Friday
John 18:1-19:37; Isaiah 52:13-53:12
John’s detailed story of the arrest, crucifixion, and burial of Jesus
is intricately interwoven with the Song of the Suffering Servant in
Isaiah. John’s interpretation of the life and death of Jesus is
substitutionary atonement and fulfillment of scripture. Nearly three
millennia of tradition and belief, visual art, musical art, and film
confirm the basic belief of all Christianity. “Surely he has
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. . . he was wounded for our
transgressions . . . and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us
all.” There isn’t a choir member on the Planet who has not sung
these choruses from Handel’s great Messiah.
For hundreds of years, the account in John’s Gospel has been used to
justify the violent persecution of Jews. Only recently has the
institutional Church begun to repudiate the heresy that “the Jews
killed Jesus.” The sayings in the mouth of John’s Jesus
throughout John’s Gospel have been used to exclude and condemn anyone
who challenges Church authority; anyone who refuses to accept Jesus as
“Lord”; anyone of another religion. Entire civilizations have
been destroyed in the name of John’s Christ.
The question for 21st Century Christians is not whether you accept
Jesus as your Lord and Savior, but whether your Jesus – your Christ –
your Lord – your God – is violent, demanding retributive justice, or
non-violent, expecting and desiring distributive
justice-compassion. The choice we make regarding the nature of
our God determines the quality of life for all sentient beings on the
Planet. The non-violent, non-interventionist, kenotic God,
without ego, without being, is the context within which and from which
the earth and all its creatures realize wholeness. It is the work
of the kenotic – and therefore “suffering” – Servant to make that
wholeness – that justice-compassion – manifest.
(For a complete discussion of the meaning of “distributive” versus
“retributive justice,” please read the work of John Dominic Crossan,
Marcus J. Borg, and the other theologians associated with the Westar Institute (the “Jesus
Seminar”). See also Change the Paradigm V: Spring and the New Moon.)
