The use of metaphors is a very important way for humans to express themselves and abstract or complex concepts and actions. Here is a useful definition of metaphor: A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison.
Too often we interpret metaphors in the Bible in light of the assumptions we have stemming from a truncated theology we have inherited.
Very often it is helpful to remember that words have uses more than meanings. When approaching a metaphor, we should always ask how the metaphor is being used and what its intended meaning may be in that specific context. A metaphor may have many different uses in many contexts, but usually a specific metaphor is chosen to suggest or reveal a deeper meaning to its referent. We make a mistake when we take metaphors literally. For example, “a black sheep” communicates something about a family member but does not refer literally to a black, wooly animal that goes “baa.” My wife may be the “light of my life” but photons of light do not shoot from her body. “A rose among the thorns” may stand out because of her beauty, but she need not smell like a rose or wither as the days go by. We also make a mistake when we assign to those metaphors uses/meanings which may be true in some contexts but are not relevant in the specific context we are dealing with. This error has been made repeatedly in interpreting metaphors referring to the death of Jesus (for example, redemption, sacrifice, salvation, ransom, etc.) Too often we interpret metaphors in the Bible in light of the assumptions we have stemming from a truncated theology we have inherited. This is especially true in our understanding of Paul’s letters. Paul is not responsible for our erroneous interpretations of his message and metaphors.
The New Testament uses many kinds of metaphors to communicate the salvific nature of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Medical, military, diplomatic, financial, legal, cosmic, cultic/sacrificial, familial, and servant metaphors are employed. (It’s important to realize that none of these metaphors claim that Jesus died to assuage the wrath of God so that God would be willing to forgive humans. Jesus did not die in our place offering God his pound of flesh and taking upon himself our punishment as some cosmic “whipping boy”. That theory of atonement had its beginnings in Western Christianity one thousand years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. It found its most deplorable expression during the Protestant Reformation, especially among Calvinistic circles.)
Let’s look at some of these different metaphors as they refer to the death and resurrection of Jesus and briefly comment on their intended use. (Much of what you will read below is dependent on Elizabeth A. Johnson’s magnificent book entitled Creation and the Cross: The Mercy of God for a Planet in Peril. I highly recommend her book for anyone who wants to understand more deeply the Christian faith. The book is profound but written in a way that laypeople can understand and appreciate.)
- “Salvation” has a background in medical healing. Over time, its usage was expanded beyond physical healing to refer to a restoration to wholeness from whatever was keeping one from being “well.” (ex. sin, oppression, fear, death, etc.)
- Military metaphors referred to God’s triumph over evil and death. God “conquers” through self-giving and faithful love. This victory also defeated the “principalities and powers” (what we might call “systems”) which oppressed and enslaved multitudes. The entire New Testament announces God’s victory over evil and death, but “the weapons of the Spirit” are love, faithfulness, and truth.
- “Reconciliation” was a diplomatic metaphor referring to the breaking down of barriers as peoples were reconciled to one another. (It’s absolutely imperative to understand that at no point does the New Testament imply that God needed to be reconciled to humanity. God’s stance toward humans has always been one of compassionate and unconditional love. It is we who need to be reconciled to God, others, ourselves, and God’s good creation.) See II Corinthians 5:19 and Colossians 1:20.
- “Shalom” was an ancient Hebrew metaphor which extended to all creation. Ephesians 2:14 reads, “He (Jesus) is our peace.” Through the reign of this Prince of Peace, all individuals and peoples as well as the whole cosmos are ushered into a realm of wholeness and thriving.
