Life is beautiful, isn’t it? It is full of amazing joys: friendship, the stunning beauty of a sunset on Clear Lake, the experience of love, your first successful venture where everything seems to work out well, the party with friends where you laugh until your face hurts, listening to magnificent music, the days when everything goes well. And we encounter in ourselves and others surprising and inspiring goodness.
Life is also tragic: we fail others, the suffering of a loved one, divorce, family relationships that are estranged, loss of a job, the shattering of a dream, unexpected turns in life that bring life changes we didn’t want, when our children go ways that bring sadness. Life can be crushing.
The Scriptural narrative witnesses to a world of tragedy and suffering, even for God's most faithful. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). Curt Thompson is fond of saying that “if you are human, you will suffer.”
Much of the suffering is caused by three things: things we do, things done to us by others, and things that happen not directly caused by human agency. If we’re honest, we have to acknowledge that our own brokenness is implicit in our own tragedy. This is not always the case, of course. But it is often the case.
But no one gets up in the morning thinking, “I think I’d like to mess up my day and inflict chaos on the relationships with those closest to me.” Few, if any, go into the day with this in mind.
And yet, it seems to happen.
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I used to begin confirmation each year with the question: Why did Jesus die? I’d tell kids to go ask their parents and come back with answers the following week, along with their own answer. Inevitably, the same general answer surfaced: Jesus died to forgive our sins (so we can be in heaven when we die).
This is partially true. The New Testament is clear that Jesus’ death was “for the forgiveness of sins” (1 John 2:2). The “so we can be in heaven when we die" is less of a concern in the New Testament. We’ve inherited that from the medieval Catholic church and its ways of sacring people into church. We probably should ditch that method.
Jesus’ suffering and death is more than a transactional move, like an American business deal where God gives us something we can’t afford, but someone’s got to pay still, so Jesus does. Too often this is how Jesus’ death is explained. This is the shrunken story of Jesus' death that James Bryan Smith addresses in chapter 7 of The Magnificent Story.
___________________________________
Jesus’ death is importantly about Jesus’ descent.
In the Incarnation (lit: “en-fleshing”) of God in Jesus Christ, Jesus descended into our humanity. But it was not enough that Jesus would just become human.
In his humanity, Jesus descended and took the identity of a slave. He did not make his “God-ness” known or expect people to treat him as royalty. He was born into poverty, walked among the poor, identified with the outcasts, and went as low as to wash his disciples’ feet. Yet, that was not enough.
Jesus descended further sill. He was crucified. As God with us, dying a human death was not a very good idea. If anything would actually discount that he was God, this would be it. Even worse, Jesus didn't just die of old age. His death was not a noble death. Other heroes died noble deaths. Jesus was not a hero (we should stop reducing Jesus to a modern “hero”). He was God with us. Heroes just fix a human problem. Jesus didn't come to fix a human problem. He came to reboot all of humanity. All of it.
So, in his death, Jesus descended to the point of human experience where God seemed to be absent. On the cross he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). It's not that God wasn’t present. It’s that Jesus was left to the devices of the God-forsaken ways of a corrupt system of power, which snuffed out his life on this earth. God the Father didn't swoop in and save him. Jesus' death isn't about swooping down to save us from human evil. It's bringing God's very presence into human evil in order to redeem it.
Yet, death on the cross was not enough. Jesus descended further still. Jesus' death was more than a bump in the road on the way back to his heavenly home. Jesus stayed dead for three days. For three days, Jesus, who was God among us, went into the silent darkness of human emptiness. The silence of "what now?" The stomach turning experience of utter hopelessness. The silence of death.
It was startling enough that God would become a less-than-ordinary human. It was startling enough that God would die. But to be dead? Silent? No response?
According to expectations, this was surely evidence that Jesus was NOT God. It was evidence, in fact, that God had abandoned Jesus. Because if there is any place God is not to be found, it’s among the dead. Yet, Jesus want there.
And then Jesus was raised. And the resurrection didn’t cancel out the suffering and death. The wounds of suffering remained. Resurrection confirmed the descent. It validated it as the way of God.
Jesus' suffering and death were not "so we don't have to." It was all "so that we might also."
This is why the Apostle Paul can emphasize over and over "the way of the cross." Take up your cross, Jesus says. Die to your life, Jesus says. I have been crucified with Christ, Paul says.
Jesus' death validated our own suffering, darkness, and emptiness as sacred places where God is found. When we cry, "Why have you forsaken me, God??!!", Jesus cries with us.
Jesus’ suffering and death is not just a theological transaction for our individual problem of sin to give me a chance to get into heaven. It’s the way that God redeems everything about the human experience. In his descending, Jesus delivers all of humanity from its enslavement to sin, suffering, and death.
As Hebrews 2:14-15 says, "he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."
And because Jesus descended, now those places of suffering, darkness, of God-forsakenness are places where God is fully present. They are not things you need to “get through” to find the blessing. They are now places where the blessing is most deeply found.
__________________________________
Life is beautiful. And life is tragic. Because of Jesus’ descent into the darkest places of the human experience, even the tragic and crushing human emptiness is beautiful. We need to stop acting like this isn’t the case, looking for our “resurrection moment” or rushing past the suffering, looking for the blessing on the other side.
When Jesus’ death is just a transactional move to deal with our individual sins, we miss the fullness of what was going on in Jesus’ death. We miss out on the capacity of the magnificent story to transform all the parts of our lives.
The purpose Jesus’ Incarnation, suffering, and death is to renew all of humanity, even suffering and decay. Because of Jesus’ descent to death and his resurrection, God has opened the door to a life so connected to the Spirit of the crucified & risen Lord that even the earthly suffering and decay are beautiful. They are beautiful because he became what we are, even to suffering and death.
