This week, Fr. Gioia continues a year-long course to dive into all the main areas of theology: Faith, Scripture, Tradition, God, Christ, Salvation, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, and the Church – always with an eye to their relevance for spirituality and for everyday life.
The New Testament uses the language of ‘blood’ to declare that Jesus died for our sins: “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:28). In few passages the way in which the pouring of Jesus’ blood obtains this forgiveness is expressed through the vocabulary of “expiation” or “propitiation” with reference to the sacrifices of the Old Testament.
It is tempting to interpret these words as meaning that the reason why Jesus died was “make satisfaction” for our human wrongdoings and “appease” God. This interpretation is based on a fundamental misconception about the meaning of the sacrifices of the Old Testament and the role blood played in them.
In our previous talk we saw that blood in animal sacrifices owed its ability to ‘atone’ to the fact that it was a gift from God. Building on this interpretation we shall see that the death of Christ cannot in any way be understood as ‘expiation’ or ‘satisfaction’.
For more information about our theology program and to receive links for weekly Sunday Theology Talks, please contact Fr. Gioia.
