A journey from darkness into life
This week’s reflection builds on CQ13's focus on Jesus’ ministry by exploring how Christians understand the meaning of his suffering, death and resurrection.
Of course, we are referring to the intense journey that begins with Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, as the Jewish feast of Passover approaches. The events then gather pace: Jesus shares the Passover meal with his disciples on Holy Thursday evening, known as the Last Supper; he is betrayed and arrested later that night; he is tortured and killed on Good Friday; he is buried; and, on Easter Sunday, he is restored to new life and appears first to Mary Magdalene and then to his closest disciples.
These events are not only remembered as history. For Christians, they raise the central question of what Jesus’ suffering and death mean for humanity and for the way we understand God.
Christians interpret the meaning of these events in different ways. One view is that sin creates an imbalance that must be put right. In this understanding, God forgives, but the damage caused by human actions cannot simply be ignored. Jesus’ death is therefore seen as the sacrifice that restores justice and brings what sin has disturbed back into balance.
Another view recognises the need for sin’s effects to be healed, but places love at the centre of that healing. Love is the most powerful healing force in the universe, and God is love. Just as darkness can only be overcome by light, the darkness of sin and death is overcome by the self-giving love Jesus shows when he hands himself over to those who would seek to destroy him. In this view, Jesus’ suffering and death are not about God requiring a price to be paid. Rather, because Jesus is God, they reveal God taking our woundedness into himself so that we may receive the eternal life God has always wanted for us. Jesus’ death is therefore not something God does to Jesus as a punishment, but something God allows humanity to do to God as a sign of his love. God allows this so that, in Jesus Christ, we can experience that suffering and death are not the end of life, but the entry into that life.
Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection change the lens through which Christians view human suffering and death. These realities are painful and real, yet, in the light of God’s love and promise of new life, they do not define us or our future.