Doing the Truth in Love: Conversations about God, Relationships and Service by Michael J. Himes

Author:Michael J. Himes [Himes, Michael J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL109000
ISBN: 9781616432690
Publisher: Paulist Press
Published: 2012-07-18T07:00:00+00:00

II. Jesus and the Cross

Within the Christian tradition, we claim that there is one particular point in our experience, in our world, in our history, where everything that we mean by God is embodied, absolutely displayed before us, completely present to us. In the life, death, and destiny of Jesus of Nazareth we see in human terms what it means to be God.

So a very great deal obviously depends on what we say about Jesus of Nazareth. And if what I shall now say does not shock you, then you have thought long and wisely about what we ought to say about Jesus. We may feel uncomfortable saying what is clearly the truth about Jesus of Nazareth: he was a monumental failure. Indeed, the whole point of the gospel is that Jesus of Nazareth failed. The gospels do not tell the story of someone who succeeds in his mission. Rather, they are the story of one who undertook an immense task and failed.

The gospel tells of one who came to proclaim the kingdom of God is upon us. Have you noticed the kingdom recently? Have you bumped into it lately? Nineteen centuries later and there is not a great deal of evidence that Jesus was right. He proclaimed that the meek would inherit the earth. And has anyone noticed that happening? Jesus announced that peacemakers would be called the children of God. More often they are called busybodies and pests. He promised that those who hunger and thirst for justice would be satisfied. Oh? He informed us that those who are sorrowful would be consoled. Really? All sorrow gone? The fact is that again and again we find that the message he proclaimed does not seem to have worked. Jesus selected a group of twelve close associates. One betrayed him, one repeatedly denied him, and the others ran away when he was arrested. He ended by being excommunicated by his religious tradition and executed as a criminal by his government. He died by public torture and was buried in someone else’s grave. Not a whopping success by any standard.

The striking image of the cross no longer hits us with its full force. We have tamed it into a religious symbol and have lost its shocking, scandalous quality. The cross is an instrument of torture. What an astonishing thing that a religious community should take as its primary symbol an instrument for torturing people to death. It would be like a religious community today choosing as its chief symbol a gallows or an electric chair or a gas chamber. Our principal symbol for the absolute love and power of God is a means of execution—and that tells you much about Jesus as a failure. For the Christian claim is that God is not the one who comes into the world and conquers it; rather God is the one who comes into the world and loses everything, even his life. When the fullness of the presence of God enters our world, it

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