“Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer?”
In Luke 24:26, Jesus claims to the disciples on the road to Emmaus that it was necessary that he should suffer.
This is an extraordinary claim that people don’t focus on enough. Why was it necessary? After saying this, Jesus goes on to give the first homily, “beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures,” presumably with the purpose of showing them just why it was necessary. If Jesus were a Protestant preacher advertising the title of his sermon on a sign in front of his church, that’s what it’d say: “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer?” So the necessity of the Crucifixion was an important enough theme that Jesus spends his first homily (the first homily, ever) arguing for it.
In my book, I argue that our bad theories of mercy prevent us from understanding correctly why suffering is necessary in God’s plan. We assume that God doesn’t want there to be suffering. Or that the New Testament God doesn’t want suffering (the Old Testament God seems to enjoy making people suffer). We assume that God does not want us to suffer because that’s what it means when St. John says “God is love.” Some people think that punishment is “required” by God’s justice, and set aside by his mercy which is the opposite of his justice (without wondering why, on their view, God would be merciless half the time and unjust the other half). As a specific example of this, some people interpret St. Faustina’s views on Divine Mercy as holding that the Father wants to punish the world through his justice, and is restrained from doing so by the Son’s sacrifice.
All of these are mistakes. Mercy isn’t opposed to justice, rather, mercy aims at justice. The goal of mercy is to change things that are wrong to make them right--and rightness is the aim of justice. Punishment isn’t part of God’s vengeance, it’s a sign of his faithful love, a way for us to grow spiritually and to join ourselves to Jesus’ covenant.
However, Jesus’ suffering is special. His suffering was necessary because only if he suffered could there be a new covenant with God (the theme my second meditation from Good Friday, on John 17). Unless Jesus, the Son of God incarnate, offered his life to the Father, there could be no end to sin or death. We’d be forever under the curses of Adam and Eve, we’d be forever under the rule of the devil, we’d be forever selfish and incapable of charity.
Jesus’ suffering was necessary, which means that there was no other way to accomplish our salvation. Which means there’s no other way for anyone to be saved, except through Jesus. No person who is not a participant in Christ’s new and eternal covenant can be saved. Because if it were possible for one to be saved without Christ, then it would not have been necessary for Christ to suffer--his sacrifice on the Cross would have been just one option among others: “Oh, sure you can just be a good person and be saved, if that’s what you prefer; but I think I’ll create another way to be saved, by dying on the Cross and requiring baptism, for those who are into that sort of thing.” But if there was another way to be saved, then God the Father would have forced an innocent man to die unnecessarily, for the only time ever (since after the Fall, there were no innocents, and everyone deserved to die)--which attributes to God an act of injustice. If it were not necessary for the Christ to suffer, then Jesus would have been a fool on Holy Thursday when he agreed to offer his life unnecessarily, which attributes foolishness to Wisdom itself. And Jesus would have been a liar in his first homily, he who is the Truth.
That’s several species of blasphemy.
If we appreciate the necessity of Christ’s suffering, we will start to appreciate the seriousness of sin, both ours and Adam’s. Because if it was only through his suffering that we could be saved, then that sin is a pretty big deal.
If we appreciate the impossibility of escaping sin without Jesus, then we’ll also be eager apostles and missionaries, desiring to bring more and more people into a covenantal relationship with Jesus, which is the only way that they can be saved. If it is necessary that Christ suffer for our salvation, then it is necessary that people preach the Gospel, it is necessary that people devote their lives to taking the Gospel to new people, it is necessary that there be priests and missionaries:
“But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring [the] good news!” (Romans 10:14-5)
‘Necessary’ is a logical term. The implications of Jesus’ suffering are tremendous, logically requiring many things, perhaps most especially our apostolic activity and our prayer for priestly vocations. Those who are comfortable keeping the Gospel to themselves are either illogical or uncharitable.
Those who understand the logic of the Gospel will have their hearts burning within them to share it.
