One of the things that can prove that you existed in the first place is death for all lives are bound to die. Time is inevitable and each second that passes by is one step closer to death. Just the same, every moment we live is the reality and every moment that passes by becomes part of the forgettable past. We do not own time but on the contrary, time owns us. Schopenhauer would argue that life is pointless, a meaningless journey with one final end which is to cease to exist. What would then be the ultimate purpose of life if we will all die in the end? Everything that we invested will be gone and everything we have built will be worthless? I would like to argue that it is not necessarily the end that matters the most but the journey. Dying in the end should not mean that we have to live our lives miserably.
I believe that death and factitious freedom are deeply intertwined with the thesis question "Why did Jesus die on the cross?" In this paper, we carefully examine not just the father-son relationship between Jesus and God but Jesus as both God-Man through the hypostatic union (As given in the thesis question) , its relationship to people and the very purpose of His and generally an individual's death vis-a-vis human freedom. It is very difficult to try to elaborate this issue that has been going on for years without being theological. There is a gap between theology and philosophy in such a way that theology's main ingredients are faith and belief and philosophy is sheer rationality. Theology becomes rational only if the people have faith or belief in God. Philosophy challenges people through the premises grounded on reason and reality that usually come in conflict with those who believe in God. There is no concrete way to prove if God is real or not, but religion is that powerful that even if there is uncertainty people even die for devotion. This is one manifestation of how freedom works. People choose to believe or not to believe. We make up our own world, with our own sets of values. This paper alone is an example of my belief because I know that not everyone will answer the same way. What I will further elucidate on this paper are my own beliefs that unlike what people may argue that God sacrificed Jesus, Jesus sacrificed himself for God. After all, freedom is a function of mankind and Jesus is both God and man.

The thesis question "Why did Jesus die on the cross?" cannot be simply answered by a simple remark "he loved us". That kind of answer is a very theological one for the simple reason that first there is a huge amount of faith indebted in that answer and secondly, it manages to bypass or cloak all the rifts of the thesis question. For someone who is catholic, the epochè would be difficult to talk about because of the undeniable bias towards believing in God and there might be this fear in the process of doubting or questioning the validity of God because of the belief of punishment and afterlife. However, for someone who is of a different religion or even a non-believer, he/she might argue about certain things that will really make you think. Ultimately, why would a father sacrifice his son (as God to Jesus)? IF it is true that he is almighty and all knowing, why couldn't he just randomly appear in front of everyone, prove he's real and save mankind? If Jesus was a God, why did he have to die? or what makes life reasonable even with death? what makes DEATH reasonable?
For the epochè, first I would like to point out that death or the process of dying happens to everyone, and so it did to Jesus because he was not God alone but he was both God-man (for believers). Jesus' death on the crucifixion is not a way of salvation or saving the people, he just died like how each and everyone of us will die. Jesus died because time has passed and his physical existence ceased to be. However, there is something significant about how Jesus died on the cross. The cross played a very significant role in becoming the only tangible thing that represents Jesus. For believers and even to those who are aware, every time they see a cross they remember that Jesus existed, Jesus' Dasein came to be. Through the cross, Jesus was immortalized that although his physical body ceased to become, the idea of him or as argued by some 'memory' of him has lived throughout. Jesus continued to exist even after he died because of the massive impact he made and was passed on as a sheer memory or idea amongst people.
Jesus being sacrificed by God is another topic on the table. Without the typical answer of "God loves us that's why he sent his only begotten son", how could one prove that risking the life of a person could be justifiable? We should look at the very act of sacrificing. To sacrifice is to give up something for the sake of the other giving up something and gaining something in return. Just like a father who chooses to let go of his son and sacrifice him to battle in wars in the hopes of giving honor to the native land and family, Jesus being the sacrifice will definitely produce something in return. Also, is death the very sole factor 'sacrifice'? Schopenhauer would argue, life would be meaningless for we invest so much on it that we lose everything in the end. What is there to gain? Life is an immediate suffering as what happened to Jesus when he became man on Earth. Why would a 'God' choose to be mortal, suffer to finally be condemned and crucified in the end? What makes his death or death in general reasonable?
I would like to argue that all questions I asked are question of Freedom. First, we have to examine that Jesus died on the cross. Jesus did not die naturally such as earthquakes or disease etc. Jesus died because he was condemned by people. I believe we should not look at it as a father merely sacrificing a son but a son doing it for a father. Again, Jesus when he became man was already subjected to suffering and mortality. As man, he also had ultimate freedom. Jesus is both God-Man and he could always quit this mortal life and revert to being a God but he did not. Jesus still CHOSE to be man despite the given sufferings. It was Jesus' freedom completely at work when he chose to fulfill the mission God gave him, for example the story of temptation. If I were a God-Man myself, I would just choose to be God for I do not want to suffer and that is exactly my freedom at work for it is my sole choice if I were to just become God or be man to fulfill the mission. Jesus' death is also freedom at work. The moment Jesus worked on his way to fulfilling the mission, it is already given that he might experience pain or suffering in the hands of other people. Mankind in general exercises freedom also, however they choose to use it. Jesus' death is people's freedom at work when they CHOSE not to believe him and they finally condemned him to death. Jesus knew that he could be killed but he did not just look at life as though it is not worth living because of death. Jesus' death on the cross served as an ultimate proof of freedom used in the wrong way, but his death also triggered so much impact to people that until now religion became a powerful element in the lives of man. Although one might argue that people also die from the course of nature or diseases or accidents, we fail to look at it as freedom at work also. For example, if a child gets hit by a moving vehicle though it is an accident, it might be the drivers fault for not driving carefully or the child's for crossing the road without caution. Some natural disasters happen because of man's work such as the global warming. Some diseases are also present because of man and what he did to the environment that could have possibly deteriorated man's immune system throughout the years. But man is not always to blame for nature of course will always be there and its laws will always be at work but man and his freedom could always do something about it.
