The Rev. Cynthia Rigby was helping her daughter get ready to play Butterfly No. 4 in their church\u2019s Easter play and asked the 8-year-old: \u201cWhat does the cross mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
Her daughter thought for a bit and then answered. \u201cWell, I think it\u2019s kind of like when a firefighter goes into a burning building and rescues someone but dies in the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rigby was thrilled. After all, Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection pose hard questions for grownups too.<\/p>\n
Even today, Christian theologians wrestle with how best to explain the meaning of the cross and why Good Friday is good.<\/p>\n
As Paul writes in\u00a01 Corinthians 1:23-25<\/a>, the Crucifixion \u2014 \u201ca scandal to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles\u201d \u2014 makes Christianity a tough sell. But as Paul also writes, preaching Christ crucified is an essential part of the faith.<\/p>\n \u201cChrist\u2019s willingness to suffer and die is equally remarkable with his ability to conquer death,\u201d said the Rev. Randy L. Maddox, associate dean and William Kellon Quick Professor of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies at United Methodist-related\u00a0Duke Divinity School<\/a>. He is also an ordained United Methodist elder.<\/p>\n \u201cIf one seems to challenge his divinity, the other challenges his humanity. One task of Christian doctrine through the ages has been to hold these two together with their full force.\u201d<\/p>\n But over the ages, theologians also have reflected on why Jesus freely submitted to such a violent death to atone for humanity\u2019s sins. Was there no other way for God to redeem humans?<\/p>\n Among those theologians is Rigby, who ponders that question in\u00a0her article \u201cProdigal cross\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in the magazine Presbyterian Outlook. She is an ordained Presbyterian minister and W.C. Brown Professor of Theology at\u00a0Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Texas<\/a>, where about a third of the students are United Methodist.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea that the Son had to die so the Father would be able to forgive us has never made much sense to me,\u201d she writes. \u201cIf God loves us no matter what, why can\u2019t God just go ahead and forgive us?\u201d<\/p>\n She and other Christian thinkers offer a variety of answers to that question.<\/p>\n Make no mistake: Crucifixion was a horrific and ignominious way to die. Roman authorities reserved this public form of execution for particularly heinous crimes such as treason and for certain classes of people, namely non-Romans and slaves. Perhaps appropriately, the Latin verb\u00a0crucio\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 torture \u2014 shares a root with crucifixion.<\/p>\n Yet, the cross tells us something significant about God, said Will Willimon, former bishop of the\u00a0North Alabama Conference<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and now a professor at Duke Divinity School and pastor of Duke Memorial United Methodist Church in Durham, N.C.<\/p>\n \u201cGod is the God who achieves what God wants through suffering, self-sacrificial love (the cross),\u201d Willimon said.<\/p>\n The New Testament uses a variety of metaphors and models to explain how such sacrificial action redeemed humanity. In Scripture, Christ is described as giving his life as ransom, as acting as the Lamb of God who carries away sin, and as serving as the ultimate high priest who uses his own blameless life to purify the populace.<\/p>\n For many theologians, the cross reconciles two attributes of God \u2014 divine justice and divine love.<\/p>\n One of the more influential explainers of atonement was Anselm of Canterbury, who lived in the 11th<\/sup>century. Anselm argued that human sin dishonored God and corrupted creation. By suffering as a substitute for humankind, Christ provided satisfaction to restore God\u2019s honor and purpose for creation.<\/p>\n But over the centuries, Anselm\u2019s theory has drawn plenty of detractors. Many theologians have accused Anselm of treating Jesus\u2019 death almost as a business transaction. Others see Anselm\u2019s portrayal of God as abusive rather than loving.<\/p>\n Willimon said it\u2019s a mystery why Jesus endured such a violent death, but it also makes sense given the nature of human sin.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have the cross because humanity is a violent, brutal species,\u201d said Willimon. Among other books, Willimon has written\u00a0\u201cThank God It\u2019s Friday\u201d<\/a>\u00a0about the seven last words of Jesus from the cross, and\u201cThank God It\u2019s Thursday\u201d<\/a>\u00a0about Maundy Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cAny God who would love us, must not be a God who shirks from some blood and pain for that\u2019s how we treat our enemies and our saviors!\u201d<\/p>\n Both John Wesley, in his sermons, and Charles Wesley, in his hymns, used a variety of images to explain what Jesus achieved on the cross \u2014 including substitionary atonement. Methodism\u2019s founders also emphasized God\u2019s wondrous love.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth John and Charles Wesley set a precedent for Methodists of refusing to limit themselves to only the \u2018penalty satisfaction\u2019 model,\u2019\u201d said Maddox, the Duke professor. The Wesleys used a range of biblical allusions, he said, \u201cto stress that Christ not only dealt with the \u2018penalty\u2019 of our sin but also brought healing power to deliver us from the \u2018captivity\u2019 of sin and enable us to walk in newness of life.\u201d<\/p>\n The Wesley brothers considered one aspect of atonement nonnegotiable, and it is still an essential part of the movement they founded, said the Rev. Jason Vickers, president of the Wesleyan Theological Society. He is an ordained United Methodist elder and professor of theology and Wesleyan studies at United Methodist-related\u00a0United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever it is Christ undertakes in his death and resurrection, however Christ\u2019s death accomplishes salvation,\u201d Vickers said, \u201cwe\u2019ve always said that Christ undertakes his saving work for all \u2014 not just for the elect, not just for the rich, not just for certain people. He died for all.\u201d<\/p>\n Vickers sees Jesus\u2019 life, death and resurrection as bridging human separation from God. In the Incarnation, he said, God does more than make a cameo appearance in human history.<\/p>\n God incarnated in Christ \u201cis the most intimate joining of God and creation,\u201d Vickers said. \u201cGod then knows what it\u2019s like to be a\u00a0finite creature, to be dependent, what it is to be a human \u2014 that which is not God.\u201d<\/p>\n Rigby, the Presbyterian theologian, offers a similar view. She sees the meaning of the cross in Jesus\u2019 well-known parable of the prodigal son. Just as the father in the parable does not hold back anything in his love for his sons, so too does God in Christ risk and endure everything to show love.<\/p>\n The Crucifixion is the culmination of that love. Although Jesus was free from sin, he undeniably experienced the wages of sin firsthand \u2014 the feelings of abandonment, the pain of violence, the chill of death.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not only that God walks in our shoes,\u201d Rigby said. \u201cBut God takes our shoes and goes into places where we couldn\u2019t walk without being destroyed and takes on even that which would annihilate us.\u201d<\/p>\n Rigby does not see the cross as necessary to appease God, but it does shows the lengths God will go to show divine love.<\/p>\n Jesus is Emmanuel \u2014 God with us \u2014 on more than just Christmas, Rigby said.<\/p>\n Perhaps the greatest comfort the cross offers is the knowledge that there is no sorrow, pain or despair\u00a0humans can undergo that God does not know and walk through with us. And because of the Resurrection, we know\u00a0that sorrow and death do not have the last word.<\/p>\nThe importance of the cross<\/strong><\/h4>\n
What the Wesleys taught<\/strong><\/h4>\n
God with us<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nCHURCH DOCTRINE ON ATONEMENT<\/h5>\n
\n
\n