Why the Cross?

Isaiah 52:13—53 end       St John 19:1-37

He was despised and rejected by men;
A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
As one from whom men hide their faces he was despised,
and we esteemed him not…
He was bruised for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,
all we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned everyone to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

[Isaiah 53:3,5-6]

How can we speak adequately on such a day as this, when we remember the death of our Lord on the Cross.

Let me speak first of sacrifice, then something from experience, and finally some things we learn from from Scripture and Tradition about the Cross.

The idea of offerings and sacrifice permeate the Scriptures from the beginning to the end.

We don’t know the reason for the offerings given by Cain and Abel, the first children of Adam and Eve.  Was it out of thanksgiving or to make up for their sins, or some combination?  We don’t know.  But we do know,“the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering (the firstlings of his flock of sheep and their fat portions), but for Cain and his offering (of the fruit of the ground) [the Lord] had no regard.” [Genesis 4]  We learn from those offerings, that there are acceptable and unacceptable offerings that can be made to God.

God later sent the Flood, which happened because “every imagination of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually.” [Gen 6:5]  And the first act of Noah after coming through the Flood was to offer a sacrifice.  Was it out of thanksgiving or to make up for sin, or some combination?  We don’t know.  We know that,“Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.  And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odour, the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of man…’ and God blessed Noah and his sons…”  Again we see that there are greater and lesser offerings, and we are not to offer things unclean.  And we see that God is pleased by this.

Each of the patriarchs built altars, Abraham [Gen 12:7,8; 13:18; 22:9], Isaac [26:25], and Jacob [28:18; 33:20; 35:1,3,7], and they made sacrificial offerings to God at different times.

And the whole sacrificial system instituted by God under the Law of Moses, clarified the purposes of sacrifice and that they are related to thanksgiving and to dealing with sin.  Sacrifice was not somehow something new to Israel – every society, every culture in the Middle East had sacrifices – but for what reasons? and how was it to be done by the people of Israel?  We see justice and mercy and thanksgiving always mingled together in these practices, restoring and maintaining a right relation with God.  The offerings themselves helped to teach Israel, to see what are lesser and greater evils, it brought discernment to the heart of man which is so blinded by wickedness.  Grain offerings are less than offerings of creatures, small creatures are less of an offering than larger creatures, lambs held a special place, as they did for Abel’s offering and for Abraham (“God will provide himself the lamb”, he said to Isaac [Gen 22:8]), and they were to be unblemished lambs rather than animals that would be discarded anyway.  Are lambs better because of their passivity?

And in this history of Israel we see also the principle of substitution.  Something can be sacrificed in place of another to satisfy justice.

• Abraham was ready to offer up, when asked by God, even his son, his only son Isaac, the son whom [he] loved. But it was not required, as it was in the case with the false gods of some Canaanites [Lev 20; Dt 12:31; 2 Kg 23:10], the Lord provided an alternative, a ram caught in the thicket in place of [Gen 22]
• The Passover lamb was offered by the faithful in Israel in place of the first born sons of Israel on the night of the final plague in Egypt, on the night of their Exodus. [Ex 12:13] This practice was continued in the Law for every firstborn son – an offering was to be made in place of or as a substitution for the child. [Ex 13:12-13; 34:20]
• And in the Law of Moses – sacrifice to make up for sin is also teaching about the principle of substitution – in place of the death of an individual certain sacrifices could be made. [Leviticus 4-7, 16] It is a principle that every society knew something about, in their attempts to make up for moral failure by attempting to propitiate their gods with a substitute gift.

In the modern West we might look down on such rites of sacrifice as barbaric and unnecessary.  And yet surely that is only because the Christian teaching of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice has come to us and is so deep in our bones that the West can even forget the need for or the place of sacrifice.  But that once-for-all Sacrifice, is remembered Sunday by Sunday in churches around the world, to cover every sin.  We have not abolished sacrifice, but understand it to be fulfilled by Jesus’ self-offering.

How can Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross do this?

What is greater than an offering of grain, a creature; and what is greater than a bird, an animal of greater value; and what is the greatest animal, a human being; and what is greater than a sacrifice of a human being who is forced by others, but one who sacrifices himself willingly; and what is the greatest human being that can be offered, one who is “unblemished”, perfect in every way, without sin… only Jesus Christ.  Plead that sacrifice because it is sufficient for all time.

But in our lazy culture we can so easily forget, even though it stares us in the face.

Before going to my first parish in the far North of Canada, I met with a priest who had been there before and his wife.  His wife told me about how their teenage son had left the Christian faith and followed some friends of his in turning to paganism.  They had all concluded at some point about the need for sacrifice and were even offering small animals – and it was in the midst of this “experiment” that he saw that sacrifice was necessary but that it was an utterly insufficient sacrifice.  His Christian upbringing came crashing in and he saw anew the beauty of Christ’s once-for-all perfect self-offering.

In my own experience, in my early 20s I had left my Christian upbringing and had sought out wisdom in Eastern religions, and even became involved in a kind of cult under a charismatic Chinese Buddhist leader.  I was helping this group to rebuild a farmhouse in the countryside outside of Ottawa into a retreat centre.  While I was there by myself, mid-week, working like a mad fiend, I began to see how far I had fallen – alienating my family and friends and full of pride that I was so enlightened.  And I began to see the corruption of this leader, nothing like Jesus, and it became clear in my mind of the need for sacrifice to make up for my sins, but what would be sufficient? and then it came crashing in on me also, that only Jesus could be the sufficient sacrifice for my sins – and He freely offers it!

Jesus self-sacrifice is an exchange, a substitution, to meet the high demands of God’s perfect justice, and yet it is efficacious because it is not just an exchange out there but His self-offering, His love, can pierce the heart and change it.  I was moved by Jesus to read daily a chapter from John’s Gospel, and a chapter from Proverbs, in the months to come… and Jesus led me, in time, from my utter foolishness, to reestablish relations with family and friends (though in a new way), to return to work, to return to the Church (which Church?), and then to leave my career as an engineer and return to school to prepare for the priesthood.

Jesus showed me clearly my idolatry, the dishonouring of my parents, the murder, adultery, and thievery in my heart, the false witness, and the covetousness which endlessly distracts from seeking the highest things…some of these sins are deserving of death under the Law.  And Jesus showed me something of the depth of God’s mercy, to offer forgiveness freely and to assure me by His death for me.

There are several models of the atonement that come from Scripture and have been highlighted at different times in the tradition of the Church.  And as Christians, as readers of God’s Word, we are to look at them all and to acknowledge something is being said by each of them.  Bp Kallistos Ware, warns us not to focus on one theory alone, nor to press any one theory too far so that we conclude somehow that the Father and Son are in any way at enmity with one another, or that God is changed by the Cross, or that the Cross is only appealing to our feelings and does not bring about an objective change, or that the Cross is isolated from the Incarnation or Resurrection. (following an outline by Bp Kallistos Ware in a talk on the Atonement)

• Jesus as Teacher: By the Cross Jesus teaches us the Way to God – “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” [Mt 16:24]
• Jesus as Ransom: By the Cross Jesus gives a “ransom” to set us free, to liberate us from our many enslavements to the world, the flesh and the devil.
  • Jesus: the Son of Man came… to give his life as a ransom for many.” [Mt 20:28]
  • St Paul: Jesus… gave himself as a ransom for all... [1 Tim 2:6]
  • St Peter: You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers… with the precious blood of Christ. [1 Pet 1:18-19]
• Jesus as Sacrifice: by the Cross Jesus offers a sacrifice like no other:
  • This sacrifice makes satisfaction for the sins of the world –
    “the Lord has laid on him, the iniquity of us all [Isa 53:6]
    "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" [John 1:29]
    He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. [1 John 2:2] (propitiation = turning away God’s anger by a gift)
  • This sacrifice is the substitution for us that God provides – Abraham…saw it and was glad… [John 8:56] and likewise is every converted Christian soul made glad as they come to realize this lamb, provided in our place, personally
  • Jesus’ sacrifice is the ultimate gift offering, an oblation – it is love without limits – having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. [John 13:1]
  • In a sacrifice it is not so much the death that is important as the blood that is poured out – the life of the flesh is in the blood… [Lev 17:11] Jesus’ precious Blood is poured out on the earth and into our flesh to bring new life.
• Christus Victor: “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” [Col 2:15]  (“Trampling down death by death” ancient Easter Hymn]) By the Cross Jesus shows us what true victory looks like, but it is not by militaristic might or superior power, but by suffering love.  After hours on the Cross, Jesus said, “It is finished!”meaning that all he came to do is completed, it is fulfilled. [John 19:30]  The denying of ourselves and taking up our cross will bring about profound victory in our hearts and for those around us.
• Jesus as Example: By the Cross Jesus shows us the supreme example of suffering love that acts as a kind of spiritual magnet to evoke a response of love in us. 
  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [1 Jo 4:10]  It is His Spirit that evokes that response.

Jesus makes possible our salvation.  We cannot cross over to God by ourselves, so God, in Christ, came across the abyss to us.  His taking our flesh has made possible our partaking of the divine nature.  And the Cross is at the centre of that healing and reconciling of us to God.

It is the key through which our hearts, locked up by guilt and shame, are ever so carefully opened once more to love.  The Cross has directed our gaze and the world’s gaze upon Jesus.  “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what death he was to die. [St John 12:32-33] And this saying is true – here we are today drawn, as are people around the world today and through the ages drawn to look upon Him.

And what we gaze upon, and see, is something of what perfection can look like in a human being, and of the glory that is being offered to us by God – even to be partakers of the divine nature.  And Jesus tells us we are to no longer look away from that glory, because of guilt or shame, but rather that we are to seek out that glory with all our heart, our mind, our soul and our strength… and what we find is love, and we are changed.

Amen +