Why did Jesus have to die? That was the headline on an Easter edition of Time magazine some years ago. Intrigued, I bought the issue. I remember read the story, and that it said that there were three competing versions for the answer to that question. I'm not sure if I remember any of them, but I do remember that I didn't buy any of them. "He died so we don't have to?" What is that? So we don't have to...what? Die? Well, we do, so what's that all about. Oh, and then there's the classic: "He died for our sins." Lovely, so it's all our fault! Way to go God! God, the creator of all, perfect and infallible in every way creates a being so imperfect that she has to kill a part of herself, in a nasty way, to make the creation worth anything? What kind of God creates a flawed being, drops it in a world designed for it to fail, then punishes it forever if it doesn't measure up. Free will?! Where's the free will if the options are choose right or be dammed?! This is the God of love? Who are we kidding?
Sorry, to me that's just a steaming pile of you-know-what. It sound too much like a clumsy human invention.
Hey, just for laughs, lets consider another option. What if Jesus wasn't saying "Believe in me and you will live," but "Believe in me, you will live." He was trying to tell us all that the temple rules and casts mean nothing, we are all going to heaven, we all will rise again, no matter what. To prove it, he died and came back. His plan was to show that anyone can come back from the dead and for that he needed a demonstration. So he chose to die in public, in the most indisputable way possible, so that no one could say afterward that it was a trick, he wasn't really dead, and then rise again.
So far so good, that part went off without a hitch, he died and came back and no one could deny it. But we humans were trickier than he gave us credit for and we stopped his plan dead in it's tracks, so to speak. Since we couldn't deny that he came back from the dead, we did the next best thing: we denied he was human. Sort of.
I can see the temple leaders working this one out: "He could do that because he was God. No, wait, if he was God then he actually couldn't die... Um, wait a minute...let's see, if he is human, then he can't come back from the dead, but, if he's God he can do anything and the whole dying on a cross thing was just a pointless show. Oh dear! Wait! I got it! He was both God and Human, that way the human part can suffer and die and the God part then resurrects!"
The people: "Oh, I see... Wait a minute, come again? What is partially God? How can you be partially omnipotent, partially the creator of all there is?"
Leaders: "You poor ignorant slobs, don't ask such stupid questions. It's all a Devine Mystery, of course. We are important teachers and we know what the Truth is, so you don't need to worry your little heads about it. You live once and then you die and you look to us to make sure you are right with God when you do, so take care!"
For me, the simplest, straightforward answer is the one most likely to be true. Jesus was trying to tell us that we are all children of God, that we never really die, and you can give up the fear of death and the paranoia about "getting right with God." Live a good life. Treat people as you wish to be treated. Even criminals will get to paradise, so arbitrary rules are not what it's all about. Treat the homeless and whores with compassion and respect, you are no better or worse than they are. Anything you can't take with you is of no value in the end. What does follow you is how you value others, especially those who your society, social class, nationally and religion tell you to hate, to fear or just be uncomfortable around. Following silly rules is easy. Giving money to your church is easy. Having compassion for the blacks on your street, the muslim in the store, the homeless outside the store is hard. And the struggle to do so will leave marks upon your soul that will go with you, and will demonstrate the value you place on all God's creations. That is what matters in the end.
Jesus was/is an powerful, enlightened being. We all have the ability to do and be what he did, the difference between him and us is that we don't believe it. "Know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."
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