I want to begin by thanking your for having the courage to come here this evening. I have often wondered why so few people are willing to come out to this service. Perhaps it is because it is something foreign and strange. Perhaps it is just too dark and depressing. Perhaps it is because we are afraid. Most mental health professionals will tell you that the only way to overcome a fear, is to face it. Without a doubt, one of our greatest fears is that of death. We are not a culture which deals very well with the end of life. So to have a service which is unquestioningly about death, is not going to be a very popular one. Perhaps, though, there is another fear which prompts people to stay away. The fear of not understanding. Of not understanding Why DID Jesus die?
The language we use to describe his death is difficult and complicated. It seems there is no easy answer. Talk of his death as being some kind of a sacrifice which took place at God's command is confusing at its best, and repulsive at its worst. What kind of God orders the death of his own child in order to appease his anger with the world which he created? I know I have struggled to understand its meaning. Many explanations have left me cold. Yet as I have struggled to find the meaning of the crucifixion, I have found a growing number of references in the Bible and in literature which do a good job of telling us how Jesus' death does change things for us.
After Jesus dies, the Biblical narrative mentions how the curtain in the temple was torn in two. On its own, this sounds like a minor detail, until you realize what that curtain represents. In the Temple, there was a veil which separated the Holy of Holies, where God was hidden, from the worshippers. Only once a year, on the Passover, would the High Priest bring a sacrifice in to the Holy of Holies, to find God's favour. On this night, on the eve of the Passover, the curtain is ripped in two and collapses. Suddenly the gap between God and humanity was forever bridged. In the language of their day, this meant people now had complete access to God. They didn't need to make sacrifices of animals in order to get God's attention any more.
God was with them. Always, at all times.
This lead me to wonder - What if all this talk of Jesus' sacrifice wasn't meant to be taken literally, and explained in a rational manner? In those days, people used animal sacrifices as a way of pleasing God, of getting God's attention, of making peace with God. What if Jesus' death was trying to turn the whole concept of ‘sacrifice as the way to connect with God' upside down and turn it inside out?
When a sacrifice is made, it is supposed to restore peace and order. The animal carries our guilt, and pays the penalty for us. By this act of sacrifice, a person's sins are forgiven. Society often makes sacrifices, in order to achieve its goals. As the high priest put it, ‘it is better that one person should die in order to preserve peace for everyone else.' With a sacrificial mentality, some person or persons are deemed to be expendable, because it is easier to forsake them, than it is to help them. We find a group to blame for our troubles, and we sacrifice their well being, in order to strengthen our own. The Nazis made the Jews into their scapegoats, blaming them for Germany's difficulties.
Those who make the sacrifice profit from it, finding forgiveness of sins, peace and prosperity restored. After sacrificing Jesus, the Bible tells us that Herod and Pilate became friends for the first time. They both believed the voice of creative dissent must be crushed, in order to preserve the status quo. The peace of Rome was paid for with a cross and a sword.
The problem is, sacrifices don't always work. A sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins had to be made every year. Each family had to make a sacrifice each Passover in order to stay connected with God. When a social sacrifice fails to achieve peace, it usually fuels the spiral of violence. The group who sided with the victim then seek revenge for their suffering. Their passion for their cause is inflamed by the loss of the victim. The sacrificial victim becomes a martyr to the cause. We see this spiral of violence and revenge in so many personal feuds and wars.
Christ challenges this pattern as well. When Christ does re-appear, his first words are "Peace be with you". That's not what a revenge-seeking culture would expect to hear from a man they had just put to death, and who has come back from the grave to face them.
Have you ever read the children's story, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by the British author C.S. Lewis? The story of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a good example of this different understanding of the meaning of Jesus' death. The Chronicles of Narnia books have been a classic since they first published fifty years ago. In C.S. Lewis' story, the lion Aslan, is the Christ figure. Aslan allows himself to killed so that the evil queen will spare the life of a child. The queen had tricked the child into betraying his siblings. In the magical world of Narnia, the penalty for such a betrayal is death. According to the ancient laws of sacrifice, such a traitor must die, in order to restore balance and peace in the world. In the story, this is called the ‘deep magic from the dawn of time.'
Aslan offers to take the child's place, so the boy might be spared. The queen and her dark forces readily agree to Aslan's offer, for she believes she will be free to later renege on sparing the child, and plans to take over the kingdom. Aslan goes quietly to his death, and the queen heads off to defeat her opponents in a surprise attack.
Then, as the dawn comes, something unexpected happens. Aslan rises to new life. He is resurrected. At that moment, the stone altar which was used for this and all such sacrifices is shattered into two pieces, never to be used again. When asked how this was possible, Aslan says this is an even deeper magic, from before the dawn of time. He says that when an innocent person dies on behalf of others to free them, this would break the cycle of violence and sacrifice altogether.
So the story of Christ's death is not a case where offering a bigger sacrifice earns you a bigger reward. This is a story where sacrifice itself is broken. Because of Christ, there can be no more scapegoats. There can be no more convenient victims for us to blame for our misfortunes. We can't blame the messenger for telling us our ship is sinking. There is nothing we can give up or sacrifice which will win us favour with God.
The entire sacrificial mentality, is now irrelevant as a way to make things right with God.
On this occasion, the powers of the day tried to use an innocent man of God as the sacrificial victim, and as a result, the sacrificial altar has been broken by God. Forever.
Instead of the brutality of maintaining the status quo at all costs,
and instead of violence as revenge, a new community of people is born out of these events.
It is a people who are committed to the innocent victims society often forgets.
It is a people who cling to the one whom God will raise to new life on Easter Sunday.
It is a people who are committed to a life which requires no more sacrifices
in order to put things right between them, their neighbour, and with God.
The death of Jesus was a terrible tragedy, which should never have happened. But it did.
With his death, he suffers the full weight of all this word's violence and hatred and blame.
An innocent man , trying to reveal God's healing grace, became the scapegoat.
Blamed for disrupting the peace, for threatening the status quo.
Even the centurion who stood at the foot of the cross
recognized that they had just put to death an innocent man.
Now the story does not end here.
We are able to look forward to Easter morning.
But we are not there just yet.
Because of today, sacrifice is no more.
The altar of sacrifice is broken, never to be used again.
By this violent and terrible act, we are reminded that
the veil between God and humanity has been torn in two.
God is in this world, with us, in us, walking with us, breaking new bread with us,
each of us, all of us, because of this day.
For helping us to face our fears, we give God thanks. Amen.
(Comments to James at mwuc@total.net.)
Montreal West United Church