Two weeks ago, I led a study tour of Greece. Thursday of our first week, we boarded the Sea Diamond for our sailing journey to Rhodes, Patmos, and Ephesus. The same Sea Diamond which struck the rocky coast of Santorini yesterday and foundered. Today's papers are carrying pictures of the listing ship as its 1,200 passengers were evacuated. It's an eerie feeling to know that the pictures could have included us.

Imagine that the ship were sinking with you aboard, with no room on the last lifeboat. A father sitting beside his young son sees your despair and dilemma. He tosses his son into the stormy seas so you can have his place. His son dies so you can live. Why would any father do such a thing? On this Good Friday, it's a very good question. In our series of Holy Week questions, it's the best question of all.

In short, Jesus died to solve a problem which we could not solve ourselves. The Bible says that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). All of us, no exceptions. Your last sin includes you in this group. The pack of gum I stole as a kid earned my membership into this society.

What happens to those who sin? "The wages of sin is death" (Romans. 6:23). The penalty for the crime of sin is death. The Lord warned Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden: "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (Genesis 2:17). They did, and they did. When someone sins against the holy God of the universe, someone must die for that sin. That's just how things are.

So God could watch his children spend eternity separated from him in spiritual death and hell. Or he could provide a sacrifice to take our place. But that sacrifice must be sinless, or his death would pay for his own sins. I cannot use the same money to pay your house note and mine as well. Only a sinless, perfect person could take our place, his death paying the penalty for our sins.

There's been only one candidate for this job, only one Person in all of human history who never sinned--only one "who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). That Person was God's own Son. So he and his Father decided before time began that he would come to our world and die in our place. He would "bear the sins of many" (Isaiah 53:12). That's why he came, and why he died.

The next time you think no one cares, think again. And thank God for Good Friday.

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