Why Did Jesus Die?

Watch what you say
Before we get started, I want to help some of you guys out. Guys can put their foot in their mouth sometimes. I know, I used to be a guy before I became a pastor. Guys need all the help they can get.
Last Easter there was this awkward situation which I want to help you avoid this year. A man and his wife were leaving church and I was talking with people in the family room. The guy ended up giving himself away and embarrassing both himself and his wife and he didn’t even realize he had done it. He said as they were leaving, “You’re in a rut, Pastor. You preach about the resurrection every time I come here.”

In case you’re wondering, I do preach about more than just the resurrection. (But there’s nothing I like talking about more.)

Motives
This year I would like to talk about motives. I don’t want to talk about whether or not Jesus died and rose again or about how it happened. I don’t want to talk about what happened but more about why. This is an important question: Why did Jesus die? What do we know about His motivation? What did He accomplish by dying?

As you know, motivation for actions is an important part of relationships. If your child comes into the room, gives you a big hug and says, “I love you,” you would be very touched. What if you found out that your spouse gave them $5.00 to do it? It would change everything, wouldn’t it? My wife used to think that people were her friends because her mom was paying them to be friends with her. (It’s actually how I supplement my pastor’s income…)

Can’t hurt to ask
Agnes Goddard writes in Christian Reader the following story about questionable motives:

My granddaughter, Hannah, begged me long-distance to come help her celebrate her sixth birthday. Unable to resist, I made my plans to join the family. When we sat down for the birthday dinner, my son asked Hannah if she would like to bless the food on her birthday. "Oh, yes, Daddy," she said. She closed her eyes and began, "Dear Lord, thank you for Mommy and this good food she fixed. Thank you for letting Grandma come here today." Pausing momentarily, Hannah opened her eyes to peek at me before she continued. "And please Lord, let us have a good time at 'Toys R Us' this afternoon." (Agnes Goddard, Oceanside, Calif. "Lite Fare," Christian Reader. Leadership.)

So, what do we know about Jesus’ motives in dying on the cross?

WHY DID JESUS DIE?

For a long time in my life, I didn’t get this. Why did Jesus die? I knew about God and Jesus from stories when I was little. I believed there was a God and Jesus was His Son for as long as I could remember. It wasn’t really in dispute for me. I knew that Jesus died on a cross and rose again on the third day. I knew all of that. But I didn’t know why. That’s what I didn’t get. I was absolutely unable to figure out why Jesus died on a cross in the first place. Wasn’t just coming as a baby in Bethlehem enough? Weren’t His teachings enough? Why did Jesus have to die? And, more importantly, what did that have to do with me? These were questions that I had no answers for.

You probably saw the banner outside. It has this artistic picture of Jesus on the cross and says, “Why Did Jesus Die?” I originally wanted it to read, right along that picture of Jesus on the cross, “So What?” That may seem a little more harsh, but that is a legitimate question. “Okay, Jesus died. So what?” Maybe that is your question this morning. You came to the right place.



Before we look at why Jesus died, let’s clarify one important thing:

1. Jesus wasn’t forced to die.

We normally think of death as mandatory, don’t we? Everybody has to die. “There are three certainties in life: birth, death and taxes.” When people die, they don’t chose their death. They die because they have to die.

This is not true of Jesus. He didn’t have to die.

It wasn’t because of His sin

Scripture says, “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) All who sin have earned death. Death is a consequence of sin. Jesus never sinned. His death was because of sin, but not His sin.

There were two thieves who died right alongside Jesus. One of the thieves was insulting Jesus and the other one said, “What are you doing? We are here because we deserve to be here, but He has done nothing deserving of death.” He was right.

It wasn’t without precedent

“Wait a minute, doesn’t everyone have to die?” No. There are two people listed in the Bible, Enoch and Elijah, who never died. If God could take them into heaven without dying, couldn’t Jesus, being God, give Himself the ‘death exemption’? Yes He could, but He didn’t.

John 10:15 (NKJV)
15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.


John 10:18 (NKJV)
18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

§ He voluntarily gave His life, it wasn’t taken from Him.

John Donne was a poet and preacher in the 1600’s. In a sermon, he noted:

Christ died because he would die; other men admitted tot eh dignity of martyrdom are willing to die, but they die by the torments of the executioners; they cannot bid their souls go out and say, “Now I will die.” And this was Christ’s case: It was not only, “I lay down my life for my sheep” (John 10:15), but he says also, “No man can take away my soul; and I have power to lay it down.” And, de facto, he did lay it down – he did die before the torments could have extorted his sould from him.

Many crucifed men lived many days upon the cross. The thieves were alive long after Christ was dead, and therefore Pilate wondered that he was already dead (Mark 15:44). His soul did not leave his body by force, but because he would, and when he would, and how he would…. Christ did not die naturally, nor violently, as all others do, but only voluntarily.”

That’s important to understand. If someone does something voluntarily it tells something about their motives. Jesus died, but He didn’t have to. Then why?

