Anselm Reconsidered
Mar
10, 2016 @ 0:06 by Scot McKnight 3 Comments
Anselm
Reconsidered
Jason
Micheli will be posting reflections on Fleming Rutledge’s new book, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ,
through Lent. Jason is a United Methodist pastor in DC who blogs at www.tamedcynic.org
Every
year during Advent we let our confirmation students loose through the building
to take an informal poll.
The
question we give the confirmands is the same every year:
Why
did Jesus come?
About
15% always respond that Jesus comes to teach us how to love one another and help
the needy. I suppose those are the liberals.
Without
fail, a reliable 85%, in so many words, reply that Jesus comes to die for our
sins. That Jesus is born to die.
For
us.
Instead
of us.
In
our place.
Every
year the question is the same and, remarkably, every year so is the answer. The
needle doesn’t move at all. More than 3/4 answer, year in and year out, that
Jesus comes in order to die for us. As our substitute, suffering the death we
deserve.
And,
every year, more than a few of the confirmands bring those answers back to the
confirmation class with a few questions of their own:
How
does that work?
How
come?
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