Discourses of sin and debt
The satisfaction theory of the atonement centers on debt, humanity’s debt to God. It’s often criticized for its gruesome picture of God. But it also paints a weird picture of Jesus: Christ the Debt Buyer. Anselm follows his theory to its logical conclusion, reasoning that, since Jesus stepped in and paid God on our behalf, whatever debt we owed to God we now owe to Jesus. After we defaulted on our debts, Jesus bought the charged-off accounts receivable.
There is an entire industry built around buying defaulted consumer debts. Debt buyers pay a few cents on the dollar for a list of names, contact information, and amounts owed. What they don’t get are the stories behind those numbers—complicated stories of workaday struggle, lost jobs, crushed dreams, poor decisions, betrayal, addiction, sickness, and swindle. After all, if you see people’s faces and know their stories, it’s harder to keep taking their money away.
None of this sounds anything like Jesus. In Sunday’s Gospel reading—Luke’s story-within-a-story of a “sinner” woman who anoints Jesus’ feet and a creditor who cancels debts—Jesus seems to know the woman personally. Maybe she is one of the sinners with whom he famously dines. Luke doesn’t tell us much about her story; my hunch is that Jesus knows more.
