Why did Jesus have to die for our sins? Who made up that rule?
When I was a deacon, I volunteered in the Catholic chapel of San Quentin prison. During our Sunday Masses, one of the inmates at the time of the petitions prayed this prayer every single week: “I pray for the victims of my crime and all the victims of crime.” It was evident that he felt a great responsibility for the evil he had caused by his sin and that he deeply desired to make it right in any way he could. And it was just as obvious that, no matter how many times he prayed — even every Sunday for the rest of his life — he could never fully take away that evil. Reconciliation was not possible for him to accomplish by himself. To address this impossibility is the reason for Jesus’ incarnation and, ultimately, His suffering and death.
It is a misunderstanding to regard Jesus’ death as a price God demands as revenge for our sin. God is not vindictive or arbitrary in this way. It is more accurate to say that Jesus’ death pays the price that our sins demand in order to be set right. After all, the evil we create by our sin cannot simply be waved away. For example, sins such as rape, abortion, racial discrimination or economic exploitation (in fact, all sins) contain within them a terrible denial of the dignity of their victims. Simply turning a blind eye would seem to approve of this insult. Justice requires an answer and a vindication of these victims.
However, as Shakespeare reminds us, “In the course of justice, none of us should see salvation.” Because all humanity is fallen into sin, if strict justice alone were pursued, all would stand under condemnation. We would all be in the situation of that inmate: forever trying to undo wrongs that we could not. This would thwart God’s purpose of creating us for love and joy, an unacceptable outcome. God resolves this dilemma by offering Himself in the person of Jesus to pay the price that justice requires, thereby vindicating both the victims of sin and allowing for the reconciliation of the sinner. Since we all belong in both categories, we all stand in need of both these ministries.
Imagine a mother taking her two young sons for ice cream cones. After finishing his, the eldest maliciously knocks his brother’s ice cream to the ground. Of course, the victim cries out because of the loss. His brother, while he can (and should!) apologize, cannot replace the ice cream cone. He has nothing that his parents do not provide him. So, in order to provide for her youngest son and to set things right, the mother gives him her ice cream cone. Instead of her son unwillingly suffering an injustice, she willingly out of love suffers an injustice (losing her ice cream) to provide the chance for both her children to be reconciled.
Jesus suffers willingly to show us that the forgiveness of sinners is possible, no matter what they have done (because there is no victim more innocent than He), as well as to show that every victim is vindicated because God unites Himself to them in love, even at the cost of suffering to the death.
Father Chris Schroeder is parochial administrator of Christ the King Parish in University City and St. Joseph Parish in Clayton.
