Deconstruction Communion

Did Jesus Die for Dirtbags? Part 2

Deconstruction Communion:

How I Take Communion Without Believing in Substitutionary Atonement

Traditional Christian understandings of Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter presented obstacles for my faith. The entire season depended on believing that unless Jesus died God could not and would not be able to forgive me because in my nature I am a dirtbag sinner (forget about all that Image of God stuff in Genesis 1). Jesus’ violent torture and death were my fault. I struggled to believe that the Son of God’s death and resurrection made communion with God possible, that it was the only way. So many of the scriptures around the last week of Jesus’ life and on the cross seemed trivial if I believed in a God that needed violence to forgive and love me. 11 months a year I could believe that I was created in the Image of God and loved by God. Then once Lent started I had to embrace the dirtbag in me so I could muster up enough emotion on Sunday morning year after year. 

Don’t get me wrong. I believe in Jesus Christ. But I just don’t see how one sacrifice changed God’s mind, heart, and ability. I don’t see how spilling the blood of my child would change my mind, heart, and ability to love and forgive others. If God is God, then Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter have to mean something different and something more powerful to me. They should change how I experience life and how I live and not just what my address will be after I die. I get in trouble when I say that Jesus was more concerned with the Hell people live in than where people go after they die. The Bible does not have a defined doctrine or even picture of life after death. But Jesus did spend enormous amounts of love and energy helping people live on this side of the grave.

Christian history weaved together at least two different and significant practices/moments in Israel’s history to explain Jesus as the Christ: 1-God’s covenant on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 24) and 2-the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). These two can sometimes become both a powerful and/or a watered down understanding of Jesus Christ. 

Jesus startled the disciples at what we now call The ‘Last Supper’ with two phrases. I believe these two phrases are more powerful when not used in the context of God’s inability to forgive unless Jesus spills his blood. Four New Testament books include The Last Supper communion lines - Matthew 26:20-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:14-20, and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. First, Jesus breaks the bread and says it is his body. 1 Corinthians says it is broken for you which we understand as all people. Luke says it is given for you. Matthew and Mark just say it is his body. In hindsight, the disciples and Jesus’ followers understood that at that moment Jesus was telling them that he would suffer physically, and that suffering was for them.

I believe we miss an opportunity here to understand Jesus’ death on the cross if we solely focus on the blood. 

Jesus chose to embrace humanity with his body, suffering, and death. John 1:14, the Word became flesh and lived among us. Matthew 9:36, Jesus was moved with compassion for the crowds. John 11:35, Jesus wept. Matthew 26:36-52, Jesus chose to embrace his humanity and not call 12 legions of angels to escape suffering and death. Philippians 2:6-11, Jesus descended completely into humble humanity. Hebrews 4:14-16, we have a high priest, a savior, and God who is Emmanuel - God with us - and did not bail on us when it got rough. Jesus embraced you and me with arms outstretched on the cross. We suffer together. We live and die together.

As a hospital chaplain, I regularly hear patients and families echo the gut wrenching words of Jesus on the cross. Substitutionary Atonement teaches that God the Father had to turn his face away from Jesus with our sin on his shoulders. He couldn’t stand to look at sin. Shallow. I believe Jesus felt what so many suffering people in the hospital feel - abandoned, isolated, forgotten, alone. Jesus humbled himself and became obedient to being human.

I take great comfort in knowing Jesus got down and gets down in the muck with me and you. 

When the minister says, “This is my body broken for you,” I feel Jesus’ tears and pain mixing with mine. We become brothers. Don’t skip over the bread to get to the wine (or grape juice) or ‘blood’. In the bread, Jesus promised his presence.

The next thing Jesus said gets more confusing and lost the further we get from the Last Supper. 1 Corinthians 11 recounts the Last Supper earliest since it was written before the Gospels. 1 Corinthians says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” Mark and Luke say something similar. All three say the cup of wine represented Jesus’ blood poured out for a new covenant. What covenant? This refers back to Exodus 24:8 on Mt. Sinai. God just freed Israel from Egypt. On Mt. Sinai, God gives the people guidelines on how they will be his people and he will be their God. From here they are to enter the promised land and flourish in the land that flowed with milk and honey. God instructs Moses to dash blood on the people to seal the covenant between God and Israel. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood,” referred to this. God again, in Jesus, told the people that he was present and the kingdom of Heaven was on earth.

The Gospel of John includes the Last Supper but not the communion lines. Instead, Jesus’ last instruction built upon Jesus’ washing the disciples feet. He said after dinner to obey this new command, “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,” John 13:34-35. Love. The point of the body and blood of Jesus. How did Jesus love his disciples? He washed their feet as a metaphor and lesson. He lived humbly. He served instead of being served. In the flesh and with his blood, Jesus humbly and courageously embraced humanity and wrapped his outstretched arms  around us on the cross in love and solidarity.  We call this the kenosis of Jesus Christ in Philippians 2:8-11.

But Matthew shifted the focus away from the new covenant. Matthew 26:28, “for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” 1 out of the 6 passages about the Last Supper and Jesus - 1 Corinthians, Philippians, John, Luke, Mark, Matthew - talks about the forgiveness of sins. 2000 years later Christianity focuses on, preaches about, and sings about primarily the forgiveness of sins as the new covenant.

Matthew’s focus rose from the grave but Christianity left “Emmanuel, God with Us” in the grave.

In the hospitals, I hear people struggling with their suffering and wondering where God is at more than I hear them worried about eternity. While they are going through hell, they are not worried about Hell. They wonder why God is not delivering them from suffering instead of realizing God weeps and suffers with them. 

I take the cup and enter into covenant with the God of creation not just for forgiveness but to be loved and to love as I am loved. In Paul’s words, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep,” Romans 12:15. Reading Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 13 changes in light of covenant communion with God. 

Take the bread and feel the embrace of love and solidarity in Jesus’ outstretched arms. 

Take the cup and enter into covenant communion with the God who created you, lived, died, and promises to go through the hell of life with you to bring you resurrection.