WHAT IS YOUR IMAGE OF JESUS?

WHY DID JESUS DIE ON THE CROSS?

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS
DEATH TO OUR LIFE?
PASCHAL MYSTERY
 THEOLOGICAL MODEL OF HIS DEATH
• “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and
dies, it remains only a simple grain but if it
dies, it yields a rich harvest” (John 12:24).
 THEOLOGY OF SATISFACTION
• In theology, it means reparation, compensation,
making amends with a broken relationship, paying
back a debt. When Adam and Eve sinned, they not
only wronged God, they also destroyed God’s order
and marred his glory. Jesus, who is both God and
human, is the right being to pay ransom for us in
order to restore the order. Since the offender is a
human being, only a human being can make amends.
But since it was God who was offended, it is only a
divine being who can restore the honor which is due
God. “The honor must be repaid,” St. Anselm says,
“or punishment must follow.”
• If we ever go through some suffering in our
lives, it is but a meager sharing in the One
who has already paid our debts for us. This
way of thinking about Christ’s paschal mystery
also has its roots in Scriptures. St. Paul says:
“God was in Christ reconciling the world to
himself” (2 Cor. 5:19).
 SOLIDARITY MODEL
• When Jesus cried on the cross, “My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me” (Mark 15:34;
Psalm 22:2), he really felt forsaken by God not
only emotionally, but also to the depths of his
very being – in solidarity with our deepest
pain. In short, God has become so human so
as to suffer our deepest pain.
• Jürgen Moltmann:“a God who cannot suffer is
poorer than any man. For a God who is
incapable of suffering is a being who cannot
be involved. Suffering and injustice do not
affect him. And because he is so completely
insensitive, he cannot be affected or shaken
by anything. He cannot weep, for he has no
tears.
• This solidarity Christology also finds its source
from the Scriptures which says: Jesus humbled
himself, “became obedient unto death, even
death on the cross” (Phil. 2:8). Of course,
death does not have the last word, otherwise
suffering becomes totally senseless and
eternally tragic.
• His resurrection heals our deepest pain,
transforms the face of suffering, conquers our
godforsakenness. But before his rising from
the dead, Jesus has to be godforsaken himself
to be in solidarity with us in those times when
we also cry, “My God, why have you forsaken
me?” As one writer says: “only a suffering God
can help.”
 SOCIO – POLITICAL MODEL
• We have to remember that crucifixion was a
political punishment of rebels against a
powerful state, the Roman Empire. What led
Jesus to the cross was his option for justice
and freedom in defense of the marginalized of
that society.
• What DOROTHEE Söelle reminds us is that
Jesus’ resurrection is only possible in the light
of the violence on the cross which in turn is a
consequence of one’s commitment to work
for the fullness of life in the Kingdom. What
she wants to us to avoid is a cheap Christianity
that takes the cross as mere magical symbol
and “not as the sign of the poor man who was
tortured to death as a political criminal.
• Thus, it was understandable that the Jews
were longing for a political messiah. But,
surprisingly enough, Jesus resisted being
identified as one. His response was not to
become a “revolutionary” like many zealot
rebels; nor did he just preach the conversion
of hearts and consciences like John the
Baptist, his cousin.
• Resurrection is also the manifestation of the
Kingdom of God that he preached about, a
demonstration of what men and women can
hope for and become. The victim, the
marginalized, the accused, the poor man Jesus
that rose up on Easter day became a symbol of
the poor everywhere announcing to them that
the “messiah is in fact one of themselves.”