forgiveness Archive

Died for us

The question of why Jesus had to die on the cross remains unanswered for many Christians to this day. There are plenty of interpretations, but none of them are conclusive – none are really convincing. So what is the meaning behind the statement that the cruel death of a man 2000 years ago could bring about redemption and forgiveness? The answer to this question is the subject of the following article.

How could our guilt be forgiven through the death of Jesus 2000 years ago?

For the last two millennia, Christians have been content with the statement that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. This statement was regarded as a truth of faith. In other words, it was seen as a statement with a dogmatic claim that could not be questioned, but simply had to be believed. And since this statement is a basic component of the Christian faith, it could not and did not need to be understood in terms of content. It is therefore sufficient for the vast majority of Christians that this statement, where it is believed, has a salvific effect and cancels their own guilt. But is that the case? Is the Christian faith based on such automatism?

The biblical sources

I do not want to say at this point that such a belief is wrong in itself – on the contrary, I consider it to be formally correct. However, today this statement calls for a conclusive explanation – an interpretation that people today can understand mentally, provided they are interested in this topic. In fact, Jesus Himself interpreted His death in this sense. This means that the conscious giving of His life for the redemption of many or for the forgiveness of sins is clearly documented in the New Testament of the Bible:

The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life for the redemption of many.
Matthew 20,28

And he took the cup, gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; this is my blood which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Matthew 26, 27-28

Jesus’ image of God

In order to understand the meaning of these statements by Jesus, we must first understand Jesus’ image of God.

For Jesus, God is omnipotent, he is the author of all things, everything flows from God and nothing can resist His will.

God is also a single and united God because everything that is divided or disunited does not endure, is not God. Only that which is one in itself and the only one, which is God Himself, endures. This means that in God there is no contradiction, no counterpart, no alternative, no outside of Himself. In other words, apart from God, there is nothing but nothingness.

But Jesus answered him: “The greatest commandment before all the commandments is this: ‘Hear, Israel, YHWH our God is one God …'”
Mark 12:29

If a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand …
Mark 3, 24-25

The will of God – the cause of all things

Against this conceptual background that nothing can resist God’s will and that he works all things according to His will, a statement by Jesus takes on a very special significance. He teaches it in the Lord’s Prayer, it reads:

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done …
Matthew 6:10

However, He did not only encourage His listeners to have the inner readiness to want what God wants, but He also showed this attitude Himself immediately before His arrest when He asked that, if it were possible, He be spared his passion.

Jesus walked a few steps, prostrated Himself and prayed: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me and spare me this suffering! But not what I want, but what you want shall be done.”
Matthew 26:39

In this willingness, this unconditional consent to God’s will, lies the key to our understanding of God and Jesus’ understanding of Himself: “… not what I will, but what you will, shall be done.” Jesus believed, indeed he knew, that God executes all things without exception and that nothing can resist His will. He, therefore, wanted only one thing; complete unity with the will of God, even if this will meant injustice, suffering and death for Him. In this selfless consent to the will of God, Jesus proclaims his gospel, which is: God is life itself and all things, without exception, flow from God, not only beautiful, pleasant and beneficial things, but also ugly, painful and obstructive things.

God constantly produces new life

But all things that God does, He does for one reason only. He does them for His own sake, namely to constantly bring forth new life.

So, to the extent that we become one with the will of God, we become one with God Himself. But if we become one with God, we will also live for His sake.

Even if the will of God means our own death, God must still give us new life again. Why? Because everything that is subject to God’s will necessarily comes to life, since God is life itself. This is the commandment that Jesus received from his Father, as He Himself explained:

… that they all may be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you; that they also may be one in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. And I have given them the glory that you have given me, that they may be one, just as we are one, …
John 17:21-22

Therefore, my Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I have received this commandment from my Father.
John 10:17-18

Redemption for many

So what is the redemption that Jesus brought us through his death? Redemption is based on accepting the attitude of Jesus, who possessed the divine power of the Spirit to recognise God’s will even in injustice, suffering and death. For in all events in which we seek God’s will, God will allow Himself to be found by us. And where we find God, we will necessarily find life itself.

