“Interpreting Jesus’ Death”
A sermon by Sid Burgess for Edgewood PC, Birmingham, AL
Fifth Sunday in Lent, March 29, 2009
Text: John 12:20-33
I decided recently to give myself a birthday present. For my sixtieth birthday, I asked my friend Mark Gooch, a professional photographer, to shoot a picture of me in my clerical garb. Part of my rationale was “truth in advertising,” as the pictures we were running online and in the newsletter were at least a decade old. And part of my rationale was vanity. I wanted to have a picture of myself at 60 so as to better document the coming ravages of age. When I told Mark what I had in mind, he said, “Oh yeah, back in Mississippi where I come from, they would call this a ‘take-out picture’--one we’ll use with your obituary!”
Well, that surely got my attention, as have a number of recent deaths. The shocking, sudden death of Tom Corts, former Samford president, at age 67. Last week, Joe, our next door neighbor, dead at age 59. Melissa’s first cousin, Billy Tate, dead at 58. Movie star Natasha Richardson, dead at age 45, after what was thought to have been a minor skiing accident. What the poet Longfellow calls “the long mysterious exodus” has been much on my mind lately.
Jesus is thinking about death, too. Today, in John’s gospel, Jesus says his “hour has come.” With the raising of Lazarus in the preceding chapter both adulation for and opposition to Jesus are growing. Surely, his challenge to the entrenched powers of this world--to the system--is coming to a head. It is clear that his death is imminent, with major implications for those of us who are his followers.
Before we examine those implications, I’d like to take a few minutes to address what theologians and biblical scholars call “atonement theology.” “Atonement theology” seeks to explain how we human beings are reconciled to God--how we are ‘saved’-- through our Lord’s death on the cross. There are three classic interpretations, each with a strong biblical basis.1
The first theory is called “ransom.” Jesus dies to get humanity out of hoc. When I was growing up in the Baptist church we sang, “Jesus Paid It All, All to Him I Owe.” In the context of the first century, Mediterranean world, where people were preoccupied with anxiety over fate and death, ransom theology was powerful. “Humanity is enslaved, in bondage, caught, trapped in a tragic predicament.”2 Jesus dies to set us free, to get us out of debt, then guides us into the fullness of life with God.
The second theory is called “sacrifice.” Just as our ancestors in faith offered animal sacrifices to show their devotion to God and to plead for divine forgiveness, so Jesus is offered up on the cross to absolve us of all of our guilt. In my youth we sang the old revival song, “Are you washed in the blood, the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb.” Remember that the lamb offered in sacrifice had to be perfect--no blemish. Thus, Jesus, perfect, without sin, is the only acceptable sacrifice before God.
The third theory of atonement has been called the “moral example.” Jesus dies to show us just how much God loves us. Otherwise, we mortals would have no clue. God’s gift of God’s own Son is the ultimate demonstration of the depth of divine love. We began our worship last Sunday singing, “O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High.” And we will conclude today with the American Folk hymn, “What Wondrous Love Is This.”
All three of these interpretations of the atonement, ransom, sacrifice, and moral example, are firmly grounded in Scripture and Church tradition. But the Gospel of John, while neither disputing nor challenging any of the above, has a significantly different perspective. You may remember that as John tells the passion story Jesus is in charge, all the way--not the religious leaders, not the crowd, not the Roman officials: “I lay down my life (he says) . . . , no one takes it from me; I lay down my life of my own accord”(Jn. 10. 17,18).
Jesus explains his motivation with a short parable in today’s passage: “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (12.24).
