Why did Jesus die?

Here is a post I made on the Cafe and Kaos Church blog. You can follow the subsequent discussion in the CafeChurch Forum.

With Lent (the forty days before Easter, not including Sundays) getting under way yesterday, it seems like a timely question: why did Jesus die?

Some would say: "Jesus died so that we can be forgiven". I don't think so.

What sort of God would require, or even worse - arrange, the death of their own child as a pre-requisite for offering forgiveness? I reckon God always forgives - always has, always will. Before we even realize something is wrong, God forgives.

I think this is part of the good news that Jesus understood and tried to teach. In doing so, he upset the religious conservatives of his day, who thought God required endless bloody sacrifices in order to forgive. In order to deal with the threat Jesus posed, they had him executed.

I think Jesus did not die so that we can be forgiven but because we are forgiven.