Now one could argue that this is not good news if God wants us to suffer and die. The good news, the gospel, is that through this attitude, our suffering and death, which no one can escape anyway, takes on a deep meaning through which we receive comfort. Why? Because Jesus showed us in an exemplary way in His Passion that His own suffering and death had a deep meaning and for Him, this meaning lay in God. If we now accept His teaching and understand our own lives in the same way that Jesus understood His life, our own suffering and death will also be able to experience the deep meaning that lies in God.

God – spirit in the spiritless

Our redemption is based on the fact that nothing meaningless happens to those who accept and take on the unchangeable according to God’s will. Rather, everything is for the best for those who trustingly seek God’s will in all events but, especially, in the painful, unjust and difficult ones.

The meaning in Jesus knowing about His own suffering and death lay for Him in the certainty that it was good for us if He laid down His life. Indeed, He even tells His disciples that they should rejoice when he lays down his life for them.

You have heard that I said to you: I am going away and coming back to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I am.
John 14:28

God is spirit and mind. He alone is able to make spiritual things out of spiritual things – He is able to make meaningful things out of meaningless things. God is the meaning sought and found in the meaningless. Through our consent to His will, God will be able and willing to act on us in the same way as He acted on Jesus Christ. There is no difference but without our consent to God’s will, all suffering and death must remain meaningless for us.

For the forgiveness of sins

But to what extent can our guilt be forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus? According to Jesus’ teaching, the forgiveness of our guilt is also based on the fact that our human weaknesses are given a deep meaning.

This is the gospel, that everything that is humanly weak and evil ceases to be bad and evil in Christ.

But how is this possible in concrete terms? The only weakness that Jesus had was the weakness of His human body, and He willingly took this weakness upon himself as His cross. In this weakness, He handed Himself over to His enemies, who were only after this weakness because they could not oppose His spiritual strength. In His passion, Jesus thus lived out what He had previously taught so forcefully:

But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, pray for them who spitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Matthew 5:44

Jesus was the Son of God because He recognised the will of God in everything He encountered. In weakness and in strength. In friend and foe alike. In love as in hate, in honour as in insult, in discipleship as in persecution, in life as in death. This realisation made Him a descendant of the Most High – the Son of God.

Childship to God

By adopting this attitude of Jesus, we ourselves can now become sons of God – we can become children of God, and God becomes our Father. In His call to love our enemies, Jesus shows that God is also the cause of our enemies. But we should love what is subject to God’s will so that it can serve us. Only in such an all-encompassing and universal understanding of life, as Jesus taught and lived Himself, can every thought of guilt, punishment and retribution finally come to an end. Only in this faith are we able to forgive in a truly fundamental way. Why? Precisely because God deals with all things without exception. And for those who trust in this, God acts on all things in such a way that they serve Him for good.

If we recognise God’s will and interact even with our enemies, even with injustice, suffering and death, there is no longer any reason to condemn anyone.

Through our consent to God’s will alone, all human guilt is cancelled. For it is undisputed that Jesus recognised and obeyed the will of God in His passion. His consent to what is unjust, difficult and painful is what is meant when we talk about Jesus’ obedience to God.

As a ransom for many

However, Jesus’ statement quoted at the beginning can also be translated differently, in which case it reads:

The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.
Mark 10, 45

Where the term “ransom” has been understood literally, it has caused much confusion and justified head-shaking. It is not the case that God demands a tribute from us humans so that He can be gracious and merciful in return. Especially not from his Son. This idea would also be absurd. For since God is the source of all things, He cannot demand anything other than what He Himself is able to fulfil.

In this respect, the term ransom is to be interpreted in the sense that Jesus accomplished the work that was “necessary” on God’s part so that man would be reunited with God (life) and find his way back to God. What was needed was a sign through which man could see and recognise that God is the author of all things and that all things serve those who trust in Him. Jesus came to give us this sign and to convey this realisation to us.

