Let’s first answer that question with a question: what is the most important aspect of Christianity?If you were asked what is the core essential and most important of aspect of Christianity, the ‘thing’ that really differentiates our faith from all other faiths, the one element that is beyond any human teaching and endeavor, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?
St. Paul answered this question in 1 Corinthians 15:3: “For I handed on to you as of FIRST IMPORTANCE what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.” (emphasis mine)
The answer is: the Cross. The cross is of “first importance.”
But how can this be? Crucifixion is the Roman method of execution, somewhat equivalent to the contemporary electric chair, gas chamber or lethal injection. I say “somewhat” because it was far worse. The objective of crucifixion was not to kill, but to shame and torture. Victims were hanged on the cross naked, and sometimes for days. Out of pity, they were scourged before crucifixion to quicken their death, or their legs broken while crucified so they can die of asphyxiation.
For the early Christians to say that they are the disciples of Jesus is equivalent today of being disciples of a criminal who was put to death in the electric chair.
What then did the crucifixion accomplish?
Let’s start with some misperceptions. Some have gravely misunderstood the crucifixion as “picturing the Father punishing him cruelly for our sins, even though he is completely innocent. This is a monstrous view of God the Father, and badly misinterprets the New Testament. The Father hates sin, not Jesus.” (CFC, 569)
God did not become human to simply die. We miss the point when we think of Jesus’ sacrifice only in terms of his death on the cross. Instead we should look at his entire life and his purpose or mission, which is to preach the Kingdom of God, and this he accomplished to the extent it RESULTED to his death on the cross.
But he said to them, “To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent.” – Luke 4:43
The core of Jesus’ teaching is the Kingdom of God, mentioned more than a hundred times in the Gospel. The Kingdom of God is not a place, but a condition where unconditional love prevails. God’s love is unconditional, which means that it is open to everyone, regardless of how sinful you are.
Preaching this contradicted and embarrassed many of the Pharisees, Sadducees and other authorities during Jesus’ time. Eventually, people plotted against him, which resulted to his crucifixion and death.
What was accomplished in the cross, therefore, is the full manifestation of God’s love. There Jesus hanged because he could not stop short of showing humanity what God’s love (read: God’s Kingdom) is all about.
It is not the very suffering and death of Christ that save us, for this would make his torturers and executioners our saviors. Rather, we are saved by Jesus’ perfect self-giving love for his Father and for us, a love lived out to the death. (CFC, 558)
Can you imagine if Jesus veered away from his life purpose because he was afraid that he was going to be killed? Instead, “he saw his suffering and death as part of the coming of the Kingdom, the “test” he taught his followers to pray about: lead us not to the test. (CFC, 562)
What did Jesus say and do, then, which meant life for us and death for him?
Jesus announced that the Kingdom of God was destined not primarily to the pious and the faithful observers of the Law, but to the poor, the blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf, the sick and the uneducated "people of the land." All this was most shocking to his contemporaries.
But Jesus provoked the anger of the Jewish leaders in many other ways. He consorted and took his meals with the "enemies of the people," the abhorred tax collectors, as well as with prostitutes and public sinners. He drastically reinterpreted the Law on such matters as legal purity, the sabbath, divorce, etc. He rejected the accepted norms of retaliation against non-Jews and publicly favored the "popular enemy," the Samaritan. He assured some individuals that their sins had been forgiven. He denounced the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. He attacked the chief priests. And in many other ways, Jesus threatened the existing “law and order” so that a truly fraternal and just society might emerge one day – at whatever cost to himself.
Jesus did not say: I want to die, and therefore I will provoke everyone into killing me. Instead, he said: By my Father’s command, I will proclaim and show what God’s love is all about, and I will do so even if it costs my life.
I was taught that Jesus made the supreme sacrifice on the cross. How then are we to interpret this sacrificial act?
Jesus’ sacrificial act on the cross is consistent with the biblical meaning of sacrifice. When a Jew offered an animal as sacrifice, the animal was the symbol of his or her life. By offering the animal, the Jew was also offering his or her life to God. But for the Jew, the focus is not the killing of the animal, but what it symbolizes: his or her life would now be based on obeying God’s will. The Jew was in effect saying, “I am offering this animal to tell my God that I would like to live a life that is God-centered.”
It is the same with the sacrifice of Jesus. It is not just the crucifixion but the entire life of Jesus that we should consider. And his whole life was to fulfill the purpose that the Father has sent him: to preach the Kingdom. Even unto death.
How does Jesus’ death forgive my sins?
To be forgiven is to be reconciled with God. Jesus has shown in his life, and death, that we are forgiven and loved unconditionally.
When we really understand the meaning of Jesus’ life and death on the cross, then a profound healing can begin to take place within us. Our “being saved” or “being forgiven” happens.
“When we begin to accept that God loves and accepts us unconditionally, then we can change our sense of who we are and our sense of what life is about. Our primary image of our self would then become one of ‘trusted, loved and already forgiven by God,’ rather than ‘sinner who must please God to be forgiven.’ We can begin to discover that the Christian life is about a life lived in a loving relationship with God. Realizing this, we may be able to allow the transforming power of our love relationship with God to work in our lives.”[1]
But couldn’t a martyr have done what Jesus did; that is, teach about God’s love and be able to die for it?
That’s exactly the point! Out of love, God sent His only Son to do it (not anyone else), so that God’s love is not only preached, but lived, by God himself!
Because it was God himself who did it, then that saving love is unique. How? In the following ways:
- It is universal – it is for all of humanity
- Secondly, it is empowering – we cooperate with Jesus in Kingdom building.
What’s the implication of all these in my life?
When you look at Jesus on the cross, do not remember only his death. Remember his entire life, what he said and did, his unconditional love manifested in forgiveness and healing of both the physical, mental and emotional illnesses of those around him. Recall that Jesus was willing to do all these even if he knew that he would antagonize people and that he may eventually pay for it with his life. But he did so anyway out of love for all of us.
Realizing this, you too can discover your life purpose and fulfill it to completion, just as Jesus did.
Secondly, in his life as in his death, Jesus had only one goal. Like the good shepherd who is ready to risk his life for his sheep, he thus laid his life for his sheep “so that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) You too can contribute to making others live more fully: physically, financially, emotionally, spiritually.
[1] Lode Wostyn, CICM, I Believe: A Workbook for Theology I (Manila: Claretian Publications, 2004), 174.
