Jesus Is not God’s Stress Ball

Jesus is not God’s stress ball. The cross was not God’s stress reliever. The death of the Son of God was not God’s way of punching the wall instead of us. God is not domestically violent. The wrath of God was not satisfied on the cross. For,

You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2:1-7, NRSV)

I agree with Paul. It makes no sense that we would be called out of our life of wrath by an act of wrath. It is baffling to me that we would accept our existence as divine image bearers, striving to imitate God, and also say that God is wrathful, but we are not children of wrath. There is no room for God to take out God’s anger toward us on Jesus and also for us to use that very expression of wrath to teach that we are not to be children of wrath. Rather, Paul makes the juxtaposition plain: we used to be children of wrath, but now we are children of God, “who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which [God] loved us.”

Why then do we continue to propagate an angry, wrathful God who had to punish Jesus, when the very cross event is the marker for our transformation from children of wrath to children of God? We used to be children of wrath, defined by Paul as following the world and ruler of the power of the air, whom we traditionally identify as Satan. The devil has children of wrath, but God has children of love.

I am aware that the Bible directly refers to God’s wrath on numerous occasions, but I am equally aware that said wrath is directed toward unrighteousness and injustice. I also agree with Brian Zahnd who contends in his book, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, that the wrath of God is more aptly understood as divine allowance of our own consequences. As such, I understand God exercising anger against injustice, but I fail to see the cross as anything other than love. I fail to understand how we could announce God’s wrath toward the most just human to ever live and simultaneously announce our movement away from being children of wrath. I fail to understand why we continue to sing “the wrath of God was satisfied” rather than “the love of God was magnified.” We have been shown kindness in Jesus on the cross, and our hymns, teachings, and understanding of the cross should reflect that – lest we continue as children of wrath. Jesus is not God’s stress ball.