What the Crucifixion Reveals About Human Beings

The crucifixion story reveals much about the nature of God. The crucifixion reveals God's infinite mercy, love, and compassion. The crucifixion reveals God's willingness to go to any lengths to save us.

The crucifixion also reveals much about the nature of human beings. Think of it like this: the crucifixion was God's way of shining a spotlight on Himself, and God's way of shining a spotlight on human beings. The spotlight that was shone on human beings exposed not only those who were responsible for Jesus death; more importantly, it exposed a pattern of human behavior that has existed from the beginning. Part of the salvific nature of the cross was to expose our own human behavior, and by exposing it, to force us to face ourselves and to reveal the script that has been played out from the beginning.

Several weeks ago, in the story of Jesus and the woman at the well, I argued that what underlay this story is the reality of human violence and exclusion; the violence between the Jews and the Samaritans, and the exclusion of the woman from her own community. In the story of the healing of the blind man two weeks ago, I argued that this story revealed the fact that human cultures will even use religion to perpetuate collective cultural violence and exclusion.

In the cross, we see with greater specificity the script through which this violence is carried out. We begin with the players in the story. First you have the Jewish religious authorities. Second, you have the Roman government. Third, you have Herod, the puppet ruler put in place by Pilate, the Roman governor to give the Jewish population the facade of autonomy. Finally, you have the general Jewish population. Tension has been building between these groups for some time as they all seek to further their own self interests. This tension leads to anger, and as the anger builds and builds, you have the threat that this anger will result in outright violence, which would lead to the disruption of the fragile balance between these competing groups.

Suddenly, all these groups find a common victim in Jesus. Having found a common victim, they inflict enormous violence on Jesus and crucify Him. And for a time the violence is abated. Significantly, we are told in the gospels that before the crucifixion, Pilate and Herod couldn't stand each other, but that after the crucifixion, they become friends.

In the crucifixion story, we see played out a pattern of human behavior that has existed from the beginning; groups within a cultural network try to coexist, but tension and anger builds as each group seeks its own self interest. The only way that violence is controlled is where a common victim is found who is marginalized within the community, and the community focuses its violence on the common victim, both satiating its anger and finding common ground. But most importantly, the real nature of this script has to be hidden from the cultural system, because the cultural system is in denial of its own violence.

This is the spotlight that the crucifixion shines on us. All cultural systems, including our own, live out this script. We find victims outside or on the margins of our cultural system to focus our violence. We punish the victim, but the punishment of the victim only temporarily satiates our need for violence. We don't learn our lesson, and so we return and start the script over again.

When we turn the spotlight of the crucifixion story from ourselves back to Jesus on the cross, we see the way out of our script. The way begins by acknowledging that the script exists in the first place. Once we all acknowledge our own complicity in playing a part in the script, God can enter into the picture, and God's Spirit can begin to show us a new script. The new script is epitomized in Christ's sacrifice, compassion, and servanthood.

Living According to the Example of Christ

Paul had a lot to say about human existence and human culture. When Paul looked at human beings of his day, including himself, he saw a paradox. On one hand, human beings generally tried to do the best they could to be good people. But on the other hand, human beings ended up doing terrible things to themselves and to each other. Ironically, people seemed to do the most violence to others and to themselves while believing that they were actually following God's will. Paul himself, as we know, persecuted the early Christians; his persecution was not based in a lack of willpower (i.e. Paul knew that his persecution was wrong but did it anyway), but in a mistaken belief that persecuting Christians was God's will. Paul found himself, and the human race generally, as basically good people trapped within their own ignorance and within cultural systems that seemed to do nothing but perpetuate violence. Paul tells us in Romans 8.6-11, the Epistle Lesson this week from the Revised Common Lectionary, that there is a way out of our sin. The way out is the Spirit of God. Paul juxtaposes Spirit with flesh to describe the difference between being the people we want living in a society that we want (Spirit) with being the people we are living in the society that we live in (flesh). We want to be people who live with peace, joy, gentleness, love, compassion, mercy, and wisdom. The way to go from where we are to where we want to be is through Christ. By repenting and turning to God for forgiveness and seeking the intercession of God's Spirit, we can turn from our own individual and collective violence and live as God's people. Paul has gotten a bad reputation in many circles for being a pessimist when it comes to human nature. But when Romans is read closely, we see that Paul is actually an optimist. For Paul, our present predicament individually and culturally is an anomaly. It is a corruption of what we are and what we are meant to be. In Romans, Paul says that by turning to God, in Christ, our true nature can be restored, and we can be the people that we truly are, which is God's people.

Trying to Limit Our Power, Freedom, and Joy

As human beings, we have the strange tendency to develop habits and practices that hurt ourselves and each other. Last week in the Revised Common Lectionary, the gospel lesson contained the story of Jesus' encounter with the women at the well. Although not explicit in the story, what framed the story was the collective violence and exclusion within Jesus' culture. The women was a Samaritan, which was an ethnic group that experienced exclusion from Jewish society. In fact, we are told that most Jews who were traveling took a roundabout route around Samaria to avoid contact with the Samaritans. The Samaritan women herself was an outcast among her own community. She was an outcast among outcasts. The collective violence and exclusion of Jewish culture in Jesus' time mirrors our own. In Jesus, God shows that God's place in cultural violence and exclusion is not to support it or endorse it, but to reveal it for what it is. To demonstrate to those who participate in it that they are hurting themselves and each other. And to reveal that those who are trapped within its structures have the power, through God's grace, to bring reconciliation and healing to themselves and to each other. The story of Jesus' encounter with the women at the well reveals both our human tendency to hurt ourselves and each other with violence and exclusion. This week's gospel lesson, the story of the encounter between Jesus, the Pharisees, and the man born blind, found at John 9.1-41. In the same way that collective violence and exclusion created the context for the story of Jesus and the women at the well, what underlies this story is our tendency to try to place limits on our own power, and our tendency to place limits on our capacity to receive God's power, mercy, and grace. In this story, the Pharisees are upset that Jesus heals the blind man on the Sabbath. In other words, they want to place limits on how, when, and where we can reveal God's power, and limits on how, when, and where God acts. As always, our own religious practices and traditions mirror those of the Pharisees. In our churches, we try to place limits and restrictions about how, when, and where we can reveal God's power, and limits upon how we respond to God's call. By healing on the Sabbath, God reveals that God wants healing and joy in the world, all the time, without limit. God will not be bound by religious conventions and traditions. In fact, God will act directly contrary to them if our conventions and traditions get in the way of God's work. And God wants us to be partners in God's plan to bring healing and joy to the world.