Why did Jesus die?
The Creed answers he was crucified for us. It does so after it names him God from God, light from light, true God from true God.
Because of who Jesus is what he suffered in Holy Week carries forward to all times in a way only God can accomplish.
When the celebrant takes bread and wine in a moment what Jesus did then will become a living reality for us now.
This is the Church’s faith, that the death of Jesus impacts us today, but where is this impact on my life?
How you see Jesus is inseparable from how you see his death and what difference it makes for you.
For what Jesus has done for us in Holy Week to come real to us we need to put our lives on the line, to act as if he were alongside us still – then we understand.
Why did Jesus die?
He died for us, say the Bible and the Creed. When you approach the crucifixion with faith in Christ’s divinity you see it as an action demonstrating the truth that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. John 3.16
It is an awesome act of substitution in which Jesus dies in our place so as to live in our place bringing us his own immortal life.
To believe in the crucifixion of Jesus is to commit to a holy God who loves us and reaches out to us in love though we’re sinners most especially in Holy Communion.
In his holiness God cannot be reconciled to sin, but through the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross the horror of sin is overcome and we’re credited with God’s own love and holiness.
The power of evil over humankind is overcome by the Cross. When we see that power being overcome in our own lives the Cross makes sense. We see benevolence flowing where there was self-seeking and humility where there was self-sufficiency.
In recognising those sinful tendencies and finding the merciful therapy of God in Jesus Christ we discover how wonderful the Cross is, what awesome yet living and practical truth it contains. This Week priests are available on request to help us go to the Cross and receive the assurance of God’s forgiveness individually in the sacrament of confession.
The letter to the Ephesians affirms God has made us acceptable in the beloved. By the death of his beloved Son God has made all who abide in Christ acceptable to himself.
God seeks intimacy with us. To achieve this, in an awesome mechanism beyond human understanding, Jesus Christ was crucified for us.
This is good news to all who will face both the truth of it and the truth about themselves as sinners in need of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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