Why Jesus Had to Die
Can you remember the most painful moment of your life?
There are different types of pain. There is physical pain. Perhaps you’ve had a horrible fall and broke an arm or a leg, or worse. It’s an interesting thing how the human body will sort of “shut down” temporarily when it’s in a state of shock, so that it doesn’t feel the pain as severely.
But there are other kinds of pain that can actually be worse than physical pain: the pain of rejection, betrayal, or abandonment, for example. When a husband says to his wife, “I’ve been unfaithful to you.” When a wife says to her husband, “I want a divorce!” When the child says to the parent, “I don’t want to live the Christian life.” Or when you are betrayed by a friend, perhaps someone you’ve done so much for. It cuts like a knife.
Hebrews 12:3 says, “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” To consider means “to think over, ponder, or compare.” So let’s consider what the cross was to Jesus himself. For Jesus, the cross was a fate worse than death. Indeed it was death, and a very cruel one at that. It can’t get much worse than that, but for Jesus…
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