About this time last year, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill designed to curtail antisemitism on college campuses. Critics of the legislation reached the farfetched conclusion that it would make it illegal for anyone to publicly say who killed Jesus.
The implication in such hyperbole is that Jews killed Jesus, a collective stereotype that is considered antisemitic. But the biblical truth of His betrayal, arrest and crucifixion is more complicated than that. The centuries-old debate about who killed Jesus is also a distraction from the gospel message about His death.
We are all responsible for that.
Yes, the Roman government bore responsibility in the legal sense. They sent a cohort to arrest Jesus (John 18:3, 12), pronounced judgment against Him, and imposed the sentence. The Romans were the God-appointed “governing authority” (Romans 13:1) in the time and at the place of Jesus’ death, and they practiced crucifixion as a leading form of capital punishment.
One Roman in particular was ultimately to blame — Pilate, the governor of Judea. He knew Jesus was innocent and tried three times to set Him free (Luke 23:13-24) but lacked the courage to demand justice before a mob. He washed his hands, a figurative cleansing of the whole affair.
Rank-and-file Romans also embraced the crucifixion of Jesus. In the Praetorium, Roman soldiers stripped Him and draped a purple robe over Him, twisted thorns into an insulting crown, spit on Him, repeatedly beat His head with a reed, taunted him with a sarcastic salute, and bowed in feign worship (Mark 15:16-20).
After that humiliation, the soldiers led Jesus to Golgotha. They tried to shame Him further with a mixture of wine and myrrh, but Jesus refused it. The account in Mark then plainly says of the Roman soldiers, “They crucified Him.”
But the Roman government didn’t act alone. The Jewish leaders who despised Jesus kickstarted the wheels of Roman injustice.
As the Passover approached, the chief priests and elders met in the courtyard of the high priest Caiaphas to plot how best “to arrest Jesus covertly and kill Him” (Matthew 26:3-5). The chief priests and temple elders (Luke 22:52-53) joined the Roman cohort that arrested Jesus (John 18:12-14) and took Him to the high priest (Mark 14:53-54).
There Caiaphas tore Jesus’ robes and accused Him of blasphemy (Mark 14:61-65). The Sanhedrin Council of chief priests, scribes and elders sought false testimony to kill Jesus. They spat on Him, punched him and slapped Him (Matthew 26:59-68). They turned Jesus over to Pilate and applied political pressure to achieve their goal. When Pilate sought an out for Jesus, Jewish leaders persuaded the crowds to ask for the release of the criminal Barabbas instead (Matthew 27:1-3, 20).
Jesus’ own apostles weren’t innocent in His crucifixion, either. Judas sought a bribe of 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus (Matthew 26:14-15). Peter initially defended Jesus to the point of cutting off a man’s ear (John 18:10-11), but when confronted by others, He denied the Son of God three times. John was the only apostle who followed his Shepherd to the gruesome physical end (John 19:26).
To recap:
- The Romans killed Jesus.
- The Jews killed Jesus.
- Jesus’ own apostles betrayed, denied and abandoned Him.
But all of those facts miss the heart of the truth. It doesn’t matter who killed Jesus in the physical sense. What matters is why He died. He died for all of us — Jews and Gentiles, then and now.
Jesus told His disciples that’s why He was going to die on the cross: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).
We needn’t assign blame for the crucifixion of the Christ. The point is that he shouldered the blame for all mankind to give us hope. “He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him.“ (Isaiah 53:5).
His death and glorious resurrection were His preordained mission: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16).
As often happens in the legislative process, the bill to stop antisemitism on college campuses didn’t become law because the Senate didn’t pass it. It is being debated in Congress again this year, but don’t let the tangential yet misguided debate about who killed Jesus distract you from this simple truth: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
You see these emblems that represent His body and His blood? I did this. You did this. God gave us this weekly memorial, not an annual one, so we would never forget He did this for you and me.
As we partake this morning, remember why Jesus’ body was abused and His blood spilt. He “gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4).
For more ideas to share at the Lord’s Supper, see “Christ Before Our Eyes: 52 Readings to Draw Closer to Christ at the Lord’s Supper” (advertisement), by Shane Scott.
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