Leviticus 14:12-13, 19-20
“Then the priest is to take one of the male lambs and offer it as a guilt offering, along with the pint of oil; he shall wave them before the Lord as a wave offering. He is to slaughter the lamb in the sanctuary area where the sin offering and the burnt offering are slaughtered. Like the sin offering, the guilt offering belongs to the priest; it is most holy......
“Then the priest is to sacrifice the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from their uncleanness. After that, the priest shall slaughter the burnt offering and offer it on the altar, together with the grain offering, and make atonement for them, and they will be clean.
Romans 3:21-26
But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished — he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
“Then the priest is to take one of the male lambs and offer it as a guilt offering, along with the pint of oil; he shall wave them before the Lord as a wave offering. He is to slaughter the lamb in the sanctuary area where the sin offering and the burnt offering are slaughtered. Like the sin offering, the guilt offering belongs to the priest; it is most holy......
“Then the priest is to sacrifice the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from their uncleanness. After that, the priest shall slaughter the burnt offering and offer it on the altar, together with the grain offering, and make atonement for them, and they will be clean.
Romans 3:21-26
But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished — he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
“Jesus died for us on the cross.” What the heck does that mean? Like so many other belief statements we make, we toss this one out, with great authority, just as if we know what we are talking about: “Jesus died for me on the cross.”
The story I heard when I was a child – whether it was what I was actually taught at church or not I can’t say any more, but it was what I heard – was that we are all sinners. Because of something a couple of people did a gazillion years ago we are all doomed and damned and God’s nose has been seriously out of joint with us all ever since.
God stewed and stewed about this and finally declared that he had to punish somebody – somebody, by golly, had to pay for this outrage! That’s when Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, announced that, OK – these humans were screw-ups but he really liked us, so he would come down here and take our punishment for us. So he was “born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried,” as the Apostle’s Creed put it. I deserved the punishment, but Jesus took it for me. Is that anywhere near what you heard when you were younger?
In the multi-syllabic language of academic theology this is known as the doctrine of “Substitutionary Atonement.” I have spent the better part of my adult life trying to undo the emotional and spiritual damage this so-called “doctrine” did to me. Substitutionary Atonement says that wrong was done, so there has to be a payment, a punishment to make up for that wrong. We all are sinners through Adam and Eve so we all have a punishment coming, except that Jesus bore our punishment as a substitute for us.
In virtually every primitive culture that has moved into worshiping a god or gods – this is primitive cultures now, including the ancient Hebrews – the primary motivating factor is fear. Even the earliest humans recognized that they were pretty puny and helpless against the vast, mysterious forces ‘out there’ – fire, earthquake, flood, sickness, and especially death. One of the earliest human group impulses is to find a way to somehow appease these forces – these gods – to get them on our good side – or at least to get them to punish something or someone else in our place, as our substitutes. This was done almost universally by sacrifice – preferably blood sacrifice.
Have you ever really listened to the Genesis story of Cain and Abel? Each of Adam and Eve’s sons offered sacrifices to God – Cain brought the first harvest from his farm and Abel brought animal sacrifice from his herds. God rejected Cain’s grains, but he really liked Abel’s dead animals. God obviously wanted blood sacrifice. The first jealous murder that followed was assumed to have happened because of God’s demand for blood. And down through the centuries the temple altars were awash in blood because this is what God demanded. Pages and pages of the Old Testament – whole chapters -- are devoted to lists of exactly what animal has to die to offset a particular human sin.
So when God’s feelings got hurt by Adam and Eve it was obviously going to take blood to wash out their sin – lots of blood – it would take the blood of Jesus himself.
I have to tell you now that if I thought for a moment this is really what God has ever wanted from us I would run screaming out the door and down the street and you’d never catch me near a church again. But I don’t believe it – I am no longer a child and I don’t believe this at all. And why don’t I believe it? Because I read the Gospels and I pay attention to what Jesus actually says – all that stuff about how God loves us, how we are forgiven – already – for all the dumb, broken, hurtful things we do -- how God just wants us to come home and be part of God’s reign – here and now – come and be filled with good things, come and lay down our burdens, come and for pete’s sake receive the love God is trying so hard to get us to accept.
Nowhere in Jesus’ teachings is there a hint that we – or anyone else – need to be punished before we can accept God’s open invitation. It’s just ‘come in, come home, I love you.’ The Father-God Jesus talks about would never demand that his own son would have to die just to appease his bruised ego. This would be the action of a petty little, human-sized god. Not the God I know and love. My God is so much bigger than that.
Now as a species we humans are messed up – we tend to be selfish, greedy, prone to hang onto our anger against each other – big on war and slaughter and not so hot at sharing all the gracious plenty God has created for us. We would drive one of us crazy, but luckily we aren’t the ones in charge – God is – and God just goes on loving us and trying to heal us.
So – if God didn’t demand a sacrifice, then why the crucifixion? Why did Jesus have to die? Well, go back to the previous paragraph – the one about humans being messed up. Add to the list of our faults the fact that we don’t listen well. For centuries God sent us messages through the prophets, but we didn’t listen. So then Jesus tried to tell us – for three years he tried – that we don’t have to be selfish and frightened and hateful and we can love each other and we can care for each other and we will be happy when we do so.
A small handful of folks listened and heard him, but most people did not. They heard trouble and threat. They heard, “Give up my own rank and importance? No way.” They heard, “Share my great wealth? No way.” They heard, “A slave is as good as me? A Samaritan is better than me? No way.” They felt so threatened by all that Jesus tried to tell them that they literally could not stand it and they finally killed him just to shut him up.
