SFS 5: Sacrifice to End Sacrifice

In Chapter 5, Heim asks whether the critique of scapegoating violence found in the gospels is continued in the New Testament. "Doesn't early Christianity finally side with the old sacrificial scheme and recycle it in a new and more absolute form?" (135) Heim's position is that while sacrifice is used to describe the death of Christ, that this continuity also means opposition. Further, Heim believes that the good news of scapegoating revealed and completed "was at the heart of the good news the first Christians saw in Jesus' death and resurrection" (135).

Heim begins with Stephen's speech and his highlighting of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses as typical sufferers in line with Jesus. He sees them as sacrificial victims: Abraham because he fathers Israel (Israel being the oppressed); Joseph because he is sold into slavery; Moses because his reciprocal violence precedes his flight from Egypt and then the Israelites push him aside for sacrifice in the wilderness. These form a line to think about Jesus because sacrificial violence shapes all their lives.

Heim also considers Rom. 3:25: "God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement." Here Heim gives two possible readings: "Is this a specification of the heart of God's purpose, or is it a description of position, a place taken up by Christ in the service of God's purpose to redeem and ransom humanity? In incline to the latter" (143). God enters as a sacrifice to reverse the practice and save us from it.

Some of Heim's most fascinating work is concerning resurrection and forgiveness (he leans on Markus Barth alot). The vindication of Jesus in the resurrection shows that Jesus is not guilty. But if Jesus is not guilty, then his accusers are wrong. The resurrection of Jesus spells bad news for us all--as we participate in scapegoating violence, as well. But Jesus' resurrection is an assurance of forgiveness. Because Jesus is not dead, his killers can be declared not guilty of his murder. But denying the resurrection leaves the killers guilty. If Jesus is not alive, then "we have rejected the ground on which we might by delivered" (146).

Heim sees satan at the root of scapegoating violence. "The devil has us coming and going, we might say, instigating the rivalry and conflict that tear human community apart and then orchestrating the violent sacrifice that restrains that conflagration for a time" (148). Parallel to Satan is the Holy Spirit. While Satan is an accuser, the Spirit is an advocate. The Spirit proves the world wrong in their accusations against the victim. The Spirit sides with the victim making sure they are not alone.

Heim considers the death of Christ as the sacrifice to end sacrifice. He says that sacred violence was always wrong and that the cross reveals this. At the same time, Christ's sacrifice is better than all the others and accomplishes what they never could. These are not opposites, but flipsides of the same coin (157). (This is almost verbatim Heim.) "The sacrifice of Christ stops sacrifice. What sacrifice is always being repeated to achieve has actually been accomplished" (158).

Heim closes with some thoughts on the ransom theory of atonement. He says that God uses Christ as a payment to the evil perpetrators of scapegoating violence to receive those who have suffered previous violence back. But from that position he does not demand vengeance and the entire web of sacrificial relationships collapses. The sacrifice of Jesus is "evil's great triumph and its great mistake" (164).