Jesus Died from Love, Not Divine Anger

As we end this week’s study of how Jesus’ death communicated God’s love and grace, Miles Steele sent us a reflection on Michael Rothenstein’s 1937 painting of Jesus’ crucifixion. Rothenstein pictured all the characters with contemporary clothing and hair styles, bringing home that Jesus’ death was not merely some long-ago event that has nothing to do with us. Miles is a non-traditional student currently studying web design and digital media at JCCC after graduating from KU with a BA in Art History. When he has the time Miles can be found coding at his desk or working on a personal project in the JCCC ceramics studio. To see Rothenstein’s art with Miles’ commentary, click here.

Philip Yancey wrote a book in 1997, and updated it in 2023, pleading for Christians to value the power of God’s grace: “I have presented grace as a powerful force…. It conveys the best news possible, that the God of the universe loves us—news so good it bears the scent of scandal…. If grace is so amazing, why don’t Christians show more of it? How is it that Christians, called to dispense the aroma of grace, instead emit the noxious fumes of ungrace?…. as Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees, a concern for moral values alone is not nearly enough. Moralism apart from grace solves little…. I think back to the prostitute’s comment that originally prompted me to write this book. ‘Church! Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse!’ And I think back to the life of Jesus, God’s Son, who attracted the most unsavory of characters, the moral outcasts. He came for the sinners, not the righteous. And when he was arrested it was not the notorious sinners of Palestine, but the moralists, who called for his death.” *

• In 2013 Yancey wrote another book, Vanishing Grace, and began by quoting Hebrews 12:15: “Make sure that no one misses out on God’s grace.” That’s why our Lenten study of the meaning of Jesus’ death on the cross is so important: some ways of explaining the meaning of Jesus’ death run the risk of obscuring rather than casting light on how that death expressed God’s grace. The letter to the Hebrews went to a group of Christians tempted to give up their faith under the pressure of social and political persecution. The letter let God’s grace shine out, not as the opposite of holiness but as the only path to true holiness. Yancey said at Resurrection that he was moved to write because “we’re perceived more as guilt dispensers than as grace dispensers.” Our central mission as Christ-followers is to share God’s grace in all we do, including what we tell people about why Jesus died. How can you “Lift High the Cross” as the supreme demonstration of God’s generous, self-giving grace?