Easter and the Crucifixion of Jesus

With Easter coming up on Sunday I've been thinking a lot about Jesus' death and what he died for. I think it is often helpful in my spiritual walk at times to try and reframe some of my beliefs, not necessarily to overrule them, but to help me think of new ways a particular doctrine might be relevant.

Jesus' death is often associated with salvation for wrongs done. The question arises "why did Jesus die on the cross," and the answers come pouring in: "he took on himself the sins of the world," "he received the punishment that was due us," "he paid the debt we owed." And so it goes that the most often given answer for the reason of Jesus' death was to somehow atone for wrongs done.

Now, if you read my last blog, you know that I had a way of reframing sin as a person's hurts rather than bad behavior. This view causes us to feel empathy toward "sinners" rather than condemnation. What if we used this reframing as a way of looking at Jesus' death and resurrection. Jesus did not die to atone for sins but to bear our pains and our burdens. Jesus wasn't receiving punishment, but was taking upon himself the hurts of humankind.

We read in Isaiah 53:4 that the Messiah would "[take] up our pain and [bare] our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted." This prophetic passage even addresses that we will miss part of the point of the death of Jesus. Now, I do not deny that Jesus' death was in part done to atone for our sins. I am simply looking at an additional way his death can be viewed.

This view makes God the Father less of a cruel God who would make his son take on the punishment of the world, and more of a compassionate God that would allow his son to bear our pain and our suffering; maybe because he knows Jesus can take it.

Each one of us has a burden to bare that brings us pain. Sometimes this results in addiction, sometimes behavioral problems, and sometimes mental problems. I want all of you to know that you are good just the way you are and that God has felt our pain by suffering on the cross. By his resurrection, he showed that with him we can overcome the burdens we bare. Unlike the message we so often receive from the Christian Church, Jesus is full of love and compassion and cares about each one of us with no amount of judgment or criticism.
Blessings and happy Easter,
-Brandon

Christ Is Risen, A Core Doctrine: a Series on Christianity's Core Beliefs

Ending our series on the core doctrines of Christianity, I wanted to address what I consider to be the most important doctrine in all of Christianity, the doctrine upon which our entire faith rests: the resurrection of Jesus the Christ. We were all reminded of this doctrine yesterday, on Easter Sunday, as we went to church and our pastors preached the good news of the risen Christ. Paul goes far enough to say that Jesus' resurrection is what our entire faith hinges on. He says, "Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there (W)is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain" (I Corinthians 15:12-14). If Jesus' resurrection did not occur, then we might as well leave the faith.

But Jesus' resurrection did occur, he lived, he died, and he rose again, defeating death and giving us all hope. But I am sure that none of my Christian readers would dispute that.

I am reluctant to say that this is a much debated doctrine today, but none of the really core doctrines of Christianity are much debated. I would even venture to say that those doctrines which are core are the ones the vast majority of Christians agree on, and those that are marginal (doctrines that do not have ultimate significance for our faith) are the ones we tend to debate about.

That is why I think many of our debates, you know, the ones where we get so infuriated that we resort to name calling and online tirades, are in vain, because we are fighting so voraciously over doctrines that do not even matter, and in the long run end up turning people away from the Christ. The most important thing for us to believe is the Jesus rose from the dead; in the long run, that is all that matters.

I agree that it is fun to engage in philosophical, though provoking debate. But if we do not do it out of an attitude of love, we are running away from the greatest commandment Christ gave us: to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself.

My purpose for this series was not to look in depth at the different doctrines. It was not to provide an all inclusive look at the marginal and core doctrines of Christianity. My purpose was to get Christians to see and to understand how and why we treat other Christians the way we do. This lack of distinction we tend to have between core and marginal issues is one of the reasons we treat each other so poorly at times. We take a marginal issue and make it a core issue, and end up fighting barbarically for our side. Or we take what is a core issue and fight barbarically for it. With marginal issue, such as what is and what is not sin, we need not argue voraciously for our viewpoint. We can state our viewpoint, tell the other person that they have the right to their opinion, and when the do not agree with us, we can drop the issue. When we are arguing for a particular core doctrine, the resurrection for instance, we can do the same thing. The most important thing Jesus wanted us to practice was love. So in the name of love, in the name of Jesus, let us be more peaceable to one other, allowing others to have their own viewpoint, without feeling the need to convince them, knowing that giving up the argument does not mean we are giving up our own beliefs.
Happy Easter.
-Brandon