The Cross

What is the cross? What happens on the cross?
Some have said the cross was about a lion who tricked some queen with a ransom. Others have claimed the cross to be some sort of divine child abuse. Who knows exactly what took place during this mysterious event of the cross?
Or perhaps it’s possible that Isaiah was right and the cross is about community. Maybe the one bore the sins of the many to reveal to us how often the many refuse to bear the sins of the one.

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  • Earl Oglesby

    Can you explain how the cross is like community? It sounds interesting. Where in Isaiah?

    • Damien Parks

      Earl.

      Thank you for the feedback and questions. This idea of the cross and community for me comes out of Isaiah 53 and many of the what I call “communal participatory atonement teachings” of Jesus and Paul. Few examples; Rom 6, Phil 2 & 3, Gal 6, Matt 16. Not to mention the several “one another” passages found throughout the NT. A call towards carrying the burdens of each other rather than finding and creating the scapegoat.

      Some of the main ideas within these scriptures really challenged me to think through how often those of us in the church place blame/shame on others instead of taking ownership, accepting the call of Jesus, and then communally carrying each other.

      • Earl Oglesby

        Thanks for the reply and information. Sounds very interesting. Is there a book you would recommend for further study on this view? I googled and found a book by Michael J Gorman, The Death of the Messiah and the Birth of the New Covenant. Would you recommend it?

        So to summarize would you say that being a Christian has less to do with sin, shame, repentance, belief and a blood sacrifice and more to do with living a life together, personal sacrifice, taking care of one another, bearing each other’s burdens?

        • Damien Parks

          I have not read that book by Gorman so I can’t comment on it. A few that come to mind that I would check out:

          “The Church in the Power of the Spirit” – Jurgen Moltmann
          “New Testament and the People of God” – NT Wright
          “Violence and the Sacred” – Rene Girard

          I think what you summarize in your second paragraph is exactly what you see lived out within the book of Acts and within the earliest churches. Great thoughts for sure.