- The words “redemption” and “ransom” are financial metaphors which express another facet of God’s salvation through Christ. The act of redeeming referred to a business transaction whereby a family member bought back the freedom of a relative who was in debt. Once free, the relative could be restored to the security and belonging of his or her family. Both “redemption” and “ransom” are metaphors used in the Jewish tradition to refer to the emancipation of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt during the exodus. Notice, however, that no mention is made of a purchase or price to secure this liberation. The focus of the metaphors is on liberation, not a price paid (much less to whom such a price was paid). During the time of Jesus these words were used to describe what was done to secure the freedom of slaves. The New Testament writers continued the emphasis on the liberation God offered in Christ as people were freed from whatever was enslaving them (sin, oppression, the principalities and powers, etc.). Even in passages where we have a reference to people being redeemed “not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish” (I Peter 1:19), no recipient is mentioned concerning to whom this price was paid. No one pays a price to God to ensure God’s forgiveness of those enslaved. If anything, God “pays the price” through Her self-giving love to free Her children from sin and oppression. The thrust of the metaphors of redemption and ransom is on liberation.
- Justification is a legal and covenantal term which was used by the early church to express the salvation wrought through the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Through the Christ Event, God is faithful to the covenant She has made with Israel and the world. God has promised to deal with sin and to heal all the peoples of the world. When humans appear before the judgment seat of God, God proclaims them “not guilty” because through the Christ Event, forgiveness has been achieved and is being offered. When one accepts the gospel as true and trusts (has faith/believes) that good news, one is empowered by God’s Spirit to live a Christlike life. Johnson expresses it this way: To be justified is to be acquitted. Used especially by Paul, this is a metaphor derived from a judicial procedure. Picture it: a law court is in session. Sinners are in the dock… To the astonishment of all, the accused are declared not guilty. The verdict is one of acquittal! In technical terms they are justified. In truth, they do not deserve this verdict. But the mercy of God declares and even makes them not guilty, motivated not be the merits of the defenders but by the depths of divine love… This is not cheap grace, for the people need to change their ways. But such an acquittal sets up a new situation, a new salvific beginning in relationship to God, not just for the individual but for the whole community.
Such justification allowed for Jew and gentile to belong to the new covenant community of God—the new family of God. One was identified as being a part of this eschatological, covenantal community by the faith/trust/belief one had in the good news of the Christ Event and the allegiance to Christ such trust brought about through the power of God’s Spirit. God’s grace in justifying sinners comes first and empowers a faithful response from the recipients of such mercy. Justification is not so much about how one is “saved” as it is about who belongs to this new community of faith and trust in Christ. That’s why Paul insisted that gentiles did not have be become Jews before they could belong to Christ. The good news of the Christ Event has superseded the Law. God has fulfilled all the promises of Her covenants with Israel and the world in Christ. All belong regardless of their past as long as they “accept the fact they are accepted” and trust the good news that Jesus (and not Caesar or any other pretender) is the Lord.
- Familial metaphors were also used to refer to the salvation brought to the world through Christ. Paul uses the metaphor of “adoption” to describe the process of salvation. In Galatians 4:5-7 he announces that God sent God’s Son to redeem us “so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of Her Son into our hearts, crying ‘Abba, Father.’ So, you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child, then also an heir, through God.” In Romans 8:14-17 we read, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption.” In the Johannine literature, we are “born of God” or “born from above”—metaphors Nicodemus first takes literally until Jesus instructs him on the correct use of these metaphors. (Notice that the act of giving birth is done by mothers. We are “saved” by being born anew through God our Mother.)
- With the death and resurrection of Jesus, the New Creation had already begun. Paul writes, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new.” (II Corinthians 5:17) In his letter to the Romans, Paul compares Adam of the old creation with Christ of the new creation. Adam, “the man of dust,” is contrasted with Jesus, “the man of heaven.” Adam’s disobedience continued in his descendants, but Jesus in his obedience and faithfulness reverses the effects of Adam. “For if the many died through one human being’s trespass, much more surely has the grace of God and the free gift of the one human being, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.” (Romans 5:15) In Jesus, God initiates a new chapter for humanity grounded in Her infinite love. It’s important to understand that this New Creation includes the transformation and healing of all creation and not just human beings. New Creation is a cosmic and communal metaphor. Paul saw the promise from Second Isaiah regarding a new creation being fulfilled in Jesus. (Please read Isaiah 65:17-25, a most beautiful poetic expression of hope and comfort.) The death and resurrection of Jesus constituted the first stage of this cosmic renewal and transformation.