2. Jesus was determined to die.

After you see that Jesus’ death wasn’t forced you see something else. You see His determination to die. If Jesus wasn’t forced to die but died willing, was He at all reluctant? Not at all. In fact, His determination is quite remarkable.

§ Nothing could stop Him.

There were a number of times when Jesus showed His determination to meet with His cruel death on the cross. I guess you could say that the first was when He faced tempation in the wilderness from the Devil. He resisted the temptation and stuck with the plan.

Rebuking Peter
On one occasion, the disciples were aware that Jesus’ enemies were out to get Him and Jesus said by going to Jerusalem they would take Him and kill Him. Peter pulled Jesus aside and said, “Lord, let’s make another plan. You don’t have to die. I won’t let you die.” That’s something a good friend would do, right? Friends don’t let friends get crucified.

Jesus responded to Peter with some of the strongest language you see in scripture, “Get behind Me, Satan!” What Jesus came to do could not have been done without His death. It was not enough that He came. He was determined to die.

Matthew 16:23 (NKJV)
23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

Prayer in the Garden

Later on, just before Jesus would be taken away, He went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. He knew what was ahead and what needed to be done but He was in great agony. He wrestled with what He knew was about to take place. He prayed:

John 12:27 (NKJV)
27 “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.

It wasn’t just for His life and His teachings that He came, but it was ‘to this hour,’ the occasion of His death. He was determined to die.

No need for swords

After this prayer, Judas betrayed Jesus and soldiers came out to take Him away. Peter pulled his sword to fight off the soldiers and rescue Jesus.


Matthew 26:52-54 (NKJV)
52 But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? 54 How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?”

Jesus could have been rescued. Not by a dozen disciples but by a dozen legions of angels. He chose death over rescue.

“Come down from the cross”

Even at the end, Jesus’ enemies shouted at Him and made fun of Him. “You saved others, now save yourself. Come down from the cross and prove that you are the Son of God.” Jesus could have come down from the cross even then. But it wouldn’t have proven that He was the Son of God, but just the opposite. It would have shown He was not the Son of God, because the Son of God came to die.

Mark 15:32 (NKJV)
32 Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him.

3. Jesus died for you.

What is the reason for this determination to die if Jesus didn’t have to? You are the reason. He was determined to die, not for Himself, but for you. You are the ‘why’.

YOU HAVE MUCH TO GAIN; HE HAD MUCH TO LOSE

In order to accomplish all that He wanted to accomplish for you, Jesus had to die.

§ He paved the way for real life.

There’s road construction going on by my house right now. There are workers in big equipment digging up and leveling out to make a new road and new lots for houses. Most of the workers don’t even live around there and will never need the road themselves, but they are there to make a road and places to live for others. Without their work, I would not be able to go through there. There could be no houses there.

Jesus came to pave the way for you because you would never be able to get through without Him. He came so that we could live.

1 Corinthians 15:20-23 (NKJV)
20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.

Acts 26:23 (NKJV)
23 that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”

§ He understands all that you go through.

In order for Him to really understand and have compassion (‘compassion’ means literally ‘to suffer with’) on all the pain that you experience, He had to experience the full range of pain. He really knows what you’re going through.

Hebrews 4:15 (NKJV)
15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

§ He wanted to show you ultimate love.

There is no greater love than giving your life for someone else. It is selfless, because once your dead they can’t really pay you back. It is sacrificial because you only have one life to give or to keep for yourself. It is ultimate because it is the last act you will ever do in this life.

John 15:13 (NKJV)
13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

Romans 8:32 (NKJV)
32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Have you ever had someone who loved you that much and showed it? Yes. His Name is Jesus. He voluntarily, with great determination, gave His life for you. He has that same determination for you today.

Subway savior, Wesley Autrey
The first week of this year, 2007, a 19-year-old New York film student named Cameron Hollopeter was standing on the subway platform waiting for a train. He suffered a seizure, his body convulsed out of control, and he fell off the plaform onto the tracks below – directly in front of an incoming train. He was helpless.

On the same platform was Wesley Autrey, a 50-year-old construction worker, with his two daughters. Wesley noticed no one else was going to help, so he jumped down from the platform onto the tracks. He grabbed the young man and rolled with him between the two set of tracks into a drainage trough. Seconds later the train cars roared by, with only inches to spare. Neither man was hurt.

Wesley Autrey became an instant celebrity, but that’s not why he did it. He said, “I just did it because I saw someone in distress. Someone needed help.”

Elliot Sander, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, called Autrey’s rescue “a death-defying act of bravery. We truly have not seen anything like this… He was in the right place at the right time and did the right thing.”

Jesus went to the right place at the right time to do the right thing. He was put to death because you and I are in distress. His death is our only hope for life.

Conclusion

Why did Jesus die?

Hebrews 2:14 (NRSV) [read together]
14 Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.

That’s why Jesus came.