Gail O’Day, NT scholar at Emory and leading authority on the fourth gospel, writes: “The significance of this parable for understanding Jesus’ death lies in the contrast between remaining solitary--just a single grain--and “bearing much fruit.” In John, “fruit” is Jesus’ metaphor for the life of the community of faith. For the gospel writer John, the seed parable shows that “the saving power of Jesus’ death, resides (here) in the community that is gathered as a result of it.” The Fourth Gospel describes Jesus’ death “as both necessary and life-giving because as a result of it community is formed and Church comes into being.” We are the “much fruit”--we and our Christian brothers and sisters, gathered in Churches the world over on this Lord’s Day--and all the saints throughout all the ages--we are the “much fruit” his life and his death have produced.3
In the closing verse of this passage Jesus describes us as “children of light.” Light versus darkness is a recurring theme in John. In chapter 1, “Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.” To be children of light is to have a share in the eternal light which no darkness can penetrate. Through the saving death of the Lord, we have been formed into the community of faith. As the Church of Jesus Christ we are the “much fruit” for whom he died; we are the “children of light” for who he rose on the third day. Thus, we sing as we did last week: “For us baptized, for us he bore; For us he gave up his dying breath; For us he rose from death again . . .”4
Popular religion says, ‘Jesus died for me;’ the Gospel of John says, ‘Jesus died for us.’ But this is not an either/or proposition. This is a both/and concept: “‘Jesus died for us’ includes ‘Jesus died for me.’” Jesus says, “When I am lifted up from the earth-- at the resurrection--I will draw all people to myself”(v.32).
In my hometown we had a fellow by the name of Robert, of whom we said, “He was a bit touched in the head.” Today, we would more correctly say Robert was a person who was mentally challenged. But Robert was a faithful member of the venerable First Baptist Church. Robert was not a morning person but he was a faithful member of the Sunday evening flock. Every Sunday evening he walked across town--which admittedly wasn’t far in Carrollton, GA . . . . But still, he walked across town, past the newer, much larger, much jazzier Tabernacle Baptist Church to get to staid old First Baptist. One evening the pastor of Tabernacle stopped Robert and pointedly asked him why he walked past the one church to get to the other. Robert replied: ‘You let just anyone come to your church.’ Imagine that: Just anyone! Imagine our Savior, willingly going to his cruel death for everyone.
I realize this all sounds perilously close to the heresy, the wrong doctrine of universalism, which holds that everyone eventually hits the divine jackpot. But if we listen carefully to Jesus’ own words in this passage, our Lord will pull us back from the precarious ledge. First comes one of the best documented sayings of Jesus. In one form or another it appears six times in the Gospels: Here it reads: “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life”(v.25). It is extremely important to understand what Jesus means. To love one’s life is to stand outside, aloof from the community, preoccupied with “me, myself, and I.” “To hate one’s life ‘in this world’--in this world of violence, greed, and corruption---means to declare one’s allegiance to Jesus--to the Prince of Peace--and so to receive his gift of eternal life”--that is, life in relationship which begins here in the community of faith--among us mere mortals.5
Next comes the call, the summons to follow Christ. Today Jesus says, “Whoever serves me must follow me . . . ,” clearly indicating that a decision is called for. To be sure, his death offers reconciliation to all people, but one must decide to accept this offer to become a follower of Jesus. As followers we are to love as he loves; and we are to serve as he serves. That means we are to unite here in the Church, the body of the Risen Christ, for the sacred purpose of showing forth God’s love for the whole world.
Our Presbyterian Church “Declaration of Faith” proclaims:
Life shared with Christ and shaped by Christ is God’s undeserved gift to each of us. It is also God’s demand upon every one of us, never perfectly fulfilled by any of us. Forgiven by God and supported by brothers and sisters, we strive to become more faithful and effective in our daily practice of the Christian faith.6
That we might have life and have it in abundance, beginning here in the community of faith and never ending . . . . That we might have this fellowship of faith as a foretaste of the glory to come, Christ Jesus gave his life. Here begins our relationship with God which shall never end.
Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds Is like to that above.7
AMEN.
1This summary follows Gail O’Day’s review in THE NEW
INTERPRETER’S BIBLE, vol. IX, pp. 713-715. O’Day is in turn
following Douglas John Hall in PROFESSING THE FAITH. See footnote 2.
2Hall, Douglas John, PROFESSING THE FAITH, p. 417.
3O’Day, p. 711.
4“O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High,” PRESBYTERIAN
HYMNAL, #83.
5O’Day, p. 711.
6“Declaration of Faith, PCUSA, IX.1, 1977, 1991.
7“Blest Be the Tie That Binds,” PRESBYTERIAN HYMNAL,
#438.