Who Killed Jesus?

Watch Mel Gibson's new movie, "The Passion of the Christ" and you will see a man crucified. You will see a group of religious leaders, their character insulted and authority threatened, conspire to murder. You will see an arrogant Roman governor so spineless and cruel that he does not listen, even to his own conscience. What you may not notice is a single pair of hands, belonging to Mel Gibson. Mel filmed his own hand driving a nail through the hand of Jesus and into the cross. Why did he do that?

We might find our answer if we understand the meaning of the crucifixion itself. It has always, in some way or another, been misunderstood. Those anti-Semites who call for vengeance on all Jews probably understand least of all. They think that they are avenging the death of Christ in their violence and hatred. They assume the crucifixion was a horrible accident, a collision of unforeseen events that ruined Christ's work on earth by a premature death. But that assumption is wrong.

In the biographies we have of Jesus, he claims to be "the Son of the Blessed One," and to have existed before his ancestor Abraham was even born. But even more shocking than his claim to be "the man come down from heaven" is his assertion that he left heaven to suffer and to die.

In Jesus' own understanding, his primary purpose on earth was not to teach, not to preach, not even to heal. It was to die. Long before any plots are in motion against him, he says that he has come "to give his life as a ransom for many." Far from being ambushed by a cruel fate, Jesus says forcefully, "No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." But if it was his choice to die, does that mean no one is to blame?

Behind Jesus' purpose to die is another intention that he expresses in different ways. He says he has come to seek out and save the lost and to bring a cure for the sick. He says he has come in this way for all people. These words are fairly insulting in what they imply. If we have to be found, then we do not know where we are or where we are going. If we need life, that means we do not have life -- we are dead, like walking zombies. And if we need a cure, that means there is something deeply wrong with us, something we cannot fix ourselves.

We cannot understand what it means to say we are lost, dead and sick, unless we first understand God and his intentions. The God that Jesus reveals exists whether or not people believe in him. Everything else that exists receives its existence from him. Nothing can exist independently from him. This God is also a god who cares. He loves love and hates hate. He cares because he is good; goodness is his very nature, and that nature reveals what is good and what is not. But his goal is not even world peace, as nice as that would be. He did not create people intending to raise an ant farm. He created people for a relationship. And his goal for each person is a union more intimate than marriage.

But people got themselves lost. They became fell for a very convincing lie: "God is holding out on me." They did not ask why a being that gave them the gift of existence would withhold any good gift. Suspicious that there was some good thing that God did not want them to have, people went their own way to control their own lives.

Unfortunately, if God is the sole Creator of all that exists, then nothing good can exist apart from him. So, as if wanting to be "free" of the limitations of the subway platform, they stepped past the yellow line. But there was no train there. Following an illusion of good, they stepped into Nothingness and died. If we are made to be with God in our inner spirit, then to prefer any other thing over God for our happiness (be it money, power, sex, or anything) is to prefer death over life. Gibson himself admits that even at the height of his fame and success, in his soul he felt an aching void that nothing could fill.

Being spiritually dead, people became sick, physically and mentally. Bodies began to decay. Selfishness became the norm, ruining relationships and spreading misery. And worst of all, people came to enjoy being sick. They would rather suffer the effects of their selfishness than to admit they needed God and forfeit their self-sufficiency. "Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven."

It was out of his undying love for us rebels that God became man in Jesus of Nazareth, to do what only a God-man could. He left the dignity and comfort of heaven and suffered a dive into the Nothingness, in order to pull mankind out. Fully a man, Jesus did what no one could: live a perfect human life of unbroken intimacy with God. Raised from the dead to a life that will never end, Jesus can share that new human life with whosoever will receive it. Jesus took the death all people deserved to give the life no one deserves. But if we had not sinned, Jesus would not have had to die.

This is the understanding that led Gibson to put his own hand crucifying Jesus. He considers himself responsible. Romans may have been the executors, but it was sin that brought Jesus to the cross -- Gibson's sin and everyone else's. The sin of all people, Jew and Gentile, had to be dealt with. Sin is not breaking arbitrary rules, it is telling God to kiss off. Even the "nicest" guy can be content in his own self-righteous niceness, and thus cut off from God. Sin kills. The question has never been whether one is naughty or nice, but whether one is alive or dead. Jesus dealt with sin so sinners could live, be forgiven, and brought home.

Jack Grimes is a senior majoring in Philosophy. He can be reached at grimes@tuftsdaily.com