96. As easter approaches

And with it comes my discomfort with my conflict of the theology of the cross. 

But before I begin, let me state for the record the following...

1. I believe that Christ was crucified on Golgatha.

2. I believe that he rose from the dead.

3. I believe that his death satisfies the demand for sacrifice.

Where I part with conventional theology is who put Christ on the cross, and who demanded the sacrifice, and whose lust for vengeance was satisfied that day. 

Consider Hosea 6:6 - For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

Consider Micah 7:18-19 - Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

Consider Psalm 51: 16 & 17 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.

The problem that I have is this – if I ask you if God can create a rock so big he cannot move it, you would have an argument that this kind of question is not fair.  But I am told that God has created a creature he cannot stand – and this seems perfectly reasonable.  I am told that in essence that is the reason why God arranged for Jesus to be killed – God is infinitely offended by our sin, and because he is infinitely offended, thus require the ultimate in sacrifices. Only this thinking is not based on scriptures, but is based on theology.

“According to the 11th century monk Anselm of Canterbury who decisively shaped Western Christianity’s understanding of sin, violating God’s law is an offense against God’s honor. The offense is infinite because God is infinite, so the punishment for the mildest violation of God’s law must be infinite. Anselm took this to explain why Jesus, as an infinite divine being, had to die on the cross as punishment for humanity’s sin.” – Morgan Guyton

It seems to me that the requirement of sacrifice was our creation, our insistence.  Yes, there are loads of requirements of sacrifices in the old testament – but those instructions are written to a people that thought it was reasonable to kill women who were not virgins at the time of their marriage on the doorsteps of their family.  These are the same people that also thought that sacrificing children was acceptable. So I wonder.  The requirements for sacrifice in the Old Testament; were they demands or restrictions?  Just as I believe an ‘eye for an eye’ was not a recipe for justice, but a limitation on vengeance.

Isaiah 1:11 “The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

As with most things I think the truth is much more uglier than the bill of goods we are sold.  For this God-Man who knew the stuff that we had done that we wanted kept secret, still loved us.  And this became the problem.  For along with his love, there was no condemnation.

The other villain that we point to, when we don’t point at God, is the organized religion of the day.  Granted it was the religious elite who did campaign to have him killed.  And Jesus certainly gave them much cause to, for the words of condemnation from Jesus that I have read are towards the religious. 

It was us, and it still is us.  We still sacrifice Christ every time we play the game of “that person is not a TRUE Christian.”  Every time we fool ourselves into thinking that there must be more that we have to do other than forgive others. 

Yes, I think Christ had to die.  But I believe he had to die for us as we could not imagine a God who loved us.  I believe that he died so that it would be us whose need for sacrifice was met.  I also believe that the true miracle of Easter is not his death, but his resurrection.  It was in the resurrection that we see the power of sin, the separation from God, being defeated.

So, as we proceed towards Good Friday – I have different sense of the day. I do not see it as the day when our salvation was secured, I see it as the day we killed God.  I do see our sin on Christ, but not in an act of atonement, but in our disgust in a God that could love us.  It is not relief I feel for the act of Golgatha, but regret. 

My theology on this all may be wrong – but it sits easier for me than blaming God for our act of violence.