People are so devoted to religion to the point of dying for it. How can people die or devote their lives for a belief that has no chance of being proven? That is the point. Even ideas can be very powerful. There is more to it than the end and that is the journey to it. Did Jesus practice his freedom well? I like to believe so. Jesus proved that there is more to life than dying. He suffered in the hands of people but that did not stop him from fulfilling his mission and so hundredths or thousandths of years after he died, his existence is still felt by people and the memory of him is very powerful. The cross became his ultimate remnant as he was somewhat immortalized by it. Like what I've learned in the first semester, everyone will die but we must always pursue the ultimate good. The journey is what matters, forming a network with people through freedom. I believe Jesus was still able to make such impact to people when they were living and that impact when he died continued to live on as people with their freedom chose to embody what he taught. Jesus' other remnant is the people themselves who choose to follow in his footsteps by remembering him, by acknowledging Jesus' existence through the symbol of the cross.
If God was all powerful, why won't He just appear and save mankind. I believe that if that day comes, people will live in fear. If we live to see the day when God just randomly appear, people and their actions will just be uniformly with accordance to what is 'good'. Isn't that what our ultimate goal is as humans, pursuing the ultimate good? That is true but it is not merely the actions but the thoughts. If the day comes and God appeared in front of us and tell us we have to help the poor or the marginalized, I can help the poor for show, to impress God and to hope for an eternal life without really grasping the complete essence of helping other people. If God just saved mankind and delivered us to good, I believe freedom will also be taken from us. If that is the case then we are just puppets controlled by a puppeteer because the moment we do not have the option to pursue goodness and we are just uniformly good and with perfect accordance to God, we lose our freedom of choice. If everything is good, what is there to pursue? the thing with our human existence why we were given freedom is to experience. We know how to differentiate what is good and what is bad and we are bound to make choices. That is freedom at its work, experiential network. While every moment that passes by becomes part of our experience, we are able to form network through these experiences because of our freedom, our choices. This network becomes our ultimate purpose because we are able to know what we want in life, who we really are and we are able to make choices. This network we form and with the people around us influence what we think therefore influencing our beliefs. The network is undeniable because our lives are a series of connectedness. There is a reason why we chose to do this, do that, to believe this, believe that. Freedom works through our life network.
Did God send Jesus knowing that he will die? Absolutely. if death is the ultimate factor of 'sacrifice' in this context then we are all a sacrifice. Why? because everyone will die. Jesus was considered a sacrifice because he lost his immortality when he became one of us but I believe he was a sacrifice because he was able teach his teachings and people followed his footsteps even if so many years have passed and he ceased to exist, Jesus was still remembered even as a memory/idea. Sacrificing is giving up something for the sake of something more important. I believe that the moment we were born, we were already a sacrifice in the sense that like Jesus we will all die and we may experience suffering but for the sake of having freedom and experience and making an impact on other people's lives. God could have just saved mankind and take away our freedom to do the ultimate good but we were a sacrifice in the sense that he knows that even if we die in the end, there is a sake more important than death and that is our freedom and our capacity to experience, to form a network. Yes life might not be permanent, yes we will definitely experience pain but in return, we are able to think rationally, to feel, and to experience the fullness of life. We can make choices and do things on our own will, form our own beliefs and be what we want to be. THIS IS ALL PART OF OUR JOURNEY. With this freedom, we make a network because WE MAKE AN IMPACT ON OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES. We have the capacity to always pursue the ultimate good whilst experiencing the fullness of our life with our freedom like Jesus. I believe that Jesus was indeed a sacrifice because God knew that even if Jesus dies, he would still live all throughout even just the memory or the idea of him will continue to exist because through his freedom, he was able to form a network, influence and make an impact on other people's lives. Jesus knew that even if he dies, he knows his journey is the most important because what he has done for other people. Jesus' crucifixion was a reminder that death is not a bad thing and that even if you die, you will still continue to exist as a memory or an idea and Jesus did in a form of the cross. People remember him until now and choose to believe in him. This is Jesus' purpose on the cross. Because of our freedom, we are able to make an impact on other people's lives and so they do to us that even if we die someday, we will also continue to live on in the memory of the people we've experienced our lives with.