March 28: Palm Sunday
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Luke 22:14-23:56 or Luke 23:1-49
I do not understand sacrificial theology, or the notion that Jesus had to die in order for humanity’s sins to be forgiven. For many years now, I have wrestled with the system of belief that Jesus’ death was somehow an atonement for our sins.
I do believe that collectively, we humans love scapegoats, and we also love to project our own foibles and failings on to others; in other words, because we can’t face our brokenness and tendency toward sin head-on, we tend to foist our brokenness and tendency toward sin on to others.
This is no small thing and can have absolutely horrible consequences that can mar a country and century for years. Some might argue that Hitler’s slaughter of six million Jews during WWII was, in part, a projection of his own hatred of himself, made worse by mental illness and a country reeling from the devastating effects of WWI.
But going back to the causes of Jesus’ death, it is clear that the Roman occupation, during the time of Jesus’ execution, did not like this upstart Jesus; they were afraid he was a threat to their power and control over the Jewish people. The chief priests during the time of Jesus’ death were afraid that his popularity with the people would bring the wrath of the Roman authorities down on the chief priests.
So in a political sense, one can say that it was the fear of losing power that primarily contributed to Jesus’ death. Looked at in this way, it is easy to make the jump between the Roman authorities’ and Jewish leaders’ need for power and our present-day grasping for power. We fear that our position might be threatened by others and because of this we vie for power over them. This need for power and control over others is an ugly tendency of us humans that has exerted itself time and again through history, probably since the beginning of humankind, and makes peaceful human relationships all but impossible. Can we say that our fear of losing power and control over others is a collective human failing?
I think we can. It is not too difficult to look at what’s going on in the world to see how our need for power over others asserts itself – in all the fighting that goes on within and between countries, in all the greed and violence that manifests itself in our relationships. If I think of humans’ need for power as a collective human failing, it is easier for me to see that somehow, it is this sinful human tendency of ours that killed Jesus.
And just as I have wrestled with sacrificial theology, so have I wrestled with Jesus’ apparent willingness to die as extolled by Paul in his letter to the Philippians for today. Paul writes that Jesus became obedient even to the point of death. What does it mean, that Jesus was obedient?
Maybe he knew that death was the inevitable conclusion to his radical ministry of inclusivity and his challenges of the system (throwing the moneychangers who sold animals for sacrifice out of the temple). Maybe his willingness to die was also a way to stand up for the truths he preached: the importance of forgiveness, the importance of trusting in God for all our needs, the reversal of a belief system that exploits others for one’s own benefit.
I think the most important lesson we can learn from what scriptures tell us about Jesus’ death is that he trusted in his Abba, his Creator, the God with whom he was in close relationship. Jesus’ astounding willingness to trust in the face of the hatred of those who tortured and killed him is a powerful witness to the rest of us who fear death even more than we fear living. Jesus did not suppress or submerge his fears, he faced them; he did not want to die, but neither did he fight those who arrested him in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Most of us have no understanding at all of such radical trust. And so we continue to look to Jesus for inspiration on how to live our lives and how to face our deaths. We ask for the grace to live well and lovingly, knowing our time here on earth will end, and that someday, we too will have to let go of all we have known. We are called to trust, like Jesus, in the providence of our loving Creator, who loves us now and will always love us, even beyond death.