Fr Lar O'Connor
There is one strong feature in St. Paul’s letters which we cannot ignore and that is his strong emphasis on the death of Jesus as the crucified Messiah. This is a unique feature of St. Paul’s theology which it is important to explore.
Pharisee Source of Understanding
It is probably good to go back to the beginning. Paul explains that he was a Pharisee and joined the Pharisees about 15 A.D. before his remarkable conversion. “In the matter of law I was a Pharisee.” (Phil.3:6), As a Pharisee he would have shared their expectation and understanding of the future Messiah. We find a very good resource for the Pharisee’s understanding of the future Messiah in the Psalms of Solomon which was probably published in the latter half of the first century B. C
There are a number of features worth noting. He will be king and son of David. “See, Lord, and raise up for them their king, the son of David, to rule over your servant Israel in the time known to you, O God”. (Ps 17:21). He plays a military role, though his interest is not primarily military. “Undergird him with the strength to destroy the unrighteous rulers, to purge Jerusalem from gentiles, who trample her to destruction, in wisdom and righteousness to drive out the sinners from the inheritance, to smash the arrogance of sinners like a potter’s jar.” (Ps. 17:22). War is not his primary concern. “For he will not rely on horse and rider and bow, nor will he collect gold and silver for war, nor will he build up hope in a multitude for a day of war.” (Ps. 17:33). His weapon will be the word of his mouth. “He will be compassionate to all the nations, who reverently stand before him. He will strike the earth with the word of his mouth forever; he will bless the Lord’s people with wisdom and happiness.” (Ps. 17:35). He will be sinless himself and be the leader of a sinless, righteous and holy people. “And he himself will be free from sin in order to rule a great people.” (Ps 17:36). “Faithfully and righteously shepherding the Lord’s flock he will not let any of them stumble in their pasture. He will lead them all in holiness.” (Ps. 17:40). “And he will be a righteous king over them, taught by God. There will be no unrighteousness among them in his days, for all shall be holy. And their king shall be the Lord Messiah” (Ps 17:32). He is the Anointed One who brings about and establishes a holy, sinless and upright community.
For Paul and for Pharisees at the time there were two eras in the history of Salvation, the time of the Law and the time of the Messiah. At some point in the era of the Law the Messiah would arrive and would become the way to salvation. It was either the Law or the Messiah. For Paul, when the Messiah arrived there was no need for the Law or for two sources of salvation. With the Messiah the Law would be at an end. When Paul converts it is not surprising to find the antipathy to law that characterises his Letters.
Paul Persecutes Christians and is Apprehended
Christians were claiming that Jesus was the Messiah and the keystone to salvation. On the basis of his own theology of Messiah he could not accept that Jesus met the criteria of his own Messianic belief. To believe that the Messiah had come went contrary to Jewish Law and for that reason Paul became a zealous persecutor of Christians. “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing threats to slaughter the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked for letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, that would authorise him to take to Jerusalem any followers of the Way, men and women, that he might find.” (Acts 9:1-2). It was on the way to Damascus that he had the major surprise that changed his life. He gives us a striking account in the letter to the Philippians. St. Paul is looking forward to the final prize of the Resurrection. “Not that I have secured it already, not yet reached my goal, but I am pursuing it in the attempt to take hold of the prize for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Phil. 3:12). The last words are critical. The Greek verb is katalambano. It has the sense of “to seize” or “grasp by force” or “apprehend”.
So at his conversion Paul had the sense of being caught by the collar and turned in another direction. He was apprehended and overcome by Jesus. He is arrested and taken against his will. It is very possible that Paul saw the action of Jesus as an act of lordship, where the superior dominates the inferior. From this experience Paul infers that Jesus is Lord. If he is Lord, he is also Messiah and Son of God. The people of God, in the Old Testament were the sons of God. The Messiah was the Son of God. Paul was comfortable with the faith he found in Christian communities. It coincided with his own perception of Jesus in the light of his conversion.