The prerequisite and condition for this message to reach us humans was that a person should be able to recognise the will even in evil and unrighteousness and take this burden upon himself. But this was not possible for any human being. Only God Himself could do it. That is why He became man in the form of Jesus and gave Himself up for us.

Jesus gave His life so that the message would reach us that God is at work in all events, in which He is trustingly sought and found.

Summary:

Jesus taught that divine forgiveness would be granted to us if we ourselves were willing to forgive. And he Himself acted in accordance with this teaching when He granted forgiveness to those who had Him executed.

But Jesus said: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Luke 23:34

Jesus was able to forgive in this way because he recognised the will of God in His enemies and in His passion. Jesus knew that everything in which man finds the will of God, he also always finds life, even if this means certain death.

I am the Resurrection and I am life. He who believes in me will live, even if he dies.
John 11:25

Why is that so? Because God influences all things without exception and because nothing but life and spirit can flow from God.

To the extent that we, like Jesus, take upon ourselves all things that we encounter or cling to according to God’s will, be it illness, weakness, injustice, suffering and death, we make God (like Jesus) the reason for our own passion. But where God thus becomes the reason for our passion, there is no enemy, no evil circumstance and no misfortune that hinders us. Rather, everything serves us to live. Only when the reason for my weakness, my illness, my suffering and death no longer lies in this world, but in God, do I myself become free from blame and retribution. But if I become free from accusation, I will be able to forgive just as comprehensively as Jesus forgave.

In order for this message to reach us, Jesus was prepared to take His passion upon Himself so that we, like Him, would be free from accusation and retribution, enabling us to become one with God, who effects all passion without exception only in order to create new life.

Only when we, like Jesus, trust that all things, without exception, serve us for the best, are we redeemed.

Jesus was prepared to set this example of overcoming for us. And it is in this sense that Jesus’ words are to be understood:’

This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Matthew 26:28

Blog post with a similar topic:
Sin, the sinner and the fall

From there he will come to judge …

If forgiveness is the fulcrum of the message of Jesus, then what is the point of The Last Judgement and in what way will we be judged? The first answer to this is: because all division with God is limited. But the limited is not the eternal and timeless. The sphere of the spirit (God) is the timeless and unlimited and outside it nothing permanent exists. The limited ends one day, but the eternal and timeless is everlasting. Insofar as we think and act in a limited way, we ourselves will have to find an end.

German V ersion

The Last Judgement – what is it?

Jesus spoke of the Last Judgement; there is no doubt about that. But what is to be understood by it is interpreted by many rather according to human ideas and thus misses the spirit of Jesus’s message. In order to emphasise the threatening and inexorable character of the Last Judgement, one often uses the descriptions from the Book of Revelation. Few people are aware that the imagery of the Book of Revelation is a mystical show of visions whose symbols require interpretation – just like Jesus’s parables, which is why many take them literally. What Jesus wanted to make clear to us with his references to the Last Judgement can only be understood from the context of his teaching and the circumstances of his passion. This means that all the inspiration and interpretation that the apostles have left us in their writings, can only be given a coherent interpretation on the basis of the words and actions of Jesus. Any presentation that does not take into account the statements of Jesus’s message, misses the spirit of the Gospel.

God – the indivisible unity

The gospel, or the good news as it is translated, says that God “wills” to forgive all guilt. Why is this so? Because God is forgiveness itself, and this means that “in” God such things as guilt and punishment do not exist. If guilt and punishment existed in God, God would be divided, namely into a good and a bad, into a guilty and an innocent, part. But God is one in and with himself, that is, God is undivided and without contradiction. And whoever wants to reach God must themselves become and be one. For God is truth itself and this is indivisible, as the biblical texts also make clear:

Listen, Israel, YHWH our God is one God. Deuteronomy 6 And Jesus underlines this statement in a contrary metaphor: Every kingdom that is divided against itself will be laid waste; and every city or house that is divided against itself will not stand.
Matthew 12:26

