We  ponder two crosses on Good Friday: one cross refers to the historical event of Jesus’ crucifixion; the other symbolizes the theological interpretations of that event.

The most widespread Christian understanding of the latter is that Jesus paid the price for our sins by dying in our place. In theological language, this is called substitutionary atonement. Jesus is the substitute who satisfied God’s wrath by undergoing the punishment we all deserve.

This is the understanding I absorbed when I was growing up. And United churches today aren’t exempt from including it in their Good Friday services, even though many members no longer believe it. In the past, the atonement language present in worship made me leave those gatherings with an unsettling sense of disconnect, and I’m sure I’m not alone.

Many still view this perspective as orthodox Christianity. But this substitutionary understanding was not present during the first thousand years of our faith. Indeed, we have no reason to think that Jesus or his followers sought to find meaning in his death before it happened.

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Also, Roman authorities crucified Jesus because they didn’t like what they had heard about him. The message of a public crucifixion was clear: this is what happens when you challenge our authority. They killed Jesus but not so he could die for our sins.

After I retired as a United Church minister, I discovered a number of books by Marcus J. Borg. It was as if his writings read me! His 2011 book Speaking Christian was especially transformative, with its fresh biblical interpretations of the death of Jesus.

In Matthew, Mark and Luke, when Jesus speaks three times of his upcoming death in Jerusalem, those predictions are never about his dying for our sins, but always about the fact that the authorities will kill him, Borg writes.

All Good Friday services have theological assumptions that underlie almost every part of the liturgy. But my hope is that future worship planners at United churches will take seriously the following pointed suggestions:

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Avoid readings that suggest God had to wait until Jesus died on the cross in order to be a forgiving God.

Select hymns that don’t require us to remain mute in protest over particular lines that few of us would affirm today.

Choose prayers that say what we mean and mean what we say.

Preach sermons that give validity to other theological interpretations of Good Friday. 

Perhaps by crafting Good Friday services in this way, worshippers will recognize that Jesus sacrificed his life as a gift to God — not because God required it but because of God’s passion for a different and better kind of world.

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This article first appeared in Broadview’s April/May 2025 issue with the title “Good Friday Deserves Good Theology.”

Rev. Wayne Hilliker is a retired United Church minister living in Kingston, Ont.

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