Proper 8, Friday: Why did Jesus die? Pt 1.
Today's Readings:- Psalm 140,142
- 1 Samuel 13:19-14:15
- Acts 9:1-9
- Luke 23:26-31
In Samuel,there is no smith in Israel, so there are no weapons to fight the Philistines. Jonathan, one of the few with armor and weapons, goes to a Philistine camp and kills twenty or so.
In Acts, Saul seeks approval to travel and arrest followers of 'The Way' when he sees a light and hears a voice. He is blind after this, and fasts.
In Luke, Jesus is marched away, and Simon of Cyrene is given the task of carrying Jesus' cross. Women wail at this march, and Jesus stops for a chat. I find it amazing that Jesus would be allowed to stop and chat. He tells them "for the days are surely coming when they will say 'blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.' Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'fall on us' and to the hills 'cover us.'
This last bit is a quotation from Hosea, which requires a lot of research to fully understand. It's on my list of projects to look into.
Last night I heard a radio program that tried to explain Limited Atonement, one of the five points of Calvinism. I disregard atonement theology for a number of reasons, but it got me thinking about why Jesus was killed. Atonement theology states that Jesus died to wash away our sins, or make salvation possible, depending on the variety of atonement theology in question. So why did Jesus die? If it wasn't to wash away my sins, then did he have to die by execution at all? I doubt Jesus would have seen old age. Human history has shown that when one person starts talking about peace and justice in a big picture kind of way, there is a small percentage of people in power who start thinking about ways of shutting this person up. Jesus' last words in Luke, then, prove to be of extreme importance.
As I search for meaning behind these words of Jesus, I first think that Jesus is talking about punishment against Israel. Hosea, like all the prophets, discusses infidelity leading to punishment, leading to redemption, leading to reclaiming the land God promised them. Jesus seems to imply that by executing him, Israel will suffer punishments for their sins. Jesus is not saying 'Do not weep for my death, for through it you will be saved.' Jesus is saying, things are going to get a whole lot worse for Israel. Not solely because of their treatment of Jesus, but their treatment of Jesus is a cog in a wheel of systematic injustice. That is why Israel will fall.
posted by Josh English @ 12:25 PM
3 Comments:
Josh you might want to check out Scripturizer.
Dear PC: you nailed it (sorry!) on the execution of our Lord. The truth is that when we take on the powers and principalities that are behind the unholy political/commercial/religious trinity, we are marked for execution. Jesus died for our sins--you bet--specifically our sin of letting the powers dominate with their lies. Jesus is crucified afresh when his followers sell him (in the person of the "least of these") to the powers of the world.
Decon Tim,
That's an interesting observation that I hadn't realized I had made. The sin of letting corrupt people rule us politically is a bad one. I wonder how it could compare to Jesus statement of "render to Ceaser what is Ceaser's"? I believe that Christians are called to be involved in our politics, but is that what Jesus really taught? I'd like to think so, but off hand I can't think of anything He said that would confirm it. Of course, Jesus didn't live in a democracy. It wasn't even theoretically possible for him or his non-Roman disciples to hold public office.
I want to learn more about the world Jesus preached in, because I feel it is vital to understanding His message, especially the bits that don't sound normal to us 21-Century types.
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