Suffering Through Surrogacy

Suffering Through Surrogacy

Why should Jesus have to suffer to atone for human beings sins? Simply stated, the definition of atonement is to cover over sins. After being given the blessing of life by God, it is in our rightful duty as human beings to atone for our sins to show our loyalty to God. However, there are many conflicting ways in which human beings ought to atone for their sins. Jesus served as a surrogate, or substitute, for human beings, who didn't have the ability to atone for their sins. He was crucified and conquered sin through death. However, there is no redemption in Jesus serving as a surrogate and suffering to atone for human being's sins.

According to Anselem, we need to atone for our sins by receiving punishment or making God satisfied, and if we cannot repay God in a way that is satisfying, than we have to give up our life. Anselem further argues that humans sin so much, that they dishonor God, and don't have the capacity to satisfy God. He thinks that, "people owed honor to God just as medieval peasants and squires owed honor and loyalty to their overlords. However, humans had no power to give satisfaction to God for disloyalty to God through their sin" (Williams, 163). He refers to a "God-man", who is the only God that has the capacity to make satisfaction in order to atone for humans' sins. Therefore, for the greater good of the people, "God satisfied God's own violated honor by sending God's Son to earth in human form ultimately to die on the cross" (Williams, 163). Therefore, God becomes human in order to make satisfaction for all humans sins. Jesus stands in as a surrogate in order for the people to atone for their sins. Jesus dies at the cross and conquerors sin by death.

However, why is the act of suffering the answer to atone for all of human beings' sins? I believe in sacrificing for the cause of the greater good, but how do we know that Jesus' death changed anything in history? If a soldier jumped in front of a grenade and sacrificed his own life for the rest of his troop, his suffering and surrogacy would save multiple lives. However, in Jesus' case, the defilement of his body does not seem very redemptive. The death of one person cannot erase all of the wrongdoing caused by human beings. In addition, there have been no visual results of Jesus' surrogacy of dying on the cross that have been proven beneficial.

In contrast to Anselem, Williams, an African American woman writer, offers a different theory of atonement claiming that Jesus conquerors sin, "though life of resistance and by the survival strategies he used to help people survive the death of identity caused by their exchange of inherited cultural meanings for a new identity shaped by the gospel ethics and world view" (Williams, 164). African Americans were treated like dirt and forced into slavery. African American women were raped by white men, physically and mentally abused, and had to do whatever the white man or woman of the house demanded. How could the African American, who is a surrogate to the white woman, being sexually abused be seen as redemptive? "God did not intend surrogacy roles they have been forced to perform. God did not intend defilement of their bodies as white men put them in the place of white women to provide sexual pleasure for white men during the slavocracy" (Williams, 166). To rape someone is a violation of someone's body and therefore wrong in any shape or form, which proves that surrogacy is not glorified. Even today, post- slavery most African Americans hold lower class jobs and serve as a surrogate to help people clean their house or garden their yard, so, "it is therefore fitting and proper for black women to ask whether the image of a surrogate God has salvific power for black women or whether this image supports and reinforces the exploitation that has accompanied their experience with surrogacy" (Williams, 162). Williams implies that suffering is not glorified, African Americans know about suffering, and know it is not redemptive or valuable.

Williams is very suspicious. Why is surrogacy terrible in one place and okay in others? She thinks one should be cautious and suspicious about using suffering and surrogacy to atone for ones sins. "As Christians, black women cannot forget the cross, but neither can they glorify it. To do so is to glorify suffering and to render their exploitation sacred. To do so is to glorify the sin of defilement." (Williams, 167) To many other authors, the cross is meaningful to atonement, but to Williams the cross represents defilement and does not cover over sin. Rather, the crucifixion happened because of sin, that is to say that human beings committed an intolerable amount of sin in which Jesus