The Myth of the Wrathful God

There is a prevalent myth in Christian circles of this Wrathful God that must be appeased by sacrifice.  I am guessing that this myth is a holdover from pre-Christian ideas about the gods, when people killed all sorts of things and offered them as sacrifices to a god, or to multiple gods.  There was a time when people believed that gods could be spiteful, cruel and malevolent if not treated properly.  They also believed that gods could be quite useful in getting what you need, if kept happy with sacrifices.  People in ancient times were ever watchful for a new god that might be stronger, better and more powerful than the god they were worshipping already.  They were especially watchful for a god that might prove more helpful in overcoming their enemies.  Hey, the only reason that the emperor Constantine embraced the Christian God was that he thought that “in this sign you will conquer” as he held up the cross.  He wanted a warrior God who would lead him to victory!  (Not the God of peace.)

People were sure that disaster could follow the incorrect performance of rituals, sacrifices and offerings, because the gods were seen as so wrathful.  Down through the ages people used sacrifices to bribe, appease, and bargain with the gods.  People were evey fearful of the wrath of gods. 

In the older Hebrew texts, or scriptures, God is seen too often as a violent warrior God who takes sides and has favorites.  God uses violent means to punish and destroy people.  This view of God has Him yearning to kill off all the enemies of His people, and create a people who are completely obedient and subservient to Him.  What we read in these texts is the interpretation real people made about real events in their lives, projecting on these stories their narrow ideas about God.  They record their testaments of faith, as they see it from their point of view in history.   It is very difficult for God to crack through these persistent pre-Christian ideas.  No matter how often God says, “What I want is mercy, and not sacrifice,” the people don’t seem to hear. 

I have come to believe that God came into our world, became Incarnate in our world as a human being, to correct all our wrong ideas.  God in Jesus does not come to punish us, or to turn us into passive and subservient servants.  God surprisingly came in the person of Jesus to correct us in another way, through example.  God comes to show us the partnership way of life.  If not for the Incarnation of God into our world we could remain ignorant and continue to get things wrong.  God came into our world and lived among us as a human being named Jesus.  Jesus the Christ says:  “When you see me you see what God is like.”  You also see what it means to live a fully human life.  What Jesus says time and again is this simple prescription for life:  “Follow me.” 

Now theologians will go on and on about a Trinitarian understanding of God, but for simplicity’s sake sometimes it is easier to just realize that all the persons of God — Creator, Redeemer and Spirit — are God.  So it is God that becomes a human being, lives among us, and shows us what God is like.  Now we know, and what we know clearly is that God is NOT a wrathful God.  In Jesus, who is Christ, we do not meet an angry and judgmental God, or one who needs to be bribed in order to respond.  We encounter the God of Compassion.  We encounter the embodiment of a God who says, “What I want is mercy.”  We encounter a God who accepts people right where they are, with forgiveness and mercy. 

In Jesus we encounter a God who turns everything upside down.  There is sacrifice, but it is not on the part of humanity, but on the part of God.  God sacrifices for our sake;  in fact we may even say that God sacrifices to us.  It turns out that we are the ones who demand sacrifice, not God.  In a sense we humans set up the rules for God.  We demand sacrifice, and God gives us one.  This is the One Sacrifice, the One Offering made on our behalf, and now God waits for us to understand, and to awaken to who we are in Christ, and in God.  This is the only sacrifice that matters.  Christ makes the one and only sacrifice; the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. 

Christ (God) came into our world and became a fully human, human being.  This emptying of divinity in order to experience fully the human condition is God’s sacrifice.  God forfeits divinity out of love for us, and takes on life with us.  In a sense we can say that God lays down “God life” for us.  God so loves the world that God enters it, takes on the limited embodiment of being human, and relinquishes the unlimited, cosmic, infinite existence and power of divinity.  God offers this sacrifice for us, and even to us, resisting every temptation to put aside the human condition and avoid suffering.  If Jesus had died of old age, accident or disease, his death would have been no less significant, and the sacrifice no less great.

Remember the old Superman movie, the one where Superman, out of love for Lois Lane, relinquishes his super powers and becomes a normal human being?  He is no longer able to leap over tall buildings in a single bound, but is constrained to walk the earth like everyone else.  He is barely getting used to his new condition when he encounters a bully who beats him up.  Superman doesn’t like being an ordinary human being and he cannot resist the temptation to get back his super powers so he can “save” the world.  He sees no hope of winning by staying only human.  Superman gives up love for the sake of power.  Giving up love for the sake of power is a common temptation. 

Jesus, unlike Superman, stays true to love, stays true to the human condition, even when it means great suffering and death.  No matter how much he is tempted he does not give in, or give up.  He stays true to his course.  Only in this way can God show us the Way to life.  We cannot follow a Superman, but we can follow Jesus, who is like us.  Like Jesus we can give up notions of having power over others, and let go for the sake of compassionate love.  We can lay down our lives for others.  We can join with the sacrifice of God and give up having power over others, and seek instead to share our power with others. 

God will not send a Superman to save us, even though we may prefer a Superman and yearn for a Superman.  Under a Superman all we can become is dependent.  Christ comes to show us the way to live as who we are, human beings.  Christ comes not only to show us what God is like, but to call us to participate with God in changing our world.  This is how salvation comes into the world — through the Spirit of Christ alive in us, following the ways of compassion and peace. 

You can choose to follow God through this Christ, or you can follow the ways of the world.  You can choose Jesus, or you can choose Barabbas.  The choice is before you every day.