Beth’s Bits 

I recently met someone who found out that I was a minister and she began asking me some questions.  You see, she longs to grow spiritually and wants to find a community to help her along the way.  However, she has had some bad experiences with organized religion in the past.   

She said, “I would really like to go to one of your events but I can’t take all that guilty ‘because Jesus died for my sins’ stuff. Do you say that kind of stuff at Crossbridges?” 

It can be scary searching for a community of faith when all you know is that religion equals guilt and shame.  It takes an act of courage to walk into a new community and risk being let down one more time. 

One of the most frequently asked questions that I get from folks who are searching spiritually is this: Why did Jesus have to die on the cross?  Why should I worship a God who would kill his own son?  These are great questions that deserve pondering. 

My response tends to go something like this. First of all the cross is a mystery and people throughout the centuries have put their own spin on it.  Some folks look at the cross in terms of atonement.  That means that in order for us to be “at one” with God Jesus became the sacrificial lamb, the burnt offering, according to the Mosaic covenant, who takes away the sins of the world.  We read this kind of theology in some of the Gospels.

But many scholars say that this is just one of many ways to look at the cross. 

Another is to follow the words of St. Paul who looked forward to a new and better covenant prophesied by Jeremiah.  “I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people… and they shall all know me… and I will remember their sins no more.” 

In other words, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection show us the way to our own spiritual transformation.  This involves four movements -- surrender, detachment, compassion and forgiveness.  The way of Jesus is the way of letting go of our ego attachments so that God’s will and not our own can have its way with us.  When this happens we are born into a new realm of being “at one” with God.  Jesus says it best, “The kingdom of God is at hand.”  “The kingdom of God is within.”  Ours is the journey of waking up to and living out of this reality. 

Christians believe that Jesus was fully human and fully God.  It was God in human form that hung on the cross saying in essence; “I love you so much that I am willing to die for you.  No matter what you do or where you go or how rotten you may feel about yourself or your life I will never forsake you.  I will go with you into whatever kind of hell you are experiencing.  Look at me. I know what it is to suffer.  I know your pain and your regrets.  I am not afraid nor will I let you walk alone.  Through the valley of the shadow of your worst fears awaits a banquet table of new life and hope.” 

Did Jesus have to die on the cross? No, but then again we would not be followers of Christ today if he hadn’t.  Thankfully, he let God’s essence flow through him to the point where he was able to let go and trust in God’s ultimate mystery of faith. “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.”