Did Jesus have to die?  Why couldn’t God simply have said, “well that’s all right, it doesn’t matter,” and be done with it?  This business of the pain, the cross doesn’t seem like the reflection of a loving God.  Why not simply forgive and move on?

Let me answer that by suggesting another relationship.  Suppose your adult daughter or son came into your bedroom while you were gone and ruined your cherished bedroom set that had been given to you by your parents.  She or he scratched the furniture and wrote hurtful things on the mirror and tore up the mattress to your bed.  It was clear who did it.  She or he admitted to it.  Would you respond “Oh, that’s OK, it doesn’t matter”?  I suspect not.  A relationship had been violated and trust broken.  It does matter! The relationship with your child IS important!

And that is what the cross says to us.  We have violated our relationship and broken a trust as children of God.  And God says, wait a minute!  This relationship does matter to me.  I won’t simply ignore it.  And in love the offended one takes the initiative to re-enter the relationship – not to seek revenge, or exact payment, but to declare how much this love relationship means.  In the cross God is not indifferent to the broken relationship but rather seeks its restoration.  God loves so much that God was willing to enter into the pain and guilt of the offender and bear it with – and for – them. This is taking the offender seriously.  The cross is saying how much God cares for you and me.  In his death Jesus is beckoning us to God.  God wants us.  God wants us to experience the fullness of our humanity.  When we distort it, when we fail to live up to what God has created us to be, we need to turn to God.  Jesus’ love is so intense that he meets us in our guilt, he comes to us to point the way to life and wholeness.

Today we will be witnessing infant baptism.  It is a vivid reminder of how God takes the first step to us.  Certainly Elena is not initiating this covenant with God.  Her parents are not initiating this covenant either.  God is.  God comes to us with a promise before we are able to turn to God.  God invites us into a relationship.  We respond to God’s loving us first.

This is true of adults as well.  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (Romans 6:3-4)  His experience is our experience.  We are so identified with Christ that he is in us and we in him.  This is the essence of a meaningful love relationship.  Try to separate yourself from that child that destroyed your bedroom furniture.  You are one with her or him.  Your pain for what was done is as great as hers or his - even before guilt is acknowledged.  The way to restore the relationship is to be one with the offender, to feel the hurt, the loss.  Oh, yes, there may be consequences that follow.  But it is not the consequences that repair the relationship. One could have a new set of furniture, or the old set completely repaired, but the love relationship between parent and child could remain broken.  It is in our identifying with the guilt of the other that we can call them to a renewed relationship. 

This is why the story you have just heard read by the able readers this morning is The Greatest Story Ever Told.  It is the benchmark for renewing relationships.  It is a call for us to love as we have been loved. But it isn’t enough to respond to God and experience reconciliation with God.  For if it does not change our relationship with our fellow human beings, it means nothing.  To be reconciled to God means newness in our relationship with God’s children as well.  We are to love as we have been loved.  We are to take the initiative when a relationship is broken.  This kind of love is not understood by many in our culture.  It is what cost Jesus his life.  We are not to seek vengeance but to seek restoration.  We are to be peacemakers with all of our fellow human beings, not just some.  Jesus’ love invites all to experience newness of life.  Jesus’ love makes us all one.  For when we are baptized into Christ’s death, we are also raised with him into newness of life.  We are now enabled to live in hope, in joy, and in love.  We can respond in thanksgiving for God’s gift of love as seen on the cross.  Thanks be to God!

We talk about the Passion of Christ.  How much more intense and focussed can one get for another?  In our culture we typically think of passion in a romantic context, a lover’s passion.  When we experience that for our partner, we begin to understand what drove Christ to his death.  There is no greater love!  Did Jesus have to die?  You answer that question.