Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 12:12am
Why did Jesus die?
Column: New Houses from Old Bricks
This weekend I am leading a retreat for middle school students entitled "Why did Jesus die?" It doesn't sound like a particularly uplifting topic for a high-energy overnight, I know. But in our study of the New Testament this year, we can't avoid tackling this topic so central to Christian faith.
Better to do so when we have enough time to explore it, I thought, rather than skim over it in a one-hour lesson. Plus, it's a great connection to Lent, I reasoned. And, back when we printed the schedule last fall, it offered such nice symmetry with our December retreat, "Why was Jesus born?" For all those reasons and more, now I'm stuck with this intriguing challenge.
How do you talk about death at all with 12- and 13-year-olds, much less about this specific, distant death that nevertheless affects them personally? Jesus' death and resurrection overcame all human sin and brokenness and evil. But what meaning does that have to kids who aren't yet deeply in touch with their own brokenness and sin, and whom we are still trying to shield from the world's evil, as best we can?
Factor in the difficulty that different strands of Christian tradition preach different answers to this question, many of which are biblically valid. So do we tell them that Jesus died because the human race was so terrible that we should have died, except Jesus was sent in as substitute and took the punishment that we deserved? That theory says, "You and I are so bad that we killed Jesus." While the theory has strong biblical roots, the guilt is a heavy burden for adults to carry around, much less adolescents barely out of childhood. And by itself, it expresses inadequately God's love for the world.
So then, do we ignore the very real fact of our own sin, and tell them that Jesus died because he was so full of God's love that the world just couldn't tolerate it? Or, taking that theory one step further, do we tell them that Jesus' death was a result of power plays between religion and politics of the time? That theory also has merit (and is less likely to disturb young minds), but it is so safely bounded by history, that it makes Jesus' death seem completely irrelevant to their lives and faith.
With all these theories floating around, I'm thinking that this is a good time to help these kids understand the concept of "paradox." For instance: As humans, we contain some really terrible impulses and experiences and potentials. AND: As creatures beloved by God, we are worth dying for.
As young humans beginning to perceive those impulses and potentials, they might understand this kind of paradox. Or at least their parents will; anyone who lives or works with teenagers sees this paradox almost daily. I first saw it from an outside perspective many years ago, when I was directing a day camp for middle-schoolers. One day they were industriously and happily working together to construct and paint a city out of large appliance boxes. They were working so well on their own that my co-director and I drifted to the edges of the crowd.
Then, the energy turned. We never saw it coming. Suddenly, they were working just as hard to destroy the city they had just created. After we quickly channeled their energy in a new direction, my co-director sagely observed that adolescents must contain extraordinary amounts of both creative and destructive energy — and you never know which one will surface at any given moment.
Of course, it's not just adolescents. This paradox practically defines our humanity. We can create, and we can destroy. We are saint, and we are sinner. We are worth dying for, and we deserve death ourselves for the deep darkness of our hearts.
So this weekend, perhaps deciding on the cause(s) of Jesus' death isn't as important as proclaiming the results: Death does not have the last word. We are not defeated, ultimately, by anything we do or anything that happens to us. We know that Jesus keeps company with those who suffer, and that there is nothing we could possibly experience that Jesus has not already known — betrayal, want, pain, temptation, loneliness, death.
And one more thing, too: Jesus' death gives us a better knowledge of ourselves as saint and sinner. I hope the middle-schoolers catch a realistic glimpse of their own mortality and sin, AND of their belovedness to God. I hope they come away with two sayings to keep in their pockets, as the Hasidic saying advises: in one pocket, "For my sake the world was created," and in the other pocket, "I am but dust and ashes."
I hope this knowledge can be a seed which grows into faith, in the Christ who loved them enough to die, and who loves them enough to bring them into unending life.
