As a child, I heard various Christian leaders declare that “God sent his son to die for our sins.” By the time I was a teenager, I had a list of faith statements such as these that I was debating in my mind. I’m grateful for a youth group that allowed me (and other mid-teens) to discuss *and question) traditional faith propositions. In that fertile ground, I developed a respect for different interpretations of biblical stories and assertions.
I resist the idea of fate, whether it’s expressed in secular or religious language. The events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus can be read as a divine script being played out, or an account of various people or groups exercising human freedom. Interpretation is the art of discerning the interplay of those cosmic forces. I tend to focus on the choices we make in the exercise of human freedom–and their consequences.
The world has a way of creating dividing lines that pit individuals against each other, or groups against each other. Holy Week exposes those divisions as at least temporary and almost always illusory. I’m helped by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), who said “the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” There’s part of me in Peter’s denial, in Judas’ betrayal, in the crowd that said, “crucify him.”
