The Creed 3. The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus

the religion of the crucified Jesus may have seemed a bad joke.
- First pictorial representation of crucified Jesus: a caricature on the wall in a 3rd century imperial residence of a suffering figure on the cross, with an ass's head, and note "Alexamenos worships his God."

First images of the cross as a symbol came after Constantine

Expressions of suffering avoided
Jesus portrayed as victor or in prayer

Early Renaissance:

suffering of Christ on the cross first depicted

2.2. What does taking up one's cross mean?

does not mean:

accepting supervision
giving in
surrendering
become subservient
humbling oneself
accepting repression

means:

taking up the cross of one's own life. Includes
- acceptance of self
- going one's way
  - in the risk of one own situation
  - in the midst of the uncertainty of one's own future

3. How did Jesus live?

To understand why Jesus had to die, and die the death he did, we must understand how he lived

The death of Jesus cannot be separated from his message and person

he was a layperson
not a theologian
not a priest
apostles were from the common people

3.1. Was Jesus a Political Revolutionary?

Jesus was fearless

but:

no preacher of violence
- Sermon on the Mount
- at his arrest Matthew 26:52
not a Zionist:
- Matthew 22:21: Render to Caesar what is Caesar's
- ate dinner with the worse collaborators with the occupying power (tax collectors)
- spoke well of the national enemies, the Samaritans
- did not promote class struggle
- did not wish to abolish the law for the sake of revolution

3.2. Was Jesus an Ascetic and Monk?

there were Jewish monks at the time of Jesus who lived in the monastery of Qumran by the dead sea

there was also a pious group called the Essenes who lived apart the world in villages

however:

Jesus lived publically
not interested in external purity
did not preach division
not an ascetic
- not a zealot for the law
- ate and drank with followers, went to banquets
- marriage did not make people unclean
- renunciation of all material possessions was not necessary for discipleship
did not lay down religious rules
- no regular pious practices
- no long prayers
- habits, uniforms
- no ritual baths

3.3. Was Jesus a Pious Pharisee?

Pharisee may have been unfairly represented in the gospels because of their later conflict with early Christianity

Pharisee = "the separated"

concern: actualize the Torah as the obligatory word of God
took God's cause with great seriousness
taught "joy in the law"
- take God's commandments with unconditional seriousness
- observe God's commandments with scrupulous exactitude

Jesus had much in common with Pharisees:

lives among the people
taught in synagogues
ate and drank with them
most of the verses of the Sermon on the Mount have rabbinic parallels
authority of Moses never in question
like them, wanted to fulfill the Torah
- but: nothing can be read into the law the contradicts God's will: the well-being of human beings

compared to Pharisee:

no pride in his achievements
no pride in his own righteousness
no contempt for the common people who did not know the law
no exclusion of the unclean and sinners
no doctrine of retribution
613 commandments and prohibitions not important
remarkable openness and laxity

3.4. In Whose Name Did Jesus Speak?

Jesus preached on the basis of an experience and union and immediacy with God

what is remarkable is:

nowhere does Jesus give grounds for his claims
assumes the authority to proclaims God's will and God's cause without appealing to a higher authority

4. Who is to blame for Jesus' death?

4.1. Trial of Jesus before the Jewish Authorities

4.1.1. Background of Trial

much uncertainty
may have been a committee composed mostly of Sadducees rather than the full Sanhedrin
Pharisees are not mentioned
body may have resolved only to hand Jesus over to the Romans rather than pass a death sentence

4.1.2. Charges

mostly unspecified in the gospels
only the charge specifically mentioned is the rebuilding of the temple

one may guess concerns were Jesus':

radical criticism of the traditional practice of many pious Jews
arrogant protest against the trading in the temple
provocative willingness to question Torah and the law, particularly Sabbath, fasting and cleanliness
scandalous solidarity with law-breakers
criticism of ruling groups

4.2. Roman trial and sentence

Jesus was handed over the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate and crucified in accordance with Roman practice.
- Pilate: Governor of Judea 26-36 AD
Charge on the cross: King of Jews
- To Romans:
  - assumption of a royal title
  - an infringement of Roman majesty
  - high treason
- Thus the trial of Jesus was a transformation of the Jewish charge, relating to religious transgressions, into the political charge of high treason

4.3. So who is to blame?

not the Jews. The Jewish as a whole had not rejected Jesus
not the Romans
but particular Jewish and Roman authorities who were entangled in the case in their own way

4.4. Where would we have stood?

Our questions should be:

are we still crucifying Jesus by our behavior
where we would have stood at that time. With:
- Pontius Pilate?
- Annas and Caiaphas?
- Peter?
- the Roman soldiers (orders are orders)?
- women at Jesus side

5. Why did Jesus have to die? Classical theories of redemption

from Alister E. McGrath. Christian Theology

5.1. The Cross as Victory

The cross was a ransom for sinners that secured victory over the devil for humanity

just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many (NRSV)

-- Matt 20:28

For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many (NRSV)

-- Mark 10:45

...who gave himself a ransom for all (NRSV)"

-- 1 Tim 2:6

A ransom to who?

