20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate, 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate. [Luke 15:20-24, NRSV]
Earlier in the year “A Prayer for Easter” circulated on social media. The prayer addresses the Father and mentions “the day you turned your back on your son” – pointing to Jesus on the cross.
The people who circulated this prayer probably do not have the slightest clue that they are helping to perpetuate a particular line of theological thinking which unwittingly creates a negative image of God the Father. This image is quite contrary to what Jesus in the Gospels teaches about God. Granted that the Gospels do point to a God of justice and thus of judgment as well. But a singular focus on justice and judgment unfortunately misses the fact that justice and judgment are meant to be understood as divine events at the very intersection with God’s mercy and compassion. Judgment is pronounced where human justice has failed in favour of the Poor and marginalized. The proud and oppressive rich are sent away empty just as the poor and hungry have got to be lifted, fed and consoled. God never turns His back on the suffering Poor. Got never agreed to the vicarious putting to death of an innocent one allegedly to appease His own anger over the sins of the guilty ones. God is not a monster.
Pinioned on the cross, Jesus suffered excruciatingly from the sinful persecution by the religious authorities who took serious offense of his way of acting and teaching. In all that he taught, which he exemplified in the way he lived, Jesus was all about promoting the kingdom of God on earth as in heaven. It was all about living a beautiful and noble life befitting the children of God. He was all about showing people a better way to live in order to return to the way of God.
The Christian religion that came after Jesus, is a religion of love. We believe that God is love, and that God has opened His heart to reveal Himself to us in Jesus Christ. Christ in the Gospels is the face of the compassionate God. Christ is the heart of God for the world. As followers of Christ, that’s what Christians are called to be as well – to be the heart of God for the world.
It is not for nothing that the Gospel writers tell us that down at River Jordan and up on the mountain of Transfiguration, God the Heavenly Father refers to Jesus as “my beloved Son,” in whom God’s favour rests, and that humanity must “listen to him”. This is a love language that points to the ever-presence of the Father to the Son, through joy and pain. Instead of back-turning, the more promising theological argument is that, on the cross, the Father suffered with the Son. We have a God who is capable of “suffering-with” – com-passion. From that familial-love conversation, we hear the voice of love that promises eternal presence and unfailing love wherever the Son may be, whatever he may be doing, or whatever may be done by sinful humanity to him.
Now, the prayer we mentioned at the start of this reflection suggests that somehow, when Jesus hung on the cross, what God the Father saw in Jesus then was a representative of sinful humanity (because he took on all human sins unto himself) whom God must punish to quell His wrath. Out of that reasoning came the claim that “God turned His back on His Son”, as the utmost purity of Divinity could not stand human filth. The Son had to be punished vicariously on behalf of the sinful humanity to satisfy the debt long due to God. It was only after the Son had paid all the sin-debts on behalf of sinful humanity that God’s anger was appeased. And only then did God turn His face back to humanity, so as to enable humanity to once again approach God. This is a popular theological proposal, but one that is as unreal and implausible as it ever gets, both scripturally and in human experience.
In human experience, can parents desire (or plan) the death of a child? If mere mortals would not give a snake to a child asking for food, yet you would accuse the heavenly Father, “angry over human sins”, of insisting that His Son’s blood must spill vicariously on behalf of sinful humanity to appease His anger?
In Scriptures, does Jesus not teach in the Parable of the Prodigal Son about who God is and who we are to Him? Does Jesus not teach that the father-figure (symbolizing God) never turned his back on the pair of insolent and no-good sons, both the younger and the elder? Have you not taken to heart what Pope Francis has taught, that the father DID NOT turn his back on any of the two sons, did not go inside the house, lock the door, and change the lock? Instead, what Jesus clearly teaches in the parable is that the father goes out, first to wait for the younger son’s return and on seeing him, runs to welcome him with hug, kiss, and gifts of goodies, and throwing a huge welcoming party to boot. Then, seeing another crisis brewing where the elder son is concerned, does the father not again go out to search for him and to persuade him, with the same intention of brining him home?
The Father sent the Son not to die but to live, and to show sinning, death-bound, humanity a better way to love and live. That is, to live by the values of the kingdom of God. In other words, God’s will for Jesus the Son was to live a “beautiful and noble life” (per the Dutch New Catechism). Obediently, Jesus embraced the mission to preach all that from one mountain (Sermon on the Mount) and to live and love to the full and to the very end on another mountain (Calvary). The Father would not interrupt Jesus’ mission!
Jesus lived and died for a cause – the establishment of the kingdom or reign of God on earth as in heaven. His followers at the time were empowered to carry on his mission and spread his message. Then as now, disciples of Jesus do not have to see his death as a “penal victimization” suggested by the prayer mentioned at the front. Elizabeth A. Johnson suggests that it is infinitely more powerful to see Jesus’ death as one of “heartbreaking empowerment ” [She Who Is, New York, Crossroad, 1992, p.159]. Jesus on the cross witnesses to a quality of life which is the true life for all. Triumph, disciples of Jesus can truly understand from the Lord, comes through failure. Our resurrection faith no longer sees Calvary as a catastrophe. Instead, the cross is the healing symbol of Jesus’ self-emptying, self-giving, self-transcending work and is in depth and substance a source of joy, peace and liberation for us all. The prayerful suffering and death of Jesus will transform us.
Thus transformed, Peter resolutely announced in his Jerusalem speech on Pentecost, “This Jesus whom you crucified, God raised him up and made him Lord and Christ” [Acts 2:36].
God, in other words, affirmed all that Jesus stood for as being very good, and raised him from the dead. And by raising Jesus from the dead, his Spirit and his values will never die but will live for evermore. In the Resurrection, God declared that Jesus’ evangelical values are humanly achievable. And for us (pro nobis) then, by raising Jesus from the dead, God has begun the process of raising the dead, so that all who die in Christ (i.e., living God’s kingdom values) shall not face eternal death.
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, July 2023. All rights reserved.
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