What is more important, the death of Jesus or the Life of Jesus?

When I got into work yesterday, my Jewish co-worker approached me with that question. Usually, when faced with a 'hard' question, I feel compelled to blurt something out, and then hours later realize what I should have said. The Holy Spirit gave me the wisdom to give a different answer.

J: What is more important, the death of Jesus or the Life of Jesus?
A: Those are not the only possibilities
J: Oh, I guess you are going to say that they are both important.
A: Yes, they are both important, but if it were not for the resurrection, we wouldn't even be having this conversation, because we would never have heard of Jesus.
J: That's right! hundreds of people were crucified, weren't they?
A: Yes. The crucifixion alone did not make Jesus unique. There is a reason that we do not know the names of any of those other people, but we do know about Jesus.
J: Hmmm

The most amazing thing about this conversation is that the Holy Spirit saved me from falling into the conversational trap that was in front of me. It turns out that the context of J's question was concern about anti-Semitism. After all, if the main point is the death of Jesus, then the question of who killed him rises in importance. But if the life, death, and resurrection are viewed as a whole, then the door is opened to see God's willing sacrifice.