Church of the Holy City

He Bore the Sin of Many

He Bore the Sin of Many
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
October 28, 2012

Isaiah 53:3-12 Mark 10:35-45 Psalm 91

The Bible readings we heard this morning are sources for a doctrine called the atonement. The doctrine of the atonement states that Jesus bore our sins like a sacrificial lamb when He was crucified. This doctrine teaches that Jesus’ crucifixion was like the sacrifice of lambs that the ancient Israelites used to do to take away their sins. And those who have faith in Jesus will have their sins removed. This doctrine of atonement is held by many Christian churches, particularly the mainline Protestant churches. The atonement doctrine seems to be very clearly taught in the Bible readings we heard this morning. Our church does keep some of the Biblical language of the atonement, but we interpret this language differently than do many mainline Protestant churches. Although I respect my fellow Christians and support them in their different beliefs about the meaning of Jesus’ crucifixion, I must confess that I find the strong statement of the atonement distasteful. Furthermore, it gives a picture of God that I can’t affirm.
But the language of the Bible certainly supports those who believe in the doctrine of the atonement. In the Isaiah 53 passage we heard, this doctrine comes through loud and clear, repeatedly:
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows . . .
But he was wounded for our transgressions
and was bruised for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that made us whole . . .
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. . . .
he bore the sin of many,
and made intersession for the transgressors.
And the idea that Jesus took away our sins through His death on the cross seems to be stated in Mark: “For the Son of Man also came . . . to give his life as a ransom for many” (10:45). Then there are John the Baptist’s words in the gospel of John, when Jesus came to be baptized. John the Baptist exclaimed upon seeing Jesus, “Look, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (1:29). This idea becomes a strong voice in the letters of Paul. Paul’s letters are often contradictory, but some Protestants read his statements on the atonement as central to his teaching and central to Christianity. In Romans 3, Paul states that Jesus was the sacrificial lamb that takes away the sins of all who believe in Him,
But now righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known . . . . This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood (Romans 3:21-25).
To some extent our church agrees with this basic idea. That is, we believe that it is the Lord alone who has the power to take away our sins. It is the Lord alone who raises us up out of our selfish cravings and worldly ambitions into loving generosity and heavenly delights.
Swedenborg uses language of struggle to talk about our relationship with sin. He says that the Lord fights against the evils and falsities that can erupt in our lower nature. We have no power to resist evil or to discern truth. The Lord alone has the power to deliver us from evil and to enlighten our minds with truth. In this sense, Jesus is our savior; He saves us from sin by removing it from us. Since it is the Lord who fights against hell, evil and sin, it is said that the Lord bears our sins. So Swedenborg writes,
He, therefore, Who alone fights for a person against . . . evils and falsities . . . is said to bear sins, for He alone bears that burden (AC 9937).
In this idea we are not too far from traditional Protestant beliefs. But there is a further step in this process of the removal of evil. That further step is our cooperation. The Lord can only remove evil when we desist from it as if by our own power.
the hells are continually with a person . . . so far as the Lord does not remove them; and He removes them just so far as a person desists from evils (AC 9937).
So we do believe that the Lord saves us from our sins. In this we are like traditional Protestants. But by bearing our sins, we do not mean that the crucifixion wiped out our sins, but rather that the Lord raises us up out of sin, evil, and falsity by His own power. This is how we understand the idea that the Lord bore our sins.
by bearing iniquities something else is meant; but what is meant may be evident from the bearing itself of iniquities or sins by the Lord. For the Lord bears them when He fights for a person against the hells, since a person of himself cannot fight against them, but the Lord alone does this, and indeed continually for every person (AC9937).
Our apparent effort in this process would distance us from some mainline Protestants, who hold that faith, and not works saves us. Emphasizing our own apparent work in the process of salvation, and Swedenborg’s description of spiritual purification locates us closer to Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Roman Catholicism.
The Biblical language mentions distress and sorrow that the Lord bore on our account. Isaiah says that He bore our griefs, carried our sorrows, that He was wounded and bruised, that He was chastised, and other deep distresses of soul and body. In Swedenborg’s theology, these distresses refer to the Lord’s struggles against the hells while He was on the earth. Struggling against the powers of darkness is what Swedenborg means by temptations. And it was by means of the humanity that the Lord acquired from Mary that the hells could approach the Lord. For God is infinitely good. And nothing evil can approach what is infinitely good. But with a humanity the same as the humanity that we have, hell had access, if you will, to God while He was on earth. So it was our very human nature that allowed hell to approach God. We say this every Sunday when we recite our Faith:
To save us from evil, He became as human as we are. He endured temptations, even the passion of the cross, yet never succumbed. He defeated the demonic power, destroying its hold on the world, releasing us from bondage.
Through the human He inherited from Mary, Jesus faced the totality of human sin. Through temptation struggles, Jesus overcame the source of sin, the hells, and restored order in the world and spiritual world. This is how we understand the language of Christ bearing our sins,
it is said that He bore our sickness, and carried our sorrows, that He was pierced for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; that Jehovah made to fall on Him the iniquity of us all . . . and that by His wisdom shall justify many, because he hath borne their iniquities, and hath carried the sin of many. . . . That by being pierced and bruised by them, is signified a state of temptations is plain, for in such a state there are sorrows of mind, distresses, and despairs, which cause anguish (AC 9937).
Jesus’ very being was and still is love for the whole human race. God wills nothing else but to be conjoined with each and every one of us forever.
The Lord’s love was the love of saving the human race, and this love was the being of His life, for this love was the Divine in Him (AC 9937).
The despair that Jesus felt in the depths of His temptations was for our welfare and salvation. It was our welfare that occupied Jesus’ final thoughts on the cross, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Jesus overcame the forces of darkness and in His risen and Glorified Humanity now continually fights against the evils that can assail us from the hells. Sometimes, we also may know the sorrows of mind, the distresses and despairs and anguish that the Lord knew on earth. If we are growing and developing spiritually, these feelings are likely. Change is never easy, spiritual or psychological. But there is One who has all power. That One is God. God has overcome darkness, and in doing so is continually working to deliver each and every one of us from our own worst tendencies. We need but ask God into our lives, and the process of heavenly ascent is a promise. The Lord alone has power to lift us into His world, and He can and will if we but ask Him to.

PRAYER

Lord, we praise you and we give you thanks. For you care for us always, and you never cease to lift us upward and inward into your kingdom. We are grateful for all your mighty acts of redemption. You have all power, and we have none. We implore your help as we wrestle with temptation, for we must cooperate with you in desisting from evil. Through the power of your Divine Human, you come to us in whatever state we are, be it in lofty, holy rapture, or in the depths of sorrow and distress. For you have wrought redemption for the whole human race, and you remain our personal savior, each and every one of us, your children.