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Death of Jesus: Part 3 of 4

// October 29th, 2008 // collected thoughts, theology

This brings us to our second major lens on the meaning of the death of Jesus

Moral Influence
CS Lewis, among others, wrote a lot about this concept I’m calling moral influence. Lewis described the very appearance of a moral objective standard as an argument for God. At the same time his belief was that this appeal to an objective moral standard could not be explained as mere instinct, because it does not always win out, nor as mere social convention, because it appears to transcend and is appealed to across cultural divides, nor as a law of nature because the very idea of morality is prescriptive for our world rather than descriptive of our world. Therefore he argued that morality, in and of itself, points us towards not only God, but his intervention into the human story. Jesus steps into that story to bring us a more full picture of what a human life can be. This divine example of humanity becomes an influence on us of unequaled proportion. In fact, Jesus demonstration in his life and in his death is so perfect, and so powerful that it has altering effect on the course of human history helping to point us towards God.

One of the ways I like to imagine this idea is to think of life on a spectrum between our two outstretched arms. Without the story of Jesus we have an imagination of what life can be that spans the distance from our right hand to the tip of our nose. This is the imagination of the range we have to aim at in life. The story of Jesus opens us up to the possibility of an expanded spectrum of humanity, a spectrum than spans the distance between our two fully outstretched arms. Where once the best we could aim for stopped halfway across the spectrum the story of Jesus opens us up to the possibility of a more than we could have imagined on our own. This shift in perspective fundamentally alters how we see ourselves and our world. It’s not just that Jesus is some great moral teacher, with some helpful ideas to think about. This is the idea that Jesus as divine, as the creator present in creation, gives us an example of what a human truly can be, and example that transcends anything we could have ever seen or understood on our own.

He saves us, by removing the limits on our limited perspective.

This leads us into another major lens that we have seen the atonement. This one comes from very early in the Christian movement, in fact it finds it roots in the words of Paul the Apostle.

Ransom Theory

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.
1 Tim 2:5-6

The basic idea being communicated here is the idea that humanity is caught in slavery to sin (and to Satan if that language is meaningful for you). We find ourselves in a situation where we simply can’t pull ourselves out of this position.

In narrative form this metaphor paints a drama to help us understand the atonement. Jesus in his death is making a deal with the devil (somewhat literally) that works like this; him for us. Essentially like a ransom. Now the term actually refers more to the idea of buying a slaves freedom than it does to Mel Gibson’s kidnapping movie of the same name, nut essentially Jesus and us swap places in his death. Now the drama isn’t over because on the third day Jesus pulls a fast one on the devil and rises from the dead, too powerful to be contained in the way we had been. Everyone lives happily ever after, expect presumably, for Satan.

If you’ve ever seen a Christian drama where the devil is celebrating as Jesus dies, it’s coming from this tradition, the idea that he never saw it coming because he was, essentially, double crossed by Jesus. Serves him right, I suppose.

Now we don’t use this metaphor as much today (for somewhat obvious reasons), although, it is still around in a strong way in more charismatic circles.

The real central idea here, communicated in this narrative, is this; that there is a part of ourselves that we can’t defeat on our own. We need help to become the person we want to be, the person we were created to be and somehow Christ, through his death, is the means through which we’re able to step past the limitations of our own story. In Christ death, in his decision to go past the limits that we would probably set for ourselves, his commitment to the right choice and then the next right choice, you and I can find the strength to make our next right choice. Even in the areas that seemed to be immoveable, or intransient, we find a measure of victory through Christ over our worst tendencies, and most difficult internal struggles, that we couldn’t have discovered on our own.

He saves us by overcoming what we couldn’t on our own.

This moves us along to the next lens

Christus Victor
This one comes to us as the major theme of the early church for the first few centuries of our development. We call it Christus Victor.

The major focus in the first few centuries of Christianity was surviving in the middle of terrible persecution. The Emperor Nero would literally tie Christains to stakes and burn them to use as torches at his parties. Domitain was the Emperor who started using the early Christians as entertainment and putting them in the Coliseum to watch them be eaten by animals. I mean this was a terrible time to be a follower of the story of Jesus. So part of the way that these early Christians talked about the death of Jesus was to express a measure of victory in death. They largely understood that they were not going to escape and that, more than likely, they would face a similar fate to their savior. So they began to take solace, in fact more than solace, they took courage and strength from the story of Jesus death. The story that Jesus had once faced death as well but had not only faced it with courage, had overcome death in his resurrection. They understood Jesus as the first –fruits of the next life and that through him, while they would face death, they would also find resurrection into the next life. In Christ death they found victory over the limitations of this life and the limitations of the immediate story they found themselves in. Historians record the idea of Christians facing death and reciting the phrases that gave them strength and courage. Christus Victor is this kind of lens on Jesus death.

He saves us by inviting us into his victory over the finality of death.