A more beautiful Easter story - part 1

Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, was miraculously born of a young virgin from an insignificant village in Judea about 2000 years ago. He grew up, living a sinless life, and around the age of 30 he gathered 12 disciples around him and began speaking in public about the ways of God’s Kingdom. He knew that His time was short, however, because the reason God the Father had sent him to earth was to die as a sacrifice, paying the penalty God required for everyone’s sins. The religious and political powers conspired  to condemn him to death by crucifixion. But this was all part of the plan, because Jesus was to become the Lamb of God, who takes away all the sins of the world. 

God had instituted animal sacrifices as the way to cleanse people from their sins, but these sacrifices had to be repeated at regular intervals. In order to end this system, a sinless person needed to die as a sacrifice. The pouring out of Jesus’ blood paid, once and for all, the penalty of death that God required of every human who sinned. His blood poured out was the one and only way to create the way for humans to come into the eden-like relationship with God once enjoyed only by Adam and Eve. It was the only way for humans to be freed from condemnation to eternity in Hell, separated from God, and to go to heaven with Jesus and God forever. Jesus was the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world.

After two nights in the grave, Jesus rose from the dead proving He was the Son of God, the One humans could trust for their salvation from their sins and deliverance from Hell. If they would just receive the free gift of salvation that Jesus offered by giving Jesus the place of Lord and Master of their life, their sins would be forgiven and they would receive eternal life.
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This is the gospel as I first believed it to be when I was 10 years old and for the first time I prayed to invite Jesus into my heart. It was at the end of the sermon on Easter Sunday at Rose Hill Presbyterian Church in Kirkland WA. And this is the gospel as I learned to share it as a teenager and young adult in the Continental Singers, offering an invitation at the end of every concert we sang over 5 summers. This is the same gospel that was preached and shared at countless worship services and musical productions as a music pastor for 10 years and as a lead pastor for 10 more.

But now, in my fifties, I find major parts of this story troubling, and increasingly difficult to accept as “gospel truth”. At the heart of this story is a God who, although He created all things, finds His most beautiful creation (humankind) to be hopelessly stained with sin. This sin creates a barrier that only a blood sacrifice can break through. At the heart of this story is a God who is unable to forgive sins without a blood sacrifice, and who arranges somehow to place the sins of the entire world upon His Son, who then receives a torturous death to somehow purchase forgiveness for other people.

I think that for the Jewish authors of the New Testament, this would make perfect sense. They believed the world was flat, that the sun, moon and stars moved across the sky, and God was “up there” above it all watching down on the life of humans on earth. They lived in a world where animal sacrifice to appease the gods was common and accepted not only in Judaism, but in every pagan religion. If a god was angry, killing an animal and then burning the meat would hopefully appease Him (or in many cases, Her).

But today we know the earth is not the only planet and it is not flat, with a God “up there” looking down on it. We know the earth is one small dot in a dizzyingly massive universe, filled with billions of galaxies, each of which is hopelessly larger than our minds can conceive. We know our own planet seems to be a couple billion years old, and the universe over 17 billion years old. We don’t really know how life began, but we know that humanity seems to have shown up about 2 million years ago. If the history of planet earth were a football field (100 yards) long, humanity shows up in the last 2 inches of those 100 yards. 

Am I the only one who finds it difficult to believe that a Being who created such a vast universe and then waited 17 billion years for the creation of humanity could ever become angry at the tiny creatures on the tiny planet? Doesn’t it seem far-fetched to say such a Powerful God could only relate to these creatures if there was some sort of blood sacrifice, either of a furry animal or of a sinless human? Is it plausible that if such a blood sacrifice was not made, this amazing God would be morally bound to send them to a fiery place of torture for all eternity?

Is it only me, or does the notion of a God who requires blood sacrifice to pay for sins against him seem incredibly archaic in light of what we know about the universe and humanity’s infinitesimally small place in it?

I am convinced there must be a more beautiful story. There must be another way of understanding the story of Jesus, especially the meaning behind His death and resurrection. Read PART 2.