In this Friday when we remember Jesus sacrifice, I want for you all to wrestle a bit with a difficult belief: That a Father could have chosen to send his Son to die
Mark is perhaps the only one that preserves that omnipotence of God that makes Jesus death seem arbitrary. He says that these were Jesus words:
“Abba,[e] Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
…everything is possible, even Jesus not having to die. I think that jewish theology did not have much of a problem of sustaining God’s omnipotence at the expense of comprehension of His actions. At this point followers of Jesus were simply a sect among judaism, but as time passed the connection is slowly lost because of christian recruitment numbers and the revolts that polarized them into finally two groups, separated on the idea of the messiah and whether he was in heaven or among the revolutionaries.
Matthew changes the expression but retains the paradox:
“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
…if it is possible…and that “if” makes a difference, because it introduces the possibility that Jesus death was not God’s choice. Jesus claims ignorance on the matter. If it is possible, suggesting that it might be impossible. Yet the matter is settled, according to Jesus, by what God’s wills, by what He decides on the matter.
Luke puts it different still, but still retaining the willing element in Jesus death, or to be specific the role of God’s choice in the death of Jesus. What is possible is exactly His will:
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
But John establishes a different narrative based on a theological premises. To me it always sounded like a fictional account rather than a biographical account. John tells us that these were Jesus words:
“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”
These words are an echo to the words of martyrs dying for their beliefs in the second century. Their deaths acquired a causal flavor, a necessity; they became a means and interpreted as having positive results. Death was embraced as a necessary means for some effect.
But think about that today. What if God had listened to Jesus? What if God had given him relief and willed it that our salvation be purchased without spilling innocent blood? Which begs the question who or what demanded the spillage of blood. If everything was possible to God’s will, the it could’ve been possible even to save humanity without any need whatsoever to to the blood of innocents?