Archive: Why did Jesus think he had to die?

By Michael Green

At first sight this is a foolish question. If Jesus was human, then of course he had to die. But there is something very odd about the emphasis on his death in the Gospels. In any ordinary biography of a great man, the account of his last days and death would normally form only a short chapter in a longish book.

But with Jesus it is very different. The account of his last few days, his death and resurrection occupies very nearly half of the Gospels. What accounts for this remarkable imbalance? There are twelve biblical reasons.

1. We find Jesus teaching that his death is inevitable. It must be so. Early in Mark’s Gospel he says that he, the Bridegroom, will be taken away from the party (Mark 2:19-20). In the next chapter we find him seeing to the heart of the Pharisees, who were complaining at his healing on the Sabbath.

He asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” And immediately a plot was hatched to kill him (3:6).

He knew he had to die. And the theme is repeated time and again in the central portion of the oldest Gospel. He gives the prediction of his fate in almost the same words in Mark 9:31 and 10:33, culminating in the ransom saying of 10:45 to which we will return.

2. His death was necessary in order to fulfill the Scriptures. Jesus clearly believed that the Scriptures had much to say about himself, and that they predicted his death. All the evangelists mention this. Luke represents Jesus after the resurrection as saying: “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” (Luke 24:25).

3. Jesus sees his death as totally voluntary. He said “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again” (John 10:18).

In St. John’s Gospel Jesus repeatedly taught that nobody could touch him because his hour was not yet come. But when it did come, he was to be found making his way to Jerusalem and to his death. It would be hard to make the point more strongly that his death was voluntary.

4. Jesus made it plain that this voluntary death of his was the Father’s will. “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again” (John 10:17). The most sublime words in the whole Gospel make this plain: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son …” (John 3:16). And when the sunshine of those words changes to the night of Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane, it is the same message that comes through. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36). As ever, he and the Father were in perfect harmony: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).

5. In his death, Jesus identified with sinners. This was totally unlike any rabbi, who despised the people of the land as “sinners” who could never attain to the law of God. But Jesus received such; he ate with them.

6. His death was God’s judgment on the world. Jesus made this plain in direct statements like the following: “Now is the time of judgment on this world. … But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:31).

The theme recurs many times in St. John. But it also comes in more pictorial ways in other Gospels. One of the starkest is the parable of the wicked husbandmen (Mark 12:1-9). The Jews saw the point, were furious, and tried ineffectually to arrest him. His time had not yet come, but he had made very plain that one purpose of his death was to demonstrate God’s judgment on the sinfulness of a rebel world.

7. Jesus saw his death as a sacrifice. This is very plain from the Last Supper, a meal laden with Passover imagery. Instead of referring to the lamb or the “bread of affliction” eaten by their forefathers in the Exodus, Jesus says, “This is my body,” and “This is my blood of the covenant.”

And lest they should ever misunderstand, lest they should ever forget this supreme purpose of his death, he instituted a meal, the Communion, to be celebrated often in remembrance of him.

8. Jesus’ death was a ransom. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). What can he mean? It can only be that our lives are forfeit, but that they can be liberated by the surrender of his own.

The word “ransom” was widely used in the ancient world. It applied to the release of prisoners of war and the liberation of slaves. It is as if man is a prisoner of war; Jesus has released him. Or as if he is a slave; Jesus has given him his freedom. Or as if his life is forfeit; Jesus delivers man from that terrible predicament, but only by surrendering his own.

9. His death was representative. Lest “ransom” should seem like cheap grace, Jesus also told his disciples that they must take up their cross and follow him (Mark 8:34).

The principle of costly self-giving must mark the disciples as it does the master. When asked by the sons of Zebedee about the position of honor in the kingdom of God, Jesus asked them if they were able to drink the cup he was to drink, or be baptized with the baptism which was to overwhelm him (10:38ff).

10. His death was a victory. St. Mark’s Gospel lays particular stress on his overcoming demonic forces which so assailed his ministry. As early as Mark 1:21-27, we read of the power of Jesus over an unclean spirit. “Have you come to destroy us?” it asked. That is precisely what he had come to do. The culmination of this victory of Jesus is to be found at the cross. During the Last Supper he said he would no more drink of the fruit of the vine until he drank it new in the kingdom of God (Mark 14:25). As he faced the cross he said, “the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me” (John 14:30). Jesus went on to say, “the prince of this world now stands condemned” (John 14:30; 16:11). This stress on Jesus the victor is drawn out very much in the Fourth Gospel and in some of the Epistles.

11. His death was total darkness. There was an uncanny darkness which fell on the world during the crucifixion, out of which came that terrible cry of inner dereliction derived from Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34).

12. His death was total vindication. Darkness was not the end. The first words of Psalm 22 are probably meant to give indication of the triumphant conclusion to that psalm. Moreover, there are many other occasions on which Jesus predicted a wonderful outcome of his sufferings.

In flash after flash Jesus looks through the calamity of the cross to God’s vindication of him. As he taught the couple on the Emmaus road, in the light of all the Scriptures (particularly Isaiah 53 and Psalm 110:1), “Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” (Luke 24:26).

In passages such as these, Jesus is holding together his death and vindication. The cross without the resurrection is utterly disastrous, the sad end of a great man. The resurrection without the cross is utterly banal, the traditional happy ending.

Jesus knew that his death would mean total identification with the lot of sinners, though he himself was sinless. He was drawn to that cross to express God’s judgment on the world, and at the same time to offer his life as a sacrifice, a ransom, in which he would be Godforsaken as he bore the sins of the world.

Yet he seems to have perceived that his death would not be the end. God would raise him from the dead, and by going to Calvary he would open a gate through death for believers. And all this would spell God’s victory over evil in all its forms, together with its satanic fount.

That is a powerful combination of answers to the question, “Why did Jesus think he had to die?” Nor must we forget that the disciple is no less called to the path of self-sacrifice.

As Bishop Stephen Neill was fond of observing, “We all have some dying to do. Jesus showed us how it should be done.”

Michael Green is an Advisor in Evangelism to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and a partner in “Springboard,” their initiative for the Decade of Evangelism. His ministry has included teaching, administration, and pastoring at institutions such as St. John’s College in Nottingham, England; Regent College in Vancouver, Canada; and St. Aldate ‘s Church in Oxford, England. This article is adapted from one of his numerous books, The Empty Cross of Jesus. Used by permission of Hodder and Stoughton, London, UK.