I Almost Got Crucified Yesterday….

Yesterday I led a seminar in Manchester (England) on the Resurrection of Jesus. Of course in talking about the resurrection you have to talk about the crucifixion.

I began with an exposition of Acts 2 and Peter’s sermon and the expectation of second Temple Jewish eschatologies and the wrathful Day of the Lord and how when Peter says that the people had killed the one whom God had made both Lord and Messiah, the people were terrified. Of course they would be for they expected that this could only mean that God was coming back with a vengeance. This of course led to a discussion of Jesus as the forgiving victim and the shalom of the resurrection narratives.

About 3/4 of the way through the day I was using Hans Urs von Balthasar’s understanding of ‘theodrama’ and explicating the Passion Narrative observing that Jesus’ life was suffused with the concept of forgiveness, that forgiveness was the one theme that permeated all the various genres of stories found in the Synoptics and then suggested that the three acts of Jesus’ life (Incarnation, Life and Teachings, and Death) meant that the Gospel would normally be understood as a tragedy. Then we discussed the epilogue: the resurrection narratives where I circled back round to Acts 2 and spoke of the three part final act (the fourth act) where the resurrection was the liberation of the scapegoat, the ascension of Jesus and his session at the right hand of God was the vindication of the scapegoat, and the sending of the holy Spirit was the means of converting us from persecutors to advocates of the victim. Each of these (resurrection, session, and sending of the Spirit) are all part of the Final Day, they are all eschatological.

At this point two blokes joined the conversation. They had come to hear “the American preacher.” So I brought them up to speed thinking they were on the same page as the others that were already there for the previous four hours. As I was discussing Jesus’ death as a scapegoat and how the Passion Narrative is structured as myth (all against one, false charges, trial, death) their body language became rigid and they began interrupting me with “The Bible says…” As one text was thrown out (say Isaiah 53) I invited the group to turn to it so I could exegete it and no sooner would I start talking about that text when they would throw out two or three more (“But the Bible says…”). I recall at that point bringing up Rule #4 of my Facebook page which states “thou shalt not quote a Bible verse without exegeting it.” They had no clue what I was talking about. I knew I was in some deep doo-doo.

When they tossed out Hebrews 9:22, I invited the group to turn there, and for those of you familiar with my work, proceeded to exegete Heb 9:22 in the light of Heb 10:1-8. At that point one of the fellows began calling me a heretic and a blasphemer, getting all in my face. I did my level best to remain calm and suggest that we examine the text. This barrage of insults kept up for about three or four minutes when it was declared that I was a false prophet of whom the Scriptures declared would appear at the end of time. Then the bloke said “this fellow is a heretic. Raise your hands if you agree with me.” Of course only that fellow and his comrade and one other person raised their hands whilst the majority sat there in stunned silence. The two blokes got up and did their ‘Christian’ cursing of me reminding the others that they should not listen to my ‘satanic lies.’ And they left all building all the while mumbling Bible verses.

When we re-gathered, my host Andrew pointed out that while I had been talking about scapegoating and how our view of God and atonement influences the way we act in relation to one another, these blokes had brought their PSA view and had acted it out! If they would have had a cross, a hammer and some nails, surely I might have been crucified! They had sought to make me their scapegoat.

This is the problem with PSA when it is combined with Evangelical certainty and zeal, a poisonous and deadly mix to be sure.

After the seminar was over, Andrew and I went down to the John Rylands Library where I could fulfill a thirty-five year old dream of viewing the oldest papyrus of any New Testament document, a fragment from Jesus’ passion narrative from the Gospel of John (dated to around 125 C.E.). As I stood there marveling at this fragment all I could think about was that Christians haven’t learned much at all from Jesus’ death if today, almost 2,000 years later they would do to another what was done to Jesus AND FOR THE SAME REASONS!

PSA (penal substitution atonement theory) is poison. It is a way of reading Scripture that has deep sociological implications. To believe in PSA is not to believe in the gospel which, in fact, is dead set against it! Why? Because those who have a sacrificial reading of the Bible and who believe in a god that requires blood in order to be reconciled have a god as ancient as the gods we have made in our own twisted image, a god that comes from darkness and leads only to death and darkness. When the Christian god looks more like Satan than Jesus, there is a problem with that god.

Later that night after supper with my hosts Angie and Dave Tunstall, bread and wine were brought to the table. There we reflected on how we are all persecutors, how we all break bread, how we all killed Jesus, the proof of which lies in the fact that we all scapegoat others. Then we turned to the cup which, unlike the blood of Abel, does not announce vengeance, but instead offers forgiveness. At that point I realized that it was my turn to be like the crucified Jesus and forgive the fellows who had come earlier that day to turn me into one more sacrificial victim. “Papa, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.”

I had to do that. I had to forgive them. how could I not? And so it was that I leave Manchester, not with one story but two. An almost scapegoating and a meal where I named myself as just like them, as a persecutor who had received forgiveness from Jesus.  Then like Jesus I could then turn and forgive them. My understanding of the atonement allows, indeed compels, this sort of sociological-ethical behavior, their PSA theory did not.

Needless to say I did not stew about the day or let it bother me as I feel asleep last night. I was at peace. So thanks Andrew for blessing me with the seminar and the visit to see the Greek papyrus and thank you Angie and Dave for the blessing of your hospitality and sharing in Jesus’ Eucharistic meal. Yesterday was one for the books and I shall always remember the whole day as a blessing!