Jesus’ death is not a way for us to avoid God’s judgment. It is the compassion of God to redeem everything about us, even the parts where we think God won’t go.
Life is also tragic: we fail others, the suffering of a loved one, divorce, family relationships that are estranged, loss of a job, the shattering of a dream, unexpected turns in life that bring life changes we didn’t want, when our children go ways that bring sadness. Life can be crushing.
The Scriptural narrative witnesses to a world of tragedy and suffering, even for God's most faithful. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). Curt Thompson is fond of saying that “if you are human, you will suffer.”
Much of the suffering is caused by three things: things we do, things done to us by others, and things that happen not directly caused by human agency. If we’re honest, we have to acknowledge that our own brokenness is implicit in our own tragedy. This is not always the case, of course. But it is often the case.
But no one gets up in the morning thinking, “I think I’d like to mess up my day and inflict chaos on the relationships with those closest to me.” Few, if any, go into the day with this in mind.
And yet, it seems to happen.
_______________________________________________
I used to begin confirmation each year with the question: Why did Jesus die? I’d tell kids to go ask their parents and come back with answers the following week, along with their own answer. Inevitably, the same general answer surfaced: Jesus died to forgive our sins (so we can be in heaven when we die).
This is partially true. The New Testament is clear that Jesus’ death was “for the forgiveness of sins” (1 John 2:2). The “so we can be in heaven when we die" is less of a concern in the New Testament. We’ve inherited that from the medieval Catholic church and its ways of sacring people into church. We probably should ditch that method.
Jesus’ suffering and death is more than a transactional move, like an American business deal where God gives us something we can’t afford, but someone’s got to pay still, so Jesus does. Too often this is how Jesus’ death is explained. This is the shrunken story of Jesus' death that James Bryan Smith addresses in chapter 7 of The Magnificent Story.
___________________________________
Jesus’ death is importantly about Jesus’ descent.
In the Incarnation (lit: “en-fleshing”) of God in Jesus Christ, Jesus descended into our humanity. But it was not enough that Jesus would just become human.
In his humanity, Jesus descended and took the identity of a slave. He did not make his “God-ness” known or expect people to treat him as royalty. He was born into poverty, walked among the poor, identified with the outcasts, and went as low as to wash his disciples’ feet. Yet, that was not enough.
Jesus descended further sill. He was crucified. As God with us, dying a human death was not a very good idea. If anything would actually discount that he was God, this would be it. Even worse, Jesus didn't just die of old age. His death was not a noble death. Other heroes died noble deaths. Jesus was not a hero (we should stop reducing Jesus to a modern “hero”). He was God with us. Heroes just fix a human problem. Jesus didn't come to fix a human problem. He came to reboot all of humanity. All of it.
So, in his death, Jesus descended to the point of human experience where God seemed to be absent. On the cross he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). It's not that God wasn’t present. It’s that Jesus was left to the devices of the God-forsaken ways of a corrupt system of power, which snuffed out his life on this earth. God the Father didn't swoop in and save him. Jesus' death isn't about swooping down to save us from human evil. It's bringing God's very presence into human evil in order to redeem it.
Yet, death on the cross was not enough. Jesus descended further still. Jesus' death was more than a bump in the road on the way back to his heavenly home. Jesus stayed dead for three days. For three days, Jesus, who was God among us, went into the silent darkness of human emptiness. The silence of "what now?" The stomach turning experience of utter hopelessness. The silence of death.
It was startling enough that God would become a less-than-ordinary human. It was startling enough that God would die. But to be dead? Silent? No response?
According to expectations, this was surely evidence that Jesus was NOT God. It was evidence, in fact, that God had abandoned Jesus. Because if there is any place God is not to be found, it’s among the dead. Yet, Jesus want there.
And then Jesus was raised. And the resurrection didn’t cancel out the suffering and death. The wounds of suffering remained. Resurrection confirmed the descent. It validated it as the way of God.
Jesus' suffering and death were not "so we don't have to." It was all "so that we might also."
This is why the Apostle Paul can emphasize over and over "the way of the cross." Take up your cross, Jesus says. Die to your life, Jesus says. I have been crucified with Christ, Paul says.
Jesus' death validated our own suffering, darkness, and emptiness as sacred places where God is found. When we cry, "Why have you forsaken me, God??!!", Jesus cries with us.
Jesus’ suffering and death is not just a theological transaction for our individual problem of sin to give me a chance to get into heaven. It’s the way that God redeems everything about the human experience. In his descending, Jesus delivers all of humanity from its enslavement to sin, suffering, and death.
As Hebrews 2:14-15 says, "he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."
And because Jesus descended, now those places of suffering, darkness, of God-forsakenness are places where God is fully present. They are not things you need to “get through” to find the blessing. They are now places where the blessing is most deeply found.
__________________________________
Life is beautiful. And life is tragic. Because of Jesus’ descent into the darkest places of the human experience, even the tragic and crushing human emptiness is beautiful. We need to stop acting like this isn’t the case, looking for our “resurrection moment” or rushing past the suffering, looking for the blessing on the other side.
When Jesus’ death is just a transactional move to deal with our individual sins, we miss the fullness of what was going on in Jesus’ death. We miss out on the capacity of the magnificent story to transform all the parts of our lives.
The purpose Jesus’ Incarnation, suffering, and death is to renew all of humanity, even suffering and decay. Because of Jesus’ descent to death and his resurrection, God has opened the door to a life so connected to the Spirit of the crucified & risen Lord that even the earthly suffering and decay are beautiful. They are beautiful because he became what we are, even to suffering and death.
Jesus’ death is not a way for us to avoid God’s judgment. It is the compassion of God to redeem everything about us, even the parts where we think God won’t go.
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