A Ransom for Many - What can that mean?

Almost 2000 years ago, Jesus of Nazareth -- Jesus Christ -- was crucified. He died. Painfully. And then, by the second morning after that, He was risen from the dead. His physical body was gone - or, rather, in light of subsequent events, it seems to have been transformed into a spiritual one. (That's an interesting thing to think through, in itself, but it's not the focus of this article.)

Instead, here we want to focus on some of the things that are said in the Bible about why Jesus died. There's an almost-2000-year-old confusion about it. Let's dig into it...

In Mark 10:42-45 (and in Matthew 20:25-28), we find this well-known lesson, which occurs late in Jesus's ministry. James and John - still not really understanding the depth of what was going on, are lobbying Jesus for promises of sitting at His left and right hand when he is "king". The other disciples are displeased, of course. Jesus knows what's going on, so He gathers them all, and tries to explain the real nature of His mission, and what their mission should be, too.

Here's the text:

"But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."

A ransom. The Greek word used here is λύτρον, or lutron, which means the price for redeeming or ransoming, from λύω, luo, for loosening, untying, or setting free.

Some theologians have taken this text, and combined it with the text from the crucifixion story, when Jesus says three things that show his distress, and his feeling of separation from his Divine essence -- "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?", and "Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done", and "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

It can certainly be interpreted as a sort of sacrifice, in which Jesus acts as a sort of scapegoat, substituting his death for the human race that had disappointed His Father. Some theologians have done that. Anselm of Canterbury, in around 1000 AD, was one of the leaders of a faction that made that argument. But we don't think that's the right track; in fact, we think it was a wrong track that's been pretty damaging.

In New Christian theology, it doesn't make sense that God was angry. He's love itself. Is He disappointed when we don't reciprocate His love? Sure. But angry? No. There's certainly the appearance of it, especially in the Old Testament at times, but the core nature of God is love.

What's more, it should be even clearer that the death of Jesus's physical body wouldn't make God the Father feel better. Remember, they are really ONE person, of one mind - not two.

Instead, the whole cycle of God's incarnation, ministry, physical death, and resurrection was undertaken so that new truths could reach humankind.

Here's an interesting passage, from Arcana Coelestia 1419,

"The Lord, being love itself, or the essence and life of the love of all in the heavens, wills to give to the human race all things that are His; which is signified by His saying that the Son of man came to give His life a ransom for many."

Further, in Apocalypse Explained 328:15, we find this explanation:

“The phrase ‘to ransom’ means to free people from falsities and reform them by means of truths. This is signified by the words, ‘Ransom [redeem] me, O Jehovah, God of truth’” (Psalm 31:5)

One reason Jesus died was to overcome the power of hell. Jesus fought against evil spirits throughout His life. The clearest description of this is just after his baptism, when he spends 40 days in the wilderness. His suffering on the cross was the final struggle against evil, and His resurrection was his final victory over it.

For every person, overcoming evil involves temptation or a struggle against evil. As we struggle against evil individually, Christ struggled against evil on a cosmic scale. His death was the conclusion of that struggle, but it wasn't a loss; it was a win. The Bible says that God took on flesh and blood so that

“... through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” (Hebrews 2:14,15)

Another reason that Bible gives for Jesus’ death was that He might unite His human nature with His Divine nature, so that He could “make in Himself, of two, one new man,” (Ephesians 2:14-16, cf. John 17:11, 21; 10:30).

There are other reasons mentioned, too:

He could "go to the Father" (John 13:3; 14:2, 28; 16:10).

He could be "glorified" (John 17:1,5) or "enter into His glory" (Luke 24:26).

He could be "perfected" (Luke 13:32), or "sanctified" (John 17:19).

In Swedenborg's True Christianity 86, it says,

"Jehovah God came into the world as divine truth for the purpose of redeeming people. Redemption was a matter of gaining control of the hells, restructuring the heavens, and then establishing a church."

At the crucifixion, the forces of evil thought they had won. The religious and civic powers of the day led the way in condemning him. He was mocked. The crowd turned against him.

The death of Jesus' physical body was a "ransom" in this way: by undergoing that torture and death, He could then show that his spiritual power transcended natural death. He freed us, loosened us, from domination by the hells, and established a new church -- a new way that we can follow.

