Short Prayers 39: The Death of Jesus

Matthew 27: The Death of Jesus

Holy Week Good Friday

From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘This man is calling for Elijah.’ At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.’ Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. 

Meditation on the Death of Jesus

Did God die? Jesus died. But, did God die?

Martin Luther answers, yes, God died. But, that’s heresy. The Councils of Nicea (325 AD), Constantinople (381 AD), and most assuredly Chalcedon (451 AD), tried to make clear that God the Father is immutable, that is, God cannot change. Undergoing death would be quite a big change. Orthodox Lutherans following Luther tried to hide what their teacher said; they wanted to keep Lutherans safe from a heresy charge.

Let’s ask: did God experience sin, suffering, and death? Or, was God insulated? Did God let Jesus face all this alone?

Now, let’s straighten out our vocabulary. First, our word, “God,” is equivocal. It means two different things. On the one hand, “God” refers to God as Father. So we can say, Jesus prayed to God. On the other hand, the word, “God,” or better, “Godhead,” refers to the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, let’s reformulate the question: did God the Father suffer when Jesus died? Is your brain now aching?

Let’s imagine for a moment that you are God the Father. You are the heavenly father of Jesus and of all creatures in creation. When Jesus suffers, would you suffer sympathetically or empathetically? If you are a loving father, how could you avoid shedding heavenly tears and become overcome with grief? Even if God is immutable, might God still experience the death of Jesus within the divine life? Jesus’ feelings and sufferings are experienced within the life of the Trinity. In this sense, God suffers and dies.

We’re not done yet. There’s more. It’s not just the suffering and death of Jesus alone that is at stake here. What about all the other creatures? If God the Father can feel the feelings of Jesus and grieve at his death, does it follow that God feels the feelings of every creature that suffers and dies? I think the answer is yes. I think Luther had intended to say yes, as well.

Will you join us heretics? We’re friendly.

HOLY WEEK PRAYER

God, in Jesus on the cross you felt all the pain and suffering that comes with estrangement and death. Bless us with your presence in these and all circumstances. Amen.

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Ted Peters is a Lutheran pastor and emeritus seminary professor. He is author of Short Prayers  and The Cosmic Self. His one volume systematic theology is now in its 3^rd edition, God—The World’s Future (Fortress 2015). He has undertaken a thorough examination of the sin-and-grace dialectic in two works, Sin: Radical Evil in Soul and Society (Eerdmans 1994) and Sin Boldly! (Fortress 2015). Watch for his forthcoming, The Voice of Public Christian Theology (ATF 2022). See his website: TedsTimelyTake.com.

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