The answer
The Lord Christ died not because of a sin He committed, but to raise us from our death that came upon us because of our sins. However, it was not appropriate for Him to fall sick so that He may heal our sicknesses. The Fathers explained why the Lord Christ chose to die on the cross. Through His suffering born of love, He showed us His care for us, He who is the “Shepherd and Overseer of our souls” (1 Pet. 2:25). He searches after every sick soul and opens His arms to all who have gone astray. He chose to die “on a tree,” and this was not random, as Pope Athanasius the Apostolic explains:
“For it was neither fitting for the Lord to be ill, he who healed the illnesses of others.”476
“And besides, it was not his own death that the Savior came to complete, but that of human beings.”477
“… if the death of the body took place somewhere in secret, death neither appearing nor taking place before witnesses, its resurrection also would be unseen and unwitnessed.”478
“For if He came Himself to bear the curse which lay upon us, how else could He have becomea curse (Gal. 3:13) if he had not accepted the death occasioned by the curse?”479
“Moreover, if the death of the Lord is a ransom of all and by his death the wall of partition (Eph. 2:14) is broken down, and the call of the Gentiles effected, how would he have called us if he not been crucified? For only upon the cross does one die with his hands stretched out. Therefore it was fitting for the Lord to endure this and to stretch out His hands, that with the one he might draw the ancient people, and with the other those from the Gentiles, and join both together in himself.”480
“… he accepted and endured on the cross that inflicted by others, especially by enemies, which they reckoned fearful and ignominious and shameful, in order that this being destroyed, he might Himself be believed to be Life, and the power of death might be completely annihilated.”481
St. Augustine says, “He chose the cross that He may taste the most bitter sufferings. On the cross, He would have to accept a slow death as He became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Phil 2:8).”
Tertullian explains that Christ chose the cross as the fulfillment of the prophecies and symbols in the Old Testament.482
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty
Notes
476 St. Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation 21.6 (PP 44A:97).
477 St. Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation 24.2 (PP 44A:99).
478 St. Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation 23.1 (PP 44A:101).
479 St. Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation 25.2 (PP 44A:103).
480 St. Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation 25.3 (PP 44A:103–105).
481 St. Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation 24.3 (PP 44A:103).
482 See Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews 10 (ANF 3:164–167).