Like many folks during this Easter season, I found myself asking and meditating on the question, “Why did Jesus have to die?”
Traditional Evangelicals would tell you that Jesus had to die on the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of mankind. Repeat a simple prayer acknowledging this fact, and you’ll live forever in Heaven.
While I held this view for most of my life, I have a number of questions about this widely-accepted teaching…
- Did God in fact institute a penal system of blood sacrifice, or was this merely the misinterpretation of God’s instructions by the ancient Jews? Or more accurately… modern Christians?
- Why would God forbid human sacrifice, only to later “sacrifice” his own son?
- If blood sacrifice is the only thing that appeases God, what does that say about the nature of this God?
- Why does the Old Testament repeatedly quote God as saying that he “despised” the blood sacrifices, but longed for obedient hearts instead?
- If the entire plan of God centered upon and required the crucifixion of his only son, Jesus, then why does Jesus himself never make this point—before or after his own death?
You would certainly think that if this were the entirety of the Gospel—the means by which all men would be saved—Jesus would have stressed this crucial acknowledgment to his own disciples when he appeared to them following his resurrection. “Make sure you lead them in the Sinner’s Prayer… this is very important!”
In fact, the Four Spiritual Laws, as they have come to be known, never appear in the scriptures together. The four central principles upon which the whole of Evangelical Christianity hangs do not appear together in scripture… even once! It is only by taking four verses completely out of context from the biblical book of Romans that we piece together the infamous “Romans Road”.
We do not find in scripture the Apostles leading people in the “Sinner’s Prayer” of repentance. In fact, none of the apostles went on to preach THIS Gospel—that Jesus came to die on the cross for our sins.
But perhaps the biggest question—especially during the Easter season—is “Why did Jesus have to die?”
Did he, in fact? And did he have foreknowledge of his crucifixion? These questions are critical to understanding the significance of Jesus life and brutal death.
My wife and I were discussing this the other night, along with a good friend of ours. My answer to this age-old question was simply, “Jesus died to show us unconditional love.”
My wife kindly pointed out that his voluntary death would have only demonstrated unconditional love if he was knowingly offering himself up as the substitutionary sacrificial “lamb” to pay the price for sin, which is of course (by Evangelical definition), death. But did Jesus himself say this? No. Not even once.
What if…
What if Jesus knew only that his continued verbal attacks against the religious leaders of his day and the resultant oppression and abuse of Jewish followers would unavoidably lead to a violent confrontation?
What if Jesus knew that his silent protest before the Roman ruler, Pontius Pilate, would lead to judicial punishment?
What if Jesus refused to defend himself—even to the death—because he was demonstrating just how far we are to go for the sake of our fellow men? Our enemies?
What if the real story is not that he died on the cross, but that he was resurrected from the dead?
These thoughts would be consistent with the whole of Jesus’ teachings. A fresh read of the events from this perspective has led me to believe that the singular message of Jesus all along was simply…
“I transcend. And so can you.”
Transcend the limitations of this human existence. Natural “laws”. Perceived rules. Organized religion. Government. Oppression. Abuse of power. And yes, even death.
You and I will live forever, in the presence of God!
This Easter, the truly life-changing message for me is not that Jesus stepped in to appease the anger of a relentless and unyielding, blood-thirsty God. He did not go to the cross to take my “beating” for me.
Jesus went to the cross to show us that—like him—we can, and will, transcend all.
Filed under: Bible |
Tags: Christianity, Easter, Jesus, Resurrection
Awesome transcending message.