Atonement

In the past, thinking about Jesus’ death on the cross as a substitution for my suffering was an important way for me to understand God’s forgiving love toward me. In this model, God sends Jesus to die in my place and pay for the sins I’ve committed. The problem with looking at the atonement this way is that it turns Jesus’ suffering into something holy and meaningful qua suffering. The practical result of this is that people with little power are told that they should imitate Christ by accepting suffering as he did. One important example of this is women seeking spiritual counsel as they try to leave abusive relationships. There are many other examples of powerless people asked to imitate Christ in accepting suffering, rather than upset the systems of power that crush them. This is an ironic twist, considering that Jesus came to us as a poor and powerless man, and was crushed in the power systems of his own day. To use the crucifixion as an example for the poor and powerless is to crucify Jesus all over again.

Given these problems, I prefer to pay attention to the real act of redemption in Jesus’ story – his resurrection. Jesus was dead, but he rose again to new life. In the same way, we die to our sins and participate in Jesus’ resurrection through baptism and our entry into relationship with God. The point is not that we sin and die, but that through God in Christ we experience new life.