Tone death: Gerald Drewett on Jesus’ crucifixion

8 Feb 2024 | by Gerald Drewett

‘The Jesus story speaks to God’s standard of moral conduct.’

'We are spiritually safe in the palm of God’s hand. Evil or violence has to be absorbed by love until it is finally transformed.' | Photo: by Rui Silva sj on Unsplash

Last month Elizabeth Coleman asked what Friends made of Jesus’ crucifixion (‘A big ask’, 19 January). Here’s my answer.

As early hunter-gatherer societies developed, they asked fundamental questions of themselves. These were passed down as stories. In the Old Testament, for example, we have the story of Adam and Eve. Adam, representing humankind, ate from the tree of knowledge in defiance of God, and thereby assumed responsibility for maintaining the garden. God expelled Adam from the garden (paradise) until he proved he was capable of exercising that responsibility. Life was then understood to be a struggle to return to paradise (the kingdom of heaven).

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