“Je suis Charlie”
Who could have missed the T-shirts and placards a couple of weeks ago bearing the slogan ‘Je suis Charlie’ (‘I am Charlie’), expressing solidarity with the staff of the magazine Charlie Hebdo following the gruesome attack on their offices which left several of their colleagues dead and a nation in shock. Other similar acts of identification soon followed: ‘Je suis Ahmed’ for the Muslim policeman who was killed in the aftermath; ‘Je suis Juif’, identifying with the Jewish people who were killed days later.
Martin Luther, commenting on what happened when Jesus died as our substitute says something strikingly, even shockingly, similar: “Our most merciful Father…sent his only Son into the world and laid upon him…the sins of all men saying: ‘Be thou Peter that denier; Paul that persecutor, blasphemer and cruel oppressor; David that adulterer; that sinner which did eat the apple in Paradise; that thief which hanged upon the cross; and briefly be thou the person which hath committed the sins of all men; see therefore that thou pay and satisfy for them.’” That has to be the ultimate act of identification, which Jesus takes on himself willingly. It is as if, when Jesus dies, he says, “I am Chris… I am Helen… I am Andy…” And, as we put our faith in him, he identifies with us to such an extent that we actually died ourselves in and with him. So, Paul can write to the Colossians that “you died with Christ” (2:20), and to the Galatians that it was through “Christ … becoming a curse for us” (3:13).