Brian, thank you. Your interpretation of the Gospels (and your reframing of the Easter story) is the one I can still get behind and it speaks to me, when most other voices no longer do.
Thanks so much for this well-written expression of the Divine standing with the oppressed. As a preacher's kid myself, I've always had a hard time with the idea of "appeasing an angry God" as a reason for the Crucifixion. I once had an experience in a labyrinth walk where I came to the epiphany that my dad was a better father than the God that he preached - that if we heard of a neighbor who treated his children the way we were saying God treats us, we'd call in Child Protective Services. No - God is Love, and God stands with and holds the oppressed (and the oppressors, though not their actions) in love. Thank you, Brian, for naming this so clearly.
I have long associated the cross with hate and destruction. I cannot stand the hymn about the old rugged cross as I see the image of crosses burning on the lawns of the innocent. Thank you for expressing your thoughts in this well articulated essay.
Brian, thank you for dragging the cross down off the velvet felt board and back into the street, where it belongs.
Because let’s be clear: the cross was never about satisfying a wrathful God—it was about exposing a wrathful us. It wasn’t divine justice. It was state-sponsored lynching, with hymns.
And guess what? We still do it. Every time empire needs a scapegoat, it finds the vulnerable and nails them up—now with legislation instead of nails, Fox News instead of Pilate.
If Jesus walked into America today, he wouldn’t be handing out Chick-fil-A coupons. He’d be sitting in a circle of trans kids, handing the mic to the ones everyone’s trying to silence. Then he’d get crucified again—probably livestreamed.
And you can bet the same people shouting “protect the children” would be swinging the hammer.
If your theology can't find Jesus among the scapegoats, you missed the whole damn point.
I don’t follow a God who demanded a sacrifice. I follow the scapegoat who tore the temple curtain on his way out of that theological hostage situation.
Crucifixion isn’t a metaphor. It’s policy.
And resurrection? That’s God flipping the bird to every empire that ever called injustice holy.
As I was speaking to my children about the cross today, I explained to them that God did not desire the death of Jesus as a means of protecting us from his anger towards us as depraved beings deserving of wrath. God has forever made it known that his desire is for us to love one another as image bearers of Himself. If you follow logic, to harm another person is to commit violence against the image of God and to violate something he created and delights in. The cross imbues humanity with yet another aspect of God in the Holy Spirit. This is once again God doubling down on asking us to “please, please stop hurting each other. I made you in my image, to delight in you, and for you to delight in me. Now I am also in you. Please, please stop hurting each other.” It is abominable to claim to love God, to love Jesus and to continue to commit violence against God-with-us, to perpetuate hatred toward God-with-us. While it is hardly new for human kind to do so, it is a tremendous grief to bear witness to Jesus’ name used in justification of what renders the cross a symbol of human depravity instead of a symbol of God’s enormous, consuming love.
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
Colossians 2:13-14
“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Brian, thank you. Your interpretation of the Gospels (and your reframing of the Easter story) is the one I can still get behind and it speaks to me, when most other voices no longer do.
Thanks so much for this well-written expression of the Divine standing with the oppressed. As a preacher's kid myself, I've always had a hard time with the idea of "appeasing an angry God" as a reason for the Crucifixion. I once had an experience in a labyrinth walk where I came to the epiphany that my dad was a better father than the God that he preached - that if we heard of a neighbor who treated his children the way we were saying God treats us, we'd call in Child Protective Services. No - God is Love, and God stands with and holds the oppressed (and the oppressors, though not their actions) in love. Thank you, Brian, for naming this so clearly.
I have long associated the cross with hate and destruction. I cannot stand the hymn about the old rugged cross as I see the image of crosses burning on the lawns of the innocent. Thank you for expressing your thoughts in this well articulated essay.
Brian, thank you for dragging the cross down off the velvet felt board and back into the street, where it belongs.
Because let’s be clear: the cross was never about satisfying a wrathful God—it was about exposing a wrathful us. It wasn’t divine justice. It was state-sponsored lynching, with hymns.
And guess what? We still do it. Every time empire needs a scapegoat, it finds the vulnerable and nails them up—now with legislation instead of nails, Fox News instead of Pilate.
If Jesus walked into America today, he wouldn’t be handing out Chick-fil-A coupons. He’d be sitting in a circle of trans kids, handing the mic to the ones everyone’s trying to silence. Then he’d get crucified again—probably livestreamed.
And you can bet the same people shouting “protect the children” would be swinging the hammer.
If your theology can't find Jesus among the scapegoats, you missed the whole damn point.
I don’t follow a God who demanded a sacrifice. I follow the scapegoat who tore the temple curtain on his way out of that theological hostage situation.
Crucifixion isn’t a metaphor. It’s policy.
And resurrection? That’s God flipping the bird to every empire that ever called injustice holy.
Food for thought. Thank you!
Amen ❤️🙏
As I was speaking to my children about the cross today, I explained to them that God did not desire the death of Jesus as a means of protecting us from his anger towards us as depraved beings deserving of wrath. God has forever made it known that his desire is for us to love one another as image bearers of Himself. If you follow logic, to harm another person is to commit violence against the image of God and to violate something he created and delights in. The cross imbues humanity with yet another aspect of God in the Holy Spirit. This is once again God doubling down on asking us to “please, please stop hurting each other. I made you in my image, to delight in you, and for you to delight in me. Now I am also in you. Please, please stop hurting each other.” It is abominable to claim to love God, to love Jesus and to continue to commit violence against God-with-us, to perpetuate hatred toward God-with-us. While it is hardly new for human kind to do so, it is a tremendous grief to bear witness to Jesus’ name used in justification of what renders the cross a symbol of human depravity instead of a symbol of God’s enormous, consuming love.
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
Colossians 2:13-14
“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Isaiah 53:5-6