This talk was originally given on Palm Sunday, 2000 at St. Alban's Cathedral in Prince Albert in answer to a question posed by a Sunday School child several years before. It is reproduced here with permission lightly reformatted for camp internet use.

"Why did Jesus have to die?" The question came from a primary-age child at a Sunday school class I was teaching. As a teenager in the early stages of my own religious education,, the query unsettled me. I think I might have been able to handle a more historical question, like, 'When did Jesus die?' or 'Where did Jesus die?' l knew that the events of Good Friday happened some two-thousand years ago, and that there was a spot outside Jerusalem where people were executed. But the question posed by that little girl was not so easy to answer. "Why did He have to die?" she asked.

If she had asked 'Why did Jesus die?', that would have been difficult enough. I had spent most of the Sunday school year teaching the kids what a wonderful fellow Jesus was. He was smart. He was compassionate. He healed sick people. He helped individuals who were in trouble. He liked children. And the pictures of Jesus 'in the stained glass windows and teaching curriculum supported my image of him. There he was, clean, handsome, strong, with a look of love in his eyes. Why would anybody want to kill such a nice guy? Why did Jesus die, indeed?

But notice that the question went further than this. She hadn't actually asked, 'Why did Jesus die?', but why did Jesus have to die?' At the time, Andrew Lloyd Webber had just composed 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. Part of what made the 'rock opera' so appealing to millions was the way it flirted with this question of why Jesus had to die. One example comes from Jesus's soliloquy in the Garden of Gethsemane, where, summoning the rhetorical skill of a radish, he whines,

Why should I die?

Can you show me now that I would not be killed in vain?

Show me just a little of your omnipresent brain.

Show me there's a reason for you wanting me to die

You're far too keen on where and how, and not so hot on why.

Alright, I'll die! Jesus Christ Superstar

I apologize if this offends any 'Superstar' fans,, but my point is that the necessity of Jesus' death has, in the popular mind, been one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith. And the most popular rendition of the life of Christ in the early 1970s was certainly little help to me in the face of the question, "Why did Jesus have to die?' I can't remember now how I answered my pupil's earnest query. But her innocent question rankled. It seemed to disturb some doubts I was harboring in my mind. Jesus' Life had made a lot of sense to me - but not so his death. And I was troubled by the final words of the week's Gospel, "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto., but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." (Mt 20.28)

Why did Jesus have to die? Behind all of the religious and political intrigue, behind all of the historical circumstances of Jewish life in the first century, there was one overriding reason: this is the way God chose to restore our broken relationships. You see, the problem is this: the history of humanity is tragically marred by our inability live in obedience to God and for the welfare of others. From the time of Eden, when a certain man and woman elected to disregard the express command of God, and yielded to a desire to be like God, to the day before yesterday, when the United Nations admitted that they had not done enough to stop the genocide of half a million Tutsis in Rwanda, human beings have consistently demonstrated just how self-centred and destructive they can be. And we're not just talking about a social problem here. I'm referring to the quality of your personal relationships and mine. Although in our better moments we aspire to lives of nobility and altruism, the reality is that we are usually content to settle for second or third best. Our public face of nicety often masks a critical spirit; our acts of kindness are often transactions in an unspoken economy of payment and debt; our admiring glances often disguise our lust and covetousness.

As Mark Twain once wrote, 'Man is the only animal that blushes -

or needs to.' Following the equator(1897)

Actually, it is commonly imagined that God also blushes at our mistakes, that he is sometimes forced to turn his head when we make a hash of our lives. But we must be careful of projecting our own character onto God. For it is not in God's nature to turna blind eye to sin - he is all-seeing. Our hearts are open to him, remember, all desires are known to him, and no secrets are hidden from him. Consequently, our wayward deeds raise an obstacle between us. They rupture our relationship with him, and pique his righteous wrath. One way of describing this would be to say that he expects perfection from us because he himself is perfect, and he can no more embrace us in our sinfulness without destroying us than light can embrace darkness without eradicating it. "Your iniquities have separated you from your God;" proclaimed the prophet Isaiah,"your sins have hidden his face from you." (Is 59.2).

Such., then, is our predicament. In the course of driving others away by our selfishness, we have also managed to estrange ourselves from God, who can no longer abide our presence. We may wish that we could repair these broken relationships, but how? How is it humanly possible to make up for everything we have done wrong.? Many of those we have hurt have passed from this life, and there are many more of whose injury we are unaware. Moreover, how can we ensure that from now on everything we do and say will be free from the taint of self-interest, that we will accomplish only righteousness? Unfortunately, we are powerless to restore what we have broken, and are fit to suffer the consequences. And the consequences of broken relationships with one another are terrible enough to bear, but the result of being at enmity with God is death. For Scripture solemnly warns us that "The wages of sin is death" (Rom 6.23) .

This is pretty grim news, I know. But without stating the case so baldly, we should never be able to answer the question of that wondering school girl. 'Why did Jesus have to die?' For just as Scripture explains the consequences of our sin, so it opens up the meaning of why Jesus had to die: '"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (l Cor 5.21). 'For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God."( 2 Pet 3.18) 'God ' was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting our sins against us.' (l Cor 5.19) In other words, the punishment for our sin which is ours by right was transferred to Jesus Christ. He died our death, in our place, so that our sins might be forgiven and we night know fellowship with God. The chastisement which we deserved was laid upon him. And he had to do it, because our salvation could be achieved in no other way.

It is at this point that Billy Graham would ask us to 'get up out of our seats', and come to the platform, as an indication that we were committing our life to Christ. Anglicans, however, are a little leery of such methods. Whether it is because we don't like to make a show of our religion or because we are notorious fence-sitters, I leave for you to decide.

However today I would like to issue just such an altar call. In typical Anglican fashion I am going to say, 'Dear friends in Christ, God is steadfast in love and infinite 'in mercy; he welcomes sinners and invites them to his table.' Those of us who wish to can then come to Christ by faith and receive the assurance that our sins have been forgiven through his death.

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