Crucifixion: truly a brutal, violent way to kill another human being. A person hangs naked on a cross with lungs filling with fluid, struggling to breathe, and then succumbing after hours of struggle to the inevitable last gasp and death. All the while, one’s suffering is a public spectacle. Such a death seems nothing less than diabolical to me.
Over the centuries, we’ve made art of this dreadful execution. Paintings and sculptures shield the impact of the senseless horror. To distance ourselves even further, we’ve created theologies to blind us from the lack of humanity demonstrated in the crucifixion of Jesus. Rather than take responsibility for the way we humans create ways to torture each other, we blame the heinous act of the crucifixion of Jesus on God. Yes, God required it. Let that sink in. Christians commonly claim that God required that Jesus be brutally, violently killed. What kind of deity is this? Out of love, you say? Are you out of your mind?
I don’t believe in a sadistic deity. I don’t affirm the existence of some being that keeps track of each human frailty and makes us pay a debt for being weak and fallible people. After all, it is our very nature to have limits, to get things wrong, and to make mistakes. I don’t believe that the horrific death of Jesus was “the price to be paid” for some kind of debt we owe to a vengeful, perverted all-powerful being. At their best, I think this kind of “theologizing” represents a pitiful attempt to make sense of something that’s truly senseless. I don’t find it at all acceptable. It’s surely not compatible with the belief in the Source of creation who birthed the cosmos and fills it with life and is known to us in love.
I don’t think we can explain the tragedy that is the crucifixion of Jesus in terms of expiation of human sinfulness. The historical context speaks for itself. The teachings of Jesus threatened the religious structures of his culture. His insistence of a personal, mystical connection with God who cared for each person meant there was no need for the religious establishment, even though he himself was an observant Jew. Recognizing that Jesus threatened the way religious leaders controlled people, the religious leaders accused him of undermining the government. The tyrannical government acted and sentenced Jesus to a cruel form of capital punishment. Their intention was to make an example of him. The religious leaders turned to the foreign occupying government knowing that the Romans would help them achieve their goal. The logic of the Romans was simple: threaten our rule in any way and your fate will be public capital punishment. In the end, it was the religious leaders of Jesus’ own community who played a political game that caused the death of Jesus. Jesus’ death was carried out by a tyrannical government.
The four gospels recount different stories of what occurred, but they all present the same pattern: Jesus died the way he lived. Yes, even in the face of a cruel, unjust death, Jesus was true to his way of life. He demonstrated patience. He showed compassion. He forgave the unforgivable.
I don’t find it helpful to try to make sense of the narratives of Jesus suffering and death with abstract theologies. I find the platitudes about the death of Jesus as statements that twist the reality of what occurred. Instead, I believe it’s critical to see the crucifixion of Jesus for what it was: an attempt by corrupt leaders to silence a messenger of hope, peace, and reconciliation among people.
When we understand the crucifixion of Jesus within the contexts of the gospel narratives, we can clearly grasp that the injustice of Jesus’ death happens again and again throughout history. It’s all too common for people to use political power to silence those who strive to protect others, inspire hope in the midst of despair, and compassion for those who suffer. Yes, we see the face of Jesus crucified today in high school students who lead marches for sensible gun control, in the lives of refugees fleeing violence and deprivation looking for a safe-haven, and in the struggle of those marginalized by society because of poverty, addiction, and other senseless reasons. The crucifixion of Jesus isn’t just an event we recall each year in ritual but is a reality our cultures act out as surely as that ancient culture of Judea did two millennia ago.
As we mark the days of Holy Week, I invite you to allow the narrative of the crucifixion of Jesus to overwhelm you with horror. Hear the story for what it really says. Then consider this: where is it in your world that Jesus continues to be crucified? Truly, as often as we marginalize, oppress, and render invisible the least ones, we do that to him. Yes, we continue to nail the Christ on crosses and watch the suffering while justifying our treatment of the least ones in society.
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“I don’t believe in a sadistic deity.” I complete agree. Our school’s Dean of the Chapel recently said that she is tired of “the story of God as the abusive father” along the same lines. Your post is on the mark! Jesus–and the God whom Jesus brings into the light–was nonviolent, loving and compassionate. God didn’t want Jesus to be tortured for His delight–that’s on humanity, on us. Thank you for your thoughtful insights!
David:
Thanks for commenting. I have also grown weary of the depictions of a sadistic God who demands sacrificial blood. It’s fundamentally inconsistent with Jesus’ description of God. Lou
Thank you Lou. What a relief to have the subject of the crucifixion without the platitudes. Thank you for the challenge to refocus on the context which “overwhelms me with horror”, and helping me to ask where in my world Jesus continues to be crucified.
Vernon: Thanks for taking time to comment. When the cross is kept in familiar theological platitudes, it loses its power to evoke an authentic and faithful response from us. Lou
God has not revealed you the deity of Jesus to lay down his own life daily, once and for all — It is finished! — and to take it up again, John 10. Sin and the Law remind us of our separation from love for God, love for others, and love for ourselves; but humbly we accept God’s exchange of sin for a crown: for by grace we are saved through faith. Jesus came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets; he was not simply a nice Jewish boy, nor a pawn for religious or political theocrats.
Rick:
I appreciate that you took the time to comment. I don’t affirm the theology reflected in your comment. It’s far removed from the way in which Jesus described God, whom he called Abba. The life and ministry of Jesus weren’t about sin and law. That became our preoccupation and imposition on the text. Lou
Lou, I hit this old post when I googled the exact title of your post. I go to Christian church, but I often look around and think what is wrong with me. How can I feel the love of God and Jesus, and still not “feel” the crucifixion. Two “what ifs” play in my mind. What if God knew many, but not all, people would need a Devine, but humanized, entity to be sacrificed to know Him? The second takes the crucifixion to a new level that you touched at the end of your piece. What if we missed an important element of the crucifixion which is that Jesus still feels the very real pain of dying on the cross every time someone sins. Would we, as Christians not feel a deeper accountability then just that we are forgiven.
Peter: I appreciate your comment and your theological questions. They represent a traditional theology similar to my childhood, but one that I don’t share. For example, I was taught as a child that every time I sinned, I was driving a nail into Jesus’ hand. Essentially, I don’t believe that God required that our sins be paid for by the death of Jesus. I see that as out of step with the gospels. For example, Luke portrays God as a loving father who had two difficult sons: one was a playboy and the other stubborn and hard-hearted. The father loved and accepted them both and shared his love generously. The same is true in Luke’s story in which God is compared to the woman who lost a coin. She tears the house apart looking for it. God is generous with us and always welcomes us back. It’s we who lose our way. Lou
Once when I was researching the Proverb about ‘spare the rod,’ I encountered what John J. Pilch had written. In his research about ancient Hebrew culture, male children were raised by doting women until their Bar Mitzvah. After this they were handed over to the men to complete their education and training to be members of their society. Since the women had spoiled the young men pre-Bar Mitzvah, the adult men treated their new charges very harshly, preparing them for their possible mistreatment and torture at the hands of enemy tribes or occupying powers (hence, ‘spare the rod’). The clear implication is that one must be willing to undergo suffering on behalf of your people. If that were the understanding of the Jewish people at the time of Jesus’ death, then wouldn’t portraying his crucifixion (which undoubtably did occur and just as undoubtedly was quite severe) in all its horror and cruelty serve to make the message of the Gospel writers, that Jesus lived and died to serve the whole of humanity, clearer to their audience? The worse the suffering, the wider its effect? I don’t share this to minimize what crucifixion entails, but to perhaps deepen our understanding of why so much of each Gospel is given over to accounts of the Passion.
Thanks, Lee. That’s a thoughtful insight.