Ransom...

 

Ransom…

 

For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.  

--Mark 10:45

 

“Ransom” theory has been around Christianity for a long time—at least since the era of Origen, its primary author and promoter. Origen’s ransom theory went like this: Adam and Eve sinned, and they and their forever offspring became prisoners to the Satan. Jesus came to die, paying Satan’s “blood price” for the release of the captives, the whole human race. This highly simplistic “atonement” model may sound very familiar, as it is pretty much what pedestrian fundamentalist evangelicals believe and preach.

 

Around the eleventh century, people like St. Anselm began to counter this idea, suggesting that God and God’s creation (us) could never be subservient or “captive” to the Satan. Neither Protestant nor Catholic theologians buy the ransom theology of Origen, nor have they for some time. The “atonement” has been relegated to much higher theological debate, as most serious theologians would say we really DON’T understand how atonement works, nor what really happened on the cross, other than to believe Jesus died there. Unfortunately, Origen’s ransom theory is so “easy” to believe, many people just do, and this gives rise to people attributing more power to the Satan than is biblical, and makes Jesus’ death more important than his “incarnation” among humanity, and his life, in general.

 

Of course, later liberal theology often robbed Jesus of any claim to divinity, positing that he was much more human and much less divine, generally negating the Nicene Creed’s assertion that he was “one in being with the Father.” But this is a topic for another sermon.

 

In one article I read, the author states that C.S. Lewis advanced another “ransom theory” of his own, namely that GOD was the one who needed to receive the ransom in order to not condemn the human race for its sin, and Jesus was the one to pay it on our behalf. Sin had been the culprit, in this model, but the Satan was more of an instigator, and not a major player in the divine drama.

 

Let me play with some ideas here. First of all, ransom is typically paid by a loved one or friend to get kidnappers to release their victim unharmed. Parents whose child has been kidnapped have been known to sacrifice about anything they own to get an endangered, kidnapped child back. Most of these parents, themselves victims, actually, lament endlessly about what they did wrong to allow their child to be kidnapped in the first place. The child itself may also be at least partly culpable because they “talked to a stranger” or gave in to a tempting treat, only to be lured into the trap. The only consistent evil in this model is/are the kidnapper(s). 

 

So let’s ramp this up to the more cosmic level. Let’s say that SIN is the kidnapper. Sin is always evil, and has its way of luring us into its trap. If we accept the definition of sin as that which is self-centered, not caring what its effect may be on others in the wider community, and certainly not God-centered, then sin IS the trap, and often an extremely attractive one. A contemporary example of a sin that has become quite popular is the idea that “freedom” is an intensely personal thing. Owning a gun is MY FREEDOM to do. It is MY FREEDOM to refuse to wear a mask or to be vaccinated against COVID-19. This idea of freedom is self-centered, certainly not God-centered, and doesn’t give one iota for what me getting what I demand as a freedom may do for the wider community, or just for others. That my personal FREEDOM from wearing a mask, getting vaccinated, or FOR owning an arsenal of firearms may threaten your existence is just tough luck. However, from a biblical perspective, that these things threaten community life renders them sinful. 

 

[I don’t want to wander into a gun debate. There are certainly ways that responsible people, with proper training and licensing can own firearms without being a threat to their neighbors, and I laud the gun owners who support reasonable safety regulations to go along with the Second Amendment. However, the kind of attitude that precipitates a statement like “You’ll get my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers” is a sinful attitude, just like “It’s my right to NOT wear a mask,” or “You can’t keep my kid from going to school even if our whole family has COVID.” These are not freedoms, they are fighting words. And therefore they are sinful words.]

