One of my heroes of the faith is Fleming Rutledge, an 86-year-old priest in the Episcopal Church. Her masterful work The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ was named book of the year by Christianity Today in 2015—an amazing achievement for a 78-year-old!
As a pastor who regularly leads communion, as well as a sinful guy who just wants to better appreciate what Jesus has done for me, I’ve picked up Rutledge’s work often in recent years. It’s interesting that I’ve yet to finish it, however. The reason is it’s so rich that I’ve had to keep stopping to process and meditate on what I’ve just read.
Since we’ve been talking about science these last few weeks, I thought I’d share an excerpt from The Crucifixion about a scientist who was new to me: the ancient Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes (d. 212 B.C.). The insights below are also something I intend to share with our church family when we next partake in the Lord’s Supper.
I pray the featured image above, together with Rutledge’s thoughts, and the apostle Paul’s concluding exclamation will enrich your heart and mind:
“Guilt… remains a chief affliction in human life. In our time, however, the greater emphasis has been on anxiety… We may not be plagued by a guilty conscience as much as our forbears were, but we are nevertheless driven and riven by anxieties of various sorts, and one of them is the fear of not being on the right side of some invisible dividing line…
Insecurity is related to fear of judgment… Speaking from the perspective of the theology of the cross, we know that we can neither ‘cease being guilty’ nor ‘make the effort of cleansing ourselves.’ It can only be done by the one who stands on the Archimedean point outside this present world-order where we are imprisoned in our own natures.”
The Crucifixion (305-306)
What does Rutledge mean when she refers to “the Archimedean point?” She explains in a footnote:
“Archimedes… reportedly said, with regard to his lever, that if he only had one place to stand, he could move the world. No one imprisoned in Satan’s house has access to that Archimedean point outside the house; Satan’s occupied territory can only be entered by a power from another domain altogether. That is what has happened in Christ. He alone has access to the Archimedean spot from which he is able to move the cosmos, because he comes from and belongs to another, supreme sphere of power. Therefore, he is able to say, ‘The ruler of the world… has no power over me’ (John 14:30; see also 12:31 and 16:11).”
The Crucifixion (306)
What Rutledge is getting at is that this picture of Archimedes standing outside the world system so that he can change its position is a useful metaphor to show the “wholly other sphere from which God operates.”
To make these lofty thoughts even more accessible, let’s remind ourselves of Romans 7, where Paul was honest about his own anxieties and guilt. It’s a favorite for many because we can so relate to Paul’s internal water and struggle with sin. At the conclusion of the chapter, he cries, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Rutledge defines “body of death” as Paul uses it here as “the whole existence of the human being under the Powers,” encompassing our “fear of exclusion, dread of condemnation, threat of judgment, enslavement by Sin, and the knowledge that according to the Law one is on very shaky ground.”
I definitely say “Amen” to that but am so grateful for the Archimedean truth behind Paul’s classic answer to his own heart-wrenching question:
“Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ!”
Romans 7:24, NRSV