For the longest time, I never understood how the death of Christ works and atones for our sins. I always believed, of course, that Jesus died for our sins and rose again from the dead. Even C.S. Lewis said that just as man has always eaten 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 the death of Christ. What it is, what it means, and how it makes sense in the big picture in out salvation.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. The earliest excavations of the dead being buried have traces of flowers in their graves, and the hands and feet of the dead were bound up. 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 are 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 and lands by coincidence? 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. A very large and extended serendipity moment. Just like the practice and idea of 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. God eventually aloud Israel to be exiled from the Holy Land. And The Prophets were sent by God to urge Israel to repent of her sins, and foretell the promise of the messiah.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 differences, God was preaching to his own people face to face and the message of the law was summarized: to love.In animal sacrifice, the means are temporal and profane. The affects they had only changed the soul insomuch till Israel sinned again. 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” means that something is “set apart”. 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 his 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 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.
In Jewish thought, the current profane world we live in is seen as broken and in need of fixing. I propose in this writing that this is one of the many Laws of the Cosmos: the world is broken. And the only means of fixing it is by means of sacramental ways. Ways which are paradoxes Paradoxed ways by which the profane is used to make something holy. For example, the using of death to bring life. Or, the profaning of the most Holy person ever seen. Religion does not make sense outside of its own context. A lot of people think that the idea of death for life is primitive, ancient, non-practical, and absurd. And they are most right. It is absurd. It can't be proven with means of modern methods of science and the results can't necessarily 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. The picture painted by modern religion makes God like Santa. Someone way high north who sees and keeps track of all we do and will reward or punish us. It is absurd. Praying aloud alone looks like a person is talking to themselves. But when viewing spirituality this way, the point of religion is lost. The purpose of extending yourself to something which is utterly beyond you is lost. Religion isn’t God. It’s a framework used to understanding God. Spirituality isn’t God. It’s a tool to practice God in a person’s life. The purpose of religion and spirituality is not to bring full understanding and full enlightenment on the ways of God; but to help us start the long journey towards the cosmos and bring partial enlightenment to the numerous things which we will never understand
. 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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