Lent 2025 Day 38

Delores S. Williams, Womanist Theologian
John 10:10 | Hebrews 2:10–18
 
Delores S. Williams (1937–2022) was a groundbreaking womanist theologian whose work reshaped the theological landscape by lifting up the lived experiences of Black women. In her seminal work Sisters in the Wilderness, Williams centers the biblical figure of Hagar—the Egyptian slave woman of Sarah and Abraham—as a theological anchor. She interprets Hagar’s story not as a mere subplot to Israel’s patriarchs, but as a foundational witness to survival, divine care, and agency from the margins. Hagar, cast out into the wilderness, encounters a God who sees her and sustains her—not by erasing her suffering, but by accompanying her in it. This lens became central to Williams’ theology: God’s salvific work is found not in sacrifice, but in survival, presence, and provision.

Williams critiqued dominant atonement theories—particularly substitutionary atonement—that portray Jesus’ death as the requirement of a wrathful God. She asked hard questions: If God needed Jesus to die, what does that say to Black women whose lives have historically been used, broken, and discarded? What does it mean to elevate suffering as redemptive in a world where Black women are asked to suffer silently every day?

Instead, Williams turned to John 10:10—Jesus' declaration that he came not to die, but to bring abundant life. For Williams, this verse reframes the purpose of Jesus’ ministry. The cross was not divine demand, but the result of human evil. Jesus came to offer liberation, healing, and community. His death was not salvific in itself—it was a consequence of standing against empire. The resurrection is God's response to human violence, not God’s requirement for salvation.

And yet, Hebrews 2:10–18 affirms something important: that Jesus knows suffering. He entered fully into human life—not to validate suffering as holy, but to stand with us in it. Williams would say this solidarity matters. Jesus’ suffering is not redemptive because it fulfills a divine transaction—it is redemptive because it reveals divine presence in the struggle for survival. Like Hagar in the wilderness, God sees the suffering, provides water, and stays nearby.

Williams' theology calls us to reject any model of salvation that glorifies suffering or uses it as currency in a transactional economy of divine appeasement. Instead, salvation is about transformation—God restoring relationships, communities, and bodies without requiring violence to do so. The “abundant life” of John 10:10 is not postponed until heaven; it is meant to begin here, in just relationships, safe communities, nourishing bodies, and liberated spirits.
 
She pushes us to see that Hebrews 2 does not demand redemptive suffering but presents Christ as the one who understands it deeply. The passage names the reality that people suffer—not because God wants them to, but because it is the condition of our world. Jesus, as our sibling in that suffering, becomes a high priest not through conquest, but through compassion. His work is not to model victimhood but to bring comfort, strength, and deliverance.

During Lent, we remember the suffering of Christ. But Williams challenges us to ask: are we honoring Christ’s suffering, or are we romanticizing it? Are we confronting the systems that crucified him—or perpetuating them by making peace with the logic of violence? Her theology calls us not to glorify the cross, but to resist the forces that put people on crosses still. She calls us to see salvation not in bloodshed, but in the God who meets us in the wilderness, gives us water, and promises life.

Reflection:

• How have you been taught to understand the meaning of Jesus’ death? Does it affirm or obscure abundant life? 
• Where do you see the suffering of others glorified rather than challenged? 
• How can your faith community reflect a theology of survival, provision, and presence instead of sacrifice? 

Breath Prayer: Inhale: Jesus came to give life… Exhale: …and life abundantly.

May this Lenten season lead us not to idolize the cross, but to follow Jesus in seeking abundant life for all.

Amen.