Text:  Luke 22-47 – 23:31, (Isaiah 53:1-12)                                                                          W Good Friday

Who Killed Jesus Christ?

            In the name of him who loved us and gave his life for us, dear friends in Christ:  I’m certain that you’ve heard that the release of the new Mel Gibson film The Passion of the Christ has stirred up a lot of controversy.  Many critics straight across the board have complained that it’s too graphic and too violent.  A lot of Protestant theologians have complained that it’s too “Catholic” and that it contains too much material that’s not in the Bible.  Sad but not surprisingly, some liberal Christians have complained that it’s entirely too biblical and that it doesn’t accurately reflect the changes that we now know should be made to the Bible’s account of what happened – because after all, two thousand years after the fact we know so much more about what really happened than the people who were actually there.

But by far the loudest and sharpest complaints have come from the leaders of the Jewish community. Citing the long history of Christian persecution of Jews, especially by Christians who having witnesses such Passion Plays in the past and who were thus agitated and so motivated by hatred and revenge to strike out against “those Jews who killed Jesus Christ”, these critics fear that the film may instigate a massive new wave of anti-Semitism and violent attacks on the defenseless and peace loving members of their community.  They say that a film such as this is morally irresponsible because of the untold damage it may cause to Jewish-Christian relations.  Besides, along with a lot of the liberal Christian theologians I mentioned a moment ago who are willing to sacrifice any truth if it means that they can remain politically correct and not offend their Jewish friends, they claim that it’s historically inaccurate to present the Jews as having had any responsibility at all for the death of Jesus.  They say it wasn’t the Jews who killed Jesus; it was the Romans.  It seems to be some kind of diversion tactic designed to redirect the attacks of vengeful, rampaging Christians against Italians instead of Jews.

Well, I hope that I don’t need to mention that “vengeful, rampaging Christian” is a contradiction of terms.  The Lord Jesus forgave those men who nailed him to the cross and he prayed for them; certainly we should do the same.  We shouldn’t be out to settle the score with anyone – and especially not with their descendants after two thousand years.  But the claim made by these Jewish critics and their Christian sympathizers that the Jews had nothing to do with the death of Jesus bears further investigation. We’re not talking about a minor misdemeanor here.  When we speak of the death of Jesus, we’re talking about the single most horrendous crime of all time:  the murder of God’s Son.  Was it the Romans who were responsible for the death of Jesus?  Or was it his Jewish enemies?  Upon whom should we place the blame?  This evening I’d like to explore this mysterious “whodunit” and ask the question, “Who really killed Jesus?”

            As we investigate the suspects, we find that Jesus had lots of enemies among his fellow Jews.  And in those days, the two major Jewish parties vying for power and influence were the conservative Pharisees (think Republicans) and the liberal Sadducees (sort of like ancient Democrats).  The Pharisees hated Jesus because he bitterly criticized their fastidious efforts to obey every law in the books (not to mention a lot more laws they made up that weren’t in the books).  Instead, what was totally scandalous to them, was that Jesus spent his time with known sinners claiming that such low-lives were closer to the Kingdom of God than were the upstanding Pharisees.  It infuriated them that someone who represented himself as a man of God would treat them with such disrespect.  The Sadducees, the archrivals of the Pharisees, also hated Jesus. They controlled the Temple and the Priesthood, and Jesus denounced them for their empty, godless worship, which was all form and no substance, for their rejection of clear biblical doctrine, and for having turned the Temple into a crooked marketplace.  They feared that Jesus’ fiery rhetoric would stir up a rebellion against the Romans that would destroy their nation.  They also feared losing their very lucrative positions of power and wealth.  So as much as these two rival groups, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, hated each other, they were even more united in their hatred of Jesus.  Both groups were watching him closely, and were constantly trying to get him to say or do something that they could use to discredit him and get him out of the way.  But every time they tried, he bested them.  He came away from their exchanges as the champion in the eyes of the people, while they scurried off looking like fools.

            And what was aggravating the situation was that Jesus kept doing all these spectacular miracles.  More and more people were following him and listening to his teaching. It was an impossible dilemma for those who held the power in the Jewish community.  I mean, how do you tear down someone who goes around curing the blind and lame?  Or raising the dead?   You can’t. And for that very reason they decided the only way to get rid of Jesus was to kill him.  And so it was that the Sanhedrin, which was the governing council of the Jews comprised of both Pharisees and Sadducees (sort of like our Congress and Supreme Court combined), decided upon a course of action.  They paid Judas to betray Jesus.  Then they sent their own temple police to arrest him and brought him to their court. There, they condemned him to death on a charge of blasphemy.  But they had one problem.  The Romans who occupied their land and who held ultimate legal jurisdiction had taken away from them the right to impose the death penalty.  They had no authority to carry out an execution.  So early the next morning, they took Jesus to Pontius Pilate, who was the Roman procurator.  There, because they knew the Romans would not recognize the charge of blasphemy or uphold their condemnation of Jesus on account of it, they falsely accused Jesus of a crime that they knew the Romans would take seriously:  that of leading a rebellion against the Roman occupation.  Upon examining Jesus, Pilate very quickly saw through their deception.  But the Jewish leaders and the crowd that they were controlling kept pressuring Pilate until he caved in.  He washed his hands of the matter, refusing to take any personal responsibility for the execution of Jesus.  And when Pilate said, “You take him and crucify him.  I find no fault in him”, they replied, “Let his blood be on us and on our children.”  So, who killed Jesus Christ?  From the beginnings of the plot, through the arrest and condemnation, to the pressure on Pilate – and even by their own admission, it’s clear that the Jews were responsible.