- The early church also looked to the four Servant poems in Second Isaiah to interpret the mission and death of Jesus. The identity of the Suffering Servant is ambiguous. In some poems it’s obvious that the Servant is either corporate Israel or the faithful remnant of Israel. The third and fourth Servant poems allow for the identity of an individual (although a corporate identity is also possible). Contrary to what many Christians think, we should not assume that Second Isaiah was making specific predictions about Jesus. As Elizabeth A. Johnson writes, The link was forged in reverse. The disciples saw connections between Jesus and the servant. The third Servant Poem anticipates trouble for the Servant as he carries out his mission of teaching and comforting the weary. He is beaten, insulted, and spat upon while still trusting in God’s vindication of him and his mission. The fourth Servant Poem (Isaiah 52:13-53:12) describes the horrible sufferings of the Servant which the early church saw as similar to the fate of Jesus on the cross. It is in this poem that we find the radical words “by his bruises we are healed.” Somehow the torment of the Servant helps others. Daniel Berrigan wrote about the great irony in this claim. The servant was denied justice but brings justice to others. His love is in service to others; he “invites the unjustified to the justice of God, that is to say, to holiness, to the all but unimaginable possibility of love.”
It is very possible that the martyrdoms of faithful Jews during the Maccabean revolt also contributed to the idea that the sufferings of the faithful could benefit others. In 4 Maccabees 17:21-22, we read about martyrs whose death became “as it were, a ransom for the sin of our nations. And through the blood of those devout ones and their death as an atoning sacrifice, divine providence preserved Israel that had previously been mistreated.” (As Johnson points out, let us not miss the “as it were”—this is not a literal connection between their blood and a ransom for sin. As Johnson writes, Christian interpretation took this already existing Jewish idea and applied it to their new circumstances. Here was a pattern of thinking that allowed them to acknowledge the pain of the cross and, in light of the resurrection, to find blessing for the transgressing world. It offered, so to speak, a key to interpreting the horrific event… As in the Jewish scriptures so also in the Christian, there is no explanation of how innocent suffering works to bring about salvation. But a metaphorical link is forged that gives faith a language to express good news. Jesus, like the Servant of Second Isaiah, “emptied himself” in service, obedience, and faithfulness to God and others. El Salvador priest Jon Sobrino writes about the deep human good that emerges in a community when someone freely suffers in the struggle for justice. “As often occurs in Latin America, in the presence of martyrs, when human beings understand there has been love, they understand it as good news, as something deeply humanizing. It is good for us that Archbishop Romero spent time on earth.” Johnson says of Romero, This is the service of the Servant, called by God, bearing the sin of the world, killed for establishing right and justice, but being a light to the nations, like Jesus. We must observe that the fourth Servant poem ends in a justification of God’s Servant. The resurrection of Jesus would have been seen as the validation and justification of Jesus. Cruciform always includes both cross and resurrection. They are vitally connected in Christian theology. A cross without resurrection is a final tragedy which ultimately offers no good news. A resurrection without the cross constitutes cheap grace and godless triumphalism. A misunderstanding of either leads to a tragic misunderstanding of God.
- Sacrifice was also a metaphor used to communicate the salvific effect of Jesus’ death. To understand the intent of this metaphor by the early church we must first distinguish the role of sacrifice in the Jewish world from that in the pagan world. Religion in most of the religions of the ancient Roman Empire did not focus on ethics or sin as we think of it in our own faith. Sacrifices were offered by the pagans as a type of practice designed to placate gods, assure blessings, and ease one through the stages and challenges of life. There was an almost magical quality to these sacrifices. What was in one’s heart was not nearly as important as offering these sacrifices correctly. The understanding of sacrifices in the Judaism of Jesus and Paul’s day was very different from that of other religions in the Roman Empire.
