God Desires Not Our Innocence, But Our Love

Jesus Dies, oil on panel, 14" x 18", 2004
 The Passion of Christ (For Barbara Crafton)
Doug Blanchard http://on.fb.me/11M5CRU

PALM/PASSION SUNDAY YEAR C 2013

Jesus died for our sins?
Readings:  Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; and Luke 22:14-23:56

as preached by The Reverend Mary Foulke

The Church of Saint Luke in the Fields

Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City

Innocence is a central theme in Luke's narrative of the Passion, Pilate is innocent, Herod is innocent, Jesus is innocent, there is a lot of "it's not my fault." The claim to innocence is also a visceral human response to just about any accusation whether the charge is merited or not, whether it is small - why didn't you take out the trash? - or large - global poverty is just too overwhelming, what can I do, it's not my fault. But when we hear the passion story we know, almost assuredly, that it is our fault. Today, however, I would like to suggest that fault is not actually a question that Jesus has ever been interested in.

I recently spoke with a colleague about how we as Christians are often heard to say, "Jesus died for our sins," without any understanding about what that might mean. In the past it has been an essential step of the sacrificial model, we were bad, a blood sacrifice was made, now we're saved even though we don't deserve it. This is way of thinking is primitive, it is a problematic interpretation of the events of Jesus' death. Too easily it can turn into a scapegoat model; for example, the legacy of anti-Jewish violence and persecution by Christians was and is a blatant attempt to shift blame, to hold someone else responsible, to offer another blood sacrifice as we try to purge our own shame. Our history of horrifying violence and persecution of others in the name of Jesus shows us just how un-redemptive the scapegoat theory is.
The problem is that we focus on the blood and violence as redemptive rather than the love. Because our bad behavior is only too clear, we focus on the suffering as "what we deserve," and we continue to seek those to blame. Yet another stream of scholarship would hold the Roman authorities to account for the abuses of Empire. It is not that there is no truth in this theory, it seems to me that the truth is complex, and ultimately not really the point for understanding our relationship with God in Christ.

Jesus' response to all people, especially those identified as "bad" or "at fault," was engagement. He didn't seem to dwell on the truth or falsity of sin, rather he invited them to join or rejoin community, to live in relationship with others. He didn't use the language of deserving or un-deserving, good or bad - well except that time that he referred to the Canaanite woman as a dog, but then he took it back. You might remember the story of Jesus travelling outside Jewish territory when a Canaanite woman asked him for healing for her daughter. Jesus said, "I have come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." But she challenged him, saying "yet even the dogs can eat the crumbs under the Master's table." Jesus said to her, "you have great faith," and healed her daughter because she claimed relationship and community even when he had denied it.

In Jesus' last days he repeatedly was invited to deny his relationships with God and with others, but he did not. It was his disciples who lost heart, lost faith, and fled. Jesus love for his disciples, his unwillingness to blame them for even such obvious betrayal, was God redemptive invitation to relationship. Jesus was frustrated, angry, possibly scared (if this is not too heretical), certainly grief stricken, but he did not deny them.

Relationships take courage. Relationships call us to let go of the need to be right, they invite us to lose the need to win, relationships encourage us to release the need to blame and shame others or ourselves. Relationship with God and with other people are not an "anything goes" realm, they are an "everyone is deserving" realm. Everyone needs and deserves love and freedom, and the place where those needs are met is the kingdom of God. What if the disciples had been more courageous and had not abandoned Jesus? What if Christians had the strength to acknowledge and embrace our Jewish origins without the need to supersede them? In our nation, what if white people were to choose to be in relationship with people of color rather than trying to deny racism or our culpability in it or wallowing in isolated guilt? (not my fault!) What if we thought there was enough love and freedom for there to be more than two distinct genders, more than one way to understand ability, more than one way to learn or to think or to be human. What if we were not so afraid of it being our fault, what if we thought we deserved love and freedom? What if we contemplated God's will to be that all of creation, even us, even those we consider undeserving, what if we all claimed and celebrated love and freedom? Jesus died for our sins. Jesus died rather than turn away from relationship with us. Jesus also left us a sign of hope, an ongoing reminder of what we deserve in the Eucharist, a celebration of the kingdom of God, a tangible meal of courage and love where all are welcome and all receive what we need, where we are all part of the body of love. This week let us ponder God's desire for us, to know that it is not a desire for our innocence but for our love.

Amen.