Why did Jesus have to suffer so much and die on a cross?  Couldn’t there have been some other way?  Couldn’t there have been a plan of salvation that did not involve the suffering and death of the one who deserved it the least - or, in fact, didn’t deserve it at all?  Why did all of this have to happen?

    We almost need to put ourselves in the place of God in order to attempt to answer these questions.  Pretending for a moment that you are God, you’ve got this whole human race that you’ve created with the ability to think and to make choices and to laugh and to cry.  You created them in order to live in relationships of love, both with yourself (God) and with one another.  However, they chose instead to be self-centered, putting themselves in charge rather than you.  As soon as this happened, a great wedge was driven into all of their relationships.  They cut themselves off from you (God), they cut themselves off from one another, and pretty soon the whole world was in a mess.  As God, what are you going to do about it?

    Of course, we’re not God, so it’s kind of hard to know what options might have been available.  Possibly wiping it all out and starting over might have been an option - but obviously not one that God chose to take (at least, not after Noah).  Certainly God did give commandments to his people, Israel, saying, “Here’s how to live in community with one another and in relationship with God.”  However, it seems that nobody was ever really able to keep those commandments, and people constantly needed forgiving - over and over and over again.

    Since God is holy and righteous and good, human beings that are continually sinning and turning in on themselves simply cannot be in a life-giving relationship with God.  One who is rebellious and self-centered is simply not going to share in the abundant life and wholeness that comes from God and lasts eternally.  And so, ever since those first human parents, death has been our end, rather than life that continues in the presence of God.

    God’s solution, of course, was to send a Saviour, whom we know as Jesus Christ.  Jesus did not simply come to teach people how to live, for that wouldn’t work any better than giving the commandments did.  Instead, Jesus came as God’s own Son, ready to give himself for the life of the world.  As some have explained it, Jesus became what we are in order that we might become what he is.  In other words, Jesus shared in everything that we experience, except for one thing: sin.  Jesus did not live a self-centered life, but a God-centered life of love.

    However, that still doesn’t answer the question about Jesus’ suffering and death.  Certainly, there had to be death and resurrection in order for resurrection to be an option for us.  Otherwise, eternal life wouldn’t be part of the picture, and we would still end up separated from God.  But why the suffering and the crucifixion?

    I’ll share with you two possibilities today.  One possibility comes, at least in part, from the reading that we heard tonight from Isaiah.  It speaks of punishment that makes us whole and the righteous one bearing our sins in order to make us righteous (Isa. 53).  Traditionally, Jesus has been spoken of as a sacrifice for sin, with him bearing the weight of the sins of the whole world as he hangs on that cross.  Presumably such a sacrifice was deemed to be necessary.

    However, it is also possible to view Jesus’ suffering and death in a different way.  Could it be that these things were natural outcomes of the ugliness of human sinfulness?  Could it be that, when faced with the presence of God among us, we are so threatened that we want to get rid of him and keep ourselves in charge?  Jesus’ suffering and death could have been really ugly expressions of the human desire to rebel against God.  And in spite of all of that ugliness, Jesus came in love, giving himself in order that through faith in him, we might have life.

    Either way, it is human sinfulness that caused this suffering for Jesus, and that ultimately nailed him to the cross – a fate that he accepted because he knew that it would break the power of sin and death.  It is hard for us to conceive of the breadth and depth of God’s love for us, the same love that Jesus had as he came to live among us.  May we know in our hearts this night that this was for us, and give thanks for the love of Jesus.  Because of him, the way has been opened for a life-giving relationship with God and with one another, the way that leads to eternal life.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Good Friday                                Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12
April 22, 2011                            John 18:1 - 19:42
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison