Why did Jesus have to die?

April 8, 2012
Episcopal Cafe

Mark Harris shares his sermon from the Easter Vigil. How would you answer Lily’s question?

I am writing to you using your full adult name because at almost seven you have asked a very adult question. You dad wrote that you are confused about why Jesus had to die. “Why did Jesus have to die? “ A great question!

A great question is like a flower in spring just opening up, the more we look at it the more there is to see. I hope you will ask questions all your life.

Why did Jesus have to die?

You asked that on Good Friday, when we are all thinking about Jesus and his death, but the answer has to do also with Easter, which we celebrate tonight and tomorrow. Well, here some of my thoughts about that question. But they are just thoughts – you will have to keep asking and thinking about Jesus yourself.

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Peter Pearson

April 9, 2012 9:10 am

Jesus had to die because he was fully human. If he did not then he would have cheated the whole incarnation-gig and it would have all been make believe. For several years I have loved the term, “death-eater, “coined by the J. K. Rowling in her “Harry Potter” series. Although I don’t quite have it all worked out, Jesus swallowed death whole as God in Flesh. He took the worst that being human hands to us all and made it a part of his being. But being also God, death was unable to have the last word because even death is not more powerful than God. Does that make any sense or have I officially outed myself as a heretic?

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