At the very centre of Christianity, at the core of God's good news for the world, is a perfect life lived in Palestine, then there is a horrific cross on Friday, and an empty grave on Sunday. All Christians will say that the events of that first Easter weekend are central to their own journey of transformation. And yet there remains a great deal of confusion as to why that should be the case.
What do I take from the life of Christ?
I am told the resurrection of Jesus Christ enables me to be transformed! 1 Peter 1:3-4 But how?
I am told the suffering of Jesus Christ enables me to be healed! Isaiah 53:5 But how?
I am told the death of Jesus Christ enables me to be forgiven! Ephesians 1:7 But how?
Those are all good questions, central to our understanding of the work of Christ. But let us focus here on the third question.
How does the death of Jesus Christ enable me to be forgiven?
I was raised to believe a particular answer to this question. I was taught that on the cross where Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied, because all the punishment that I rightfully should suffer for my sins was instead visited upon Jesus Christ. That instead of punishing me, God punished Jesus Christ, and that is what was happening on Good Friday.
And one or two of the hymns we sing make that explicitly clear.
But I want to ask some questions now ...
When the soldiers poured into the palace great hall, more than two hundred of them, and dragged Jesus in, and put a purple robe on him, and laughed, and beat him, and then took turns spitting at him, was that God's doing? Was God spitting? mocking him?
When they then stripped him naked and dragged him through the streets for public scorning and humiliation, was that God's doing? Is dehumanising abuse God's way of punishing?
When they beat his back with leather and sharpened bone, and stripped the skin from his back, was this God's justice at work?
And did God dream up crucifixion so that he could punish Jesus on the cross instead of punishing us? Was it his idea?
And when he was despised as a man and rejected as a King by the mob, was that Jesus taking God's idea of just punishment?
And did God push the jagged metal through his wrists and ankles?
And did God incite the crowd to scorn his suffering and laugh at his agony?
Was all that petty, childish, selfish, arrogant, foul, cruel, abusive treatment really God's punishment for sin?
You see, very few Christians face up to the reality of Good Friday, but prefer a sanitised spiritual version of it. So frequently when faced with that level of questioning, they will respond, "No! It wasn't the physical punishment. It was the rejection, the forsaking as God turned his face away when Jesus became sin for us."
And they will cite Jesus' own words from the cross found in Matthew 27:46, "My God, why have you forsaken me?"
And from that, many conclude that our Father turned his face away from Jesus as he bore our sin - and this was the punishment.
Now you will know the three psalms. 22 - The Sinners Cross. 23 - The Shepherds Crook. 24 -The Saviour's Crown
And Jesus' words are from Psalm 22 verse 1. But as the psalmist recounts the developing scene of horror at the cross, he describes how he places his trust in our Father God, and he realises he has not been forsaken. Speaking about the Father he says, "For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help"
Perhaps you would like to read some of the verses from this Psalm again.
You see, all that agony was not necessary for God justice to be balanced. Not necessary for God's wrath to be satisfied. And we know that - because Jesus revoked the Deuteronomy law of retribution - he cancelled the law which required eye for eye, tooth for tooth - and challenged his listeners instead to return blessing for cursing, good for evil,and to turn the other cheek - so that they would be like their father in heaven.
We know the Old Testament law contains that view, but Jesus specifically nullified that, reversed it, cancelled it.
Some might say that the Old Testament sacrifice system establishes the principle of retribution. But nowhere in the Old Testament laws regarding sacrifice is there the idea that you deliberately cause the animal to experience pain. There is no beating to death of lambs.
Now our bibles do contain references in the New Testament to the wrath of God. But incidentally, if for you the word wrath implies a settled rage determined to respond with retribution, then you are not understanding what the Greek originally says. Because the word is ORGE.
You will immediately spot that English has a couple of words that derive from orge. These are orgy and orgasm. That is because the root meaning of orge is the anger arising from a frustrated desire for something good to happen, which is almost within reach. Or the frustrated anger arising when a loved one lets themselves slip into danger.
So - it begs the question - why on earth did Jesus allow himself to be put through all the anguish of his life in palestine and especially the events of Good Friday?
His prayer in Gethsemane makes it clear that he didn't want to do it, but our Father God had said, "You choose" and Jesus confirms that he chose to submit to the violence.
And another question - what did Isaiah mean when he wrote the words ...
And what did Paul mean when he says in his letter to the Christians in Rome ...
Evidently our own spiritual journey, our spiritual destiny, is completely dependent on Jesus' death and resurrection. And if it is not to do with suffering for us the wrathful retribution of Father God, then what is it all about?
On a human level, given Jesus radical teaching, and given his runaway popularity with the poor, he always was going to fall foul of the religious establishment. And as he prayed in Gethsemane, he understood that it was God's will that he should submit to the violence. Maybe he knew why - I suspect he did.
So Jesus begins to experience the worst of human behaviour. He sees it up close and personal. He feels it as a man. He feels it viscerally, as so many have felt the violent abuse of others down through history. And the horror of human behaviour in that moment dawns on him.
But then comes the moment Isaiah spoke about, when God somehow opens the mind, the perception of Jesus so that he feels what every victim in history has ever felt ...
the anger of every injustice
the disappointment of every betrayal
the humiliation of every deception
the fear of every assault
the horror of every rape
every scornful glance
every knifeblade's strike
every demolished home
every starving warzone child
every victim.
And not just the effect on the victim, but he feels too the suffocating of goodness which blights every murderer, every liar, every thief, every rapist.
the loss of sensitivity
of humanity
of empathy
like a spiritual death.
And the sky goes black.
And as he feels that, what is his response. How will God in Christ respond to the foul inhumanity, to the cruelty, even to my own casual self centred life?
And the weight of sin, all the trauma of world history, went on and on - hour after hour after hour - until finally after three hours of anguish ...
Little wonder that he is overwhelmed by the cumulative wickedness of man, that he loses his grip on the certainty of his relationship with the Father, and he cries "My God" - not Father - "My God why have you forsaken me."
And in despair, you can lose your grip on your Father, but you know what - he NEVER loses his grip on you.
And then Jesus goes exactly through the experience of Psalm 22 realising that our Father had heard his cry for help, until he reaches verse 27 ...
And then trusting our Father, his and ours, he says ...
And that is the first reason why the cross is necessary - because being fully aware of how every sin committed by every man, woman and child down through history affected other humans, he could say, "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they are doing."
The one forgiving is the one who has been wronged. If someone wrongs my brother, I cannot say "I forgive you". It is not my place. Only my brother can forgive because only he has been wronged.
Thus it was that Jesus had to have laid on him, all the consequences of sin - it's humiliation, it's disappointment, it's pain - he experienced it so he could weigh up whether to call for retribution or to call for forgiveness.
For each of us, we must face the fact that on that day, Jesus felt our casual unkindness, our cold hearts, our deliberate limits to our love, our unchecked anger, our nurtured self centredness. Jesus felt it all.
It is to our immense relief that Jesus' heart on the cross was filled not with the desire for retribution, but the longing for reconciliation, which is why he looked at the crowd then, as he looks at us today, and says, "Father forgive them, they don't know what they are doing."
Not only do we respond with relief and gratitude at God's reaction to this trauma, but we are challenged to follow Jesus, to be like the Father in Heaven. Not to call for retribution, but always to offer forgiveness.
As our understanding of the character of God grows, may we follow more closely so that we can be like Him.
As each of us takes up our cross and follows, may we allow our instinct for retribution to be put to death, so that we will grow more loving, more gentle, more Christlike day by day.
