Last week, I began to explore the critique of Richard Rohr by Alisa Childers, who is strongly opposite to the Christianity expressed in Richard Rohr’s writings. The blog may be found at https://www.alisachilders.com/blog/heres-why-christians-should-avoid-the-teachings-of-richard-rohr in case you wish to read it. Childers is a self-described Christian fundamentalist who believes “scriptures are internally coherent, without error, and infallible.” I critiqued that view of scripture; this week I want to explore the theology of substitutionary atonement – that understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross which is affirmed by Childers and is seen as a foundational belief by fundamentalist Christians among others.
Childers’ understanding of Jesus’ sacrifice is
in line with what she maintains is a traditional one, “Historically, Christians
have believed Jesus died on the cross for our sins, taking our deserved
punishment upon himself.” She maintains
that Richard Rohr holds what she implies is a heretical theological
understanding of substitutionary atonement and quotes Rohr to prove her point:
I believe that Jesus’ death on the cross is a revelation of the infinite
and participatory love of God, not some bloody payment required by God’s
offended justice to rectify the problem of sin. Such a story line is way too
small and problem-oriented.
Although Childers does
not site the source of this quote or others by Rohr, this certainly is my
understanding of Rohr’s theology of the crucifixion. Let me, then, try and unpack what I
understand as the problem with the theology of substitutionary atonement which Rohr
is addressing and which, to be clear, I agree with.
To say that Jesus died for our sins is, for me,
true. However, what follows from
this? To maintain that the only way that
God the Father could redeem us was through condemning his only begotten son to
a horrible death is, for me, put limits on a God of unlimited
possibilities. An all-loving God would
not do that unless God had no other options.
God, who is beyond limits would not have required this of his beloved son - what loving father would?
What then is a different understanding of why Jesus
made that journey to Jerusalem and what he knew would be the consequences of
that act as he states in the Gospel of Matthew, “From that time on, Jesus began
to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering
at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on
the third day be raised.” Jesus knew
fully what he was called to do and be if he was to fully live out who he was as
the only begotten son of God the Father.
To be true to that he must go to Jerusalem knowing full-well what the consequences
of that would be. To do other than that
would be to surrender to the temptation which Satan offered him in the
wilderness. Jesus made clear in his
rebuke of Peter which directly followed his declaration noted above, “Get behind me, Satan!
You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine
things but on human things.” He would
not yield to the temptation offered by Satan to avoid the awful road ahead and
go a different path and deny who he was.
To be true to himself as the incarnate God-image and yet fully human, he
must go to Jerusalem and accept what would inevitably follow.
If that is what Jesus did, how is it dying for our
sins? Jesus showed us and is the perfect
model of what it means to pick up our cross and follow him. To do otherwise is to yield to the
temptations offered by Satan in which we want to turn stones into bread to feed
our earthly desires, or to tempt God by demanding proof of God’s power and
favour, or to succumb to the terrible temptation of earthly power in whatever
form it takes for each of us. To pick up
our cross as Jesus did is to be certain that we will be crucified by this world
in small and large ways. To do other is
to fall into sin. However, because to
the willing sacrifice of Jesus we are assured of forgiveness. That is the forgiveness offered to us by
sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Blessings on your journey wherever it takes you.
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