This
is the final of six posts in which I draw on an article by liberation
theologian, Ignacio Ellacuria,1 to reflect on and seek to re-frame the connected themes of sin,
Jesus' death, and salvation.
-------------------------------------
Jesus died because
he believed in and proclaimed the real historical possibility of a
different kind of world, a world that would subvert and fundamentally
change the existing structures of his time. But his words were a
worry, and the growing enthusiastic response from his followers became
a threat to those who held the power and who benefited from the way
things were, and so on the basis of trumped up charges he was found
guilty and executed.
Jesus'
core message, the salvation
he announces, is the Reign
of God.
Not some far off reality in some distant “celestial” place. Not
something we abide this worldly life for, awaiting our “reward”
after our physical death. No, the salvation he came announcing is
the hope and radical possibility that here in
this
world, on our planetary home called Earth, our lives together can be
fundamentally different. This is what the Gospels are about. This is
what “gospel” means: Good
News!
“This
is the time of fulfillment,” Jesus announces. “The Kingdom of
God is at hand!”
And
the Kingdom, the Reign, he announces is not some unearthly
place in glory flitting among the angels but, rather, a new way of
being right here and now. In the society of first century Israel,
illness, poverty, imprisonment were understood to be the result of
one's own sins or the sins of one's family or ancestors. This is not
unlike our own day where the tendency is to view poverty, crime and even
illness still as reflecting, to a large extent, one's own individual
bad choices somehow disconnected from the social and economic context
in which one lives. We mouth the saying “it takes a village to
raise a child” but often place blame on the lone individual who
goes off course.
Jesus,
on the other hand, turns this perspective on its head. He reaches
out and literally touches the untouchables (see for example Mark
1:40-45) – and those who were outcast find themselves once again
accepted and welcomed back into the community. Instead of blaming
the victim, suggesting that the poor or the criminal deserve the
suffering that is theirs, Jesus baldly proclaims that the imprisoned
will be set free, the oppressed liberated, and the poor will be the
recipients of glad tidings (Luke 4:18-19). This is what he means
when he preaches the Reign of God! Furthermore he challenges those
who would be his followers with the expectation that we will be
neighbor and sister/brother to the rejected ones, the marginalized
and outcasts of our own world (see Matthew 25:31-46 “the judgement
of the nations”; see also the Jesus' comment on the Great
Commandment followed by the parable of the good Samaritan - Luke
10:25-37).
The
Latin American theologian, Ellacuria, does not stop with this
re-framing of our understanding of salvation but takes the reflection
one step further. While confessing that in faith we understand
Jesus' life and death as uniquely reflecting “the definitive
presence of God among human beings,” he reminds us that equally
important is Jesus promise that, through God's spirit, His
(Jesus') mission is continued in us.
He challenges the community of folks who would be his followers to
“take up our own crosses and follow Him.”2
“This continuity,” argues Ellacuria, “is not purely mystical
and sacramental, just as [Jesus' own] activity on earth was not
purely mystical and sacramental. In other words, worship, including
the celebration of the eucharist, is not the whole of the presence
and continuity of Jesus.” In keeping with the theme that our faith
must be practiced historically, must be rooted in real time,
Ellacuria argues that “there must be a
continuation in history
of what he (Jesus) carried out in his life. . .”
"Many suffer so a few may enjoy,
many are dis-possessed so that a few may possess."
many are dis-possessed so that a few may possess."
The
understanding that Ellacuria proposes is that salvation continues to
be proclaimed and struggled for and died for in our world today. This
takes place especially in the lives of the “crucified people, whose
crucifixion is the product of actions in history.” In our world, he
writes, “the majority
of humankind” experiences life as crucifixion, a deliberate and
often times violent death that is the consequence of structures and
systems that benefit the few at the expense of the many. “Many
suffer so a few may enjoy . . . many are dispossessed so that a few
may possess.” This is the way our world is today, writes
Ellacuria, and surely the systems and structures that make our world
like this “must be regarded as sin.” Nevertheless, in the midst
of often unspeakable misery, loss and violence one still encounters -
miraculously we might say - the prominent and palpable presence of
grace in the real lives of suffering people, this in the experience
of real and loving community. And in this reality, against all odds,
is born the hope and belief that life still is victorious over death
“a victory already announced in the resurrection of Jesus, but one
that must be won in a process of following in his steps.” This is
the faith-grounded hope and real, historical reality that we name salvation!
And
so, salvation is not just about ME - as I began with in this series.3
In fact it is not about me, or you, or anyone individually. Rather
it is about our world and the whole human race, about the well-being
of every person (and of every living species and of the survival and
health of the Earth itself). It is less about another world and more
about a new world right here where we are, a world that emerges in
real life, in the concrete, messy realities of human history. A
world envisioned, struggled for, and made real, where all of
humankind live in justice, in caring, in abudance, in healing. Where
the presence and life of a loving and gracious God are found to be
truly present, forming the very core of human community. This is
SALVATION!
_____________________________________________________
1 The
article is reprinted in various collections of Ellacuria's work. It
is also availble online in Spanish
(http://www.seleccionesdeteologia.net/selecciones/llib/vol19/76/076_ellacuria.pdf
2015-03-6)
and
English
(http://www.womenpriests.org/theology/ellacuria.asp 2014-01-18).
2 Note that this statement from Jesus stands out as so central to Jesus' teachings that it is recorded in all three of the synoptic gospels: Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23.
2 Note that this statement from Jesus stands out as so central to Jesus' teachings that it is recorded in all three of the synoptic gospels: Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23.
3 See
the my first post, “Growing up Evangelical,” at
http://spiritandpraxis.blogspot.com/2015/02/reaching-for-liberation-part-1-growing.html