A March 24 Peninsula Daily News “Issues of Faith” column, “Run to the Cross to See God Anew,” [by the Rev. Patrick Lovejoy] may miss the real point of the life and death of Jesus, and undermine our understanding of God as a God of love.
Should God be tolerant of sin?
Well, no.
If God’s intolerance requires the blood sacrifice of his son, then should Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, cast the first stone at the woman taken in adultery?
Should we, created in the image of God, smash idolatrous images or kill people because of their unbelief, as ISIS does?
The fallacy is seeing God’s intolerance as a dominant characteristic.
God is love.
Jesus often acted in ways contrary to the teachings of his time.
With the woman at the well, the woman taken in adultery, in parables like the “good Samaritan” or “the prodigal son,” he both practiced and preached love and tolerance.
We try to live as Jesus did.
When we miss the mark (sin), will we face condemnation or a loving and forgiving Jesus?
Jesus was crucified by the Roman authorities at the instigation of the temple elite, not to satisfy God but because he spoke out against the intolerant, corrupt power structures of his time.
Can we do less?
Does treating the crucifixion as the “will of God” give us a “pass” on our responsibility?
Is a God that demands payment one to be feared rather than loved?
Is that image then in conflict with the life of Jesus?
Paul Wessel,
Sequim