Several weeks ago, in my role as youth minister at a church in Salem, I was surveying the mid and senior high youth about the faith questions they would like to cover in our weekly discussion sessions. Our time together was coming to an end, when two of the young women approached me and asked a great question. “If Jesus died for our sins, if Jesus suffered for us, then does that mean we do not have to sacrifice for our faith?”
A thought flashed through my head, “Aha, the doctrine of substitutionary atonement.” Thankfully the words that came out of my mouth were in common English not theological jargon.
These young women asked a question that many Christians ask. Christians do not all agree on the meaning of the death, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. Even the phrase, “Christ died for our sins,” is interpreted in many different ways.
The passion story in the gospel of John is significantly different from the other three gospels. For one thing it portrays Jesus as the Passover lamb. The story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet does not take place on the evening that the Passover meal was shared, but is timed so that Jesus’ death on the cross coincides with the traditional timing of the ritual sacrifice of the lamb for the ritual reenactment of Passover.
The Revised Common Lectionary ties the reading from Exodus to John’s account of the last evening with his disciples. In John’s gospel, Jesus does not recite the words we hear earlier from 1 Corinthians 11, that have become the basis for the Holy Communion liturgy. The reading from the Hebrew Bible book of Exodus helps connect the gospel of John’s portrayal of Jesus as the new passover lamb with the sacrifice of lambs that protected the Egyptian children from the last plague God sent to release the Israelite’s from captivity.
John portrays Jesus as the new Passover lamb.
Hundreds of years after the death of Christ, church fathers developed the theory of substitutionary atonement. Somehow, they came to a conclusion that Jesus had to die to rescue fallen sinful humanity from our sins. We have hymns, like “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus”, and “The Old Rugged Cross” that illustrate the doctrine of substitutionary atonement.
Gerry:
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Or
On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.
I sang these hymns when I was young, but I don’t think I ever really understood what they were saying. Now I understand. Now I have trouble singing these hymns because that it is a huge leap for me to go from thinking of Jesus as a passover lamb, who died so that we might have access to eternal life; and believing Jesus had to die to wash away our sins. What kind of God would choose to crucify his son, the dearest and best, so that a world of lost sinners could be saved? The God I believe in is a loving God, not an abusive father. The Passover Lamb was not sacrificed to atone for the sins of the Israelite’s. The lamb was sacrificed to protect their children from death.
So what can we learn from John’s story of the last night of Jesus’ life.
Let’s take a closer look at the text.
After Jesus washed the feet of all of his disciples, he instructed them that they should do the same for each other as he has just done. Then in John 13: 21, Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.” When Jesus washed his disciples feet, Judas was still there. Jesus washed the feet of Judas, who would betray him, as well as Peter, who would deny him.
The betrayal of Jesus by Judas, and the denial and abandonment of Jesus by the rest of his disciples, is an important part of John’s story. Jesus was betrayed, denied, and abandoned by those he loved, and he made the journey to the cross alone. None of his disciples were willing to take up their cross and follow him, and he knew that was what would happen.
In what ways are we like the disciples?
Gerry:
Is it I Lord?
Is it I who betrays,
Who denies,
Who sleeps when you say “stay awake?”
Who flees when there is danger?
Is it I Lord?
Who calls you Lord and then doesn’t do what you say:
Who builds on sand?
Is it I Lord?
Lord, have mercy.
There’s Judas on your left,
In the specially trusted, specially honored place,
receiving the privileged sandwich . . .
Doesn’t make any difference though,
Doe is Lord?
Deliver me from being so determined,
So sure I’m right, so set in my ways,
That when I’m wrong
You cannot change my mind.
Help me to open my mind,
As well as my heart, to you.
(a reading from Praying the Passion by Ken Taylor)
Have you ever been betrayed by someone you really loved? Have you ever been falsely accused and punished, or victimized, to bring peace and order to a community or group? Perhaps a workplace, or a social organization, your family, or maybe even your church. There is a natural human tendency to find a scapegoat to blame our problems on. Scapegoats have been a part of the human story since before the New Testament was written.
