(The Nationalist, 29 September 2006)
If we go into a church we see a crucifix in front of us. Maybe we ask, ‘Why was Jesus killed?’ Why did people, probably ordinary, decent men and women, clamour for the death of a man who had healed their sick, made cripples walk, given sight to the blind, fed thousands of people in the desert, and carried out the works we read of in the Gospel?
Was it because he preached a message that was universalist instead of sectarian, inclusive instead of exclusive, to a people who were narrow and closed-minded, and so did not accept it? They saw that, if what Jesus offered was for all people, then their status as the chosen people of God was forever changed. Maybe they felt God should operate only within their system.
Jesus was born into that tradition, but seems gradually to have outgrown it: ‘He grew in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and people’. Starting from a narrow view, where he said, ‘He who is not with me is against me’, he went on to a broader vision, ‘He who is not against us is for us’. His image of God became universalist. The central place of God the Father in the mind of Jesus was the basis of his universalist outlook. The one God could only be the God of all people, not just Jesus’ own. At the last supper, Jesus said, ‘Take this, all of you, and eat it’, and also, ‘Take this, all of you, and drink from it…. It will be shed for you and for all’.
God is not limited to the structures he has given humanity; they are there to help, not to imprison. Structures intended to support may imprison or divide. God reaches beyond them to give grace to whomsoever he wills. Christ died for all without exception. There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer. There were no admission gates around the Cross; no one is excluded from God’s kingdom.
For some, this breaks through established boundaries, threatening the special status of particular groups. Narrowness, closed adhesion to custom and culture, to tribe and tradition, to creed, code, and cult may present themselves as loyalty, while dividing people into insiders and outsiders, the included and the excluded, the chosen and the frozen.
Jesus was killed, I think, because he subverted the religious power structures of his day. The Jewish leaders saw him – correctly, from their perspective – as a threat to the uniqueness, unity and coherence of Israel, so they had him killed. They said, ‘It is better to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed’. And yet Jesus had come to gather into unity the dispersed children of God.
For those in a hurry: What was your word, Jesus? Love? Forgiveness? All your words were one word: “Wake up”. (Antonio Machado)