A New Way of Thinking...

I remember asking questions when I was little...

Questions like, why did the animals have to be sacrificed?
...and...
Why did Jesus have to die?

I probably got the age old answer everyone here will rattle off... Blood was required to cover our sin (paraphrased and oversimplified, obviously)...

Here is a good example of the long version

We don't even think about it any more really, because it has always been explained to us so complex and then reduced to such a simple concept that we just accept it.

Yet all Christians will say that God is all powerful, and merciful, and gracious, and loving... and yet easily accept that blood sacrifice and human sacrifice is within that spectrum... Yet when we see other cultures and beliefs who still practice some form of sacrifice, Christians scoff, disdain, and condemn...

...I am not saying I condone living sacrifices, but I wanted to point out the contradiction before I went any further...

I mean really though... I have come to think of the explanation as rather absurd... Jesus teaches us to just forgive unconditionally. Easy. If this is expected of us, then surely God can handle that.

And I can forgive without there being a blood sacrifice... Although... Sometimes I fantasize about blood being spilled in order to fully forgive...

I think you see part of where I am going here.

Why DID Jesus HAVE to die?
Why is God's forgiveness contingent on us murdering His Son?
Why did a whole nation chosen of God have to sacrifice blood in order to find God's favor?

... and just for curiosity's sake...
Why do Christians find the idea of animal and human sacrifice so appalling when other religious cultures have a history of applying it?

To my fundamentalists friends... If God doesn't make exceptions for us, then why would He make an exception for Himself?

Well, here is what I feel the answers to these questions are...

God was never the one to require sacrifice... Humanity was.
If God is all powerful, and merciful, and gracious, and loving, and forgiving, then why would He require more violence... 

Sacrifice wasn't set into law as His condition, it was set to law as ours. God didn't need the Crucifixion of His Son to take place in order to forgive us...
...BUT...

Some of us needed the testimony of the Resurrection in order to know that we were forgiven.

So the next time someone gives you an over blown explanation as to why Jesus HAD to die, you should remember that He didn't (have to)... It wasn't His blood that covers your sin, it was your acceptance of God's forgiveness...