This post is part of a series I put on the Internet in the Spring of 2001 on the Atonement. To date, many of the articles of the series were, I admit, negative. Meaning they would upset folk possessing a conservative Christian faith and downright objectionable, to be rejected out of hand, for those taking the Bible and its many myths literally.

In any case, I write this article to remind all that modern Christian theologians, specifically the historical-critical type exemplified in thewritings of The Jesus Seminar and Bishop John Spong (retired), do not reject the central role of Jesus’ Cross, i.e. his death, for Christianity. Many of the radical left continue to see the Cross as the all-important work of God and key revelation of God’s will and nature. Thus, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.

First, the Cross is sign that God and God’s Messiah, despite Psalm 2 and the Book of Revelations au contraire, are not into the slap them, hack them and wrap them, burn them – churn them destroyer of nations type Messiah. This Cross, this God is the very antithesis of the primitive warrior-king God of your usual run-of-the-mill Messianic expectation. Instead of dealing and dishing out punishment, this God in love absorbs it and in return deals out love and never failing acceptance. So the real Messiah Jesus is not your usual human projection served up with big doses of fear, terror and destruction. And the victory remains with love and life, with the spiritual forces that create, and restore wholeness of life and not those that rip it apart.

I am not sure what Bishop Spong wants to say about the death of Jesus but I do know that Marcus Borg, a prominent member of The Jesus Seminar, still sees the Cross as sign that God freely forgives our sins. And, no, the Cross is NOT an activator of God’s forgiveness as though Jesus had to die in order for God to find the good will or satisfaction to cancel human sin and guilt. Also, Spong definitely wants to say any interpretation of Jesus’ death as blood, human sacrifice to appease or propitiate God or God’s wrath is supremely objectionable of 21st century humans and to be rejected, on rational grounds, out of hand.

Importantly, in modern theology, the Cross is understood only when connected to the Resurrection. It is not just Jesus dying that makes the Cross good medicine against sin. It is the reality that Jesus died AND immediately stepped into eternity and God’s presence. And so, for Christians, God has designated Jesus as pointer to his will and nature and centered on him his hopes for the Kingdom of Heaven.

This is the same Jesus of Nazareth who in relations with disciples and

enemies, the poor and marinalized, the saint and sinner, clearly showed God’s love is conditional on no human requirement or moral achievement but rests solely on His good and loving nature – the Our Father who art in heaven.

Thus, this Risen Jesus represents/mediates God’s forgiveness, wisdom and fulness of life to all, merely for the asking. So the Cross is still the place we can still bring our sins, our stupid moves that have grievously hurt others, all our failures, our huge bruised egos. For there the kindly Jesus still hears us.

On earth Jesus knew what makes human tick. “..knowing what is in man..” And supported then and now by God’s power Jesus listens, administers sound advice to our distraught souls, and sooths the wounds of the fallen and downtrodden. In fact, instead of just viewing Jesus as the Great Physician, maybe we should move beyond that and see Jesus as the Great Psychiatrist – the One who Listens, knows us intimately and loves us greatly. (In Canada, you must qualify for M.D. before you can practice psychiatry) And tells us “go in peace for your faith has made you whole, your sins are forgiven. Yes, the Cross is still supreme sign God and Jesus care for the lost sheep, the wayward prodigal son.

And the Cross is material sign of the flesh and blood righteous Jesus who long ago imprinted his care and concern upon our history, especially for the poor and marginalized. And in his quest for justice mounted fierce dverbal attacks upon those who used their high religious/political positions to steal the bread out of the mouths of those half-dead of starvation including their children. Jesus even went for the graphical display of overturning the tables of the Temple money changers who had turned God’s house into a den of thieves! All this made the Cross inevitable. And while I highly doubt Jesus ever saw his death as predetermined on a cross I’m sure he realized the risk of openly challenging the rich and powerful, especially in the seething caldron of Palestinian power plays going on under Roman occupation. Still, the courageous Jesus persisted in his message to the authorities there was a new Kingdom even now coming on earth were it would be God’s way and not the old “Rome’s way or the high way.” Meaning the Roman practice of stringing their crosses along the roads right out to the horizon.

Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus said it. And Jesus did it.

Marcus Borg recently wrote dealing with the Church’s age-old obsession with sin and forgiveness of same. For many moderns sin is not the real over-riding problem of modern life, unless you want to reduce automatically every human challenge and kink in life to sin. Say, California has another power shortage. And concerned Canadians wanting to help send them a train load of matches and candles. Thanks a lot! There are plenty of other devils besides sin – alienation, lack of meaning (what’s the point of life and evolution say the young folk. You live, sleep, eat and screw and die. Who needs it) and scarcity of real caring community. (And how about tyranny, disease and dplain old starvation.) Are not these the things that you think of when 15 year old high school students start shooting/blowing up one another?. And when politicians, everywhere, try to deal with nuclear war and nuclear terrorism, is it just the category of SIN that will suffice by way of explanation or cure?

Of course, the Cross is celebrated all the time in the Lord’s Supper. It always has meant that faith is not a “pie in the sky” matter. Rather, a sharing of bread on earth. Even the spiritual gospel, John’s, makes it clear the bread and wine are not just spiritual signs but proclaim clearly God will always nourish our bodies with real bread and wine. The Kingdom of God is a material as they come. Sometimes, the communion bread should be served up green. Just to remind the slow ones that bread is money. You know dough, give me the bread you owe me. The Kingdom of God is supremely about sharing the resources of God’s world.

So, modern theologians want to tell the world the Cross is not just about death, moral failure and an offended teed-off God out there. It’s really about the revelation of a Risen Jesus who values individuals, as if there was only one to love (Augustine) and wants to create real community = The Kingdom of God on earth.

The critics will say “This all sounds suspiciously like traditional orthodox Christian preaching.” I know. I’ve been trying to tell folk for years the trouble with Christianity is not the experience being expressed in any particular doctrine or tenet of scripture but the, often, outdated concepts and ancient, worn world view used to express it. It is obsolescent Christian concepts that are unacceptable to moderns..

More Modern Theology http://ajn11.homestead.com/index.html

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