Elizabeth A. Johnson explains so well the role of sacrifices in Judaism and how the early church was influenced by that Jewish perspective. In this section I will quote and summarize her research found on pp. 132-141 of her book Creation and the Cross: The Mercy of God for a Planet in Peril. Direct quotes, as above, will be in bold type. Handing over precious animals, as well as other offerings such as cereal grain, fruits, and incense, was not done to appease an angry God or to pay a debt owed because of disobedience to divine law. Quite the contrary. Performed according to the law, these rituals expressed a desire to live in right relationship with God, and deepened or reset that relationship at certain key moments in the life of a person or the community. Sacrifices were offered to give thanks for a particular blessing, to mark significant life-cycle events, to repent from sin, to be purified from defilement, and to celebrate festivals.
The focus on blood is especially puzzling and disturbing to many moderns. So, why that focus? Blood is identified with life itself; without blood, an animal dies. Killing an animal and pouring its blood around the altar signified that its life was given back to YHWH, who gave it life in the first place. Burning the flesh gave over its life even further as the smoke ascended toward heaven. For many types of sacrifice, though not for sin-offerings, a portion of the flesh was given back to be shared with the family in a kind of communion.
The Hebrew prophets were very critical of sacrifices offered when the hearts of those sacrificing were self-serving, impure, or contradicted by the practice of injustice in daily life. There was nothing magical about sacrifices. If those sacrifices were offered for any other reason than a sincere desire to commune with God and to desire a more righteous relationship with God, they were blasphemous and abhorrent to God. (See Amos 5:21-14; Isaiah 1:11-17.) Three times in the Gospels (Matthew 9:13; 12:7; 15:2-6), Jesus quotes Hosea, “I desire compassion, not sacrifice.”)
Johnson continues, When entered into with the right spirit, however, these rituals could have the intended effect of deepening relationships between the covenant people and their God. On balance, the sacrificial system was understood in this way as a means of communion, purification, and rededication.
In considering how the disciples used animal sacrifice as a metaphor for the cross, Johnson writes the following: First and foremost, they drew on the annual sacrifice of lambs at the feast of Passover. This had nothing to do with repentance for sin, but everything to do with the celebration of freedom from slavery. Passover was about liberation from bondage in Egypt. The early disciples quickly saw in the Passover lamb a symbol for Jesus whose death and resurrection were bringing about liberation from bondage of all kinds… The image of Jesus as the Lamb of God is based on the many lambs that were killed and eaten to celebrate Passover. The meaning of this ritual connotes belonging to a joyful community stemming from an event of liberation, not repentance for sin.
Blood was also associated with the original covenant made at Mt. Sinai which sealed YHWH and Her people. (See Exodus 24:4-8) The disciples made a connection between the blood of the Mosaic Covenant and Jesus’ blood of the new covenant written on the heart, as the prophet Jeremiah had envisioned. (Jeremiah 31:31-34) In Paul’s account of the Last Supper, Jesus says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” (I Corinthians 11:24) The Christian ritual of the Eucharist came to be understood as a sacrifice patterned partly on the covenant ritual, with the blood of the crucified Jesus signifying a covenant relationship, in analogy with the oxen at Sinai that were “sacrificed as offerings of well-being to YHWH” (Exodus 24:5). This kind of sacrifice was a ritual that established relationship between people and God. Like the sacrifice of the Passover lambs, it was not done to repent for sins.