            But is it that simple?  The Jewish method of public execution was stoning.  As unpleasant as that may seem – being pounded to death by hurled stones – there were measures taken to ensure that such executions were fairly quick and merciful.  They were over in a matter of minutes.  Not so with crucifixion.  Nailing a person to a cross was a distinctly Roman way to make a public example of the most notorious criminals and those who rebelled against Roman authority. The slow, agonizing, death might take three days or more, and such executions were always done along public roads so that everyone passing by would be reminded of the terrible price extracted from those who opposed Roman rule.  Crucifixion was a form of terror weapon used to smash the will of conquered populations.  There can be no question that it was the Romans who actually performed the dirty work of putting Jesus to death.  What’s more, they didn’t have to do it – and they knew it.  Pilate was well aware that Jesus was not a criminal.  He knew that the charges against him were false, and that it was simply out of fear and jealousy that the leadership of the Jews wanted Jesus put to death.  Pilate also knew that it was his own responsibility to uphold Roman law and order. He had no legal right or power to arbitrarily order or permit someone’s death.  He knew that Jesus should have gone free, and he had the military force necessary to enforce what he knew to be the right decision.  Yet, when the situation called for strong leadership, he displayed a backbone of Jell-O.  Out of fear that his unpopular decision might earn him a bad name in Rome, he permitted the will of a lawless mob to prevail. It’s an interesting twist that the Roman authorities later replaced him precisely because the Jews found it so easy to push him around.  But if we ask the question, “Who really killed Jesus Christ?” it’s obvious that the Romans did it.

            Well now, which is it?  Was it the Romans or the Jews?  Who can we say is more responsible?  Perhaps it’s a mistake trying to determine which of these two groups carries the greatest guilt because it makes it seem like Jesus is simply a victim of the political intrigues of ancient Palestine.  But that isn’t the way Jesus conducts himself.  Ever since Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus kept telling his disciples very plainly that he was going to Jerusalem to be killed; and from time to time Jesus directed events to provoke the confrontations that would lead to his death – and on Palm Sunday he’d really thrown down the gauntlet when he drove the money-changers out of the temple.  The point is that Jesus was always in complete control of the situation. Even in his arrest, the mere sound of his voice threw his enemies on the ground in panic and confusion.  Nothing happened to him that he did not allow. He was not a helpless victim, but rather an intentional and willing sacrifice.  So if we ask, “Who killed Jesus Christ?” we have to consider the confession of Jesus who said, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”

            Well now, the plot to our mystery is thickening. We now have three apparently guilty suspects:  The Jews, the Romans, and Jesus Christ himself.  Of course, those of you who enjoy mysteries know that an important part of solving a case is establishing the motive.  We know that the Jews killed him out of fear and jealousy, and the Romans killed him out of weakness and fear; but what was Jesus’ motive for submitting to the horrifying torture and death of crucifixion?  The truth, as we well know, is that Jesus was covering for someone whom he cares about very deeply, someone who deserved to die for crimes committed.  This person had taken part in a rebellion not just against a corrupt human government, but against the throne of God himself.  This person was guilty of sedition, murders, stealing, adultery ... you name the crime, this person had done it. And as is often the case when the detective gathers the suspects to reveal the results of his investigation, the real killer is right here in the room.  It’s no mystery.  Who killed Jesus Christ?  You might as well join me in confessing: “I did.  I killed the Lord of Life”.

            Often, in a mystery, right before the detective reveals the killer’s identity, the guilty one panics when he realizes that he is about to be named.   He is suddenly struck with guilt and shame, and he tries to run to escape justice. It is in that kind of panic that we would live our entire lives were it not for Jesus’ intervention.  We would be always in this uneasy anxiety caused by the fear that we were about to be shown to be the heartless criminals we really are. But moved by love greater than we can imagine, love completely unknown by humans, Jesus stepped into our place to receive the justice that should have fallen squarely on us.  The prophet Isaiah wrote:

            He was pierced for our rebellion

                        He was crushed for our transgressions;

            The punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

                        And by his stripes we are healed.

            So the Jews killed Jesus, the Romans killed Jesus, and Jesus offered himself up to death for you and me who, through our sins killed Jesus.  But who really killed him?  If it’s blame we want to assign, we should never look farther than ourselves.  The suffering and shame of the cross belong to each of us.  But if this is where we stop we will have missed the whole point of Christ’s passion, because the cross is not just an instrument of shame and death.  In the lifting up of Christ on the cross we see God’s greatest expression of his love.  This is how God reveals his glory:  he loves us so much that he gave his Son to die in our place.  He damned his beloved Son to suffer the infinite torment of Hell in order to rescue us from it.  His shed blood covers us – it atones for our sins – and makes us appear righteous before the Lord, as Isaiah continues:

            For the Lord delighted in crushing him,

                        making him suffer when he made his life an offering for sin ...

            The delight of the Lord will prosper in his hands.

            From the struggle of his soul he shall see and be satisfied in what he knows:

            My righteous Servant will be the righteousness of many,

                        and he will bear their sin.

            Dear friends, you and I are the delight of the Lord, along with all the Christian Church on earth and in heaven.  For us, God took pleasure in crushing his Son so that his righteousness would be made ours.  For this reason God sent Jesus into the world:  to bear our sin and restore us to his Father.  Who killed Jesus Christ?  The blame is ours – but then let his blood be upon us and on our children because we know that it cleanses us from all sin – and then the credit and glory for Christ’s death will go to God alone.  To him be our praise forever.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!