This is a new set of notes for a Tuesday group held at First Presbyterian, Alton, IL. At present, we are using a Thoughtful Christian series. This reading uses on Lk. 13:31-5, but the writer, Michael Lindvall, moves into a framing of different models of the atonement.

 

Just to be clear: this Herod is not the same one who sought the life of Jesus as an infant. here, it is Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great who would be around 50 at this time. Like his father, he was a builder and constructed Tiberias as a capital on the Sea of Galilee, and rebuilt Sepphoris, not a difficult walk from Nazareth. This is the Herod who had John the Baptizer killed. Less than 10 years after the death of Jesus, Herod was exiled to Gaul (France) after being accused of insufficient loyalty to Rome. I am unsure as to why Jesus calls him a fox, as I am not sure we should leap to a presumption that we can link our view of a fox as crafty to this old picture. Some think it a term of contempt, like a varmint, a weasel.Some think it cutting him down from a lion to a mere fox.

 

Also please note that the Pharisees are seeking to protect Jesus from Herod. This is the group that will help maintain Judaism into the future after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70. They insisted on careful interpretation of the Scripture and accorded weight to the views of the rabbis. They agreed with the developing view of resurrection, as opposed to "dead is dead." By and large, they were a reform movement within Judaism, outside the temple hierarchy.

The author does a nice job on three major atonement models but seems to neglect the Christus Victor model that emphasizes the defeat of the power of death. See Douglas John Hall for a good analysis in Professing the Faith, ch. 30.

The substitution model has been under withering assault for its image of God as requiring honor in the case of Anselm or seeking to punish the guilty. It is the standard American view of the meaning of the cross. Where do you come out on it?

I am struck by the image of a mother hen.How would that fit and not fit your image of Jesus? Note that it is an exposed, vulnerable image.

The substitutionary atonement model is punitive. How does the lament over Jerusalem affect your image of God's reaction to human troubles?

To the degree I grasp Rene Girard, it is that the cross should put an end to our scapegoating and sacrifices. Still, so many of us use exactly that model to understand the death of Jesus and apply a logic of sacrifice to the suffering of others.

 

How do you find meaning in the cross?