For me it's even more difficult to understand that God, who is our true loving Father, who is changeless and already forgiving, could not bring himself to forgive the shortcomings of his children on earth (molested by the doctrines of the celestial administrator Satan who was allowed to rebel) until he saw his blameless Son tortured and nailed to a tree!!!!!!
There is a lot of human speculation built into religion. Proud man finds it difficult to accept simple forgiveness without something of equal value either given or substituted in return.
In the original good news gospel, Jesus didn't go around Israel teaching and preaching that we should kill him as a human sacrifice, that's absurd! Theoretical atonement theology was an after thought on the part of man, sacrifice minded Jewish men. This theory of blood sacrifice was already prevalent in the Pagan world that would, through a marriage of sorts, adopt Paul's version of the gospel.
If the Jews, who had been called to do so, would have accepted the original gospel, they would heave never rejected and killed Jesus, they would be teaching that gospel today from Jerusalem and Jesus would have returned to heaven without the tragic cross.
The Parable of the Tenants
33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’[a]?
43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”[b]
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.
