For the longest time, I never understood how the death of Christ works and atones for our sins. I always believed, of course. Even C.S. Lewis said that just as man eats his meals knowing it is good for him no matter what science supports, so is the believing in the Mystery of our Salvation no matter if it makes sense or not, we know it works. As I reflected on the Good Friday lessons and looked at the cross that Christ died on and prayed, I thought about death. What it is, what it means, and how it makes sense in the big picture.
Death is essential in life and unavoidable. It marks the end of a life and recalls the beginning and all the time spend between. It is perhaps the largest event in life in which all mortal men will face. It is a universal symbol in all cultures which marks the twisted idea that in death, there is rebirth and new life. Whether it being reincarnation, or a life in the world to come, we as humans are deeply impacted by the ending of life in a very sacramental way.
In most cultures and religions, the spilling of blood is what often makes death transform into new life. Rituals which emphasize this are some of earliest man has practiced and is nearly universal. What can explain this phenomenon? Did our early primitive ancestors come up with the idea and it spread across the worlds and across the seas? I think not. Rather than being an ancient religious trend which survived today, it is a part of which is imbedded in all human behavior and endeavor. Just like religion itself, we know in our sixth senses and third eyes that the death and spilling of blood is essential for new life.
After the God of the Hebrews delivered Moses and the Hebrews out of Egypt he established a covenant where YHWH would be their God and they would be his chosen people and would follow the laws set before them. And once a year a high priest would stand before God in the temple and sacrifice an unblemished and perfect lamb on the behalf the of the people that theirs sins of being unable to keep the law would atone for.
The entire Old Testament, in a nutshell, is a number of stories how the chosen people would not keep God’s Laws and would call them to repent. A number of times God would not accept their sacrifices due to their resistance to him. And thus they remained in their sins.
Though God how wrathful he may be in delivering his people to their enemies is also shown through out scripture God to be slow to anger, quick to forgive, and full of mercy and love. God knew that Israel, let along the whole population of the world, was not capable of keeping his law and atoning for their sins.
God knowing this, Incarnated himself into the Virgin Mary that he would be born a mortal. Fully man, yet fully God. Jesus as God’s begotten knew why he was sent. To yet again repeat the words of the prophets of repentance and to bring back those who had broken Gods law. The only deferences, God was preaching to his own people face to face and the message of the law was summorized: to love.
In animal sacrifice, the means are temporal and profane. The affects they had only changed the soul so much and God could reject them. God in his love knew he would have to do it himself. Just as the highest and most perfect priest would represent the people and sacrifice a lamb to God for the forgiveness of sins, so did Jesus represent the whole population of the earth and sacrifice himself as a lamb for the reconciliation between the profane and the cosmos.
The word “sacred” is closely tied to the word “desecrate” or “defile” (or “poop” on). Jesus, being fully man, and yet fully God was desecrated in the worst way possible at the time. Being whipped by leather lashes with pieces of sharp rocks and glass in them, and having hands and feet nail to a piece of unstable wood, pulling on your pierced limbs in order to breath. In the death of the absolute sacred, God himself; came new life, and the sacrifice was perfect and complete. God alone knows how and why this law and pattern of the spilling of blood and death gives new life and forgiveness, but it works.
Of course, if Jesus had just died and that was the end of the story; then we would have no idea if his death was actually worth anything and if mankind was really reconciled unto God. It would be a normal death and shedding of blood which brought forth the means of nothing. However, the death of Christ the Sacred brought forth the new life in his resurrection from the dead, the ultimate miracle of miracles as a sign that the sacrifice was complete and our sins no longer kept us from God’s presence.
A lot of people think that the idea of death for life is primitive, ancient, non-practical, and ubsurd. And they are most right. It is ubsurd. It can't be be proven with means of modern methods of science and the results can't nessesarily be seen. But, so is all of religion in general. A person can't simply take an idea out of its context and expect it to make sense. In it's own context, it fits. Having all this in mind, makes me appreciate the coming Easter. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Will come again. Our sins are forgiven. Alleluia!
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