10125. 'And you shall anoint it' means consecration to represent the Divine Good of Love from the Lord as He exists in heaven and in the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'anointing' as consecration to represent the Lord in respect of the Divine Good of Divine Love from His Divine Human, dealt with in 9474, 9954, 10019, at this point from the Lord as He exists in heaven and in the Church; for the subject is the influx and reception of Him there. Whatever represents the Lord also represents Him as He is present with people of the Church and with angels of heaven, and so represents heaven and the Church, since people who have the Church within them constitute the Church in general, and angels who have heaven within them constitute heaven in general. Not that those people regarded in themselves constitute the Church, only the Lord present with them does so. Nor therefore do the angels regarded in themselves constitute heaven, only the Lord present with them. For the Lord does not dwell in anything that is a person's or an angels's own, only in what is His with them. So it is that when the words 'the Church and heaven' are used, what is Divine and the Lord's with those who are there is meant. From all this it is evident how the statements that the Lord is the All in all of heaven and the Church and that the Lord Himself is heaven and the Church ought to be understood. This is also evident from the teaching known and accepted in the Christian world that all the good of faith and love comes from God and none at all from man, and that whatever comes from man's own self is not good. For this reason also no one has any merit or any righteousness by virtue of what is his own.

[2] These matters have been stated in order that people may know what is meant by 'the Lord as He exists in heaven and in the Church', thus what heaven and the Church are, and consequently in what way the altar and the anointing of it were representative of the Lord. All the objects that were going to represent the Lord and the Divine things that came from the Lord were anointed - the altar, the tent of meeting, the tables within it, the lampstand, the ark, Aaron himself, his sons, and their garments. And when they had been anointed they were called holy, not because the oil imparted any holiness but because when anointed they would represent the Divine things from the Lord, which alone are holy. The reason why oil was employed for this purpose was that oil was a sign of the good of love, and the Divine Good of Divine Love is the Divine Himself, for He is the Essential Being (ipsum Esse) of all things. So in order to represent that Good, consecration was effected by the use of oil. The Divine Himself, the Essential Being of all things, was within the Lord alone, for He was conceived from Jehovah; and everyone derives the being (esse) of his life, called his soul, from his father. From this it is clear that the Divine Good of Divine Love was within the Lord's Humanity as a father's soul is within his child. With the human being nothing possesses life except the soul. The body without the soul has no life; indeed the whole body is fashioned by the soul in its own image, to bring the soul into a condition suitably adapted to the functions it performs on the lowest levels of order, that is, in the world. These facts about the human being lead to the conclusion that the Essential Being within the Lord's Humanity was Jehovah, or the Divine Good of Divine Love, the Being of life, and that this Being makes everything which exists from it a likeness of itself. Thus the Lord, acting from the Divine [Being] that was within Him and so was His, also made His Human into the Divine Good of Divine Love.

[3] Furthermore the Athanasian Creed which hands down the faith accepted in the Christian world states,

As body and soul is one man (homo), so Divine and Human in the Lord is one Christ ¹ .

Anyone therefore who knows about the union of soul and body in the body, and about the image of the soul in the body, can have some conception of the union of the Divine and Human within the Lord, and of the image of the one in the other. And from this he would recognize that the Divine, called the Father, and the Human, called the Son, were one, also that each was in the other, that is, the Father was in Him and He in the Father, according to the Lord's words in John 10:30; 14:10-11. But since there is no awareness at the present day of what the soul is, and scarcely any awareness that it is derived from the father, that the body is an image of it, and that the two are one, as prior and posterior are, or as being and manifestation of that being are, mankind has separated the Divine from the Human within the Lord, dividing them into two natures. As a consequence of this no other idea has been formed of the Lord's Humanity than of its being like anyone else's humanity. But in fact anyone else's soul from his father is finite and has evil within it owing to heredity, whereas the Lord's soul, being derived from Jehovah, was infinite and was nothing other than the Divine Good of Divine Love; and therefore His Human after glorification was not like anyone else's.

[4] For the same reason the Lord took up into heaven His entire Humanity that had been glorified, that is, had been made Divine by Him; He left nothing of it in the tomb, which is different from what happens with anyone else. The fact that the Lord glorified His actual body right down to the last and lowest constituents of it, which are its bones and flesh, the Lord also made plain to the disciples, saying,

See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see Me having. Luke 24:39.

And yet He came in through closed doors, and after He had revealed Himself became invisible, John 20:19; Luke 24:31.

These things have been stated in order that people may know that the Lord alone in respect of His Human was Jehovah's Anointed. He was not anointed with oil however but with the Divine Good of Divine Love, which 'oil' is the sign of and which 'anointing' represented, see 9954.

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