Tuesday Class 4/19

First Cut, more may follow later today. I will bring in some quotes that help illustrate the models.

 

OK we return to the issue of Holy week and the death of Jesus.

 

1) A suffering savior was not  envisioned by most people. Palm Sunday stands at that point. Within days, Jesus dies, and the early church comes to grips with that death. Like many of us in grief, we search for meaning, for some purpose in a death, especially a cruel one for one so young. The NT, in my view, combs the Scriptures to start to make religious sense out of dashed expectations and hopes.

 

2) On Maundy Thursday we will repeat the explicit linkage of the death of Jesus for forgiveness of sins. One image of forgiveness that remains in Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement/forgiveness/covering is just that. Sin is forgiven by its being forgotten, pushed out of sight. How does the cross do that?

 

If sin is an illness, how does the cross heal?

If sin is a stain, how does it cleanse?

If the issue is guilt, how doe it absolve?

If sin is to be be seen as a civil wrong, a tort, how does the cross make whole, how does it compensate? Whom does it compensate?

Instead of seeing sin as an individual issue, does the cross instead point to social sin, or if you prefer, the sins of humanity as a whole?

 

Some rare instances of the NT speak of propitiation, of appeasing wrath. How would that work?

If sin is addiction, dysfunction, how does the cross heal that? I am thinking in terms of bondage here. Ransom, used by mark, is a word for paying a price for freedom. OK, to whom is it being paid? Why the cross for payment?

Greek word for sin is missing the mark, how does the cross move u on target?

Atonement, at root, means at one-ment, making whole, I suppose. That sounds like reconciliation to me. How does the cross create reconciliation?

 

Notice that answers to these have a lot to say of our image of God.

 

Sacrificial language gets us all hung up. Recall that it is basically away of trying to bridge the gap between the divine and human realms. How is the cross a bridge?