Meaning of the Crucifixion
Previous | Home | Next

Why did Jesus die on the cross? There are three possibilities:

  1. Jesus died to take away our sins.

  2. Jesus was prepared to give up his life to teach us, but there was no purpose in him dying other than that he was prepared to do it.

  3. The death of Jesus has parable-based significance, relating to the people he teaches about.

I believe that the significance of his death is a mixture of the latter two points. The second point is possible for the following reasons. Jesus is quoted as saying, "the Son of Man came to give up his life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45). I conclude that he is misquoted, otherwise it would imply that we don't have to follow the teachings of Jesus, which would contradict with his first and second commandments. The misquotation is probably due to Satanic interference such as Pauline theology and what the disciples thought to be the resurrected Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not come to give up his life as a ransom for many. He came to teach us to love our neighbour as ourselves; this was the purpose of his life. If not, then his commandments would be interpreted as follows:

  • Love the Lord your God if you want to, but I died for you so that you don't have to.

  • Love your neighbour if you want to, but I died for you so that you don't have to.

This interpretation is favoured by the Church, where people do not follow the commandments of Jesus and 2.5 billion people remain in poverty. For this reason, the statement, "the Son of Man came to give up his life as a ransom for many," can be considered incorrect by true standards, because it nullifies the teachings that are directed towards reducing suffering. Jesus probably said something like, "I will save the lives of many people through my teachings, and I am prepared to die in order to teach them."

There are three possible reasons for misquotation, (a) forgetting exactly what Jesus said, (b) the misinformation effect from Satan and (c) a deliberate attempt to mislead. The disciples of Jesus were clearly very devout, and it is very unlikely that there has been any deliberate attempt to mislead us. The misinformation effect is a memory bias that occurs when people are given misleading or inaccurate information about things that they have observed, often by making an inaccurate statement within a question about an event. This effect has been studied by psychologists. Studies have also been conducted to find out how quickly people forget things. The following graph shows the results of an experiment where people were asked to memorise a list of items, and to recall the list at different time intervals. The last test was more than 11 days after people had memorised the list; on average, about 8% of the list could be recalled. This data does not take into account people reminding each other of the teachings of Jesus (oral tradition was common in Jewish times because many people could not read).

A graph showing the loss of memory retention over time. The results are as follows: 1 minute: 84%. 5 minutes: 71%. 15 minutes: 61%. 30 minutes: 56%. 60 minutes: 54%. 120 minutes: 47%. 240 minutes: 45%. 480 minutes: 38%. 720 minutes: 36%. 1440 minutes: 26%. 2880 minutes: 20%. 5760 minutes: 16%. 10080 minutes: 8%.

Unless people wrote down what Jesus said immediately, then their accounts would be unreliable according to this data. The Gospel writers are thought to have relied on various written records, but they may not have been written down immediately. The Gospels are thought to have been composed in the latter half of the first century, by which time the eyewitnesses could have forgotten almost everything that Jesus had said. The Gospel writers do not use true standards while writing; they were acting as reporters of what they saw and their primary motivation was to record an accurate account of the life of Jesus. However, since they do not judge for themselves by true standards, vital messages could have been forgotten or corrupted by misinformation. It is also interesting to note that the Gospels focus on the last week of Jesus' life, rather than the three years of his teaching.

The following picture shows a summary of the third point at the start of this letter; the idea that the death of Jesus has parable-based significance, relating to the people he teaches about.

The image shows Britain and Africa side by side with an arrow pointing from Britain to Africa. Britain is labelled 'Sin' and Africa is labelled 'Death.' Under Britain is written 'Debt collection, consumerism etc.'. Under Africa is written 'Poverty, starvation, disease, war.

Our sins have an effect here and now on those who Jesus came to represent and teach about. Our sin-bearers are people such as those starving in Africa. Jesus uses his own death to show that sins cause death and suffering of others.

    John 8:21
    Again Jesus said to them, "I will go away; you will look for me, but you will die in your sins. You cannot go where I am going."

Not following Jesus means that we die. Conversely, following Jesus means that we do not die:

    John 8:51
    I am telling you the truth: whoever obeys my teaching will never die.

This doesn't just mean that when we die, we are raised and then don't die any more. It actually means that we don't die in the first place. However, for those who have already died, it is possible for people who follow Jesus to bring them back from the dead just like Jesus did for Lazarus. However, bringing people back from the dead into the present age and preventing them from going to heaven is not loving your neighbour as yourself, and for this reason is unlikely to work at the present time.

Jesus followed his own teachings, so by his own words he did not have to die. Jesus chose to die; he implied that he knew in advance how and when it would happen, so he could have avoided it. In his teachings, Jesus uses himself as a representative of the poor and outcasts to society. For example, he says things like this:

    Matthew 25:31-46
    31 "When the Son of Man comes as King and all the angels with him, he will sit on his royal throne, and the people of all the nations will be gathered before him. Then he will divide them into two groups, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the righteous people on his right and the others on his left. 34 Then the King will say to the people on his right, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father! Come and possess the kingdom which has been prepared for you ever since the creation of the world. 35 I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, 36 naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me.'

    37 "The righteous will then answer him, 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? 38 When did we ever see you a stranger and welcome you in our homes, or naked and clothe you? 39 When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?' 40 The King will reply, 'I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these members of my family, you did it for me!'

    41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Away from me, you that are under God's curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels! 42 I was hungry but you would not feed me, thirsty but you would not give me a drink; 43 I was a stranger but you would not welcome me in your homes, naked but you would not clothe me; I was sick and in prison but you would not take care of me.'

    44 "Then they will answer him, 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and would not help you?' 45 The King will reply, 'I tell you, whenever you refused to help one of these least important ones, you refused to help me.' 46 These, then, will be sent off to eternal punishment, but the righteous will go to eternal life."

Jesus uses himself as a representative of the social groups listed here (hungry people, sick people, thirsty people, imprisoned people etc.) and continues to do so at his death.

Half of our world's population is in poverty. Many of them die from poverty related causes. Their poverty can be attributed to a failure of the rich half of the world to help them by following Jesus. In other words, about half of the world bears the sins of the other half, and the sin-bearing half often dies as a result. Jesus himself died as a result of the sins of the people around him. This is why we should follow Jesus – to help those in the world who are in extreme poverty.

We can help in a number of ways. Jesus advocates selling possessions and giving the money to the poor. This is a good way to start following Jesus. It is also beneficial to teach others to do the same, and to teach against anything that goes against what Jesus says (for example, the teachings of Paul).