Death of Jesus for Progressive Christians

The resurrection of Jesus is, of course, the most important event for Christians, yet the events that led up to it are almost as important. According to all the biblical sources and a wide variety of non-biblical texts, Jesus was put to death because the message he brought threatened the powerful of his era. There are many more nuances than that, of course, and lots of ways one can spin the story to make one's point, but the simplest truth is that the gospel message was too toxic for the imperial stomach to bear. While exploring the biblical stories about the death of Jesus, it is good to ask the larger question hanging in the background of all this drama: Why did Jesus die?