Did Jesus commit suicide? This was the question I got asked in school Scripture today as I was explaining the meaning of the Passover. As I told the kids that Jesus shed his blood for us (just as the Passover lamb did in the Exodus) one of the kids put up their hands and asked ‘does that mean Jesus committed suicide’?
I was stumped at first. I’ve never been asked that before. Suicide is when you willingly choose to end your life. And Jesus’ death was certainly voluntary.
Eventually I said that Jesus didn’t commit suicide because there was a point to his death- his death is like a husband who takes a bullet for his wife. That’s not suicide, that’s a sacrifice.
And come to think of it, my definition of suicide was flawed. Suicide is when the only and central intention of the act is the death of the individual. There are no other consequences in view. Jesus certainly doesn’t die in order to merely die. He dies so that the world might be saved.
Tonight at the Moore Annual lectures, Dr Gerald Bray said that the will Jesus had to live is seen most clearly in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he prays ‘not my will, but yours be done’. It’s an unnatural thing to want to die. Jesus was not suicidal- he wanted to live. (And not face the Father’s anger- but this wasn’t really fleshed out).
So there you have it- Jesus was not suicidal. His death, although intentional, saves people, and he had a will to live. That’s love. And that’s obedience.
Speaking of obedience- something else struck me from the lecture. Dr Bray said that the Christian life doesn’t get any easier- it gets harder. But that will have to be the subject of another post.
4 comments:
"It's not suicide, it's sacrifice" - that's it in a nutshell. I like it DM.
What about when you're talking about God's soveriegnty and a kid raises their arm in the air and starts whacking themselves in the head, asking whether God was making them do it? I'm drawing a blank...
JT
That was cool Dave, what a question to get at scripture. I think they asked the right person though. See you tonight.
hey! I came here from JT's blog...
and it looks as though hes already said what i was going to say...but thats ok...
"That’s not suicide, that’s a sacrifice"
Love that explanation!!
It is amazing the things that children pick up. The daughter of a friend (aged 7) said to me recently: 'Jesus was on a suicide mission'. It certainly stumped both me and her mother!
You can see where she got it from - She knew that Jesus came into the world for the express purpose of dying on the cross. The gospels tell us that he set his eyes on Jerusalem and was determined to go there, knowing that it would ultimately cost his life.
I wish I had been quick enough to emphasise that it was a sacrifice and not suicide!
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