Why Did Jesus Need to Suffer and Die Publicly? On Ask Pastor John, Pastor John Piper answers the question asked by a listener, “Did Jesus have to suffer in public for God to give him those glories? Couldn’t Jesus have lived a perfect, law-abiding, substitutionary life for us in total isolation or at least in obscurity?…So, could he have died serenely, then risen, and defeated death and sin, but not by suffering in public?”