Reading forsakeness through the lens of the Old Testament

Today is Good Friday, the day the church remembers the death of Jesus.  As Christians gather tonight, many sermons will be preached that will expound upon the meaning of this death.  The variety of interpretations will be great.  This demonstrates the multiplicity of images in the New Testiment witness to Jesus’ death and the contextual nature of theology.  So I will add my two cents to all of the theologizing that will be taking place tonight.

 In Mark and Matthew’s account of Christ’s death, Jesus cries out on the cross “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  In my theology class this week, a student referenced that passage to support the idea that at that moment the sin of the world was placed upon Jesus and God turned God’s back upon the Son.  At that moment the Son was separated from the Father because the Son was covered by sin and no longer acceptable to God. 

There are many reasons why I disagree with that interpretation; but I will offer only one.  Read Psalm 22 (the psalm that Jesus quotes from), the psalmist feels forsaken by God not because s/he is sinful, but rather because s/he is faithful and more importantly because s/he knows the God of Israel to be faithful. 

Forsakeness in the OT is often a paradox: “Why do the righteous suffer?”  The righteous suffer because they oppose evil, they defend the widow and the orphan, they relentlessly offer forgiveness, they practice sabbath, they worship a God who can’t be seen…  The testimony of the psalmists and the lives of the prophets reveal to us over and over again that this is true: if you are obedient to God suffering will follow. 

Jesus is the fulfillment of Israel.  He more than anyone else lives the life of a righteous and obedient follower of God.  He non-violently opposes evil, he offers radical forgiveness, he proclaims the year of God’s favor, and how is he re-payed, he is killed.  Not by God, but by the evil of this world.  God then raises Jesus from the dead and identifies God’s life with the life of Jesus.  God establishes that what Jesus did, God does, has done and forever will do. God will continually confront evil and violence with self-sacrificial love and despite the deathly opposition, in the end, the life of God (resurrection) will triumph.

Jesus died for….?

How would you end that sentence? The answer might role off your tongue or it may cause you to stumble. Whatever the case may be for you, it is a question that is being re-examined today. Why did Jesus die? And what (if anything) did his death accomplish?

I recently wrote a paper tracing the understanding of Christ’s death as victory (Christus Victor) throughout church history. It is an ancient concept that has made headway in recent years. In essence the death of Jesus in the Christus Victor model is not a payment to God for the penalty of humanity’s sin; rather it is the result of divine conflict with the powers of evil. Jesus assumes humanity within himself and suffers death in order to triumph over it through resurrection.