A Sinless Messiah
One of the expected characteristics of the Messiah was that he would be sinless. St Paul acknowledges that Jesus was without sin. “For our sake he made the sinless one a victim for sin, so that in him we might become the uprightness of God.” (II Cor. 5:21) This is not a great translation. Literally he says “he made him sin on our behalf”. There are a couple of possible explanations. Jesus became a sacrifice for sin for our benefit. Better, Jesus took on our sinful and sin prone humanity while remaining sinless himself.
It was expected that the Messiah would be sinless and would live forever. Death, in Jewish belief was seen as a punishment for sin, going right back to the beginning of Genesis. “Then Yahweh God gave the man this command. You are free to eat of the trees in the garden. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat; for the day you eat of that, you are doomed to die.” (Gen. 2:17) Similarly, Wisdom sees sin as leading to death. ‘Do not court death by the errors of your ways nor invite destruction through the work of your hands. For God did not make death. He takes no pleasure in destroying the living. To exist – for this he created all things.” (Wis. 1:12-13). Death as punishment for sin remained a constant teaching right down to the Judaism of Jesus time. But the Messiah, as sinless, would never die. “And he himself will be free from sin, in order to rule a great people. (Ps 17:36). A couple of verses later the psalm says he will not stumble.
Jesus as Messiah Chose to Die
But Paul was faced with a problem. He believed that Jesus was a sinless Messiah, who had died. Paul proposed his own reconciliation. If Jesus as the Messiah died, he chose to die. There are many texts in his letters that confirm this. It is clear that Christ gave himself up to death for our benefit. In the greeting of Galatians Paul says, “Grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins, to liberate us from the present wicked world.” (Gal1:4). There is another beautiful text in Galatians worth recalling. “The life that I am now living ………..I am living in faith, faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20). There are a couple of texts in Ephesians worth noting. “As God’s dear children, then, take him as your pattern, and follow Christ by loving as he has loved you. Giving himself up for us as an offering and sweet smelling sacrifice to God.” (Eph. 5:1-2). “Christ loved the church and sacrificed himself for her.” (Eph. 5:25). We find the same in the Pastoral Letters. “Christ Jesus, who offered himself as a ransom for all. (I Tim. 2:6). There is something very similar in Titus. “He offered himself for us in order to ransom us from our faults.” (Tit. 2:14). We can be in no doubt but that Christ, on his own initiative, chose to die for our advantage.
Crucifixion
When Paul deals with the death of Jesus he highlights and underlines his crucifixion. Some people claim that, without Paul’s emphasis on the crucifixion, there would have been no Passion Narratives in the gospels. It is in the letter to the Galatians, first of all, that we meet this emphasis. It occurs six times. Paul is very strong and very clear in the following quotation. “You stupid people in Galatia! After you had a clear picture of Jesus Christ crucified, right in front of your eyes, who has put a spell on you?” (Gal. 3:1) He is very conscious that he has given a very clear and graphic picture of Jesus crucifixion. He is surprised that it is not stronger in Galatian consciousness. In his personal conviction and enthusiasm he has painted a living picture for his audience.
Paul repeats the creeds that came to him where Jesus death was central. ”The tradition that I handed on to you in the first place which I had myself received, was that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures. (I Cor.15:3-4). That emphasis is also clear in I Thessalonians, “He died for us.” (I Thess. 5:9). But in the Christian hymns that came to him he adds reference to Jesus’ death on the cross. “He was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross. (Phil. 2:8). In Colossians it is God who wants Christ to reconcile things in himself “by making peace through his death (blood) on the cross.” (Col.1:20)
Jesus, the sinless Messiah chose death. It is also fair to conclude that he chose death by crucifixion. Paul explained to the Corinthians “We are preaching a crucified Christ.” (I Cor. 1:23) Paul comes back to it over and over again. He wants nobody to forget the reason for his emphasis. He makes clear the horror of Jesus’ death because it is the sacramental manifestation and measure of God’s love for mankind through his Son Jesus Christ.
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