By Amy Butler
Atonement just nags at me this time of year.
Thanks to New Testament writers and thousands of years of church history, there are many different interpretations of Christ’s death as it relates to our salvation, probably as many variations as there are believers.
Are you a Christus Victor Christian, who believes that Christ breaks the power of the demonic over human life once and for all on the cross? Or maybe you’re more of an Exemplar, who looks at the events of Holy Week believing that Christ is our model, someone who inspires us to lives of love and faith? Prefer a more substitutionary approach to atonement? You have many choices.
Theologies of atonement in all their variations will inevitably leave us scratching our heads, bewildered. Usually we set them aside for other, less confusing, faith pursuits, but Holy Week brings them all up again.
This week we remember Christ died, and we know it’s tied in some way to our salvation, so once again the puzzle of atonement comes to the forefront. This year it’s even harder to avoid because, in addition to Holy Week, Hollywood gives us atonement on the big screen, too.
“Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor.”
The movie begins with an introduction to Katniss Everdeen, the main character. She and her family struggle to survive in a society where they don’t have enough to eat. With the 74th annual Hunger Games approaching, Katniss and her little sister, Prim, attend an event called The Reaping, where one young man and one young woman are chosen from each district to be contestants in a survival-of-the-fittest fight to the death called The Hunger Games. Before the names are called the announcer declares, “May the odds be ever in your favor!,” the words ringing through the crowd.
At that moment, favorable odds mean not being the one chosen, but Katniss’ life changes forever when she hears the name of her 12-year-old sister, Prim, called out as the chosen girl from their district. Unable to live with the thought of her beloved sister in a fight to the death, Katniss steps up and immediately offers herself to the games instead of her sister.
See? Atonement! Right there at the Regal Majestic!
Perhaps my nagging feelings about atonement are amplified by its appearance on the big screen in The Hunger Games. And since, even with the help of the movie, I can’t seem to come up with easy answers, I guess I am back to wondering. Why did Christ have to die? What was the saving significance of his death? Why is redemption tied to suffering?
I don’t know all of the answers, and I don’t quite know how to live with atonement. But in the darkness of this week I am grateful — grateful for the sacrifice or example or substitution or whatever it technically was that showed the world selfless love and gift beyond measure.
Come to think of it, no matter what theory of atonement you prefer, the events of this week in the life of Christ mean that the odds are, in fact, ever in our favor. We are saved. Thanks be to God.