When I sin

Currently there is a practice in the Senate known as the "Secret Hold". The Secret Hold is the ability for anyone to anonymously object to someone being appointed by the President to a position. Here is an NPR report on the practice which both sides of the isle are moving to remove the practice.

The Secret Hold is an odd thing to me, one which I am not sure I can imagine a world which would originally think this practice would be a good idea, but I am not that good with my imagination. However as I think more and more on this practice I see such great connections to the cycle of violence and scapegoating which God through Jesus came to expose and eradicate.

The crowd standing around the woman caught in adultery are all nameless in the Bible. Not even the names of the accusers are given. They are all anonymous. They all object to something of Jesus and bring this woman before Jesus in order to justify their own understanding of the Law (that is that God demanded this woman be stoned). Jesus interpreted the same law a bit differently.

He knew the first stone was the hardest stone to throw. It is always hard to be first and much easier to follow a crowd. So Jesus made it even more difficult for those who would be brave enough to throw a first stone - to actually throw the first stone in this situation. As a result, the anonymous crowd, who are convinced they are doing Good by the Word of God, disperses without casting a single stone. Not one stone was thrown.

I think that I am generally a compassionate person. I think that I am generally a kind person. I think I am generally a decent guy. Yet, there are times when I can do so wrong. And the times I do so wrong (aka in Christianity as sin) that I am acting not on my own but acting as part of a crowd. When I lose my individual self to an anonymous crowd I cast a ton of stones. in these moments I even think the stones I cast are good and I sometimes even think that I am doing right, but I am not.

This is why, in part, I am Christian and attend a worshiping community. Worship allows me not to lose myself to an anonymous crowd but to become an individual in the Body of Christ.

I don't fear much, but I fear the times when I am wrapped in an anonymous crowd.

What the death of Jesus means for me

I have never been able to understand the idea that Jesus was a sacrifice demanded by God in order to reconcile humanity with the Triune God. What I have come to affirm and see in my study in history and in the Bible is what is traditionally known as "Ransom theory".

Ransom is the most ancient of theories to understand the atoning death of Jesus. The idea that humanity is held captive by Satan and Jesus exchanges his life for ours as a "ransom" to Satan is something that I once thought ridiculous because I do not believe in a traditional Satan. In fact for years I did not think Satan existed at all. But much has changed for me.

By my readings of Scripture, Wink, Girard, Lewis, evolutionary psychologists, sociology, and how crowds function, I have come to affirm that humanity, while good, is easily and quickly wrapped up in forces beyond our awareness and control. We are constantly manipulated by marketers all the time to convince us that we need a product or service. As I look out into the world, I acknowledge that we are also susceptible to another manipulation - finding victims to blame for our problems or troubles in society.

Don't like the government - blame the president (whoever it is).

Don't think the oil spill is your problem - blame BP, or the government or American's dependence on fossil fuels.

Don't like Health Care - blame doctors, insurance companies, overweight people, government, etc.

Don't like a religion - then demonize the founder or the adherents

In the infamous song by the creators of South Park the movie:

"Times have changed, our kids are geting worse. They won't obey their parents, they just wanna fart and curse!

Should we blame the government, or blame society? Or should we blame the images on TV?

NO!

Blame Canada, Blame Canada!"

Call it a universal truth if you like - we all blame something/someone for the problems of the world. And the thing is, when we participate in this blaming activity, we always believe that we are correct and in the right to do so. We blame those people and things which we believe to be a fault. And these things must be at fault because we are blaming them.

It is a vicious cycle. A cycle of blaming and accusing that the Biblical authors first described in the OT as Satan and upheld in the NT with the additional title of Principalities.

We all do this. And this force we are caught up in, this cycle of blaming is so dominate that we believe this is the way the world works and the way the world should work. We are held captive by this cycle. We believe this ability to blame others for problems is the best and most efficient way (even ordained by God at times) to deal with problems. We are held captive by this satanic cycle.

As we are held captive by this cycle of Satan (again, the cycle is that of tension, blame/scapegoat, peace) we need someone/thing to break us out – someone/thing to free us. This is where the death and resurrection of Jesus come into play.

