Why Was Jesus Crucified?

Why was Jesus Crucified?

One of the most famous arguments for believing in Jesus was first explained by C.S. Lewis. In Mere Christianity, Lewis argues that no one can look at the things Jesus said and did and simply call Him a "good teacher." Jesus was either a lunatic, claiming to be God and living out His fantasy, or He was a liar who deceived the masses to believe and follow Him. But, if Jesus was not a liar nor a lunatic, then He must have really been the Lord, and therefore, worthy of our worship and surrender.

The trilemma argument has helped many people in their quest to know and understand Jesus. Unfortunately, in recent decades, a fourth option has emerged as another possibility: Jesus as legend.

In an attempt to counter the trilemma, Bart Ehrman says, “Jesus probably never called himself God…. This means that he doesn’t have to be either a liar, lunatic or the Lord. He could be a first-century Palestinian Jew who had a message to proclaim other than his own divinity” (Pitre, The Case for Jesus, 6).

At the center of Bart Ehrman’s argument is a contempt for the authority and reliability of the 4 Gospel eyewitness accounts. Ehrman, along with many other critical scholars today, believes that the Jesus of the Bible is a "Jesus of myth and legend." They believe that stories were passed down from generation to generation, which slowly added to the historical Jesus, a layer of exaggerated and embellished stories that were finally documented and published as we have them in the Bible today.

This raises many questions and issues that we will not tackle at this moment. Yet, one question worth considering as we approach Easter and the Passion week of Christ.

If Jesus was merely a legend, why was he brutally executed on a Roman cross?