McIntosh, chapter 6: Jesus Saves -- But, How?

With a single matter - of - fact observation in the book Mysteries of Faith, theologian Mark McIntosh drives a stake through the heart of the Punishing God that has haunted me since seventh grade.

McIntosh is already deep into his chapter about how the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus save us, when he drops in this observation: the Eastern Orthodox Church never developed the idea of a punishing God who required Jesus to pay Him for our sins. Orthodox theologian Christos Yannaras writes that the Western Church, when it adopted this theory early on,

changed the truth of God by subordinating the freedom of his love to the relentless necessity of an egocentric and savage justice which demanded sadistic satisfaction.(128)

Yannaros attributes this difference to Roman law and western individualism. McIntosh adds, after Yannaros,

it is no wonder, given the dominance of this theory in the west since the time of the Reformation, that so many westerners have rebelled against such a punitive idea and ended up as atheists.

Been there, done that! Given a comic - book tract in 7th grade by a malicious Baptist named Sidney, I was first terrified at the image of the sinner being tossed in the lake of fire (screaming on the way down, "I didn't kno - o - ow!"); then, I was revolted at the notion that my buddy Gerald deserved eternal damnation for being Jewish, while Sidney would be saved. I became an angry atheist, a stance that I kept well into high school.

For McIntosh, it's the transactional, zero - sum, you've - only - got - one - life - to - live approach to living that demanded the death of Jesus. It's the approach that says, "there is only a limited amount of life to be had, and if I am going to have my share then yours must be crushed and poured out to me" (115). Because Jesus embodied God's bountiful love for all, he threatened the status of those who governed and held authority. They found laws and reasons to have him punished; Sidney and his ilk still do.

That same view is what the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus destroy. It's only in that view of scarcity that believers have to be scared. Jesus exposed that view as a lie when he became one of us, "so that through death he might … free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death" (Hebrews 2.15).

[Another blogpost (10/30/2018) brought together different threads of Christian tradition about the crucifixion's saving powers: "Angles on the Crucifixion." ]

For McIntosh, from the time we hid from God in Eden, straight through the Bible, sin has been our individualistic preoccupation with getting what we deserve -- reward or punishment. Jesus threatened those whose authority and privilege depended on rewards and punishments. In that way of looking at things, Jesus' death is a punishment. Jesus explains their view: "An hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me." (John 16.2-3). McIntosh says that his resurrection, with healing and forgiveness, demonstrates the falseness of that approach (119), and also demonstrates that God had nothing to do with the Crucifixion.

But doesn't God punish sin? McIntosh says that we experience punishment, not because God lays it on us, but because, like an alcoholic confronted by loving friends who intervene, we feel like our identity and independence are under attack (133). The punishing God is "an idol, a projection of my own self - condemnation."

Throughout the chapter, McIntosh finds ways to say that Jesus embraces or "loves" death; he doesn't negate it. ("Death has to mean something," wrote poet Christian Wiman. (See blogpost of 08/03/2013) We can trust. "As this trusting mind of Christ begins to grow in us, the tyranny of sin and death is destroyed. Sin can no longer terrify us into hiding from God."

More about McIntosh's BookMcIntosh, Mark. Mysteries of Faith. Vol. 8 in The New Church's Teaching Series. New York: Cowley Publications, 2000.

I've responded to other chapters in other blogposts:

• (01/09/2019)"Not the Moral, but the Story" about chapters 1 and 2.
  
• (01/26/2019)"How Episcopalians Believe" considers chapter 4, along with other sources
  
• (01/30/2019)"Jesus Saves - but how?" about chapter 6
  
• (02/12/2019) "Theologian Mark McIntosh Sees Drama in Cosmos" about chapter 7.