— — —
Rev. Rebecca Schlatter is an ordained minister in the Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Reno, Nevada. You can contact her at {email newhousesfromoldbricks@hotmail.com}newhousesfromoldbricks@hotmail.com{/email}. © Copyright 2008 by Rebecca Schlatter.
Better to do so when we have enough time to explore it, I thought, rather than skim over it in a one-hour lesson. Plus, it's a great connection to Lent, I reasoned. And, back when we printed the schedule last fall, it offered such nice symmetry with our December retreat, "Why was Jesus born?" For all those reasons and more, now I'm stuck with this intriguing challenge.
How do you talk about death at all with 12- and 13-year-olds, much less about this specific, distant death that nevertheless affects them personally? Jesus' death and resurrection overcame all human sin and brokenness and evil. But what meaning does that have to kids who aren't yet deeply in touch with their own brokenness and sin, and whom we are still trying to shield from the world's evil, as best we can?
Factor in the difficulty that different strands of Christian tradition preach different answers to this question, many of which are biblically valid. So do we tell them that Jesus died because the human race was so terrible that we should have died, except Jesus was sent in as substitute and took the punishment that we deserved? That theory says, "You and I are so bad that we killed Jesus." While the theory has strong biblical roots, the guilt is a heavy burden for adults to carry around, much less adolescents barely out of childhood. And by itself, it expresses inadequately God's love for the world.
So then, do we ignore the very real fact of our own sin, and tell them that Jesus died because he was so full of God's love that the world just couldn't tolerate it? Or, taking that theory one step further, do we tell them that Jesus' death was a result of power plays between religion and politics of the time? That theory also has merit (and is less likely to disturb young minds), but it is so safely bounded by history, that it makes Jesus' death seem completely irrelevant to their lives and faith.
With all these theories floating around, I'm thinking that this is a good time to help these kids understand the concept of "paradox." For instance: As humans, we contain some really terrible impulses and experiences and potentials. AND: As creatures beloved by God, we are worth dying for.
As young humans beginning to perceive those impulses and potentials, they might understand this kind of paradox. Or at least their parents will; anyone who lives or works with teenagers sees this paradox almost daily. I first saw it from an outside perspective many years ago, when I was directing a day camp for middle-schoolers. One day they were industriously and happily working together to construct and paint a city out of large appliance boxes. They were working so well on their own that my co-director and I drifted to the edges of the crowd.
Then, the energy turned. We never saw it coming. Suddenly, they were working just as hard to destroy the city they had just created. After we quickly channeled their energy in a new direction, my co-director sagely observed that adolescents must contain extraordinary amounts of both creative and destructive energy — and you never know which one will surface at any given moment.
Of course, it's not just adolescents. This paradox practically defines our humanity. We can create, and we can destroy. We are saint, and we are sinner. We are worth dying for, and we deserve death ourselves for the deep darkness of our hearts.
So this weekend, perhaps deciding on the cause(s) of Jesus' death isn't as important as proclaiming the results: Death does not have the last word. We are not defeated, ultimately, by anything we do or anything that happens to us. We know that Jesus keeps company with those who suffer, and that there is nothing we could possibly experience that Jesus has not already known — betrayal, want, pain, temptation, loneliness, death.
And one more thing, too: Jesus' death gives us a better knowledge of ourselves as saint and sinner. I hope the middle-schoolers catch a realistic glimpse of their own mortality and sin, AND of their belovedness to God. I hope they come away with two sayings to keep in their pockets, as the Hasidic saying advises: in one pocket, "For my sake the world was created," and in the other pocket, "I am but dust and ashes."
I hope this knowledge can be a seed which grows into faith, in the Christ who loved them enough to die, and who loves them enough to bring them into unending life.
— — —
Rev. Rebecca Schlatter is an ordained minister in the Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Reno, Nevada. You can contact her at {email newhousesfromoldbricks@hotmail.com}newhousesfromoldbricks@hotmail.com{/email}. © Copyright 2008 by Rebecca Schlatter.