After our Good Friday service, one of you stopped me with a doozy of a question. What does Jesus’ “dying for our sins” really mean? As we talked, it became clear that to this person, the concept of an atoning sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins was not even a little bit useful, helpful, or spiritually meaningful. If you feel this way, you are not alone. The metaphor of Christ’s death as an atoning sacrifice has gotten a lot of attention through the centuries, but it doesn’t always make sense.
The good news is that it does not have to be the only metaphor – or even the central metaphor – for the Christian experience. We have a broad diversity of metaphors, images, and explanations to use. I like to think about the image of a toolbox, and the wise saying that goes with it: “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!” So screws, staples, chains, bolts, hinges, and wires all become things to hammer down, and they are nearly always damaged in the process. Well, the atoning sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins may be the often-used hammer in the wider Christian toolbox, but it only really solves one problem: sin. If sin is a central problem for you in your spiritual life, then you need the tool that matches – and I hope we provide it for you. I hope we preach loud and clear that in Christ, you are forgiven, no matter how grievous your sins may be. Like the thief who was crucified next to Jesus, who asked to be remembered, I hope you hear God’s YES to you.
But maybe you aren’t a nail to be hammered, and maybe you aren’t weighed down spiritually by guilt and sin. If you’ll permit me to keep playing with the images, perhaps the central problem in your life is a sense of alienation or loneliness. Maybe you feel you don’t belong, or that you’re stuck, or that you aren’t good enough to be part of the group you want to join. Someone can hammer into you all day long that you are forgiven for your sins, but your sins weren’t bothering you in the first place, and even the most lavish forgiveness is never going to touch the pain of feeling alone. The concept of spiritual adoption — the idea that we are reborn as brothers and sisters in a spiritual family through Christ — might be the story that speaks to you. The image of Mary weeping in the garden and being greeted so lovingly by the risen Christ, and commissioned to go share the good news with the disciples, might be the one that finds you in your place of need. Perhaps it would even oil the rusty hinges of your heart, just slightly scuffed from all the hammering, and allow them to swing open and meet the love that awaits you.
So in these days and weeks as we continue to celebrate Easter, why don’t you try some new tools and new stories, to see if they work for you. If you can’t imagine yourself as the convicted thief crucified next to Jesus, maybe you can imagine yourself as Mary weeping in the garden, or the puzzled disciples walking the road to Emmaus trying to figure it all out. And let us give thanks for the diversity of our sacred stories, knowing that where one turns uselessly in our hands, another may be just the key for us.
Every blessing,
Talitha