“The inner criterion of whether or not Christian theology
is Christian lies in the crucified Christ . . . we come back to Luther’s lapidary statement,
the cross is the test of everything.”
—Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God
I have read that the Passion stories take up a third to a quarter of each gospel; in other words, they are central to the story of Jesus.
The central claim Christians make is that Christ was crucified and raised from the dead. We rather like Easter; it is the crucifixion with which we struggle. Saint Paul understood this well as he acknowledged that ‘the cross is foolishness to the Greeks and a scandal to the Jews.’ (1 Cor 1:23) I come across Christians who dislike the notion of Christ dying for us and want to remove the language of atonement—and yet, there it is front and center in the scriptures. So how do we understand the atonement?
Growing up in Oklahoma, the wrath and anger of God was a common metaphor. God the Father was presented not as the loving Father we find in the Prodigal Son, but as a mean and fearful figure from whom we are ‘saved’ because Jesus is punished in our place. These types of approaches to the atonement place the Father and the Son in competition against each other, working in opposition to one another. The Father doesn’t punish the Son; the Son is obedient, even unto death. (Phil 2:8) In the Eastern tradition, Jesus on the cross is not displayed as suffering like the crucifixes that are common in the western tradition. I think both images have value, but it is helpful for me to remember that the crucifixion is Jesus’ enthronement as the King of Kings.
But why did Jesus need to die? In creation, it was intended for God and human beings to live in harmony with one another forever. One beautiful image in Genesis is God coming to the garden on a cool evening to walk hand and hand with us. Saint Paul writes in Romans 5 that ‘death came into the world through sin, the result of our disobedience is that we would die.’
Human beings who—created to be with God for eternity—chose death over life. We wanted freedom and independence from our creator. In the Book of Wisdom, we read, “God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living.” An example of this comes directly from Jesus when, confronted with the death of his friend Lazarus, weeps at his grave.
So, God in Jesus Christ chooses death so we might live. He takes on that which God did not create, death so that death can be defeated. In St. John Chrysostom’s sermon for Holy Saturday, he says, “Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam's son. And grasping his hand he raises him up, saying: ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.”
Chrysostom concludes this sermon at the Easter Vigil when the light of Christ is lit and we are reminded that darkness, nor death, nor sin could overpower God.
Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?
Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
—The Rev. Dr. Everett C. Lees
Christ Church, Tulsa