I started Sunday School when I was four years old.  I’ve had a lot of time to think about religious question, some of which I’m still coping. In next few blogs I’m going to share some of my life-long ponderings . The first question is, “why did Jesus have to die?”

My church had a Good Friday service for Children so thinking about the death of Jesus was inescapable. As far as I could tell, Jesus was a really nice guy. Why would His Father God let him die? What did he do wrong?  The only thing I could think of was in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus prayed, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” I wasn’t sure what “this cup” meant, but maybe God was mad because Jesus didn’t want to drink it. I knew from experience parents got upset if you didn’t drink your milk, for example.

It was years later that it was explained that Jesus died to pay for our sins, but frankly that didn’t make much sense to me. The idea behind substitutionary atonement is that sin deserves death. God being loving doesn’t want us to die, but being righteous, someone had to pay the price of sin. So Jesus dies in our place. If that explanation works for you, you should probably stop reading here. God bless you. If you’re not entirely satisfied with that explanation, come back next week to see where I went with this pondering.

Read 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne