In John's one-off gospel, everything has a deeper meaning. Everything is fraught with symbolism. And that is sometimes good, sometimes bad. As in our reading of the Passion tonight, it is bad when John's community tries to make a saint out of Pilate the monster and to make villains out of Jews by fictitious claims. The anti-semitism is palpable and pathetic, reflecting the disappointment and anger of that community at the failure of the Jesus Movement to catch the Jewish imagination. By the time John's gospel came out, Christianity and Judaism had separated, the Church, in her own personal iest bnterest, was seeking a true rapprochement with the Empire, and, so, needed to fictitiously transfer responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus from the Romans, who executed him for treason, over to the Jewish leaders, and indeed the whole Jewish nation!
The symbolism is good when John's community shows Jesus' encounter with the cross as being the result of human sin, and the place where he defeats the powers and dominions of empire, greed, and hatred; and then rises again.. We see Jesus who is loving and forgiving to the very end -- wonderful message.
What happens when we attempt to explain the Cross? Over nearly two millenia, Christian thinkers, inside and after the Bible, have concocted more than a dozen theories of the atonement. All represent fallible human opinion, as faithful people try to create an "explanation" comprehensible in light of the extant culture and self-understanding. All efforts to define a divine Mystery will necessarily fall short.
In one early model, we find God and Satan arguing. Satan agrees to release humanity (which is under his domination) if only God will arrange for the torture and death of his Son, Jesus. God agrees and the deal appears done on Good Friday, but then God raises Jesus and thus gets one over on the Devil.
In another model, we see God's absolute love in Christ on the Cross. We are impelled to begin living the life of Christ and, so, when God sees us he sees Christ and saves us. In the nineteenth century, we find yet another theory -- penal substitutionary atonement -- the darling of evangelicals. In that theory God (seemingly as viewed in ancient Israel) is angry and wants to punish us for failures, but instead decides to arrange an ultimate propitiary sacrifice -- the torture and death of his Son -- and thereby he is appeased, and can accept us. Ask yourself what that theory says about who God is, who Jesus is, and who we are. It isn't a pretty picture.
If I were asked to give an "explanation", I would say that Jesus lived a life totally in harmony with the will of God, completely opposed to the powers of evil and oppression, and without compromise with every false value and every influence that prevents us from being the people we are called to be. The necessary result was his death. However, God refused to let the Dark Side win, raised Jesus, and us with him.
What we can now say is that we believe that in the Cross of Christ God was reconciling the world and showing God's deep love for us, In a real sense, the drama unfolding before us can only be played in the human heart. And it is only there that it can be understood.
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