If someone were to ask you, "Why was JFK assassinated?" you certainly would not answer, "To save us from our sins." Yet that is usually the first thing that comes to mind when we church people are asked why Jesus died or why he was crucified.
That answer is correct, of course, but is that really all there is to it? None of Jesus' accusers thought that. Caiaphas, the high priest who turned Jesus over to Pilate, would have thought such an answer to be idiotic. Pilate, a Roman pagan, would never have remotely thought it. None of the crowd who demanded of Pilate, "Crucify him!" thought their sins would be forgiven via Jesus' death on a cross.
And for that matter, not even Jesus' disciples thought so, despite more than one occasion when Jesus had clearly taught it to them.
So what was happening in the ordinary realm of human motives and actions that ended with Jesus dying on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem? "Execution Day - The Case Against Christ," is an essay I wrote in 2019 to explore how to answer why Jesus was crucified in the same way we might answer why JFK was shot - who did it, why, and what did they hope to gain? To read, just click on the link.
Or watch this video I made about the same subject.