Ss Peter & Paul, Kettering
Why did Jesus have to die?
From the earliest times, Christians have been moved to prayer and worship by the death of Jesus on the cross, which they believed to be a powerful expression of God's love for the world. But the Church has also tried to understand and explain why God's work of salvation should have required a death and how that death makes a difference to others.
These explanations have been expressed in the ideas and images of the time. Jewish sacrificial ceremonies; being redeemed from slavery; someone vicariously suffering punishment for another's crime; release from the captivity of Satan. Words and images from these approaches still haunt our hymns and prayers, but they don't arise from our culture or experience and so they don't 'work' so well for people today.
We live in a world where we understand our lives largely in terms of relationships. It's our relationships that give our lives meaning and boundaries and help us discover who we are. So the images that seem to work best for people today are images that try to unfold the meaning of Jesus' death in the relationship language of God's love for us.
Why did Jesus have to die? Not to buy us with his life, not to pay Satan or satisfy God's righteous indignation at human sin. But as a sign of love. The costliness of self-giving often prevents us from giving ourselves totally. But God's love for us is total and so is God's willingness to give himself for us, even to the point of death.
Office Address:
The Rectory
Church Walk
Kettering
NN16 0DJ