// October 26th, 2008 // No Comments » // random
All the way
So as we imagine this story; the at-one-ment of humanity and God, we need to embrace the larger story and walk ourselves through the ongoing journey of how the church has attempted to articulate and tell this story. As we do that we’re going to end up with what is probably the most common frame on the atonement we hear today but I want to start somewhere else precisely because I want to us to take some time to walk through this concept in a new way and starting with what we are familiar with can quickly become a short circuit to exploration.
And the starting point for our exploration of this concept is in the words of Paul, one of the great thinkers and theologians of the early Christian movement. Philippians 2 is one of the great passages of the early Christian tradition. Most scholars think this may actually have been an early hymn or catechism of the fledgling faith.
In it Paul writes (or recites)
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death —
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Phil 2:6-11
What strikes me about this, in the context of this conversation, is the phrase, “obedient to death”. The word rendered “to” in this English translation is the Greek word, “mekh’-ree” and means, “as far as” or “until”. So perhaps the original Greek phrase is perhaps better rendered as, “obedient as far as death” or, “obedient even unto death”. What catches my attention here is the idea that Jesus death was not a singular choice made in a contextual vacuum. It was the result of making the right choice, and then the next right choice. He was obedient not just to die but to do the right thing all the way along even when it led to his death. Sometimes we take the posture that Jesus life was almost solely about his willingness to die. His teachings were nice, his wisdom helpful but in the end the meaning of his life was wrapped in its last moments. There is this idea that everything else in Jesus’ life was at best a precursor to the main event. Paul, here, gives us a slightly different picture with the simple idea that Jesus was obedient all the way to death. The reminder being, that the importance of Jesus’ death can’t be separated off from the rest of his life because it was the consequence of living the life God called him to. A life which begins and ends, not just with a personal decision made in a vacuum, but with the social and societal contexts and implications of all the choices and decisions he made.
(more…)
