I hesitate to open such a large can of worms but I will for two reasons. The first is connected to my current distance from such matters. There was a time when all I thought about was questions such as these but now that I'm a small business owner of an organic lawn care business, I'm up to my knees in dirt and any spare time I do have is spent catching up on invoices and sending out quotes. I miss these questions and the discussians they create. The second reason is my apparent "love of controversy" as my wife jests - to which I respond - go make me supper woman.
As you may recall,
I opened a smaller can of worms last Christmas when I intimated that Jesus was not born of a literal virgin but was written that way as an alternative to Caesar (also suposedly born of a virgin). A spirited discussion resulted - one that will hopefully continue here.
When it comes down to it,
Crossan and Borg are quite right. Jesus' death was either the result of divine necessity (God needed him to die) or human inevitability (Jesus message destined him to die). I guess the third alternative is unbelief (there is no God and Jesus may or may not have existed either) but let's assume they both exist, because I believe they do (not that that is evidence).
Most of us were raised to believe, and still believe, that the death of Jesus was out of divine necessity. God's creation was steeped in sin and previous attempts to break them out of it had fallen short (flood, visions, animal sacrifice etc). God needed a permanent solution. It was decided (at some point or was known all along) that the only suitable long term solution would be the death of God's perfect and only son. Only a perfect human could free imperfect humanity from their sin. With the plan in place Jesus would appear just at that right time to accomplish God's plan. With centuries of prophecy behind him, Jesus appeared on the scene miraculously and after thirty years of stone masonry/ carpentry Jesus brought about the discussed plan.
Approximately three years later, Jesus freely gave up his life, was crucified on a Roman cross, and in his death, brought about the salvation of mankind. Three days later Jesus walked out of the tomb, spent a month preparing his disciples to take over and then returned to the God he had left 33 years ago. This of course is a brief summary of the plan of divine necessity.
The second option of human inevitability claims crucifiction was simply the logical end for any man living in the first century who taught the kind of things Jesus taught. Like Martin Luther King after him, Jesus was killed because the ruling powers/culture of the day was not able to absorb the implications of his words. If Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not, which means he's no longer all powerful and without an all powerful leader the (ironic) Pax Romana can be threatened. Rome responded swiftly to this threat and although the bible portrays Pilate as an "aw shucks, do we really hafta kill him" kind of guy, it was Rome through Pilate in the end who tortured Jesus, nailed him to a cross, and carried out his death. Sure it was the Jews idea, but the Romans made it happen.
It's important to note here that Rome didn't crucify people willy nilly. It was a brutal capital punishment reserved only for those unfortunate souls who subverted Roman law thereby disturbing Pax Romana. In other words, the Romans would not have crucified Jesus because some orny Jews pressured them "crucify him crucify him crucify him" and like tired parents they finally caved. We must remember this was an empire built on doing what it wanted, when it wanted to whoever it wanted and so in the end, they chose to crucify Jesus along with two other revolutionary, freedom fighters, as the greek word for "thieves" implies- thus killing off 3 potential threats to their rule and ideology. Rome had the Jews to thank for alerting them to this potential threat so in an odd friendship, these two enemies killed Jesus Christ.
As I reflect on the options before me, I find the second option of human inevitability to be more likely and thus inspiring to my journey of faith. Jesus passionately preached his beautiful message knowing full well it would one day lead to his death. His predictions in the gospels "the Son of Man will be.."were not indicative of his rememberance of the heavenly deal he made with his father 33 years prior but rather his intuitive sense that the world in which he lived was not yet ready to hear a "pray for your enemies, turn the other cheek, religion is not important, woman are not inferior and Caesar is not Lord" kind of message." Jesus continued preaching anyways, knowing full well it would cost him his life. And when it did, Jesus died with love in his heart for the humans he served, even the ones who brought about his death. It was a Good Friday.
A few days later an awakening occured. But that's another story.
John
