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Rev. G. Scott Turnbrook – March 29th, 2009 – www.dluc.ca –
Mark 15:1-33

Did Jesus have to die? The answer may seem self-evident. We gather this morning focusing on the Friday in Holy Week – a day Greek Christians call “the Holy and Great Friday” a day the German Christians call “Sorrowful Friday” others call “Holy Friday”, a day once called “God’s Friday” and commonly in North America called “Good Friday”. And we ask ‘Did Jesus have to die?’

Almost one millennia ago, St. Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, published a book that sought to answer this very question. Anselm’s thesis would shape theological thinking over the coming centuries and would lay the foundations for the beliefs and practices of many of our modern day churches. His argument followed a legal framework as an understanding to humankind’s relationship with God. It begins with a belief in the inherent sinful nature of humankind. By virtue of our lineage from Adam and Eve (the ones who committed the first sin – that of disobeying God and eating the fruit from the forbidden tree) we are sinful creatures. Anselm argues that this inheritance, our human sin, is a crime against God and therefore, it requires punishment. How would the debt be paid? It would be paid through the offering of a sacrifice. In order for God to forgive the sin of human wickedness, a substitutionary sacrifice must be offered. The problem; however, would be finding a suitable sacrifice. If all humankind is sinful, then no one would be adequate as they would be merely dying for their own sin. Thus, the one chosen as the sacrifice must not be a sinner – they must be a perfect human being. To solve this dilemma, God provided Jesus – in Anselm’s words “perfect, spotless and without blemish” - without sin. In Jesus’ sacrifice upon the cross, Anselm argues, the debt is satisfied, the price is paid. And the basis for humankind’s full relationship with God is fulfilled through Jesus’ sacrifice. To the question ‘did Jesus have to die?’ Anselm answers “yes”. Jesus needed to be sacrificed and killed in order for us to have a full and deep relationship with God.

If you are feeling a little uncomfortable with Anselm’s thesis, I suspect that you are not alone. Good Friday is a day that is a tremendous challenge for churches to explore. In my view, the biggest challenge is exposure to this day. The church places Good Friday on one of the lowest attendance days of worship – on the Friday before Easter. With jam-packed schedules, the majority of Christians do not attend church through Holy Week. They attend church on Palm Sunday – and consider the King’s welcome Jesus receives as he enters Jerusalem. They attend church on Easter Sunday as people are embraced by the mystery of the empty tomb, the grace of God, and God’s triumphant welcome to Jesus. But the days between Palm Sunday and Easter are generally not explored by the church community. A recent study reported that 90% of Christians do not explore these days within their church community. This was the reason I wanted to focus our Lenten season on this often-unexamined week. This morning is our chance to explore this often-unexplored day of Jesus’ death.

So let us continue to critically examine Holy Friday. Many of us are feeling uncomfortable with the presuppositions that Anselm makes in his explanation of Jesus’ death. I am certainly one of them. Let us start with Anselm’s assumptions of the nature of humankind. In Anselm’s thesis, he believes that all humankind is born sinful and wicked. As such, no person could serve as an acceptable sacrifice to God. I have always had a hard time believing that statement. To hold a newborn child and see them filled with sin is unfathomable to me. To see a child being baptized and claim they have already fallen from God’s favour is not in line with the Gracious God I worship. People are not born sinful. Let us continue with Anselm’s notion of God. The God I worship and find life in does not demand sacrifice in order to be appeased. The God I worship is a God of life; a God who brings life in all of its abundance. Among the abundance that we have been endowed, this God gave free-will. Evil and pain and sin are a result of the free will that people exercise. Sin is not our birthright. Sin is the result of poor choices that are made. And God weeps over the pain, brokenness, and sin that is alive in the world. We have come a long way from the metaphorical Garden of Adam and Eve; however, our position in the world today is not the result of our being their descendants. Finally, we should consider the type of God suggested in this theory who would send their own child to die. To subscribe to Anselm’s theory of substitutionary sacrifice, we must understand God as sending Jesus – God’s own Son – as substitute to die sacrificially in our place. It is impossible for me to reconcile a faith in a benevolent – an all-loving God with this action. Such an action is one of an angry, vengeful, wicked God. This is not the God I know and worship. If we view God as the source of divine love and compassion then there is a profound disconnect here. In short, I cannot subscribe to this view of substitutionary sacrifice as the God I worship would never require the death of their own child, would not create us with filled with sin, and finally would not demand sacrifice in order to be appeased.

