Easter Sunday reframes

Every year during the Easter season, at least one of my kids will ask a hard question:
- Why did Jesus have to die?
- Why did God let his son die?
- Why does Jesus dying save me from my sins?
- If Jesus died to save our sins, why do people still sin?
- Does God love us more than Jesus? Or does God make everyone He loves suffer and die?

I usually answer with an honest, "I don't know. I have the same questions."

This year, I feel a little differently. I have some ideas that I'm excited about.

- I'm not sure Jesus did have to die. Did you know he forgave sins before he died!?

- I think Jesus was murdered because he stood up to oppression and abuse and because he refused to deny his true identity to make others comfortable.

- What if God didn't send Jesus to us to die? What if he sent Jesus to us to show us how to live and systems of power and abuse killed him, but he used that as an opportunity to show us that Love is stronger than both evil and death (which are arguably the same thing).

- It is deplorable that we still have the problem of evil and oppression and abuse in our world. Although in some ways things seem to be slowly inching toward less violence and sickness and death, in other ways history just continues to repeat its vicious cycle of corrupt power. I wonder how much faster that change might occur if the church stops saving people for eternity and starts saving people who are being abused now.

If I'm honest, I'm dreading going to church on Easter Sunday.

I know I'm going to hear a lot of justification of violence and abuse. As a survivor of abuse, I find that language especially hard to sit through and agree with. It is not okay that Jesus was abused and murdered. Using myself to justify it - that I needed him to die in order for me to live - is extremely upsetting for me. Here are my reframes that I was inspired to write for myself after reading Meredith Miller's post. 

Jesus died for my sins.
Jesus was killed by the powers of church and state.

Jesus came to die.
Jesus came to side with the vulnerable people who are oppressed, marginalized, victims and he refused to stop even when he was threatened and killed.

Jesus had to die to save me.
Jesus's commitment to loving people fully and refusing to collude with abusers, no matter what, shows me how to live, gives me hope, and assures me that I am safe with Him and loved by Him.

It was my sin that held him there.
It was abuse that put him there and Love as the greater power that held him there.

He became sin.
He refused sin.

Jesus came to pay the penalty for my sin and make a way for me to be with a Holy God.
God loves me and will always be with me no matter what. God is stronger than sin. God is not afraid of sin. Sin will not keep God away from me. I know this because God put skin on and lived among us and preached and modeled love and equality. Even death could not stop God.

His scars of suffering brought me healing. (a line from a song my daughter is singing with the choir which has been bothering me all week)
It was wrong for them to beat and torture and kill Jesus. The fact that God can bring something good out of it speaks to God's power.

God's son would die to save a wretch like me. (another line from the same choir song)
God is most committed to love. That humans worship power and participate in abuse is wretched. 

Another post I've been meditating on this week is Mattie Mae Motl's response to Lexi Good's quote:

“Crucifixion is the most feminine thing a man has ever done— bleed out for his children. And how sad it is that you all found it so remarkable that Jesus would do that for you, and forget about the women who have been doing that since they were 13. For you.”