Why did Jesus have to die?

Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? It is a question that is pondered by each one of us.  

Why did Jesus have to suffer such agonies if He was the Son of God? Why couldn’t He have shown Himself as the Son of God to all mankind and save us all in a burst of light and a trumpets blast?

Fleming Rutledge argues in her book, The Crucifixion, that crucifixion was ‘specifically designed not only to intensify and prolong agony but to be the ultimate insult to personal dignity, the last word in humiliating and dehumanizing treatment. For love of us, Jesus chose to suffer this unimaginably painful death because ‘no other mode of execution would have been commensurate with the extremity of humanity's condition under Sin.’ The love that God has for us is so deep, so true, so infinite. He gave up Himself in the person of His Son as a sacrifice of insurmountable love.

Francisco DeOsuna reminds us in The Third Spiritual Alphabet, that God wished to mitigate the multitude of suffering symbolized by a bitter sea by taking the trials on himself and leaving the travelers behind with only a drop of bitter water, which in comparison with what He drank and suffered was little. God couldn’t bear seeing his children suffer. He is a God of mercy. In order to save his children from the devils grasp, He humiliated Himself in the most horrible death known to man by being nailed to a cross and used as a warning to anyone who dared put himself as the Messiah.

In those days, priests would offer sacrifices of animals to God for atonement for the sins they had committed. This sacrifice was symbolic of the punishment deserved by the people for their sins. The sacrifice made peace with God and ‘brought’ the people back into that divine relationship. In dying on the cross, Jesus, the God man offered Himself to the Father as our sacrifice. In His divine human nature, Jesus was ‘the outward sign instituted by God to give grace’. He was the physical Sacrament and Sacrifice offered to the world. St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, ‘We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ is the power of God and the Wisdom of God.’ (1 Corinthians 1:23-24) This passage from Paul captures the meaning of the cross so beautifully. Through Jesus’ death on the cross, He saved us from a death much like His own. The cross is our symbol of salvation.

Man cannot make up for the sins he committed against God. We cannot overcome death. We will be raised only through Jesus Christ and not ourselves. We do not have the ability to redeem because we are rooted in original sin. Jesus was able to offer the sacrifice of Himself to God since He was free from all sin. He took on the human nature to represent us but His divine nature interceded for us. Human kind committed the offense against God and God came down to forgive the offense man had committed by taking the form of man.

God could have shown His love in a myriad of ways, yet He wanted to be like us. He took on our condition so that He could become the head of who we are. In the way, everyone who suffers sees in the cross themselves. A man just like us in body, bleeding, scarred and almost dead, lifting us up so that His sheep could be found.