So then, the question ‘did Jesus have to die?’ remains unanswered so far. I believe that the answer is still “yes”. Yes, Jesus did have to die. The reason for Jesus’ death is quite different from St. Anselm’s. To quote the authors of our Lenten study text: “Jesus did not have to die for the sins of the world. Jesus had to die because of the sins of the world ”There is a big difference between those two words “for” and “because”. Jesus’ death was not “for” the sins of the world. It was not an appeasement over the sinful world that rules. His death was “because” the world is the way it is. And Jesus’ actions placed him on a collision course with the domination systems of Roman Imperialism.

Jesus had to die because of Sunday. He marched into Jerusalem claiming he was the new King. While Pilate marched in with the imperial troops from the south, Jesus marched in from the north providing a polar opposite to the ways of domination and oppression of Rome. Jesus had to die because of Monday. His first action in Jerusalem upon arrival was to oppose the temple authorities. His outburst essentially shut down the temple. He exposed the temple priests for what they were – instruments of Roman control. He foretold the destruction of the temple and metaphorically showed that it must be dismantled and rebuilt. He continued through the week systematically opposing the Kingdom of Rome’s by offering the Kingdom of God’s ways of humility, kindness and peace. In the end, Jesus had to die because of his passion. His passion for the Kingdom of God that brought him to Jerusalem; his passion for the Kingdom of God that animated his life; his passion for the Kingdom of God that threatened the Roman ways of domination. It was Jesus’ passion for the Kingdom of God that led to his inevitable death.

As followers of Jesus, we are embraced by Jesus’ death. It is a critical part of our faith story. But what does it mean to us today? What does it require of us? I recall last year’s Vancouver Sun the day before Easter. They had a large full-colour picture of a man being voluntarily being crucified upon a cross. Nails had pierced this man’s skin as he graphically hung upon that cross. My heart sunk as I considered what message this sent to Christians and spiritual seekers about our faith. Our faith does not call us to die upon the cross as Jesus did. Our faith does, however, call us to live in ways that lead to sacrifice, suffering and discomfort. As a church, we paid a tremendous sacrifice for choosing to ordain women in 1936. In 1988, we continued to pay a price when we chose to ordain gay and lesbian people. Other churches later followed. If we think back throughout history, faithful decisions come at a cost. As a church, we did not grow in business terms – our market share dropped, it hurt us in terms of membership and finances. Our growth; however, came in spiritual and ethical terms. We came closer to being the church guided by the Kingdom of God!

In our own day to day living, our passions, like Jesus passions yearn to lead us as we navigate through the myriad of decisions we must make. How will we choose to spend our time, our talent, and our treasure? What products will we buy? What charities will we support? What issues are important to consider as we vote? Who we will include in our circles and networks? What values and morals will we teach our children and grandchildren? In the end, the Christian life calls us to die to the ways of the world – the ways that allow domination, hierarchy and oppression to take seed and grow. As Jesus died a physical death at hands of oppression, we die a symbolic death by turning away from those forces of oppression and rising again to the ways of the Kingdom of God. We symbolically die as we make choices that call us to sacrifice, forgo and sometimes, to downright suffer. For this is the outcome of the passion of the Christian faith. And this is our call on a Holy Friday that only God’s Kingdom could transform to a Friday that we call “good”.

May it be so.

Amen.