I carry this broken watermelon. Well, it's only cracked, but the two halves will separate if I don't hold them together tight. Juice is leaking, which just makes me all the more determined to hold tight and keep it whole.

​This is Christian theology. We're holding steadfast a broken watermelon, keeping a good face about it. The main breakage point opens up wide, when I ask the question: Why did Jesus, the Christ, have to die as the only solution to the world's problems, namely, for our sins?

Christian theology looks into the rearview mirror of the crucifixion to create its main thesis, the watermelon crack, that the death of the Messiah was the very reason for his coming.

The reality is God predicted, or in the language we're comfortable, "prophesied" about two possible outcomes for the Messiah, depending - and this is the big word - depending upon man's (and woman's) response.

Jesus had two options: Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9) or Man of Sorrows (Isaiah 53), again, depending upon our ability to carry the watermelon of salvation across the desert parking lot of doubt, without dropping it on the hot concrete.

We dropped it. Jesus was "murdered" (Acts 5:30). Jesus was not killed as a sacrifice in the normal sense of the word. To offer a sacrifice, the priest making the offering has to be one with God. Were the rambunctious crowd -- and soldiers who followed its prompting to "crucify him" -- one with God? Hardly. But Christianity, conveniently put Jesus in the priest position, offering himself, removing humankind's culpability for his death. That is the love of Jesus. Jesus loved us to the extent that he removed even our doubt as an excuse to be denied salvation. Yet...

God asked Abraham not to sacrifice his son, Isaac, because Abraham revealed his true heart in his readiness. God "knew" Abraham to be faithful. God, likewise, needed the heart of the people not the sacrifice of His son to advance the Will. The people doing the actual "offering" of Jesus, by their attitude and actions, proved they were not one with God, thus, not one with Jesus.

This broken watermelon... we have to admit it first, that it's broken. Unfortunately, we hold it like it's our baby.


7:53 AM Tuesday, October 27, 2026