I thought that I should expound to you all why exactly I feel Jesus commited suicide and was not merely the innocent victim of human murderers. All of what I am about to say assumes that God (three in one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) does in fact exist and is accurately described in the 66 books of the Holy Bible. To me, this assumption basically makes what follows little more than an imaginative exercise, but here we go anyway.
Let's consider how suicide occurs. Now when we say that an agent attempts suicide, it actually means that the agent took steps and made decisions with the intent of manipulating its environment such that the agent would die.
For example, consider some one who attempts suicide by shooting themselves in the head. What did the agent do? They deliberately took steps (acquired a firearm, ensured that the firearm was loaded, pointed the firearm toward a vital location on the agent's body, released the safety, and squeezed the trigger with his/her finger). No one of these actions nor the sum of them together actually killed the agent, rather the force of the bullet entering the skull at a very high velocity completely destroyed some necessary portion of the brain. The bullet killed the agent.
What makes this different from a drive-by shooting or a hunting accident in which the agent is also shot in the head? The key is intent to die and deliberate action to actualize the event. The agent who commits suicide manipulates his/her environment to produce the desired effect, self-death.
Now suicide need not be ignominious. Consider a revolutionary fighting an oppresive and corrupt government. She is taken by the enemy. She has valuable secrets, secrets which would betray the whole movement and surely spell defeat for the cause if the enemy knew them. She knows that they will torture her, and she knows that in some state of indescribable agony, she will unconsciously give up the information. To save her people and ensure freedom for generations to come, she swallows poison and dies.
Again we have an intent to die and deliberate steps to bring about the end of one's life. In this case, however, many people would consider the woman's self-sacrifice heroic.
Now why do I think that Jesus commited suicide?
First, according to the assumptions about the existence of God, by omniscience Jesus knew even when designing the world that this particular creation would "fall," that is would become sinful. Second, we know that God, and thus Jesus, chose to accept nothing less than a blood sacrifice to make up for this offense against Him, and not just any blood sacrifice. He wanted the blood of an unblemished human. But Creation would be in short supply of perfect humans. How then did He proceed?
Answer: God chose to become human and sacrifice Himself (as Jesus).
So does this qualify as suicide? God selects from among many possible worlds one in which He will find it desireable to kill himself. Rather than choosing away from this, He takes all means necessary to bring about this result. He could have created another perfect human being to sacrifice. He could have chosen a different payment for man's debt. But debt was more important to Him than His life. So he planned His own death, even while contemplating creation. We have intent and deliberate steps to actualize the event.
Is this my only reason for believing that Jesus commits suicide in the Bible? No. Let's consider Jesus' actions leading up to His crucifixion. He foretells His own death (Matt 17:12) days before his crucifixion. He chooses not to take actions to prevent this. In Luke 22:42, Jesus reminds us that it is God's will (and thus by the trinity, Jesus' as well) to be killed. He desires to be sacrificed. Later, in trials both before Herod and Pilate, Jesus does not defend himself. When He is enduring the beginnings of cruxificion He does not call down angels or rise up in awesome power. Rather He pursues His own death, a death He scripted and willed from the beginning of time.
It's like a man who jumps upon a red ant's nest. Slowly, agonizingly the ants devour his body, bit by bit. He dies. Now the ants were the ones who killed the man, but the man still commited suicide. He knew that the ants would eat him if he leaped upon the ant hill. Nevertheless, he had an intent to die and manipulated his environment to actualize that event. Suicide.
God is like the man and the people who crucified Jesus were like the ants. He knew they would kill Him. In fact, He chose it to be so from the beginning of creation.
"Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave– just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matt 20:26-28 NIV
Noble perhaps, but suicide all the same.
Will Judas be in heaven?
11 Mar '05 04:48
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