Question & Answer
Terry Whalen, via the Internet, writes:
Question:
Recently I read your articles on “Atonement Theology.” While I agree with you, I am left with a question. All four gospels give considerable attention to the crucifixion and death of Jesus even more than to the resurrection. Atonement theology explains this. What is your explanation of the importance given to Christ's crucifixion and death in the gospels?
Answer:
Dear Terry,
Clearly it was the death of Jesus that was the revelatory moment for his followers. That is why between 33 and 40% of each gospel deals with the last week of his life. The story of Easter by contrast takes up only eight verses in Mark, one chapter in Matthew, Luke and John, unless you also count the Epilogue in John, chapter 21, which, I believe, was a later addition to the Fourth Gospel.
The primary barrier to faith in Jesus that the first followers of Jesus had to overcome was how could Jesus be messiah and still be put to death. They could not deny the God experience they had with him, but they also could not process the reality of a messiah who had been killed. So they focused all of their attention on explaining his death and they searched the Hebrew Scriptures to find clues that might help them to understand. They found them primarily in two places. First there were the “Servant” passages of Isaiah 40-55 and material inspired by the “Servant” passages, like Psalm 22. Second, there were the “Shepherd King” passages of Zechariah 9-14. Early Christians, who were overwhelmingly Jewish, literally transformed the cross by relating it to those two passages present in the Hebrew Scriptures. Both of these texts say that life is found only when one is able to give life away.
The gospel writers did not skip atonement thinking, but, as Jews, they understood that to the Jews atonement meant forgiveness and a second chance. It was not about Jesus paying the price that God required before forgiveness became possible. It was not about “substitutionary atonement. That concept was added by people living in the third and fourth century, who did not understand the Jewish concept of atonement found primarily in the liturgy of Yom Kippur.
I spelled this out in far more detail that I can in a column in my book entitled Jesus for the Non-Religious. The bottom line is that we must, in my opinion, separate the cross of Jesus from Atonement Theology or Christianity will die.
Hope this helps.
John Shelby Spong
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