To the Devil: Gregory of Nyssa:

"Fishhook theory"

the devil had acquired rights over fallen humanity
humanity could be released from the devils power only if the devil exceeded his authority
Jesus, a sinless person is sent into the world
The devil tries to claim him and thus exceeds rights
- Jesus humanity: the bait.
- Jesus' divinity: the hook

5.2. The Cross as a Means of Forgiveness

Anselm of Canterbury "satisfaction theory"

Jesus' death provided satisfaction for God's violated honor, God's sense of justice because humanity did not pay full liege to their Lord
pays back to God the debt of obedience humanity owes

Calvin

Jesus bears the infinite wrath of God against sin

5.3. The Cross as Sacrifice

Jesus death the perfect sacrifice, the paschal lamb

"has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself"

-- Hebrews 9:26

"We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all

-- Hebrews 10:10

5.4. The Cross as Moral Example

Public demonstration of the love of God: Abelard: "example theory"

give the human race a new example of loving self-giving
moves us to a new level of compassion and repentance

6. A Crucified God? A Suffering God?

6.1. The Cross as Suffering God. The Death of God

Post WWII:

Only a suffering God, a crucified God can help us:

God can give meaning and dignity to human suffering because God is also in pain and suffers
The cross is an event between the Father and the Son. The Son suffers the pain and death of the cross; the Father gives up and suffers the loss of his Son.
- through the death of the Son, God became involved in "perishability", "transience" "transitoriness"
- the cross represents God's self-identification with the transitory world of suffering

6.2. The Cross as Suffering Humanity in the Distress of Death

Küng:

must not level down God's transcendence
must not accept a "weak God" who "has to torture himself to resurrection by suffering and death if he is not to suffer eternally."

Küng: "the cross is not the symbol of the 'suffering', 'screaming God', indeed 'the symbol of God suffering the distress of death', but the symbol of humanity suffering the distress of death."

7. A test case for the question of theodicy: God in Auschwitz?

7.1. Was God in Auschwitz?

if God exists, the God was also in Auschwitz?

Yes!

But how could a good and gracious God have been in Auschwitz without preventing Auschwitz?

7.2. Some Explanations for Theodicy

from Alister McGrath. Christian Theology

theodicy = the justification of the goodness of God in the face of the presence of evil in the world

7.2.1. Irenaeus

Greek patristic thought:

humans are created with capacities for maturity which require contact and experience of good and evil world = "vale of soul-making" (John Keats)
Good and evil are thus necessary presences in the world.

Problems:

appears to lend dignity to evil
what of that evil that rather than advancing human growth destroys those humans (Hiroshima, Auschwitz)

7.2.2. Augustine

was fascinated as a young man by Gnosticism and Manichaeism, which taught the reason for evil was:

matter was evil, created by a demigod from pre-existant matter
salvation = transfer human beings from matter world to spiritual realm

Augustine:

all creation is the work of God
evil came into the world because humanity chose evil
- how did evil come to be an option to choose?
  - Satan, a fallen angel originally created good, tempted Adam and Eve

7.2.3. Abandon God's Ominipotence

Process Theology:

God has chosen not to coerce, but only to persuade

Popular book "When Bad Things Happen to Good People"

abandons the notion of God's omnipotence

But God robbed of all power would cease to be God.

7.3. Theology of Silence

theology of silence: answer of some Jewish theologians to question of justification of God in face of all suffering:

"If I were to know him, I would be him" (old Jewish saying)
quote scripture following report of death of Aaron's two sons killed by divine fire:

"And Aaron was silent."

-- Leviticus 10:3

8. How can meaningless suffering be understood?

Küng: There is no satisfactory explanation to theodicy:

"suffering, -- excessive, innocent, meaningless suffering, both individual and collective -- cannot be understood theoretically, but can only be lived through. For Christian and Jews there is only a practical answer to the problem of theodicy

-- Küng p 91

Message from Job:

in the last resort, God is incomprehensible to human beings
human beings are given the possibility of showing trust in this God
God also respects human protest against suffering

9. What is the meaning of Jesus' death on the cross?

Outwardly:Jesus' death was meaningless, godforsaken dying.

"cross is a clear fiasco, which cannot be turned into any kind of mystery. It is an unprecedented abandonment of the one sent by God, by both human beings and by God."

-- Küng

A meaning can enter only with a belief in the resurrection of Jesus to new life through and with God.

By so believing in Jesus' resurrection, Jesus' apparently meaningless, godforsaken death on the cross becomes an invitation:

to trust in a hidden meaning in even apparently meaningless suffering
to practice endurance and persistence in this life to the end

The Creed

1. God the Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth
2. Jesus Christ, the Son of God
3. The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus
4. The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus
5. The Holy Spirit, the Church, the Communion of Saints
6. The Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Life
7. Epilogue on the Creed: Father Joe's Perspectives and Answers to Questions