There were two sacrificial rituals which do involve repentance for sin: the sin-offerings that occurred daily in the Temple and the yearly sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. Zeroing in on these rituals, it is vital to keep in mind the meaning of temple sacrifice. Sin disrupted the covenant relationship with God and defiled the individual, the community, the land, even the temple. As shown throughout the scriptures, the God of Israel, gracious and merciful, held steady with the initiative to wipe out sin and heal offences. Seeking to repent, people engaged in formal ritual practices to act out symbolically that they were returning to God, that purification was taking place, that everyone and everything was being consecrated anew. Animals were sacrificed, their blood poured out, prayers said. Through these religious gestures, people understood that their covenant relationship was reset. Purified from sin they went forward in restored communion, with resolve to live henceforth more fully for God. Such rituals made the people open to the grace of forgiveness in a concrete way and sets a new mood going forward. Sacrifice functions to reset the relationship on the human side. There is never a need to reconcile God to humanity. God’s forgiveness and grace initiate the process. The ritual of sacrifice for sin was provided by God as a way for people to experience concretely and communally the mercy and forgiveness of God. As biblical scholar James Dunn writes, ‘Properly speaking, in the Israelite cult, God is never propitiated or appeased.” God did not need sacrifice in order to forgive sin.
So, how did the early church draw on the practice of sin-offering in the Jerusalem temple to interpret the cross? Paul sees Jesus like a lamb on the altar of God, ritually sacrificed in repentance to sin. Paul writes, Jesus in the one “whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith” (Romans 3:25). The word atonement, hilasterion in Greek, is sometimes translated as expiation, with the same meaning. Note that God is the one making the offering (to whom? The metaphor doesn’t work if you get too literal!); Jesus is the animal; his blood poured out becomes a symbol of his life given over to purify and consecrate. (RZ—It’s vital to realize that God becomes the sacrifice—another example of the Upside-Down Kingdom. God offers Herself in self-giving love for the salvation of humankind. In other religions, people offer the sacrifice. In the gospel, God in Christ offers Herself. Love is the price God always pays as She seeks to heal and save the world.)
The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) was also a sacrifice for sin performed annually. All Israel prayed for forgiveness on that day. The ritual performed by the high priest in the temple was the central feature of the day. After sacrificing a bull and other animals in the outer part of the court, he went with their blood through the hanging veil into the Holy of Holies, the sacred inner sanctum where God most assuredly dwelt, entered only once a year on this day. There he sprinkled the blood on the ark of the covenant, or, after the exile, on the raised part of the floor where it had once stood, offering these lives in repentance for his own sins and the sins of all the people. The ceremony made visibly concrete how seriously the Jewish people took their breaking of the covenant and how intent they were on re-establishing right relations with their all-holy, loving, and faithful covenant Partner. The ritual with accompanying prayers and music was a deeply religious experience of the mercy of God that re-centered the whole community for another year.
The letter to the Hebrews sees Jesus functioning as “a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people (Hebrews 2:17). But Jesus is both high priest and the sacrifice. Sympathizing with our weakness, he gives us courage to approach the throne of grace with boldness, “for if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from the dead works to worship the living God!” (Hebrews 9:14). So as with the animals, Christ’s blood is meant to sanctify humans, not placate God.
[RZ—Like many Christians today (including Elizabeth Johnson), I find this sacrificial metaphor with its emphasis on blood both foreign and repellant. I can affirm what the metaphor was intended to communicate as long as I remember that the notion that Jesus had to die to satisfy the wrath and honor of God so we could be forgiven and saved is alien to this and all the metaphors we have surveyed. Throughout the Bible, God is the initiator of our salvation. God does not need to be reconciled to us because God’s very essence is unconditional, indiscriminate, self-giving, and everlasting love. We need to be reconciled to God, each other, ourselves, and this beautiful creation marred by our sin, greed, arrogance, and violence. I suggest that today we do no need to be saddled with these bloody sacrificial metaphors. We need to find our own metaphors which communicate the good news all these original metaphors were intended to communicate. Paul’s world was awash with the sacrificial system. It makes perfect sense that he and other writers of the New Testament would use sacrificial metaphors to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ. However, such sacrificial rituals are alien to our time and place. Even the Jews of our day no longer practice blood sacrifices in their worship. In our final article, we will look at what I suggest is a most faithful, appealing, and fruitful metaphor for the salvation/healing/wholeness/reconciliation of the Christ Event.]
