The Atonement: The Tree in the Middle of the Garden

The Sanctuary Downtown / Relentless Love

Many years ago, I attended a public-school program involving one of my children. It was held at a Catholic retreat center. During the program, and to the left of the children as they were performing, I noticed something hanging on the wall that had been covered with a sheet. I thought, “What are they protecting our children from? What could be so bad?” After the program, I snuck a peek under the sheet and was surprised to find a depiction of Jesus nailed to a tree — the crucifix. I was outraged that they would see the tree as evil. And yet, I’ve had to rethink that a bit. “What do most people see when they look at the Cross?” I think the Lord asked me that question. At youth group, we would say, “God is Love, but He is also justice. And His justice demands payment for sin. Jesus was punished so you won’t have to be punished as long as you accept the payment plan. That’s called faith, and you can do it right now by raising your hand and praying this prayer.” I think most folks today, look at the tree and think, “God nailed Jesus to that tree. I’m not so sure that I trust God, but I better pretend that I do.” I think the Lord then asked me another question: “What do you think most people — common people, oppressed people — saw when they looked at the cross in the first century?” I imagine that they heard the story, looked at the tree, and thought, “We nailed God to that tree, and he let us! He’s one of us, and I like him. I think I trust him.” In Matthew 12, Jesus delivers a man trapped in his own personal hell. The Pharisees see this and don’t like this — the fact that Jesus saved this man. Jesus warns them of “blasphemy against the Spirit” and then says, “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree (not ‘a tree’) is known by its fruit.” What tree is Jesus talking about? The Bible is one amazing tree story. In the Beginning, there are two trees in one spot, or one tree that functions as two, in “the middle of the garden” on the Holy Mountain (Ez. 28:14). In the End, there is one tree — the Tree of Life — in the middle of the garden city of New Jerusalem on the Holy Mountain. And in the middle — between B.C. and A.D. — there is a tree in the garden of Calvary on the Holy Mountain. On that tree hangs the Judgment of God. If you take the fruit from the tree in one way, you gain knowledge of Good and evil and dying you die. But, if you receive the fruit from the tree in another way, you live. And although you know about the evil, you freely choose the Good — who is the Life. In the fourth century, St. Ephrem pictured the Tree of Knowledge as containing the Tree of Life, just like the Holy of Holies contained the Judgment of God. So, when we pierced our Lord’s flesh, we tore the veil of the temple (Hebrews 10:20), His life poured out, and God began filling all things with Himself. Just think: Even before we took His life on the tree, He gave (fore-gave) His life at supper saying, “This is my body broken for you. This is the covenant in my blood.” So, maybe Jesus was talking about that tree? In both Hebrew and Greek, there is a word that can be translated as both “wood” and “tree.” So, what do you see when you look at “The Tree”? “A tree is known by its fruit,” said Jesus. Why did Jesus have to die on a tree? And if it’s salvation, how does it work? The answer to that question is called an “Atonement Theory.” It is our judgment of the Judgment. Most people seem to think that there is only one: The Theory of the Penal Substitutionary Atonement. It wasn’t fully developed until Luther and Calvin did so during the Reformation. However, it began with Augustine who defined justice (retribution) as the opposite of Relentless Love (Grace). Simply stated: The “justice” of God demands “satisfaction” through “punishment,” but the Grace of God was pleased to punish Jesus in the place of some so that they wouldn’t have to be punished… as long as they accepted the payment plan (Arminians), or God chose them to accept the payment plan (Calvinists). Grace is for some, and not for all, in order that some would be grateful for salvation and in awe of God’s “justice.” Whatever the case, God killed Jesus so that He wouldn’t have to endlessly kill you. Maybe it isn’t the world that makes the tree evil, but the church? Jesus does make “atonement.” It means “at-one-ment.” Jesus is a “substitute.” He’s actually the only “tute.” He’s the only one that ever gets anything done; He’s the Word of God! And Jesus is “punished.” That’s the “penal” part. But pay close attention to Scripture, and you’ll see that all the punishment of God is the discipline of Love — God is Love. Hebrews 10:8: If we’re not disciplined, we’re not sons. There are a few problems with the Theory of the Penal Substitutionary Atonement: 1. God said, “The day you eat of it, dying you will die.” That’s the punishment, the discipline, and the law. Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law. He didn’t die so that you wouldn’t have to die, but so that you wouldn’t die alone, and you wouldn’t stay dead. 2. God said to Moses (Deut. 24:16), “Each one shall be put to death for his own sin” (No subs!) It’s true that “the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons;” we all suffer the pain of the iniquity of others. But “Everyone shall die for his own iniquity” (Jer. 31:30, Ez. 18:4). 3. It doesn’t work. “If Christ has not been raised from the dead... you are still in your sins (1 Cor. 15:17). See? It’s not the death of Christ that atones for sin; it must be the life of Christ rising in you that atones for sin in you which is the absence of Faith in you. 4. And it doesn’t produce fruit in me (remember, you’ll know a tree by its fruit). It doesn’t make me love God. It makes me pretend to love God, while terrified of God and secretly loathing God . . . like some sort of “whitewashed tomb.” And I don’t love my neighbor; it makes me compete with my neighbor, hoping that they’ll be last so that I might be first. It doesn’t produce fruit in me but the works of the flesh in me — the very thing that I need to be saved from: my own judgments. According to theologians, there were many “theories” of the atonement long before the Theory of the Penal Substitutionary Atonement, but I don’t think those that advocated for those theories called them “theories.” I think they called them “The Gospel.” And I think they’re all true. But my favorite is “The Recapitulation Theory of the Atonement” attributed to Irenaeus, disciple of Polycarp, disciple of John, disciple of Jesus. “Recapitulate” is an English translation of a Latin translation of a Greek word in Ephesians 1:10 that is often just translated as “unite.” Paul states that the “plan for the fullness of time” is to “unite [anakephalaiosasthe: bring together under one wounded head] all things in Christ Jesus.” In 1999, I took my four kids to see “The Iron Giant.” The Iron Giant is a giant metal robot that falls to earth, hits his head, develops amnesia, and befriends a fatherless boy named Hogarth. Hogarth tells him, “You are who you chose to be.” Hogarth knows the Giant for the Giant knows Hogarth; they’re friends. A government agent named Manly thinks he knows the Iron Giant, for he knows all about machines and guns. Manly chooses to be what all people choose to be: a vessel of wrath. He launches a nuke at the Giant’s “current location,” having forgotten that the Giant is “with us.” “When that nuke comes down, all these people will die,” says Hogarth. “You stay. I go,” says the Giant. He launches himself into the sky to intercept the nuke as he chooses to be “Super Man” (Eschatos Man, The Last Adam); he chooses to be a vessel of Mercy. The Nuke explodes and pieces of the Iron Giant rain down all over the earth. “What a beautiful picture of the atonement,” I thought. God doesn’t kill Jesus the Giant in order to feel better about us. We kill Jesus the Giant, and then we feel better about Him. And yet, the author did include it in the story, just as He included Himself, for the author is Jesus the Giant. “When I’m lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself,” said Jesus. Hogarth puts a broken piece of the giant in a box by his bed. One night, as a homing beacon is heard, the broken piece begins to move. Hogarth wakes and opens the window, saying, “See you later.” We then see pieces from all over the world — legs, hands — pieces of the Giant, representing friends of the Giant, moving toward a wounded head on a glacier in Greenland. Then, all at once, the eyes open and the Giant smiles. And at that, I just utterly lost it; I couldn’t stop weeping. I think I suddenly realized: The Giant is not a Robot; the Giant is alive. The Atonement is not a theory that we can apply; Jesus is the atonement, and He applies us to Himself. The Atonement is “The Life” we took from the tree and placed in our stomachs like a seed. The Atonement is the objective Grace of God, rising from the subjective tomb that has become a womb, that is your soul. The Atonement is Jesus who will make us one, even as He is one. For on the night that He was betrayed by all of us, He took the bread and broke it saying, “This is my body given to you.” And He took the cup saying, “This is the covenant in my blood. Drink of it all of you. And do it in re-member-ance of me.” Jesus didn’t have to die on the Cross. Jesus wanted to die on the Cross. . . NOT that we could make ourselves like Him, but that He might actually make us Himself. And now, when I look to the tree, I find fruit in me, a fountain of tears that have turned into joy. I know the tree . . . by its fruit in me. If you’ve made the tree bad, look again; He will make you good.