ABOUT THIS EPISODE
The first debate I ever heard about the atonement of Jesus was at my grandparents' house in Northeast Mississippi. I was only about ten or eleven at the time, but from time to time the debate would come back up. My grandfather was a Calvinist, and my grandmother was not. My grandparents were some of the finest people I have ever known. They loved the Lord a whole lot. I have my grandfather's Bible, which has a cloth cover sewn on it, and I can still see him in a recliner reading it after lunch until he fell asleep for a short nap before we headed out to the fields. My grandmother was quietly poetic, and I can still see her at the stove with a calico apron on, a spatula in hand, a little flour on her face—grinning as she quoted some piece of poetry to my cousin and me.
They rarely argued, and this point of theology may have been the only argument they engaged. But here is what would happen. A conversation about Jesus's death on the cross would begin, and my grandmother would say this—and when she said it, she would direct her scripture to my grandfather. She would say, "Olen, Jesus said, 'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered you under my wings, but you would not.' See, Olen, that is free will—'you would not.'" She would articulate this with poetic flair and pathos. My grandfather was a man of few words and, totally undaunted by the passion of her delivery, would say this: "Now, Marie, the angel that announced Jesus's mission said this: 'You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.' See, Marie—'his people.'"
This Sunday we will be talking about the atonement of Jesus and looking at the story of the cross and why the whole image of Christianity is gathered up in this one symbol. We will be pondering the question: did Jesus really make an atonement for sin, or just make atonement possible? I hope to see you Sunday as we continue to marvel at the grace of God!
