...and beacuse, after yesterday, I have fallen in love with Capon again (it has happened many times), another quote from him:
“Grace is the celebration of life, relentlessly hounding all the non-celebrants in the world. It is a floating, cosmic bash shouting its way through the streets of the universe, flinging the sweetness of its cassations to every window, pounding at every door in a hilarity beyond all liking and happening, until the prodigals come out at last and dance, and the elder brothers finally take their fingers out of their ears.”
“Grace is the celebration of life, relentlessly hounding all the non-celebrants in the world. It is a floating, cosmic bash shouting its way through the streets of the universe, flinging the sweetness of its cassations to every window, pounding at every door in a hilarity beyond all liking and happening, until the prodigals come out at last and dance, and the elder brothers finally take their fingers out of their ears.”
What qualities need to be present for a witness to be vaild? The Pharisees today question Jesus' testimony (or witness...). The word martyria, of which I have spoken about, is one that captures my interest. The language in this passage, around judgment and witness/testimony, gets at the reality of what happens when God comes to dwell among humans.
Here, Jesus is in the witness stand, yet simultaneously occupies the place of judge: “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is valid; for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid. I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf.” It would be so much easier to understand what Jesus was about if even he made it clear. He takes the relationship between witness/testimony and judgment and turns them both on their heads. Having his testimony questioned, he speaks about his right to judge. In John 18, we will see Jesus being judged but refusing to step from the witness stand.
Realizing how much I talk about atonement, be forewarned: here we go again. I think it is important to talk about this because it shapes how we talk about Christ and how we talk about what it is to be a people of faith and what, exactly, has happened between God and us and each other in Christ. It points to how we believe we are justified and what that means for us... and so we enter into the conversation from as many angles as possible, to see what might come of the conversation.
In his commentary on Galatians, Luther speaks of Christ and our failure to recognize Christ if we recognize him as anything other than the Propitiator and Mediator of our sins. Understanding Christ as judge detracts from the reality that Christ was judged by humanity; as Christ goes from judge to accused, we who stand as accused stand as witness.
I think it too simplistic, however, to understand this as simply substitutionary atonement (in which Christ stands in our place). Likewise, understanding Christ’s action as satisfaction does not fit: we must ask whom, then, is satisfied (because it surely appears in all the Gospels that it is the humans, rather than God, who are satisfied by the exchange of Barrabbas for Jesus, of Jesus for us). Neither do moral categories fit, in which Jesus’ actions are understood as the actions we are to emulate (as though we are capable of dying for anyone other than ourselves!). I think the “happy/joyous exchange” (der froehliche Wechsel) fits best because the answer to the question, “How does it work?” can only ever be, “I don’t know.” I think, at the end of the day, understanding how Christ as Mediator and Propitiator of sin works remains a mystery of God. It is something to be received and to be witnessed, all the more powerful and all the more poignant because we cannot simply explain it away (though we certainly sound foolish when we try).
Inasmuch as Christ is our judge, he has judged decisively for us. Inasmuch as Christ is our witness, Christ is witness to what happens when humanity discovers it has a God, inviting us to be witnesses. With trembling knees, we stand as witnesses to the mystery of God, having been declared righteous and having been declared free though it seemed the opposite were the case.
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