When I posted on Facebook that I was taking a group of friends to Israel, someone commented “I don’t get it! The Jews crucified Jesus.”
Here was my reply:
“Not really! Crucifixion was not allowed under Jewish law. Only the Romans could crucify Jesus. Yes, Ciaphas, the Jewish High Priest was a corrupt Roman puppet, and wanted to get rid of Jesus – but he knew that if he sentenced Jesus to death under Jewish law he would have had a riot on his hands from the huge number of Jewish followers of Jesus. Moreover honest members of the Sanhedrin, such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, did not find Jesus guilty of any crime. So Ciaphas urged Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect of Judea, to crucify Jesus. This was a clever political strategy.
However, theologically, it is clear that none of these people were ultimately responsible for Jesus crucifixion because Jesus Himself said that no man could take His life unless he chose to lay down His life voluntarily (“No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.” John 10:18). Also see: “Yet it was OUR weaknesses he carried; it was OUR sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for OUR rebellion, crushed for OUR sins. He was beaten so WE could be whole. He was whipped so WE could be healed.
All of US, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him THE SINS OF US ALL” (Isaiah 53:4-6 Written by Isaiah in a prophecy about Jesus, about 500 years before Christ!)
So in conclusion we have to say that you and I crucified Jesus! If it were not for our sins and His love for us He would never had died! He didn’t die because of the Jews or the Romans, He died in our place as OUR substitute for God’s wrath against OUR sins! That is how much he loves us! Jesus said: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13).”