And in this very sense Jesus makes it clear that God Himself does not judge: For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son.
John 5:22

This is the consequence of what has been said above, namely that God can only judge at all in relation to the Son. Why is this so?
God Himself is non-dual, but in the Son he has entered the world of duality and division in order to reunite it with God.
Therefore, we must “look” to the Son to understand the nature of the Last Judgement. And in this sense, Jesus declares that he only does what he “sees” the Father doing:

Amen, Amen, I say to you: The Son can do nothing By Himself, but only what he sees the Father do; for whatever the Father does, the Son also does in like manner.
John 5:19

But what do we see the Son doing, from which we can conclude what the Father is doing? The answer is simple: We see in Jesus Christ that Son who calls us to forgive unconditionally in order to live up to the nature of a united God: Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.

Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Matthew 7, 1

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Matthew 6:12

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses.
Matthew 6:14-15

Now I pray not for them only, but also for them who shall believe in me through their word; that they all may be one, even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And I have given them the glory which you gave me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
John 17:20-22

But Jesus not only demands this willingness from us, He Himself consistently fulfils this demand by dying on the cross to forgive His enemies. This is what the Son sees the Father “doing” and therefore the Son can also only act in this way, namely forgive unconditionally. It is through this attitude of mind that we (where we embrace it), come to God. This is our way to God. There is no other way, as Jesus makes clear:

I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6

For in the certainty that all things must serve the one who trusts in this unity, the Son was able to practise all-embracing forgiveness and proclaim from the cross:

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!
Luke 23:34

Forgiveness through insight into the nature of God

Jesus Christ came to proclaim and to make clear through his passion that in the sphere of the Spirit (in God) there can be no cause for condemnation or punishment. Therefore, we are to understand our own lives as Jesus understood His life. But how did Jesus understand and comprehend His own life? Jesus was given to find the will of God in the senselessness and spiritlessness of the injustice committed against Him: slander, accusation, condemnation, torture and execution, whereby these events had to find meaning.

As long as we attribute injustice, suffering and death to an evil fate or to our enemies, we will suffer harm.

We will be harmed insofar as we will have to break down inwardly because of a reality with which we are divided. But what we take upon ourselves according to God’s will must become good, because only good, only life, flows from God.

Jesus Christ came so that the reason and cause of our suffering might change.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Matthew 16:25

This is the substantive and spiritual consequence that follows from the passion of Jesus. Jesus saw himself in a position to recognise the will of God in injustice, suffering and death, whereby he overcame these areas of humanity so that they could become good, an example and comfort to us.

He walked a little farther and knelt with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
Mark 14:36

In the world ye are afraid: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
John 16:33

Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore, do not be afraid … Luke 12:7
Luke 12:7

And you will be hated by everyone for My name’s sake. And yet not one hairon your head shall perish.
Luke 21:17

We see that the understanding of life that Jesus proclaimed in his message is an all-encompassing and perfect understanding of life – an understanding of life in which all things, without exception, find meaning as soon as we place our trust in the power of the Spirit who makes all things work for our good, if only we trust completely in Him.

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God…
Romans 8:28

The Last Day – the unified reality

The Last Judgement and the Last Day are one, but from two different perspectives. The Last Day is the manifestation of that timeless reality which Jesus proclaimed in His message and whose essence He made clear to us in His Passion. But what kind of reality is it? It is the reality of the Righteous One who creates justice without accusation, without punishment, without retribution, but by accepting all events from the hand of God, whereby alone they can become good. In this certainty Jesus receives everything without exception according to the will of God and in this way fills it with spirit and meaning.

This applies particularly to all mindless and senseless areas of our humanity because God cannot be limited, hurt, hindered or impaired by anything, everything must serve Him.

