What if ...
This week of Creighton U's online retreat has Jesus telling the disciples that he's going to be killed (Mark 10:32-52).
I couldn't help wondering how different things might have been if Jesus had not been executed. That was the question asked by the movie The Last Temptation of Christ, and also asked by Carlos M. N. Eire, the Riggs Professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale, in "What If? 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (Pontius Pilate Spares Jesus: Christianity without the Crucifixion).
All those that have asked the question, though, seem to come at it from an atonement point of view - they believe God sent Jesus to die for our sins - and so a Jesus who wasn't killed means, to them, no resurrection and no reconciliation for us with God. But if one asks the question from an incarnation point of view (Ken Overberg SJ - The Incarnation: Why God Wanted to Become Human), then I don't see why Jesus not being executed would have to mean no resurrection or any diminishment of the worth to us of his incarnation.
I know - strange thoughts - I keep wanting to save Jesus from crucifixion, which I suppose makes me a nut. I need to eat a toasted cheese sandwich, watch some Stargate, and then come back to the retreat with a fresh mind.
In the meantime ... the movie Jesus doesn't have a scene showing Jesus giving the disciple's the bad news of his future death while on the road to Jerusalem, but it does have a neat scene of him discombobulating the disciples by healing the daughter of the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:22-28 ) :) Start watching the video clip at 1:33 ......
I couldn't help wondering how different things might have been if Jesus had not been executed. That was the question asked by the movie The Last Temptation of Christ, and also asked by Carlos M. N. Eire, the Riggs Professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale, in "What If? 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (Pontius Pilate Spares Jesus: Christianity without the Crucifixion).
All those that have asked the question, though, seem to come at it from an atonement point of view - they believe God sent Jesus to die for our sins - and so a Jesus who wasn't killed means, to them, no resurrection and no reconciliation for us with God. But if one asks the question from an incarnation point of view (Ken Overberg SJ - The Incarnation: Why God Wanted to Become Human), then I don't see why Jesus not being executed would have to mean no resurrection or any diminishment of the worth to us of his incarnation.
I know - strange thoughts - I keep wanting to save Jesus from crucifixion, which I suppose makes me a nut. I need to eat a toasted cheese sandwich, watch some Stargate, and then come back to the retreat with a fresh mind.
In the meantime ... the movie Jesus doesn't have a scene showing Jesus giving the disciple's the bad news of his future death while on the road to Jerusalem, but it does have a neat scene of him discombobulating the disciples by healing the daughter of the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:22-28 ) :) Start watching the video clip at 1:33 ......
posted by crystal | 9:14 PM
4 Comments:
Yes, wanting to save someone from torture and death makes you a nut. =P
But a sandwich sounds good, regardless.
Toasty bread, melty cheese ... mmmmm :)
I don't want to start now but some of my imaginary spiritual brain cell friends have what sounds pretty interesting right now to me, myself, I and about 95% of my possible spiritual cells agree with "IT" and they are even planning on helping to write the story and time will tell. Go Figure!
I hear ya! Can't wait to read "IT" after Lent Victor cause sounds almost as crazy as me wanting to save Jesus from The Cross. :)
God Bless Peace
Hi Victor :)
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