and think about it. It really makes sense.
Ultimately, what power is there in amassing power for ourselves so we can exert it over others? Then, doesn't the need for power have power over us? The ultimate power is in knowing you're so powerful that you don't have to hang onto your power. That's the power Jesus showed when he relinquished his power on the cross. It was love's power, the way it can only come from God. It was a power that is so much more powerful than anything else in all creation that it is able to defeat any other power in heaven or on earth.
Here's how it's described in Romans:
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, of distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, not height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-- Romans 8:35, 37-39
Yes, Good Friday is hard. It's depressing and confusing. Just like Christians who have struggled throughout the centuries to make sense of the horrible death of God's only Son, we have to make sense of it for ourselves. This calls for more than pat answers, and it demands more than the old answers we hear from another time and place. We need to make sense of it for ourselves.
Even while we struggle to interpret the crucifixion, we know that we will never know all of its implications for the world. Perhaps the best we can do is say that it is a mystery that involved the supreme act of God's love. It has changed our relationship with God and the world forever. Amen.
