A Redeemer, not a teacher

Our Lord was not just a teacher, but a redeemer. He was coming to redeem man in the likeness of human flesh. Teachers change men by their lives. Our Blessed Lord would change men by his death. That poison of hate and sensuality and envy which is in the hearts of men could not be healed simply by mild exhortations of social reform. The wage of sin is death, and therefore it is by death that sin would be atoned for. As in ancient sacrifices where the fire symbolically burned up the imputed sin along with the victim, so on the cross the world’s sin would be put away in Christ’s suffering.  For he would be upright as a priest, and prostrate as a victim. If there is anything a good teacher wants, it is a long life which will make his teaching known. Death is always a great tragedy to a teacher. When Socrates was given the hemlock juice, his message was cut off once and for all. Death was a stumbling block to Buddha and stood in the way of all of the teachings of the eastern mystics. But our Lord was always proclaiming his death, in which he took upon himself the sins of the world so he would appear as a sinner.