Why Did Jesus Die?

You could say it was because Pilate condemned him to death by crucifixion. Or because Judas betrayed him. Or because the Temple priests needed him dead. All that would be true, but to anyone reading the story in the Gospels it comes across that there is something more to it.

Start with Jesus' own words to his followers: repeatedly he tells them that he, 'The son of Man' (his way of describing himself) 'must suffer much ... and be rejected ... he will be put to death, but three days later he will rise to life.' (See The Bible, Mark chapter 8 verse 31 etc). Jesus doesn't just say he 'would', but he 'must', as if it's the most important thing he is to do! And when the first Gospel was written, it gave a third of its length to the last few days of Jesus' life, just to emphasize that.

John's Gospel quotes Jesus as saying something even more startling. He uses a picture of himself, telling the crowd 'I am the good shepherd. I am willing to die for my sheep.' ( The Bible, John chapter 10 verse 11 ). A little later he adds, 'I am willing to give up my life in order that I may receive it back again. No-one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back. This is what my Father has commanded me to do .' ( The Bible, John chapter 10 verses 17-18 ). Not surprisingly, some listeners thought he was mad, or demon-possessed: others said, 'someone like that doesn't do miracles like giving sight to the blind.'

So John presents Jesus as claiming that his death was his calling from God, and that it would benefit others as an act of supreme sacrifice. The first Gospel also quotes Jesus as making this sort of claim. The Bible, Mark chapter 10 verse 45 tells his followers that even Jesus 'did not come to be served; he came to serve, and to give his life to redeem many people'. In other words, Jesus said his death was the greatest act of service he was to do, and his death was the price that had to be paid to release people from slavery, slavery in the sense that we are under the power of sin and death, and need to be set free.

One other comment by Jesus about his death comes on the occasion of his last meal with his followers. He takes one of the cups of wine that were used in the Passover celebration and says, 'This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. ( The Bible, Mark chapter 14 verse 24 ) He's talking about his death ... 'my blood poured out'. And he's linking it to the great day when the Jewish nation was solemnly committed to God, and the bond between God and the people was confirmed by a ceremony that included sprinkling the people with 'the blood of the covenant'. (See The Bible, Exodus chapter 24 verses 8 .) Remember that Jesus' friends wouldn't need to be told this - unlike us! - this is part of what they were celebrating at this Passover meal.

So Jesus is telling us that his death would make it possible for people - and not only Jewish people - to be linked with God in a new committed relationship.

Jesus' words about being 'a servant' recall one final piece of the jigsaw. The Jewish Bible, in the book of Isaiah, contains a poem about 'The Servant of the Lord' ( The Bible, Isaiah chapter 52 verse 13 - 53 verse 12 ). In it are the words, 'Because of our sins he was wounded, beaten because of the evil we did. We are healed by the punishment he suffered, made whole by the blows he received.' The first Christians, and, it is reasonable to believe, Jesus himself saw this as a picture of Jesus' death on the Cross. One of his first followers, Peter, wrote 'Christ himself carried our sins in his body to the cross ... it is by his wounds that you have been healed.' ( The Bible, 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 24 )