American Unitarian Conference Forum

I'd like to know the Unitarian view of the death and resurrection of Christ.  Why did he have to die?  What meaning does his death have for Unitarians today?

Frank

This may or may not be the Unitarian view of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Consider it, rather, the view of one Unitarain. Jesus did not have to die. He freely chose to give his life for what he believed. All he had to do, was to deny what he believed to be the truth. He believed he was the annointed one of God, the Messiah. At the time of his death, he was truly one with God the
Father of all; his will had become God's will. That was his true sacrifice: his free will, not his physical death. He truly loved God, his (our) father, and man, his (our) brother, as one. It is my personal belief that he believed that every human being has the potential of becoming God's annointed as he was; as he is. But it is up to us to choose, as he did; and there it is: the choice facing all of us; the real meaning of his life and his death. As to his resurrection, well...his death was, as ours will be, a mere transition. He lives.

Very well said ELeigh. Other than the basic denial of the trinity, the "Unitarian" view(s) of Jesus, his life, death and possible resurrection have changed over the years...and probably have never been uniform among all Unitarians.
I think you could find Unitarian Christians who accept the resurrection and some measure of deity but stop short of his equivalence with God..or resurrected but wholly man...or spirit or not resurrected at all...even that he survived the cross etc. Many non-Christian Unitarians tend to view Jesus as a man...a great man...but one who was crucified and died. There is no one view of Jesus within the Unitarian world...it really is an individual determination.

I came across this saying of Marcus Aurelius that seems appropriate: ""The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

One additional comment...it seems clear to me upon reading the gospels that Jesus foresaw his trials and crucifixion...it seems to me that his whole mission was clearly known to him to be sacrificial...or at least, it has been written in a way to account for that result.

The controversial gospel of Judas shows that some of the early Christians adopted this view and that Judas was part of the inside action to accomplish the goal. Whether or not this is true ...it certainly shows how the early Christians had multiple interpretations of his life and death...and ? resurrection.

I see Jesus as coming out of an Essenic / hybrid movement - like John the Baptist - and was attempting to bring about a major change in the Judaism of his day...his life cannot be viewed separate from the political / religious environment of his day. He was a product of that time and taught a path that resonates across the centuries to today. Not everything he taught came about and not everything was adopted...we are not wandering followers without home or family...but the essence of his teachings form the idealized basis of our western culture.

Here's a good article on the subject from Steve Jones:

http://www.americanunitarian.org/jonescrucifixion.htm