God’s Attempt At Reconciliation

After some 1,500 years of disappointing experience with the chosen people, beginning with God’s miraculous work through Moses as recorded in Exodus, God decided to chart a new course on a different tack, still seeking (it would seem) the same goal for humankind to become inclined toward righteousness through faith and disinclined toward evil through the sins of the flesh. God’s effort to induce holiness in humankind through the teaching of the Law coupled with rewards and punishments, blessings and curses, had not meant with any measurable success. Time for a new approach. And so we began Act III, which I call God’s Attempt At Reconciliation.

There is an old adage that those who can’t do it, teach it. For 1,500 years God, who could not be human or do human, tried to teach humans. But the humans said to God in effect, ‘Look your Holiness, why don’t you try coming down here and be Holy while being human. Not so easy.’ Maybe God needed to become human so human righteousness through faith could be taught by a human ‘doing it’. C.S. Lewis deduced just this, offering an eloquent explanation in his Mere Christianity. To be human is to suffer pain unto death, and to be a righteous human is to put one’s faith entirely in the hands of God, as did Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Elijah. God would raise Jesus, defeating death through eternal life.

We know the what, where and when of Jesus. The how and why of incarnation, life, death and ascension remain a mystery to mortals. But humans always want to know the why of everything even if the how is beyond their comprehension. I have sorted out in my own mind why the Word became flesh to live among us, as explained above. The more difficult question for me is, why did God ask Jesus to willingly challenge the authorities to the point that he would suffer the ultimate in human pain and suffering?

Christian theology finds the answer in Paul’s letter to the Romans, that we are now justified by God’s grace as a gift, “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith” Ro. 3: 24-25. Further, the author of Hebrews explains that this sacrifice is the reason why the Word became flesh and lived among us. “Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.” Heb. 2: 17-18.

I have never been comfortable with the church’s explanation of the cross as a “sacrifice of atonement” for our sins, wiping them all away in one epic act. It seemed to me that the church would have us live under the dark cloud of guilt, looking up at Jesus in agony due to our miserable human weaknesses, such that we would get down on our knees pleading for mercy. Yes, we are all cracked vessels in need of God’s guidance and God’s mercy. In my opinion, though, the why of the cross was not a sacrifice of atonement for our sins. For me, the why of the cross is one important part of the why of the Word becoming flesh, living with ordinary folk and teaching us of God’s love for us, of our role as saints in training, and inculcating our faith in God’s eternal plan for us even unto suffering and death. The why, in my view, is God’s attempt at reconciliation with humankind God created. God’s reconciliation demanded that God embrace solidarity with the plight of the poor, ordinary citizen, even unto the awful physical abuse of governing authorities. God did not hold back. Praise be to God!

Next week. Squaring my view with Paul. Karl Barth got it a century ago.