The Atonement - Who Killed Jesus

To be relevant in the 21st century, Lutherans should be clear about the atonement.

If you "google" atonement you will find that many people have written extensively on the subject. I've read much of this stuff and what strikes me is that people use a lot of words to obfuscate what they really want to say. Books have been written on the atonement and there just isn't that much to say about it. 

When you strip away the blathering, the atonement comes down to one essential question. Who killed Jesus?

The answer is - "we killed Jesus"

Listed below are several of the atonement theories and you will note that all but one (the Liberation theory) attributes the murder of Jesus to God. Why anyone would worship such a God remains a mystery to me. Lutherans in the 21st century  must clean up our language and speak clearly about the atonement. Our hymnody is filled with blood lust and revenge and ransom language. Granted the new hymnal has cleaned up a lot of it but we need to repudiate all but the liberation theories of the atonement.

The Satisfaction Theory

• Developed by medieval theologian Anselm
• Also known as the Blood Theory
• God chooses to intervene so that sinners can avoid  punishment even tho they are guilty
• Because we are incapable of saving ourselves - no effort on human’s part means God does the killing
• The atheistic refusal to worship such a monster is an act of pure religion

The Love Theory or Christus Victor

• God reveals God’s love for us by sending God’s Son to identify with us and to offer his life as proof of the depth of God’s love.
• John 3:16
• God is the initiator of Jesus’ death.
• This is child abuse.

The Representational Theory

• Jesus becomes one of us so completely that he takes on all our sin and becomes the greatest of all sinners. Luther helped promulgate this theory.
• Still a Christology from above. God is responsible for the death of Jesus.
• God still commits an unconscionable sin.

The Liberation Theory

• Christology from below repudiates the notion that God killed Jesus.
• The powers that be killed Jesus
• Jesus did not come down from heaven to undergo birth from a virgin’s womb
• He experienced rebirth through the baptism of John.
• God did not incarnate Him – He incarnated God.

Why did the “powers that be” kill Jesus?

• Jesus hammered out the first consistent critique of the domination system since the world began.
• Virtually everything Jesus said or did involved unmasking the domination system
• Jesus was setting the captives free and the captors were not happy
• Jesus death was consistent with his life
• He shows that God is not just liberating
• He shows the consequences of following such a God in a world organized for exploitation and greed.
• If you want to follow me – deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me.
• SERVICE TO OTHERS – this is the essence of who we/Christ are.