Unnecessary Death of Jesus

I’m sorry, God but it was totally unnecessary for Jesus to be killed for humanity’s sins. You already had this covered over years of Jewish law encompassing atonement.  There was no need to revisit it so savagely. I wonder if Saul/Paul of Tarsus couldn’t cope with the death of Jesus, requiring him to be a messiah, so decided to force Jesus’ death to fit into Judaism, thereby igniting modern Judeo-Christianity. The crucifixion story of the death of Jesus sounds suspiciously like the Old Testament instructions for atonement from sin. I suspect this story worked for Paul in his writings of Jesus as a new kind of messiah, albeit a fallen one, in a bid to cope with his own disappointment. The plot, however, is a pretty poor one.

Historically, a messiah was a political, and frequently warrior-like, person used to overthrow their kingdom’s enemies. A messiah was a ruler who had been favoured by their god. It was not a spiritual concept. Jesus probably subscribed to the belief that he was anointed by god and believed he was going to rule over Israel as a king because he tells his disciples, “…you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”[1] It may well have been this usurping declaration that caused Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus. It could be argued that Jesus was leading a group for a coup d’etat which could have upset the Romans a tad. A messiah was not expected to be publicly executed by their enemies with a mocking epitaph, “This is Jesus The King of the Jews[2]”, fixed above a painful “crown” of thorns.

The story of Jesus’ crucifixion is comparable to the sentiment in the Old Testament’s story of the two goats that was imposed upon Moses’ brother, Aaron. Two male goats were to be brought to God; by random selection, one goat was killed and sacrificed while the other goat was to have all Israel’s sins confessed upon it and set free into the wilderness (the scapegoat)[3].  This biblical Day of Atonement was specified by God to be an annual event, conducted by the sanctified priest, to cleanse the people of all their sins. Compare the underlying substance of this longstanding Jewish ritual to Jesus’ crucifixion story in the New Testament: the crowd had to randomly choose which male was to be sacrificed and which male was to be set free. Their choices were Jesus Christ [claiming to be a son of god the father] or Jesus Barabbus [meaning son of the father]; one was the sacrifice and one, seemingly, was the scapegoat. Seems pretty similar, doesn’t it?

For Paul and those of Jesus’ disciples who might have believed Jesus was a messiah, his death did not quite fit into their narrative. A messiah overcame his enemies; he was meant to defeat the Romans, not succumb to their deadly torture. Now what? It took some decades, but eventually Paul outlined his new type of messiah: a resurrected one. Paul’s writings ensured the legend of Jesus, an eternally risen messiah, was interwoven into the fabric of Jewish religion even if the context was incorrect and ancient Jewish texts are now being entirely misconstrued on the strength of it[4]. Paul altered the two goats’ atonement story to suit his new concept of Jesus: he declared Jesus to be both the scapegoat and the sacrifice. Paul then heralded this as the most absolute, never-to-be-repeated, ultimate atonement. It was a way more efficient concept than the repetitive event Moses and Aaron had to conduct each year. Even Paul admitted it was an unlikely concept because he conceded, “…the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.[5]” This rhetoric is a sure-fire way to confound those around you into being awestruck, rather than sceptical, of something that makes absolutely no sense. Given there was already a Day of Atonement that forgave all sins, there doesn’t seem to be any reason for God to later request a human sacrifice. Is Paul implying God’s own decreed Day of Atonement procedure was inadequate, thereby admitting God had made a monumental mistake requiring an ultimate adjustment? Perhaps God was worried about the death of goats taking the blame for all the sinning people, so a human death was so much better.

Unjustly, Jesus was not the only human sacrifice involved in this whole story. If the bible book of Matthew is to be believed (cough, cough!), God killed many innocents in even bringing Jesus to our planet. Upon hearing that the “King of the Jews” had been born, King Herod gave orders to kill all the boys under the age of two in Bethlehem and its vicinity[6]. Tiny innocent kiddies were murdered! The book of Matthew then immediately claimed that this child massacre was merely a fulfillment of prophecy from the Old Testament.[7] Oh, well, I’m sure that prophetic fulfilment consoled all the families whose young sons were now dead. Thanks a lot for that plan, God. These children and their families are the real sacrifices of this plot; Jesus came back to life a couple of days later.

A rational person must question the sense of this whole human-sacrifice-ultimate-atonement concept heralded by Paul. Apparently, God had several thousand years to come up with an updated atonement plan and the Jesus death is the best he could create. Here’s the overview: In the Old Testament, God forgave people all the time without requiring a human sacrifice. God instructed Moses in the way of the scapegoat atonement, and this was acceptable by God for thousands of years. Then the whole human sacrifice atonement came to God’s mind like a cosmic deity lightbulb moment. God had wandered the planet at will in the book of Genesis but then he decided to grow himself from a womb even if that choice results in innocent deaths. While he’s growing baby Jesus on Earth, God decides upon a plan that requires thousands of infants and toddlers to be murdered unnecessarily.

I mean, who hasn’t thought to themselves that it’s a better forgiveness model to kill a human and murder a few thousand kids than sacrifice a couple of goats annually? That seems reasonable, doesn’t it? What happened to God’s forgiveness? Did God simply forget that he used to do that? I’m no deity, but in my personal day-to-day activities, I generally opt for the plan that results in the least human casualties. That’s not how Paul viewed God, however!

To be correct about the necessity of Jesus’ death for the final, can never be beaten, ultimate sin atonement Paul made a few assumptions (in lieu of God’s obvious inadequacy):

1) God now liked goats and didn’t wish to sacrifice any more of them;

2) the Day of Atonement ritual no longer atones for sins;

3) God could no longer turn up on earth whenever he wanted;

4) God required additional innocent sacrifices just to birth himself in human form;

5) God had ceased forgiveness as a general concept.

Paul’s claim that the foolishness of God is wiser than men doesn’t necessarily count for women. This is an obviously ridiculous atonement plan to me, as a woman. If this was a Hollywood plot, we would poke so many holes in it. Paul merely placated himself and others to cope with his own disappointment at Jesus’ unexpected death. After all, the bible already had forgiveness and atonement in place, and this didn’t need to be adjusted (unless God had been making a mistake over thousands of years). I’m of the opinion that human sacrifice is always a bad option, regardless of context, although, as a vegetarian, I’m not even a fan of the goat sacrifice alternative. It’s all an unfortunate situation.

Myriad plot holes in this story. Zero stars. Do not recommend.

[1] Matthew 19:28

[2] Matthew 27:37

[3] Leviticus 16

[4] Isaiah 53 doesn’t mention the word “messiah” and was not a prophecy about Jesus. The suffering portion is written in the past tense, and only the vindication of the sufferer is written in the future tense. Isaiah 49:3 says, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendour” and Israel is the “suffering servant” referred to in Isaiah 53.

[5] 1 Corinthians 1:25

[6] Matthew 2:16 Additionally, there is no historical record of these childhood deaths ever occurring

[7] Matthew 2:17-18