Bad Friday
In Christianity this is Good Friday, the day Jesus was killed by the Romans, but I always think of it as Bad Friday because of the horrible suffering ...
What I've never understood about most Christians is why they seem to really really like that Jesus was murdered amid a whole lot of suffering. In my opinion, Jesus would have been resurrected no matter how or when he died, and I don't think it was God's plan that he be tortured to death at an early age ... it's just the awful way things turned out. It's not just me who doesn't buy the creepy atonement theory ...
Here's a bit from an article by Richard Leonard SJ ...
God did not need the blood of Jesus. Jesus did not just come ‘to die’ but God used his death to announce the end to death. This is the domain of ‘offer it up’ theology: it was good enough for Jesus to suffer; it is good enough for you. While I am aware of St Paul in Romans, St Clement of Alexandria, St Anselm of Canterbury and later John Calvin’s work on atonement theory and satisfaction theology, I cannot baldly accept that the perfect God of love set [us] up for a fall in the Fall, then got so angry with us that only the grisly death of his perfect son was going to repair the breach between us. This is not the only way into the mystery of Holy Week. For most of Christian history the question that has vexed many believers seems to be, ‘Why did Jesus die?’ I think it is the wrong question. The right one is ‘Why was Jesus killed?’ And that puts the last days of Jesus’ suffering and death in an entirely new perspective. Jesus did not simply and only come to die. Rather, Jesus came to live. As a result of the courageous and radical way he lived his life, and the saving love he embodied for all humanity, he threatened the political, social and religious authorities of his day so much that they executed him. But God had the last word on Good Friday: Easter Sunday.
More ...
- The Incarnation: Why God Wanted to Become Human by Ken Overberg SJ
- BBC Radio 4 Lent Talks by Jeffrey John
- Duns Scotus and the meaning of Love by Seamus Mulholland OFM
What I've never understood about most Christians is why they seem to really really like that Jesus was murdered amid a whole lot of suffering. In my opinion, Jesus would have been resurrected no matter how or when he died, and I don't think it was God's plan that he be tortured to death at an early age ... it's just the awful way things turned out. It's not just me who doesn't buy the creepy atonement theory ...
Here's a bit from an article by Richard Leonard SJ ...
God did not need the blood of Jesus. Jesus did not just come ‘to die’ but God used his death to announce the end to death. This is the domain of ‘offer it up’ theology: it was good enough for Jesus to suffer; it is good enough for you. While I am aware of St Paul in Romans, St Clement of Alexandria, St Anselm of Canterbury and later John Calvin’s work on atonement theory and satisfaction theology, I cannot baldly accept that the perfect God of love set [us] up for a fall in the Fall, then got so angry with us that only the grisly death of his perfect son was going to repair the breach between us. This is not the only way into the mystery of Holy Week. For most of Christian history the question that has vexed many believers seems to be, ‘Why did Jesus die?’ I think it is the wrong question. The right one is ‘Why was Jesus killed?’ And that puts the last days of Jesus’ suffering and death in an entirely new perspective. Jesus did not simply and only come to die. Rather, Jesus came to live. As a result of the courageous and radical way he lived his life, and the saving love he embodied for all humanity, he threatened the political, social and religious authorities of his day so much that they executed him. But God had the last word on Good Friday: Easter Sunday.
More ...
- The Incarnation: Why God Wanted to Become Human by Ken Overberg SJ
- BBC Radio 4 Lent Talks by Jeffrey John
- Duns Scotus and the meaning of Love by Seamus Mulholland OFM
posted by crystal | 12:46 PM
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