Whoever recognises his life anew in this way in God, from now on everything must serve Him as it served Jesus. In order to show us this fundamental truth, Jesus Christ came and in His Passion took upon himself the abyss of humanity. He came to overcome the unrighteous, the evil, dark and base events, through the Spirit (through God), whereby they could now serve, just as He declared to His disciples on the eve of His imprisonment:

If you loved Me, you would rejoice that I said, “I go to the Father”; for the Father is greater than I am.
John 14, 27

But because I have spoken these things, your heart is filled with sorrow. But I tell you the truth, it is good for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
John 16:7

The Last Judgement – the Divided Reality

Now one will ask: If forgiveness is the pivot of the Gospel, then why The Last Judgement and in what way will we be judged? The first answer to this is: because all division with God is limited. But the limited is not the eternal and timeless. The sphere of the spirit (God) is the timeless and unlimited and outside it, nothing permanent exists. The limited ends one day, but the eternal and timeless is everlasting.

Insofar as we think and act in a limited way, we ourselves will have to find an end. This is the judgement that one day all limitation will end – inevitably.

Our human thinking in categories of punishment and retribution is a limited one because it springs from a divided understanding of reality. In order to gain the eternal, the timeless, the limited and time-bound, we must mentally overcome it, because in overcoming the limited, all division and divisiveness also ends – all guilt and accusation also ends.

The Last Judgement is nothing other than a revelation of our division with God, in whom all things have always been one. One day all divisiveness must end, precisely because it is limited. Just as the power of a lie ends when the truth comes to light, so too all that is limited and temporal ends when it comes into contact with or is confronted with the reality of the timeless and boundless. The boundless and timeless, however, is not exclusively something future, for what is timeless has always been true, for it is without a beginning and without an end. That is, it applies both within time and beyond. Therefore Jesus taught:

The time is coming, indeed it is already here, for the dead to hear the voice of the Son of God. Whoever listens to it will live. John 5:25

For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.
For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17, 22

In this respect, the essence of the Last Judgement is not based on a whim, a discretion or weighing of a judgement by a judge, as some people like to imagine, but it is based on the inescapable consistency of the Spirit, who gives to every creature everything that it asks and calls for: whoever values, practises and asks for mercy and mercy receives mercy. Whoever sets and seeks for condemnation and retribution receives judgement.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Matthew 5:7

Not that God Himself would condemn – no, in God there is no condemnation. But as far as that error prevails in us which makes us believe that through division, that is, through revenge, retribution and punishment, the world or man can be improved, then we are not in God. But if we are not one with that power which works all things without exception, the burdensome and sorrowful things cannot serve us for good either, as the Apostle Paul explains in the Letter to the Romans:

But we know that to those who love God all things work for good …
Romans 8:28

The Last Day – Man’s Destiny

I would like to give another answer to the above question as follows: We do not feel the human longing and desire for unlimited life by chance. For intuitively we know about the ideal and timeless core of our existence. The proof is our sadness about the finiteness of human life and the longing for “more”. We all carry within us an inkling that the whole is “more” than the sum of its parts, as Aristotle said. And by following this longing, we go towards our true destiny. This primordial longing for life must now be interpreted in the spirit of Jesus, for he came so that we might understand and recognise our life in a new, larger and timeless framework, whereby it is filled with spirit. The Last Day, like the Last Judgement, is nothing other than the fulfilment of our longing for life and spirit – but in an unlimited, undivided and unconditional sense. Since all limitation, division and separation of life through injustice, error, disease, weakness, suffering and death is temporal, it will have to end with time. Insofar as we understand our lives in a purely temporal sense, we are mortal and therefore we must be disappointed on the Last Day when all limited things end. The disappointment in what we thought was life is something entirely different from what we will feel as judgement.

We can and will only be what we love with all our hearts. No more and no less.

