interpreting the cross – Jesus @ 2 am blogs and podcast

Why was Jesus crucified? Was the cross an act of God (to satisfy the divine wrath)? Was it simply the inevitable result of Jesus’s challenge to the Sadducees and Pharisees? Was he betrayed by followers who felt he had failed his promises to deliver a political kingdom? Or was this an act of sin itself – of evil making it’s last stand against love?

In this second look at the cross – building towards a theory of the atonement that unifies the story of salvation – we examine the crucifixion from these various angles. Ultimately I will try to make the case that the cross is where the love of God was put to its ultimate test. A sinful world rejected God in every way, and, in that moment, God chose to love his enemies with all his heart.

This is a sermon that was originally presented at Canvas (a Presbyterian church in Irvine, CA), April 13, 2014 (Palm Sunday). To learn more about Canvas, click here!

To receive future episodes automatically, simply subscribe by clicking below:

No symbol is more associated with Christianity than the cross. And for good reason. As we will see, the cross is indeed where God’s salvation is accomplished. But too often the cross has been interpreted mainly in terms of Jesus’s physical suffering – as though the means of salvation is the physical torture of the Messiah. (This can lead to the impression that the chief threat is not sin, but God – a God who demands that sin be purged by means of punishment. A view I think is quite a departure from the larger biblical narrative.)

In this episode – the first of three on the cross and the work of salvation – we look at God’s greatest commandment, the command to love, as it is humanity’s ultimate refusal to obey this command that leaves Jesus the one remaining, truly faithful Israelite.

This is a sermon that was originally presented at Canvas (a Presbyterian church in Irvine, CA), April 6, 2014. To learn more about Canvas, click here!

To receive future episodes automatically, simply subscribe by clicking below:

Tag: interpreting the cross

Understanding the Bible 29: The Crucifixion – God Loves His Enemies

Understanding the Bible 28: How We Misunderstand the Cross