 

Back to the new ransom theory. So, we’ve identified the antagonist in the story—it is sin, and its powerful lure, drawing us toward supreme selfishness and away from the community model as described biblically as the “Body of Christ.” There is no devil demanding ransom, nor is God the one demanding it, either. God is the parent whose beloved children have been “kidnapped” by the evil of sin. Like the parent in the original story, God, too, may lament what God did to “allow” God’s children to be kidnapped in the first place. Did Parent God give humans “free will” before we had matured enough as a species to handle it safely? Every parent asks this question when granting new freedoms to their children, such as letting them have the car to drive off alone the day they pass their driver’s test. Or the first time they launch them off on a bicycle without training wheels. As I have regularly stated in other messages, I believe the Parent God model to be the most convincing, as having been blessed to be a parent myself, I can say that, even when I’ve tried to do my best, I am always fraught with doubt and fear that I screwed up somewhere, and that this fault on my part would result in pain and suffering, in some way, in the life of one of my children. If we can get over that “God is perfect” curse long enough to see God as a loving parent, desiring to give God’s children freedom (“free will,” in theological parlance), but always second-guessing both the substance and timing of granting it, then we can understand how much “ransom” God might be willing to pay to get us back from whatever negative effects befell us. Perhaps the too-early granting of free will was not the smartest move on God’s part?

 

Remember the part about the “kidnap-ees” and how they, too, may be culpable in their own kidnapping? Well, this is where our own volition comes in when we too easily fall prey to the lure of sin. We move in directions we have been taught NOT to move, and engage in actions or attitudes we have been warned NOT to engage in, and WHAM! The “kidnapper” strikes. Chalk one up for the power of sin, and one for our own weakness against it. Sometimes we just aren’t adequately prepared to face the temptation, or for the training wheels to be off yet. God is more grieved for us than angry. 

 

So, how can ransom be paid to our kidnapper? Obviously, the author of today’s text asserts that Jesus is the “ransom for many,” or read for ALL who desire to be released from the captivity from sin. For sake of argument, let’s set aside the Jesus as “meat on the cross”/sacrificial model, and look at something else. In almost every kidnapping, there is a force for good aiming to foil the kidnapper. In our society, this would be the police. Their aim is both to get the victim home safely, AND to corral the perpetrator. What if we put Jesus in the place of the police? The aim of Christ is to have us safely released from our captivity, AND hold sin responsible, “locking it up” that its power may be lessened. This understanding of why Jesus came makes much more sense of the biblical assertion that he came to “cancel the power of sin” and “release the captives.” Jesus is the good cop who frees the victim, locks up the “kidnapper,” and makes the streets safer for us all. No “ransom” is paid, except for the ULTIMATE ransom of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, “emptying himself, taking the form of a slave,” to free us, and stayed until the task was complete, even through his death. Basically, Jesus went “undercover.” The Bible says he was tempted as we are tempted by the siren song of sin, but he did not walk into the trap of that evil kidnapper. And after arresting the perp, he “gave lessons” in what to avoid and how to avoid the setup of sin. The “ransom” was never “paid,” it was LIVED, in the person, life, and ministry of Jesus Christ.

 

We are still not fully out of the pickle, as our human evolution is progressing painfully slowly. And when we still so easily ignore the empowering teachings of Jesus, and even more easily listen to the voice of sin saying, “HEY, son, come over here—I have something for you!”, we are too often not breaking the cycle. The Good News is that the “Good Cop” didn’t leave the neighborhood, but sent an “advocate” to help us with both the behaviors (sin) and the legal consequences (judgment) of them. I like to think the Holy Spirit is at LEAST as sharp as Columbo and as understanding as Andy Sipowicz, especially when I wander into the lion’s den. 

 

So, where does this leave us? First of all, we are the object of God’s love, as demonstrated by Christ “ransoming” himself to come among us to save us from ourselves. Secondly, it is incumbent on us to heed the teachings of Jesus, and to be sensitized to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to eschew the “call” of sin, and to develop disciplines to avoid sinful action. Here I am imagining again the Holy Spirit as Columbo, not letting go, continually coming back into the “room” of our lives saying, “Oh, just ONE MORE THING…” You know HE knows what’s going on, and you can’t wait to see the bad guy get it in the end. I know that the HOLY SPIRIT knows what is going on, and is willing to keep “interfering” to keep me from falling prey, at least so darn easily, and without a fight. 

 

Oh, and God, I forgive you for giving us so much freedom, even if we WEREN’T ready for the shove without the training wheels on. We both got skinned up a bit on that one, but we know how much you love us, as our Heavenly Parent. You sent Jesus. Amen.