The violent death of Jesus did not come about through tragic external circumstances. Jesus was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God”(Acts 2:23). So that we children of sin and death might have life, the Father in heaven “made him to be sin who knew no sin” (2 Cor 5:21). The magnitude of the sacrifice that God the Father asked of his Son, corresponded to the magnitude of Christ’s obedience:”And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour”(Jn 12:27). On both sides, God’s love for men proved itself to the very end on the Cross. [599-609,620]
In order to save us from death, God embarked on a dangerous mission: He introduced a “medicine of immortality” (St. Ignatius of Antioch) into our world of death — his Son Jesus Christ. The Father and the Son were inseparable in this mission, willing and yearning to take the utmost upon themselves out of love for man. God willed to make an exchange so as to save us forever. He wanted to give us his eternal life, so that we might experience his joy, and wanted to suffer our death, our despair, our abandonment, our death, so as to share with us in everything. So as to love us to the end and beyond. Christ’s death is the will of the Father bu not his final word. Since Christ died for us, we can exchange our death for his life.