Since in God there is no opposite and ~~insofar~~ no unwillingness, we will only be able to receive what we love, value and want here with all our heart, on that day. Insofar as our hope, love and appreciation is directed towards something that will one day end, this “object” will have to come to an end. Judgment Day is the dawning of a timeless and unlimited understanding of life within us. A life to which we, through its message, are to find already here in this world. For only this understanding will prove to be a valid and sustainable one on the Last Day – then, when everything time-bound ends. If we understand our life in the spirit of Jesus, our life gains this state of timelessness. This state will one day, when the temporal ends, lift us above all temporal things and carry us, just as the ark did in the days of Noah. Amen, Amen, I say to you:

He that heareth my word, and believeth in him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation: but is passed from death unto life.
John 5:24

The Day of Judgement and the Last Judgement in the Parables of Jesus

In many parables Jesus deals with the nature of the Last Judgement. Each parable illuminates in its own special way the principle of division and separation that we carry within us and how it will prevent us from entering into a new, united life on the Last Day. For new, imperishable life can only be received by those who carry and embody the undivided principle of life within themselves. Of course, the four parables described below convey much more content. Here I only highlight the final sequences in each case, in which Jesus addresses the involuntary and painful separation, disappointment and divisiveness and the feeling of being set back. Each individual scenario conveys a sense of the dawning of the Kingdom of God and can thus also be seen as a description of the “circumstances” on the Last Day or the Last Judgement.

The parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32)
Divine and human understanding of privilege

At the end of the parable of the prodigal son, the father arranges a feast for the returned younger son who has dishonestly carried through his paternal inheritance. The elder son is stunned and falls out with the father over his magnanimous gesture. His displeasure is so great that he refuses to attend the feast. The parable shows how a life of supposed blamelessness and privilege makes us miss the mark. It is not the father (God) who excludes the elder brother, but the elder son refuses himself to be one with the father (God) and the brother (son).

The parable of the ten bridesmaids (Matthew 5:1-13)
Valuing the indispensable – at the right time and at the wrong time

This parable is about acquiring the foundation of light, which here stands as an allegory for living out of the Spirit. The metaphor here is lamp oil, which is to be acquired and gained in the day, i.e. during this life (at the right time). In the final sequence of the parable, all ten virgins fall asleep, which is a symbol of death. Upon their reawakening, namely the resurrection, the possibility of immediate entrance to the wedding feast opens up for one group. The second group without lamp oil finds a divided reality. The door to the feast opens for all, but not all can participate. Here, the condition for participation in the feast does not lie in the invitation, but in a missing prerequisite of the second group, namely that everyone bring their light to the celebration. Light is the prerequisite here for the nightly celebration to take place. The lack of lamp oil is painfully felt by the second group, which is why they set out in the middle of the night (at the wrong time) to acquire oil. But they are not allowed entry on their return, as the bridegroom declares the company complete.

The parable of the labourers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16)
Valuing and devaluing through unexpected appreciation

In this parable, the first hired labourers who started work early in the morning feel unequal treatment compared to those labourers who were hired gradually during the day and joined later. The vineyard owner keeps his promise to pay a reasonable daily wage. But among the workers who have worked the full day, it causes annoyance when, when they are paid, those who have joined much later also receive the full day’s wages. Again, the cause of the former’s annoyance is not malicious degradation by the vineyard owner – on the contrary, the payout is generous overall but the expectation of the firsts that they must be entitled to more, suddenly makes their payment seem inferior, thereby devaluing their pay itself. Here, too, it is the privileged thinking of the first that makes them feel inferior in the end.

The parable of the ranking of the guests (Luke 14:7-14)
Degradation through pride – honour through humility

After observing the guests and hosts at a wedding feast to which Jesus himself was invited, he draws parallels with the nature of the Kingdom of God. In this parable, he addresses the situation where guests place themselves close to the host, but then have to be told that this place is reserved for another guest, so that they have to take a more distant place at the table in full view of the public. Jesus here describes the scenario of being set back and humiliated in full view of the public. Again, it is the high opinion one has of oneself that is revealed on that day, which then makes one feel embarrassingly set back. The “setting back” must not be misinterpreted as an act of punishment. Rather, it follows from the necessity of the host’s organisation. Jesus therefore calls for humility and sincere self-assessment, so that the Last Day is not perceived as a day of setting back, but as a day of moving up, towards the centre of the festive event – towards God.

Elmar Wieland Vogel on 2. 7. 2023 Available at: https://christophilos.de