And then that small handful who had listened – they remembered and they listened again and again as they told and retold their Jesus stories and they found healing for their brokenness in what Jesus had told them. They found redemption for the sins that made their lives a misery. They found the forgiveness they had tried to feel but had never quite managed to believe while Jesus still walked with them. They found hope that they could, after all, really accept the love God was offering.
They found Jesus still living within them and among them and still teaching God’s love and God’s way. They found themselves – the selves God made them to be – made with love and compassion and faith. They found God’s faith in humankind – in us. If God has faith in us, maybe we could try having faith in ourselves?
And so ... somehow ... the cross did become the place of our redemption. Somehow, in all this horror – in all this love – we are saved from the spiral of hate and fear and despair. Somehow, we are saved to hope. Jesus died on the cross for me -- this is true. And I am grateful.
Amen.
The story I heard when I was a child – whether it was what I was actually taught at church or not I can’t say any more, but it was what I heard – was that we are all sinners. Because of something a couple of people did a gazillion years ago we are all doomed and damned and God’s nose has been seriously out of joint with us all ever since.
God stewed and stewed about this and finally declared that he had to punish somebody – somebody, by golly, had to pay for this outrage! That’s when Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, announced that, OK – these humans were screw-ups but he really liked us, so he would come down here and take our punishment for us. So he was “born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried,” as the Apostle’s Creed put it. I deserved the punishment, but Jesus took it for me. Is that anywhere near what you heard when you were younger?
In the multi-syllabic language of academic theology this is known as the doctrine of “Substitutionary Atonement.” I have spent the better part of my adult life trying to undo the emotional and spiritual damage this so-called “doctrine” did to me. Substitutionary Atonement says that wrong was done, so there has to be a payment, a punishment to make up for that wrong. We all are sinners through Adam and Eve so we all have a punishment coming, except that Jesus bore our punishment as a substitute for us.
In virtually every primitive culture that has moved into worshiping a god or gods – this is primitive cultures now, including the ancient Hebrews – the primary motivating factor is fear. Even the earliest humans recognized that they were pretty puny and helpless against the vast, mysterious forces ‘out there’ – fire, earthquake, flood, sickness, and especially death. One of the earliest human group impulses is to find a way to somehow appease these forces – these gods – to get them on our good side – or at least to get them to punish something or someone else in our place, as our substitutes. This was done almost universally by sacrifice – preferably blood sacrifice.
Have you ever really listened to the Genesis story of Cain and Abel? Each of Adam and Eve’s sons offered sacrifices to God – Cain brought the first harvest from his farm and Abel brought animal sacrifice from his herds. God rejected Cain’s grains, but he really liked Abel’s dead animals. God obviously wanted blood sacrifice. The first jealous murder that followed was assumed to have happened because of God’s demand for blood. And down through the centuries the temple altars were awash in blood because this is what God demanded. Pages and pages of the Old Testament – whole chapters -- are devoted to lists of exactly what animal has to die to offset a particular human sin.
So when God’s feelings got hurt by Adam and Eve it was obviously going to take blood to wash out their sin – lots of blood – it would take the blood of Jesus himself.
I have to tell you now that if I thought for a moment this is really what God has ever wanted from us I would run screaming out the door and down the street and you’d never catch me near a church again. But I don’t believe it – I am no longer a child and I don’t believe this at all. And why don’t I believe it? Because I read the Gospels and I pay attention to what Jesus actually says – all that stuff about how God loves us, how we are forgiven – already – for all the dumb, broken, hurtful things we do -- how God just wants us to come home and be part of God’s reign – here and now – come and be filled with good things, come and lay down our burdens, come and for pete’s sake receive the love God is trying so hard to get us to accept.
Nowhere in Jesus’ teachings is there a hint that we – or anyone else – need to be punished before we can accept God’s open invitation. It’s just ‘come in, come home, I love you.’ The Father-God Jesus talks about would never demand that his own son would have to die just to appease his bruised ego. This would be the action of a petty little, human-sized god. Not the God I know and love. My God is so much bigger than that.
Now as a species we humans are messed up – we tend to be selfish, greedy, prone to hang onto our anger against each other – big on war and slaughter and not so hot at sharing all the gracious plenty God has created for us. We would drive one of us crazy, but luckily we aren’t the ones in charge – God is – and God just goes on loving us and trying to heal us.
So – if God didn’t demand a sacrifice, then why the crucifixion? Why did Jesus have to die? Well, go back to the previous paragraph – the one about humans being messed up. Add to the list of our faults the fact that we don’t listen well. For centuries God sent us messages through the prophets, but we didn’t listen. So then Jesus tried to tell us – for three years he tried – that we don’t have to be selfish and frightened and hateful and we can love each other and we can care for each other and we will be happy when we do so.
A small handful of folks listened and heard him, but most people did not. They heard trouble and threat. They heard, “Give up my own rank and importance? No way.” They heard, “Share my great wealth? No way.” They heard, “A slave is as good as me? A Samaritan is better than me? No way.” They felt so threatened by all that Jesus tried to tell them that they literally could not stand it and they finally killed him just to shut him up.
And then that small handful who had listened – they remembered and they listened again and again as they told and retold their Jesus stories and they found healing for their brokenness in what Jesus had told them. They found redemption for the sins that made their lives a misery. They found the forgiveness they had tried to feel but had never quite managed to believe while Jesus still walked with them. They found hope that they could, after all, really accept the love God was offering.
They found Jesus still living within them and among them and still teaching God’s love and God’s way. They found themselves – the selves God made them to be – made with love and compassion and faith. They found God’s faith in humankind – in us. If God has faith in us, maybe we could try having faith in ourselves?
And so ... somehow ... the cross did become the place of our redemption. Somehow, in all this horror – in all this love – we are saved from the spiral of hate and fear and despair. Somehow, we are saved to hope. Jesus died on the cross for me -- this is true. And I am grateful.
Amen.
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