Easter is the bloodiest time in the Christian calendar. The fact that Christians celebrate the death of Jesus, even to the point of hanging pictures of the instrument of his demise on their church walls and around their necks, has confused non-religious people for a long time. What kind of religion makes a spectacle of the moment of humiliation undergone by their beloved leader?

So many Christian songs and hymns focus on the violent death of Jesus, from the Gospel sounds of ‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord?’ to the medieval hymn ‘O Sacred Head Now Wounded’ to Charles Wesley’s ‘And Can it Be (that I should gain an interest in the Saviour’s blood)?’

So much blood! These Christians seem to relish the bloodshed in some strange, ancient way, complain Richard Dawkins and the new breed of anti-religionists. The enormously influential atheist philosopher Nietzsche criticised Jesus for encouraging his disciples to ‘drink his blood’. Surely this is madness, Nietzsche claimed (actually, the philosopher himself ended up insane).

Can the Easter story be defended against the claim that it is merely a mad, primitive religious idea of blood sacrifice, invented to give more meaning to Jesus’ death than was really the case for a charming sage who was condemned to crucifixion by the barbarous first century Roman empire?

Of course it can.

To start with, the violence of Jesus’ death is an historical fact, but not a theological key. Some Christian traditions have probably made too much of the physical pain and suffering Jesus endured. It is certainly heartbreaking and devastating, but it should not be our focus of spiritual attention. Some church architecture, some songs, and Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ movie all fall into this trap.

Furthermore, for Christians Jesus’ death is not an isolated incident of bloodshed, but part of an unfolding story of how God is reshaping the world. The manner in which Jesus died completes the Old Testament’s account of how sinful humans would humble themselves through God, using a system of sacrifice. Jesus’ own sacrifice has to be understood as the climax of this story: the “full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice” for sins as the Book of Common Prayer describes it.

And finally, while the crucifixion of Jesus completes the story of sacrifice, it is only the penultimate chapter in the story of the renewal of all things. It is the tragic moment in a comic story (one that ends in Marriage!). It is the point in the story where the problem (sin) gets resolved (in Jesus’ perfect sacrifice) so that the celebrations and restorations (resurrection and new creation) can commence.

Christians are not fans of bloodshed. We are in fact delighted and grateful that Jesus’ own sacrifice brings an end to the shedding of blood for sin.

At Easter time, we worship on Good Friday because we are indebted to the God who saves, all the while anticipating and yearning for Resurrection Sunday when, relieved and thankful, we celebrate the conquering of death and the beginning of the end of violence.

Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Greg Clarke is CEO of Bible Society Australia.

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