What is it all about?

As we commemorate Christ's sacrifice and, in a few days, His resurrection, I find it prescient to consider something which has weighed on me for a long time. 

Having grown up Protestant and raised in what would normally be considered an evangelical school, it was pressed upon me that "Jeeeesus died for ur sins!" (insert southern twang there).  The implication of which is, of course, if I wasn't such a horrible person, I personally could have prevented the Son of God from having to endure the crucifixion.  Nothing like laying the guilt on a nine year old, eh?

Then you have those who look upon the Christ narrative with the focus on the Resurrection.  In that mind, it seems, it is most important that the Son of Man conquers death and returns as He promised earlier in the scriptures.Now, I do not wish to devalue these things, for they are vital to the narrative, but I am of the opinion that we tend to ignore the greater point, which is His public teaching and ministry.

There were, if we are to understand from the Gospels, many who were teaching and doing public ministry in those days (including, but not limited to, John the Baptist).  That said, it was apparent (again, if we believe the gospels) that Christ's message was fundamentally different. He spoke with an authority that others lacked and performed miracles which others did not.  Why did he perform those miracles? At least in part, I would argue, to get people's attention and to prove the authenticity of the message.  The more I consider it, that is also the point behind His death and resurrection.

"Remember all of those things I told you? Now I'll walk the walk, not just talk the talk."

But we need to remember those things.  Things about how to live, how to be in relationship with G-d and with each other.  If we keep Christ on the cross or as the Divine returning from death, we so easily forget the whole reason he was sent - to save the whole world, to show us the way back to G-d.

"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (Jn 3:17-18)