Okay, so I know that we are in the season of Easter (I come from a liturgical tradition), but I felt my last full post was unfinished. The question still haunts me: "Why did Jesus have to die?"
I believe that Jesus, God in the flesh, did die on that Roman cross. I believe that God is ultimately the King of the Universe. But, I also believe that a lot of bad stuff happens that is not how God wants life to be. That is why Jesus teaches us to pray "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." God's kingdom and will are not always (usually, or even often) done on earth.
The question I struggle with is whether the crucifixion of God's Son was inevitable or necessary.
Necessary means that for God's good purposes for transforming the world into his kingdom, the perfect blood of Jesus had to be shed as a sacrifice. This means that the story of Abraham attempting to sacrifice his son Isaac by his own hand (which I find extremely disturbing) was perfectly fulfilled in God using the sinful hands of the religious and political leaders to kill (sacrifice) his own Son. To put this even more crudely, God couldn't forgive the sins of the world without killing his own Son.
Inevitable means that God, in his infinite wisdom and foreknowledge, knew that when Jesus came as the Incarnate Word (preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God, healing and bringing life, shining light into the darkness) some people would love him, but many would hate him. The message of God throughout the whole Bible is bad news for those who love power, pride, oppression, and greed. God's kingdom is topsy-turvy to our fallen world. So, many try to extinguish a light shining into the darkness. The shedding of Jesus' blood was not the ultimate aim, but the Incarnation of the Word and the Victory of the Resurrection were. Suffering and death was an inevitable step, but not a desired one.
What do you think? I know I'm struggling with my own comfort zone with this one. What about you?
No answers whatsoever. But I wanted to comment anyway, because I really admire your asking these questions and sharing your struggles. Some things we so easily accept as kids we begin to question as we grow older, become parents, etc, and our simple answers no longer feel enough.
ReplyDeleteThanks! It can be a little scary to question our deeply held beliefs, but I just have to keep telling myself that God is big enough to handle anything I throw at him!
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I think it was undoubtedly inevitable, for exactly the reasons you describe: the people in power love the status quo, and will fight to protect it.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it was also necessary, but not in the way you suggest. What if it was necessary in that nothing short of this would have accomplished God's will? Perhaps God did not send Jesus specifically to pay for our sins with his blood, but would God's will have been fully completed if Jesus had not died? Maybe only the death of an innocent man would grab the world's attention as it did; nobody would have noticed if he had just been silenced and ignored. I'm not sure, just conjecturing...
Great thoughts, Seth. I wish I had definite answers (I really LIKE definite answers), but I know I'm not there yet. And, maybe definite answers are by necessity "wrong" when it comes to God, because God is always so much MORE than any human answer can be.
DeleteThanks!
I don't think "faith" and "definite answers" can be part of the same package. But one thing that occurs to me is that Jesus is also God, so God was also on that cross. God suffered as much as Jesus on Good Friday, no? I mean, if that happened to one of my kids, I just don't want to go there mentally. And that is just as a parent, not as also the same person as any of my kids. But God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are also all One.
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