"The Jews answered, 'We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die,
because he made himself the Son of God.'"
The sin with which the Jewish people charged Jesus was blasphemy because, to them, he, a mere man, revealed that he was equal to God. According to the law of Moses, blasphemy was a capital offense. Every other thing Jesus did that angered the Jews (e.g., "violating" the Sabbath, removing the kosher laws, eating with sinners, etc.) stemmed from his claim to be God in the flesh.
The problem for the Jews was that Jesus' claim to be the Son of God did not fit their expectations of the Messiah. They believed the Messiah would be sent from God, but they did not expect the Messiah to be equal to God. Once Jesus, in various ways, revealed himself to be Emmanuel, that is, God with us, the Jews felt they needed to get him out of the way.
We Gentiles, that is, those who are not Jewish, have a different expectation of Christ. We have no problems with the Incarnation or the Resurrection, but the cross seems foolish. It is ugly, humiliating, and painful; and we do not expect one who is the Almighty God to be defeated like that; and we certainly do not expect him to expect us to unite ourselves to his crucifixion every day of our lives.
Through his death on the cross, Jesus, out of his love for us, shows us that we are wrong. He shows us that to be God-like, we have to take up our cross and follow Jesus. Why? Because God is love, and love puts itself aside for the good of the beloved. This is what God did for us on the cross, and it is what we have to do for love of God and neighbor.
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