Right now, immigrants are scapegoats. Many in our country blame immigrants for loss of jobs, or our economic woes. The ethnic and racial profiling that comes with home-land security is another example of scapegoating. Our need to find a scapegoat is mostly unconscious. God does not demand the ritual sacrifice of Jesus, his own beloved son. In the Holy Week story in all four gospels, the Roman Empire and Jewish elite, the Temple priests and scribes, demanded Jesus’ death. The high priest Caiaphas spoke of the need for a scapegoat, “It is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” Caiaphas and other religious leaders planned a plotted how they would capture Jesus when he was not surrounded by a crowd of his followers. (John 11: 50)
Jesus had a perfect understanding of human nature. He knew the consequences of leading a movement for the liberation of the common people and peasants from their captivity to the Roman Empire and the Jewish elite. Jesus predicted his death by crucifixion and warned his disciples of the cost of following him. He knew that insurrection, even his nonviolent peaceful demonstrations against the Empire, was a crime punished by death on the cross. In fact, crucifixion was a death sentence reserved for enemies of the Roman Empire.
Jesus also knew that his disciples were not ready to love each other, or him, in the way that he loved them. On the night before he was betrayed, Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment, “Love one another; as I have loved you, so you are to love one another. If there is this love among you, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.” (John 13: 34-35).
What kind of love did Jesus model for his disciples? It is not that difficult to wash each other’s feet. It is a more difficult to be a servant leader, to place our own needs aside and care for the needs of those we are leading. On a superficial level, we are able to love one another.
Yet, Jesus washed the feet of Judas, and Peter. Before they even sinned against him, he extended grace and forgivenss. He took off his robe, got down on his knees, and washed their dirty feet. He washed their feet, so that they might have a share with him, in his resurrection.
Jesus was willing to face the cross alone. He was willing to lay down his life for his mission. He was willing to give his life, as the final scapegoat. Through his death and resurrection, God’s message would be clear. Love triumphs over fear. Love triumphs over our evil human tendencies. Love triumphs over betrayal, and injustice. In the end, God is love, and the love of God defeats even death.
On the cross, Jesus utters these words, “Father, forgive them: they do not know what they are doing.”
Gerry:
Crucified Lord,
They say you kept on praying, “Father forgive them.”
Was it like a mantra, constantly repeated,
Gritting your teeth against the pain of hammered nails?
Your first crucified “word” stresses that forgiveness is essential.
And you told us so often:
That forgiveness must be unlimited,
Or else it will turn back into violence
(70 times 7 times, you said)
Only by forgiveness
Can we live together in peace or in harmony with God.
Crucified Lord,
We never know what we’re doing!
We don’t realize how much hurt we add
To the web of the world’s need and pain:
Have mercy upon us and forgive us.
Forgive my sins, Lord – all my sins.
Here, at the foot of the Cross,
Let your forgiving word
Reach to the very heart of me.
(From New World, by Alan Dale)
I wish the two young women from my youth group were here tonight. I would tell them that Jesus sacrificed his life for us. Jesus loved the people so much that he forgave them, even though he knew they would betray and abandon him. Jesus loves them that much, too. Yet, Jesus also left us with a very challenging commandment. We are to love each other with sacrificial love. We are called to forgive. We are called to stand up against evil and take up our crosses and follow Jesus in the very costly mission of seeking God’s kingdom on earth. Forgiveness is free. Grace is freely given, but truly being a follower or disciple of Jesus is costly indeed.
Tonight we celebrate Holy Communion. We come to the Lord’s table not because we are worthy, but because we are hungry for forgiveness. We share the cup, not because Jesus died to erase the sins of humanity, but because Jesus died to prove that love conquers sin. When we partake of the bread of life, and cup of the new covenant, we are forgiven for what we have done, even unknowingly. When we come to the table, Jesus asks us to love one another as he loves us, forgiving all who have betrayed us, or harmed us, or offended us. We are asked to forgive as our Savior has forgiven us, and to love each other as our Savior has loved us.
Amen
