Why Did Jesus Have to Die
One
Why did Jesus have to suffer and die?
It was not that God had to do it this way, but that He chose the most fitting way to save us and transform us. It was God’s plan from the beginning to reveal the depths of his love by suffering and dying to save us. Scripture says it again and again. The Prophet Isaiah tells us, “Ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried… Yet he was pierced through for our faults, crushed for our sins. On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through his wounds we are healed…” Isaiah 53. Jesus Himself says, “Was it not ordained that the Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory?” Luke 24:26
Why didn’t God simply forgive us? Why didn’t He just say, “You know what, it’s okay. Let’s just start over.” Why did He come Himself to die, to suffer all the effects of all the evil ever committed by all of humanity? What good did that do?
Two
God’s Respect for Humanity
Jesus suffered and died because He respected and loved us so much. What does “Respect” mean? It means to acknowledge a person’s excellence, and to be unwilling to diminish that excellence in any way.
Now perhaps the deepest of all human excellences is our freedom, our freedom to choose, to determine our own character and our own eternal destiny. And in order to be free, the consequences of our decisions have to matter. And that includes the consequences of our bad decisions.
Imagine playing chess with someone who is much better than you are. If every time you make a bad move, your opponent tells you to take it back, are you really even playing anymore? No. He’s just playing himself. He’s not respecting your freedom because he won’t let you make the move you want and take the consequences.
Respect for a free person means letting that person take responsibility for their decisions, and that means dealing with the consequences, good or bad. You lose your self-respect if someone else is always cleaning up your messes or getting you out of trouble. Your parents never show respect for you unless they give you responsibility. Freedom and responsibility mean accepting and dealing with the consequences of your own decisions.
So, God will not just let us take every bad move back and pretend it didn’t happen. He respects us too much for that. But then, what happens when our decisions are so bad that we just can’t handle the consequences on our own?
Three
God’s Love for us
We have to grasp our situation after Original Sin. Adam and Eve destroyed a relationship of infinite value, and no mere human can restore what is infinite. Let me suggest an analogy to help you understand. I could burn down a $50 million dollar home, but I lack the wealth to rebuild it. In a similar way, we torched our relationship with God and cannot repay the loss.
So what we need is this: A true human who can freely offer the obedience and love we failed to give. The same Person must be God, so His act carries infinite value. Jesus, who is both God and man, does this. He does not step in as our substitute who pushes us aside. He joins every person to himself as the head of a body (cf. Eph 1:22-23; Col 1:18; GS 22), bears sin from within our humanity, and offers the perfect love and obedience the Father deserves.
In Christ, justice is satisfied, and mercy poured out because Christ acted with us and for us, so now each of us can freely unite our “yes” to His and share in redemption. And He did that just because He loves us.
Four
Communion, Justice, and Mercy
Scripture tells us the consequence of sin is death, physical death and the eternal separation from God. To save us, Jesus did not say, “Step aside, I’ll take your place.” He assumed our human nature and “united himself in some way with every human being” (Gaudium et Spes 22), becoming Head of His Body, the new human family, so He could do for us and with us what we could never do alone: enter death, conquer it, and restore communion with God.
On the Cross, Jesus bore our separation from the Father, crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46). He entered into our alienation so He could bring us through it. And when He rose, He opened the way for us to rise with Him, not just someday, but now, through Baptism.
As St. Paul says, “All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death… so that, just as Christ was raised, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:3–4). Baptism is not a symbol. It unites us to Christ’s real death and resurrection. We are made members of His Body, adopted by the Father, and filled with the Holy Spirit.
In this way, Christ satisfies justice by truly bearing the consequences of our sin from within humanity, and mercy, by freely choosing to restore communion with us despite our limitations. Christ saved us, and now He invites us to share in His life and His saving mission.
Five
Our Response: Taking Responsibility in Love
And now, if we were to be a fully responsible Christian, then join with Christ and help him save the souls of your loved ones by praying, working, suffering, and building bridges of friendship. In 1 Corinthians 3:9, Paul said, “We are God’s co-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.”
Christ is inviting us to help him save souls. So, here are four ways we can do that: One more daily Mass per week. Go and offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the most powerful prayer, for your loved ones who have fallen away from the faith. Let’s commit to Daily meditation and a Resolution seven days a week, not just once in a while, because prayer opens us up so that we can really take part in the saving action of Christ. Let’s accept whatever we did not choose, do not like, and cannot change and offer it up for the salvation of our loved ones. Don’t waste your suffering. Let’s commit to building bridges of friendship with the people in our lives by inviting them to do good activities with us, eating, walking, projects, and while we do it, talk, have good conversation.
Jesus suffered and died for us. The only fitting response is to step up and share in his mission. Our Lady is forming a spiritual army to do just that: a movement of people who live in friendship with Jesus and friendship with others. If you want to join this Movement, just click the link below.