Eastertide #15:  Sunday 3 of 7.

The atoning sacrifice for our sins.

(First John 2:2)

“Atoning sacrifice…” What is that? For starters, we know it had to do with God’s love: “God loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1Jn 4:10). And, that it had to do with the whole wide world: “Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1Jn 2:2). And, creation itself: “Creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay” (Ro 8:21). And this “atoning sacrifice” had to do with “the blood of the cross” (Col 1:20).

Why the Cross? Why such violence? If God is God, why couldn’t he just let it go; or, in some bloodless way deal with “the sins of the world”? What is going on in the Godhead while Jesus hangs on the Cross? Or, maybe we should just let it go and be grateful that our sins are forgiven. Maybe the “why” of the Cross is “too wonderful for me;” and I best “calm myself and quiet my ambitions” and simply “put all my hope in the Lord both now and forevermore” (Ps 131).