Palm Sunday and the man

I’ve been able to get to a couple of Lent meetings this year.  They’ve been run using the first of the C of E’s ‘pilgrim’ course (‘What do Christians believe’), which is very good. (www.pilgrimcourse.org) 

During session 3, which looks in more detail at who Christians believe Jesus is, it occurred to me the although Jesus is both God and man, divine and human, the focus of Christians today tends to be on the divinity of Christ, and his humanity is often side-lined.  For me although both aspects of his nature are equally important I have more recently been finding his humanness an area of real revelation.

As an example we have in (Mark 11:11-26 and Matt. 21:10-22) the incident of Jesus cursing the fig tree.  Jesus is hungry and seeing a fig tree he looks for fruit and seeing none he curses the tree saying “May you never bear fruit again!”  Later the disciples pass the same way and notice that the fig tree has withered (Mark 11:20, 21).  Many read some divine purpose and forethought in Jesus action – an intentional demonstration of his power.  For me it is a straightforward record of a hungry man cursing when he doesn’t find hoped for food, demonstrating a very human frustration.  That the tree then withers also demonstrates his divinity.

This event comes after triumphal entry into Jerusalem when he receives the adulation of the crowd while riding on a donkey.  Again this is usually seen as an unexpected, unplanned, and therefore divinely arranged event by many following the story today.  But Jesus was a deeply well-read scholar of the scriptures.  He knew that Zechariah 9:9 prophesied “See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey…”  And, knowing his destiny from this scripture he, as a man, will surely have arranged beforehand for the provision of the donkey, the owner anticipating that men would subsequently come to borrow the donkey saying, when challenged, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.” (Mark 11:3).

Something that seems to be missed in a fundamental way is that Jesus was a man of deep faith.  He believed in the destiny that God had set before him, he set out in faith to comply with the prophesies about the Messiah, and was obedient to this role right up to his death. “…being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:8).

Coalition

Given the situation that faced the Country in 2010, with no overall majority following the General Election, the Coalition has been a good thing.  Whether you are a Conservative or Liberal Democrat or neither, a Government formed by the Conservatives tempered by the Liberal Democrats has done well, with the economy nurtured back from the brink and, what would be viewed by many voters as, the excesses of a ‘Conservative only’ government have been avoided.

To achieve this Nick Clegg had to take a Statesman-like decision in the Country’s interest and risk the significant criticism and slump in popularity that he and his party have since experienced.

Public sector cuts were required to restore the economy.  The public sector had grown to an unsustainable size in any case.  Large numbers of senior and middle manager posts (highly paid posts contributing very little to the performance of their particular service) needed to go.  And this readjustment should be welcomed.

It now looks likely that there will be no party with an overall majority following the next election.  Alarm has been expressed that significant influence will be held by a minority party (the SNP or possibly UKIP, for example) able to influence policy because its votes are needed in parliament by whichever party is in Government.  

Well to an extent this will be the will of the voters in the UK, and parliamentarians should be expected to work out a way of working with the situation following the election.  Many countries in Europe have already had to do this for many years and have been successful, not least Germany.  Proportional Representation, which would require coalitions to be formed after every election, must be the future for this country.  The feeling that one’s vote has no influence is probably behind the voter apathy that concerns many, and true proportional representation would immediately address this.

However, the big parties are even now considering a ‘grand coalition’ following the election, simply to remove the need to grant smaller parties any influence.  (It should be borne in mind that the number of votes cast for minor parties is far larger in proportion to the number of seats that they win).   

A grand coalition where the two major parties, with largely opposing policies, are willing to get together solely because they cannot bear the thought of relinquishing any power to the influence of others, would be utterly anti-democratic.

Russell Brand - Is There a God? YES!

I don't really like listening to Russell Brand, but without a doubt he is very influential, especially with young people. This piece however is intelligent, well articulated, and insightful. Well worth a look:

Atonement

As promised – my own thoughts on the meaning of the cross.  

I've felt obliged to start with a summary of orthodox understanding in order to set the scene for my own thoughts later on. Please do read to the end and don't be put off by 'yet another christian banging on about the cross' at the beginning.

The clear evangelical position on the meaning of the crucifixion and resurrection is termed Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA).  In a nutshell this means that Christ paid the penalty for the sins of the whole world when he willingly surrendered to execution by the Romans, thereby becoming a sacrifice to cover all of our sins, now and in the future. This is the clear teaching of the whole of scripture: 

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.  We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53 v5, 6)

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,(1 Corinthians 15 v3,4)

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5 v8)

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10 v45)

  are examples of many passages that lead to this doctrine.  

In the Old Testament sins were redeemed through animal sacrifice (Leviticus Ch14 and Ch15).  So to be able to pay the price for the sins of the whole world this sacrifice had to be significant indeed.  In fact only the sacrifice of God himself on our behalf could possibly do it, and so the fact of the resurrection becomes vital in the story. For the resurrection demonstrates that Jesus was truly God: And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins (1 Corinthians 15 v17).

These facts are central to Christian belief. The physical death and bodily resurrection are vital truths without which Christianity has no foundation.  

But now we come to the objection of many (notably in recent times Steve Chalke: Atonement debate) that God must be some kind of monster to demand such sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin.  If he is God why cannot he just forgive?  After all, that’s what we do.  

This now leads us to the observation that clearly in the Old Testament, God is not a fan of sacrifice: “The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats”(Isaiah 1 v11), and

“You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.  My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise”(Psalm 51 v16,17) 

and in the New Testament: 

“But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt 9 v13). 

So why sacrifice, requiring the death of something?  Girard’s Mimetic Theory provides a solution. It proposes that in the earliest human communities the practice of sacrifice was developed as a solution to bad seasons and crop failures, and other unexplained difficulties for early human groups.  (For a clear explanation about how this anthropological theory works see “Compassion Or Apocalypse?: A comprehensible guide to the thought of Rene Girard” by James Warren (www.amazon.co.uk)).  

But in essence, sacrifice involving the death of something can be seen as a human device, not a divine one.  An effort by early human society to pacify the gods, which then developed with the passage of time into a requirement for a sacrificial price through the death of something to cover the penalty for sins.  Animals were sacrificed as a substitute for the human who needed redemption.  

So now in Jesus we have a saviour who has paid the sacrificial price for every level of sin that we are likely to commit: Have we done something that should require our arrest – he’s done that, something that would lead to our friends deserting us? Something that would make someone spit at us? beat us?, flog us?, and ultimately, something that would require our execution? He’s been through that.

But God does not require such a sacrifice, we do, and God sent Christ to the cross not to satisfy his need for a sacrifice, but to satisfy ours.  God could just forgive us, without any need for sacrifice, it is we who require sacrifice in order to be convinced that the required price has been paid.  

Which makes his sacrifice on our behalf, not to appease God but to satisfy us (“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” (Matt 27 v23)), all the more remarkable.

In the sun

Happy New Year

A YouTube video for the New Year (Michael Stipe and Coldplay).  The creator of this video has shown real artistry in the placement of images to accompany the lyrics.  To me it speaks of our search and longing for meaning in life.  "May God's love be with you always".