A Queer Atonement | Lent Devotional Day 19

Exploring the Meaning of Jesus’ Death
March 8, 2026
Written by Adam Baker

A Queer Atonement

Scripture:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 CEB

Reflection:

In order to understand more about queer atonement theory, we must consider what “queer” means. The term was first used to refer to that which was different or unconventional, but over time it began to be used as a harmful slur against LGBTQIA+ persons. Only recently did this painful pattern begin to change, and for some, the term may still feel complex.
 
LGBTQIA+ persons have worked to liberate “queer,” refashioning what was meant for harm into an inclusive term for anyone who identifies as “not straight”. Many LGBTQIA+ persons now use “queer” in an empowering, celebratory manner, understanding it as both flexible and unifying for LGBTQIA+ persons and disruptive of ‘traditional,’ rigid gender and sexuality norms.
While the powerful heterosexual majority may have historically intended “queer” to be dehumanizing, those at the LGBTQIA+ margins have declared queerness to be a reimagining of human identity, a collective hope that propels us into a future beyond the present oppressive moment. The future-focused hope expressed in “queerness” imagines a way of living and loving beyond the current systems that work to prevent full, free life for minority persons.  

“Queer” theology and atonement theory looks for how God is and has been at work at the margins, disrupting norms and expectations that limit love’s inclusive work in the world. For example, the embodiment of God in the person of Jesus - the universal God somehow becoming a fragile human being - thwarts the expectations of society and radically extends God’s love. By being who he is, Jesus “queers” rigid, limited understandings of what it means to be “human” or “divine”.

Queer atonement theory asks where love, diversity, and margins emerge in God’s work to overcome separation from humanity through Jesus. It questions how traditional atonement theories have been constructed in ways that may discriminate against minority persons and identities. It asks how the death of Jesus, as the truest minority (God-man), being totally committed to sacrificial, self-giving, unifying love, shows that there is nothing that would stop God from loving queer, marginalized people. In this kind of love, Jesus reveals the path to God.

Prayer:

Oh God who has shown us
what love looks like,
help us see Jesus as an invitation to difference,
a hope for a wide future beyond our small words.
In a world where our imagination
is often limited by norms we think we understand,
help us to find more
in the inclusive welcome of Jesus.
Show us the God-man disrupting all categories and expectations.
Show us where you still dance at the margins,
turning power on its head and inviting us forward.
You are the God who liberates us from sin and separation
through what many still see as failure and death.
Show us more than we understand
And change us through the love that we encounter there.
Amen.

Reflection question:

Where has coming to know Jesus disrupted or widened your previous understanding?

Source:  José Esteban Muñoz, Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, 10th anniv. ed. (2009; reis., New York: New York University Press, 2019), 1.

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