In one remarkable episode, Jesus brought His disciples together and asked them a direct question about His identity. One of His followers, Peter, made a powerful declaration that He was "the Christ" - the historic Messiah figure that a whole nation believed would one day come as its Saviour.
Many believed the Messiah would be a great political and military figure bringing liberation and physically destroying those who were perceived to be enemies of God. Jesus was happy to be given this title, in fact he affirmed Peter's response as being truly of God, but he immediately challenged this popular view of "Messiah" by speaking of being handed over to be crucified. Even then though, he declared that three days later he would rise again.
For Jesus, His untimely death was intrinsically linked to His identity as "the Christ" - the mission of the Messiah would be fulfilled by allowing Himself to be crucified. This was a difficult and disturbing reality for his followers to contemplate, and not surprisingly Peter began to quickly argue that this should not be so.
What is important to recognise is that Christians continue their allegiance to Jesus, not simply as reaction to their perceived sense of injustice at His death, or in an effort to continue a mission that was somehow cut short by this event. Great martyrs have emerged from many religions and ideologies; their deaths have often inspired others to continue their cause; the death of Jesus does of course have a similarly inspirational effect, but our thinking goes much deeper than that - the death of Jesus was not just an unfortunate and unnecessary end to His earthly ministry, it is a defining element of His mission.