The Atonement
I am convinced that a real theology—as distinct from a theory—of the Atonement properly commences with the "mind of Christ." I mean "mind" here in a plain and most elementary sense. When Jesus hung on the Cross, what did he think he was doing? What was his understanding of Calvary? What was his defining frame of reference?
Obviously, the deepest reaches of such inquiries elude inspection, because Jesus' understanding of the Passion was embraced within his unique relationship to the Father. Consequently, a real theology of the Atonement will insist that there must be no interpretive reference extraneous to that relationship. There, and nowhere else, can a real theology of the Atonement begin.
With respect to the meaning of the Cross, the Father and his incarnate Word shared a mutual understanding. And that understanding of the Cross is the only one that counts. This is the sole entrance into the mystery of the Atonement; we enter it cautiously and by invitation.
Thanks be to God, we did receive an invitation, the most explicit form of which was conveyed, I believe, when the Savior permitted the Church to listen in on, to overhear, his prayer to the Father in John 17. In the Gospel of John, this is presented as Jesus' final prayer, which inaugurates and interprets the Passion.
Readers have long observed the liturgical quality of the prayer. It is that of the mediating priest as he approaches the altar of sacrifice. He is about to enter solemnly into God's presence. Twice he declares to the Father, pros se erchomai, "I am coming to you."
For the sake of the faithful, Jesus tells the Father, ego hagiazo emauton, "I consecrate myself." This is a liturgical term. In the traditional Greek translation (Septuagint) of the Torah, the verb hagiazo (along with its nominal cognates) is frequently found in reference to the consecration of the priests and of the appointments of the priestly ministry (twelve times in Exodus 29 and six times in Leviticus 22). The use of this same verb in Jesus' prayer summons to mind those priestly associations in the Torah.
The appearance of such vocabulary in John 17 explains why Christians have long referred to this prayer as "high priestly." This adjective manifests an intuition—as early as Cyril of Alexandria (In Joannem 11.8)—that the Johannine Christ is especially Christ the Priest.
In the sequence of its petitions, moreover, the prayer in John 17 displays a very definable and recognizable liturgical structure; there are stages. First, Jesus prays for himself: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you. . . . And now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was."
Second, and in more detail, Jesus prays for the apostles who are with him, his immediate family, as it were, those whose feet he has now washed: "I pray for them. . . . Keep through your name those whom you have given me. . . . I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. . . . Consecrate them in truth."
Third, Jesus prays for the whole People of God, all those who "believe in me" through the testimony of the apostles. His prayer for this larger group is likewise manifold; it includes the unity of the believers, the proclamation of the gospel to the world, and the revelation of the divine glory. He prays "that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you . . . that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me . . . that they may behold my glory which you have
given me."
Now it is significant that the three-fold structure of Jesus' prayer corresponds exactly to the triple concern of the officiating priest on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, as prescribed in Leviticus 16: First—and second—the priest makes the sin offering (hahatta'th), "which is for himself, and to make atonement (kipper) for himself and for his household" (vv. 6,11). Third, having sprinkled the blood of the victim on the mercy seat (kapporet), the priest offers another victim, "which is for the people"
(vv. 14–15).
Thus, Leviticus directs attention to the triple concern of Yom Kippur, during the ritual of which the priest "makes atonement (kipper) for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel" (16:17). John's parallel with the liturgy of Yom Kippur is striking and important. Among the Gospels it is also, perhaps, unique.
The most obvious parallel in the New Testament is in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the theme of Yom Kippur dominates; this is the only New Testament book that actually calls Jesus "priest." In the Epistle to the Ephesians, there is another example going in this direction: "Christ also loved us and handed himself over for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma" (5:2). Here is the first thing to know about the work of the Atonement: it was an act of worship.
Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
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