Why did Jesus die with his arms wide open?

Why did Jesus die with his arms wide open? I was pondering that just before Easter.
Stephen was stoned for the same 'crime' - blasphemy.

I think we find the answer in John 17:26. Jesus said to the Father, "I have come to make you known, and will continue to make you known..."  Everything he did, everything he responded to - was in order to make the Father known. In all his actions he is saying 'This is what the Father is like."

When he put the ear back on the High Priest's servant and healed him (at a time of painful betrayal) he was revealing the compassion of the Father for his enemies.
When he spoke forgiveness as they nailed him to the cross - he was revealing that the Father will forgive even those who do not know that they are attacking him. (See also Saul who is confronted on the road to murdering more believers).
All his responses to the horrors of his persecution, arrest and death were a revelation of the Father's love.
So dying with his arms wide open says 'This is what my Father is like'.

The early church Fathers used to say that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the two arms of our Father God, reaching down to bring us home. What a wonderful picture.

John 17:26 goes on to say "I will continue to make you known IN ORDER that the love you (Father) have for me, may be in them." Wow! The SAME love that the Father lavishes on Jesus, is to be lavished on us. This is why Jesus constantly revealed the Father!

St. Augustine once said that if the whole Bible were to be condensed down to one statement it would shout like a roaring wind "The Father loves us, and he wants us to come home."  Have you come home to that love?