Why did Jesus have to Die?

“Why did Jesus have to die?” “What kind of a God would require a blood sacrifice, of a human being no less, before forgiving the disobedience of the first humans?” “What kind of parent would demand the death of a son?” “Who is ultimately responsible for the death of innocent people?”

All of these questions and more have been raised throughout history, following the death of Jesus. Believers and unbelievers alike have wrestled with the problem of evil and the painful finality of death. Answers are complex and, many times, unhelpful. At best, they provide some logical foundation, based on human values and cultural expectations. At worst, they are downright illogical and unsatisfactory.

I have no good answers either, but I have some thoughts. One of the most important things I have learned in my lifetime is that without difficult times, I don’t appreciate the good times as well. I also have much less appreciation for the challenges faced by others.

If there had always been enough money to be sure of where the next groceries were going to come from, I would not appreciate what it is to go through year after year of food insecurity. If I had always been able to purchase health insurance, I would not be as ready and able to encourage and rejoice with folks who can now get health care and insurance because of the Affordable Care Act (aka, Obamacare) in the United States. I would also be less able to encourage those who have always been part of the middle class and now find their income has fallen so much that they are qualified for Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California). If I had never spent late nights with a crying baby, I would not be able to sympathize with and offer nonjudgmental help to another parent whose child just will not go to sleep!

So many times in my life, there have been difficult moments. Each time, as I come through them, I appreciate more deeply the pain and suffering that are part of life for others as well. I become, I hope, a more compassionate person.

I wonder to what extent Jesus also had to go through hard times as part of growing in compassion and determination to help make life better for others. He had an intense experience of God’s love at his baptism in the Jordan. He grew in wisdom and faith during his time of fasting in the desert. He shared the experience of God’s love with those he met during his public life. He would have been encouraged by its reception among so many ordinary people. He must have been surprised at times that the message he brought was doubted and opposed by so many who were leaders of the community.

In the end, he realized the danger he faced in continuing to proclaim the coming of the kingdom. After all, he lived in a conquered nation where those who led revolutions or opposed the power of Rome were routinely executed publicly. Yet he chose to remain faithful to the call he had received. His cousin had paid the ultimate price for his proclamation of the coming of the Messiah. Now Jesus was facing the same powers and penalties.

He chose freely to continue forward. He could have run away. He saw the soldiers coming out from Jerusalem, down through the valley and up the mountainside to the Garden where he and his friends were spending the night. He could have slipped away before they arrived.

But he didn’t run away. He chose to go and testify to what he had come to understand. When asked if he was the Messiah, he did not deny it. In fact, in St. John’s account, Jesus used the name of God, I AM, three times during his arrest in the garden. When Pilate tried to release him, his accusers retorted, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” This frightened Pilate, but when push came to shove, Pilate did not resist their demands. Anyone who called himself a king or a god was too dangerous to keep around. (Jn 18:1-19:42)

Jesus went to his death freely. He chose fidelity to what he had come to know and understand about God, about humanity, and about his place in the grand scheme of things.

Did he know he would rise? I don’t know. In the Gospels, there are statements about rising, but they were usually phrased in terms of “on the third day,” which was a code phrase for “God will come to the rescue and make things right.” But literally, who knows when or how?

Jesus died. Of that there is no doubt. To make doubly sure, his heart was pierced by a soldier’s lance. He was buried in a borrowed tomb. His friends and family went home to mourn his passing. A guard was posted outside the tomb to be sure there would be no false claims of resurrection.

Jesus was a human being in all senses. If he had not gone through all the suffering he endured, would we who follow his teachings and believe what he came to proclaim about God’s love for all of us be deeply convinced of the truth of God’s unwavering love and forgiveness? I’m not sure we would be.

Jesus died not to appease a vengeful God. Jesus died not because of the “sins of Adam” that made humanity unfit for Heaven. Statements about his sacrifice as payment for Adam’s sins are found in the Scriptures and tradition, but those are from a specific cultural context in which animal sacrifice was a given. They may not be the way we would speak of the same reality today, though all of us are guilty of adding to the pain and suffering of those around us in big and little ways as we go through life.

Maybe Jesus died because he was so totally committed to what he had come to understand and experience of his relationship with the Father that there was no other option but to trust and go forward. In the process, he showed us too the way to move ahead through the sorrows and pain that come to each of us in our daily lives. He showed us that we grow in compassion through suffering and hard times. He showed us that the Father loves us through it all. And he is there with us as we go through it too. We just need to trust that he is there and open our hearts to receive his love and support.

There is no celebration of Eucharist on Good Friday. But we gather to remember the great love of Jesus and his willingness to go through all of the hardest things ever asked of humans: betrayal, unjust trial, condemnation, mocking, physical abuse, and death. He was there. He will be there always with those who suffer the same. And he’s even there for those of us who pass through less dramatic but deeply painful times.

We gather this day in prayer and silence to be with him in the mystery of timeless eternity. We continue in quiet through the day to come.

Peace be with you.

Readings for Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion