The Redeemer Jesus (1)

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)

The author of Mark’s gospel concludes the quarrel between the disciples with Christology, which take place following the one-sided demand of James and John. Jesus Christ did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus might not have spoken about the ransom death, but it was a religious confession of the early Christians who confessed Jesus as the Christ. In this way, the author of Mark’s gospel connected the incident that had happened in Jesus’ public life to Christological confession that was established later on.

The doctrine of Jesus’ death as a ransom for mankind is closely related to the tradition of Judaism. Judaism insists on the necessity of blood for forgiveness of sin. They sprinkle the blood of animals in their offering instead of human blood. So a high priest, the representative of Jewish religious duty sprinkled the blood of ransom sacrifice on the altar in the settled season. Early Christians regarded Jesus’ death as a ransom sacrifice. They believed that Jesus’ blood shed on the cross has nullified the necessity of repeated past sacrifice offering of the Jews.

We can ask why does forgiveness of sin demands blood. Furthermore, we may raise a question on how a person’s death has the power to forgive other’s sin. We may again ask whether our God is the same as gods of the Middle-East who enjoy bloody incidents happening. It would be better wrap up this topic here for such questions would take us to a complicated discussion.

We believe and accept that Jesus is Christ and his cross as the way of salvation though we are living in different poles of times- from the age of the Bible when it was written and the present time. We also believe that our sin is forgiven once and for all through his death and as a result offering of sacrifice is no longer required.