October 30 - In the Cross is Freedom

 October 30 – In the Cross is Freedom

Mark 10:32-45

32 They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way. The disciples were baffled by this move, while the other followers were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside once more, Jesus began to tell them what was going to happen. 33 “We are on our way up to Jerusalem, where the Promised One will be handed over to the chief priests and the religious scholars. Then the Promised One will be condemned to death and handed over to the Gentiles 34 to be mocked, spat upon, flogged and finally killed. Three days later the Promised one will rise.” 35 Zebedee’s children James and John approached Jesus. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to grant our request.” 36 “What is it?” Jesus asked. 37 They replied, “See to it that we sit next to you, one at your right and one at your left, when you come into your glory.”

  38 Jesus told them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup I will drink or be baptized in the same baptism as I?” 39 “We can,” they replied. Jesus said in response, “From the cup I drink of, you will drink; the baptism I am immersed in, you will share. 40 But as for sitting at my right or my left, that is not mine to give; it is for those to whom it has been reserved.” 41 The other ten, on hearing this, became indignant at James and John. 42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know how among the Gentiles those who exercise authority are domineering and arrogant; those ‘great ones’ know how to make their own importance felt. 43 But it can’t be like that with you. Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest; 44 whoever wants to rank first among you must serve the needs of all. 45 The Promised One has come not to be served, but to serve—to give one life in ransom for the many.”

What does it mean to die and rise? If being a Christian were just about living like Jesus, helping the poor, and loving each other we would all find it so much easier. But the living like Jesus also means dying like Jesus. We cannot be Christians and ignore that Jesus was crucified. Our particular challenge as progressive Christians is to find a way to understand Jesus’ death that is not morally or theologically reprehensible. And then to share that understanding.

Let me start with what I believe, or actually what I don’t believe. I don’t believe in a God whose anger has to be appeased with blood. I don’t believe in a cosmic system whereby a sinless sacrifice is required to expiate the sins of the world. I don’t believe that God wanted Jesus to die, or sent Jesus to die, or in any way planned that Jesus’ death was required to re-establish right relations with us. I believe that Jesus lived fully in God’s presence, as fully as humanly possible. Being fully open to God, that means that Jesus could not respond to violence with violence. Like Gandhi and MLK after him, Jesus faced the systems of violence with love and non-violence and he suffered for it. Jesus’ trust in God and hope that the world could be transformed by love allowed him to face the cross. The cross becomes our symbol that the powers of violence and oppression will try to stop us, but there is always an Easter after Good Friday.

Jesus’ sense of his impending execution seems to point in a couple of directions. First, he must have been politically astute. He knew that the direction he was leading his followers in would take him into conflict with the powers-that-be (both governmental and religious). Secondly, that his path, the road to Jerusalem and the cross, was a completely different way of living than playing the world’s game. The world tells us that only the strong survive, might makes right, the bigger the better. Jesus said the first will be last, and the greatest will be the servant of all. His way of living turns the rules of the world’s game upside down. Jesus’ Way of salvation takes the focus off of saving ourselves and onto serving others.

The last line in the scripture needs some examination. Common, conservative theology uses this verse as a proof-text to support their assertion that Jesus’ life was the price required by God to save us from our sins. But that reads modern assumptions back onto the text. “The Promised One has come not to be served, but to serve—to give one life in ransom for the many.” To our modern ears and eyes, the word “ransom” sounds like the money given to kidnappers to secure the return of a captive. The theological thought here is that God is holding the life of the world for ransom, and Jesus’ life is the pay-off. But that is not what is described here at all. Borg tells us that in the first century, “ransom” was the price required to buy a slave’s freedom. That Jesus’s death is described as a ransom points to liberation, to freedom. Jesus sets us free from that which enslaves us. The wordplay here is clearer when we know that where many English translators soften the original language and use the word, “servant”. Jesus did not call his followers to be servants of all (as quoted in the translation above), but more accurately to be slaves of all. And yet even as we are to be slaves, in Jesus’ death the slaves are free. 

Moreover, to simply focus on Jesus’ death leaves half of the equation unspoken. It is always death and resurrection. Jesus tells his followers not only that he will die, but that God will raise him. Whether or not you see this as a prediction of bodily resurrection, it says nonetheless that death, even Jesus’ death is not the end but actually a new beginning. It heralds a new life, a new world, freed the chains of the past and open to a new hope.

This is the crux (no pun intended, or maybe it is!) for Reconstructing Hope in our world today. Those for whom life is difficult (the poor, the oppressed, women, etc.) are told that “that’s the way the world is.” The subtext to that message is, not is that the way the world is, but it always has been and always will be. When we capitulate to the powers that be, we are trapped in that hierarchical world-view (with them on top). We are trapped, enslaved if you will. Who can deliver us from that slavery? Not politicians, not generals, not CEO’s. Oddly enough, a peasant from an ancient age. The death and resurrection of Jesus opens for us a new vision and a new hope. The world doesn’t have to be the way it is. It can be better. In the cross is freedom, freedom from the slavery to hopelessness.

Part of our obligation as progressive Christians is to find ways of sharing that freedom with those for whom the substitutionary atonement models feel like chains and fetters. We need to share the ways we are freed. Which then begs the question, can we articulate the ways that we experience freedom in Christ? In what ways are we willing to confront the status quo for the sake of the Kin-dom quo? What life are we daring to suffer and give up to transform God’s Creation? The cross beckons to make our faith visible, tangible, material. The cross stands in the midst of a dying world to herald that God’s Kin-dom is at hand.

Good News: The cross is never the end, it leads to resurrection.

Subject: We can still claim the cross as a symbol of hope.

Igniting Desire: The desire for freedom: live-giving, hope-giving freedom.