Jesus willingly submitted to this cycle in order to expose it. He became the scourge of the crowd and united the crowd in shouts of “crucify”. During his trial, Jesus did not try to save himself or defend himself – he remained silent through most of the trial. He was not trying to save his life, but rather expose the cycle of Satan in order that humanity might see it. When he hung on the cross, Jesus looked like any other victim at that point - the unanimous crowd identified him as the “root” of the problem/scandal/tension.

But something happened that was different. Unlike other scapegoats in history, Jesus was completely without any guilt at all. He was innocent in the most compete sense. As such, when Jesus did die, he did not unify the crowd like other victims. There was a small minority of people (the Disciples) who knew Jesus was innocent and they became a vocal dissenting voice in the midst of the crowd.

The dissenting voice of the Disciple did not come until something else happened – Resurrection. When they experienced the resurrected Christ – the innocent One – their eyes were opened and began to preach to the people about the one whom was unjustly crucified.

At that moment, with the resurrection and the arrival of the Holy Spirit, humanity began to see this cycle of violence and stand up for the innocent victims of the world. At this point humanity was freed from the firm captivity of Satan – we had an alternate way to deal with tension in society. Rather than blaming and finding scapegoats, God through Jesus by the Spirit showed us the truly lasting way to peace is not through violence and scapegoating, but through forgiveness and mercy.

It is for these reasons that I do not think Jesus could have been a sacrifice ordained by God. If God ordained the sacrifice of Jesus in order to resolve the tension between God and humanity then God would be no other than duped by the cycle of violence of Satan. Rather, God through Jesus willingly enters into the cycle of violence in order to expose and eradicate the domination of Satan’s hold on humanity. If you want some scripture, I invite you to read the Gospels, especially John.

Did God demand Jesus to die for Sin?

The last post I stated:

"The Gospel takes us on a process characterized by the collapse of certain sacred structures. Specifically, the Gospel leads us down a path that calls us to abandon anything which contributes to the sacrifice and victimizing of others. The Gospel leads us down a road that calls into question ANYTHING that leads us to victimize anyone/anything. Which might even be something that we, at this point, would consider foundational to our religious tradition. It might lead us down the path of abandoning some traditional and popular understandings of why Jesus died."

It was articulated to me a few times that God is 100% holy and as such cannot be in the presence of sin, and since humanity is sin soaked or has the taint of sin upon them, there is a chasm between God an humans. I was told the"good news" was that God provided his Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice which 'bridged' the chasm between God and humanity. This bridge (depicted as a cross) allows humans to be with God. It is argued that God required a sacrifice in order for this bridge to exist.

What I glean from these "Spiritual laws" is that God required the death of Jesus. Jesus was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices - the final blood sacrifice which God demanded so that we no longer need to sacrifice blood any longer.

Not only do I not resonate with this theology personally, I think it is counter to the Gospel.

I know this is not popular Christianity. I know this statement is polarizing. I know some will read that statement and think/say "Jason, you cannot be Christian if you do not believe that Jesus' death was required by God for atonement of Sin. Here are the Scriptures which state this..."

It is my theology that God does not demand or has ever demanded blood sacrifice for any sin or conflict or scandal in the history of the world. I believe the scriptures which "require" blood sacrifice are not compatible with the much larger picture of God through out the Bible.

To use an example, which I am not trying to proof text but rather to give a glimpse to what I am talking about, look at how God responded to Cain when he murdered Able. Cain was concerned that if he saw anyone else that they would kill him. But God does not allow this action to happen. God marks Cain. God protects Cain. If God required blood sacrifice for the sin of Cain, then why would God protect Cain?

God is not that deity which requires blood sacrifice. That deity is not the God I come to know in Jesus Christ. The thing which requires blood sacrifice for a restoration or a reconciliation to take place is, in my theology, is not the Triune God of Christianity but Satan.

If you are interested to learn more about this God who does not demand blood sacrifice, I recommend Scapegaot by Rene Girard, The Powers That Be by Walter Wink or even the DVD The Gods are not Angry by Rob Bell.

Additionally, this Friday at 6:30pm at Arlington Heights UMC I will be using Galatians 1:11-17 as an entry into this exact topic. I also will go into more detail on this subject on Sunday June 6th at Grace UMC at 11am.