Thursday, April 06, 2006

It is Finished


I walked the Stations of the Cross recently. Walking them I couldn’t help but think: “This was an execution; this was the death penalty.” Jesus ate the Last Supper; the inmate gets a last meal. Jesus was crucified in front of his mom’s eyes; the inmate is injected with family watching. Jesus spent an agonizing night in the Garden of Gethsemane; the inmate spends a long night in the prison cell. In class I learned about the Protestant Reformation and the reformers’ objections to the way priests were celebrating Eucharist. Viewing it as a reenactment of the crucifixion, the reformers claimed that the Church was trying to sacrifice Jesus again with each Lord’s Supper.

Thinking these together, are we with each State execution attempting to re-sacrifice Jesus? Do we spread victim after victim cruciform on the restraining table to redo what is finished? It is finished, it is adequate; let’s leave it alone.

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