Who Crucified Him?

This is not merely an academic question; it is a question which, at least for the Jew, has the most sinister and dreadful implications.

For long centuries the guilt of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ has been laid at the door of the Jew. From the hills of Judea to the Pyrenees mountains; from the banks of the Dnieper and the Rhine to the Mississippi and beyond, wherever the Jew went, the cry “Christ-killer” has followed him in a thousand tongues, all full of venom and bitter hatred. No wonder then that the Jew has come to think with trepidation about Christ and His death and has, in self-defense, sought to exculpate himself from the guilt or even to deny the very existence of Jesus as a historical personality. 

Those who have accused the Jew have usually done so not because they were consumed by a love for Christ who prayed for His tormentors, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do,” but rather because they were motivated by a hatred for the Jew.

Before we attempt to clear up in our minds the question of human guilt in the matter of the crucifixion, let us remember that those who have accused the Jew have usually done so not because they were consumed by a love for Christ who prayed for His tormentors, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do,” but rather because they were motivated by a hatred for the Jew. The most perfect expression of God's infinite love, the cross, has been made an occasion for the most monstrous hatred and bloodthirst. In accusing the Jew, his enemies only prove their own terrible guilt and share in the death of our Lord.

The Human Actors

Let us now try to understand what happened some 1900 years ago on Calvary Hill. Let us, in our mind, turn to Jerusalem and perceive in our imagination the actors who have played a part in staging the greatest drama of humanity. These actors were the high priests and the priestly clan, the rulers and elders of the Jewish people, mostly Pharisees. Then there was Pilate, the Roman governor of Palestine, and his legionaries. There was the Jewish crowd gathered before the palace of Pilate and at Calvary. All these people have in some measure had a share in erecting the cross of Christ.

The High Priests

Annas was the retired high priest when Jesus stood before him. The actual high priest was Caiaphas, his son-in-law. However, the real power behind the scene was Annas. He and his five worthy sons, all of whom had served a term as high priest, were dreaded and hated by the Jewish people. Annas and his sons made the high priesthood an object of bargaining with the Roman authorities and made of the highest office in Israel a source of filthy lucre and unheard-of oppression and tyranny. Over and above their immense income from the people's tithes, they also owned practically all the shops and trading booths in the vast premises of the Temple precincts, where thousands of small merchants catered to the varied needs of the multitudinous crowds who flocked from all over Palestine and the diaspora to bring their offering to the Temple and to appear before God. So the whole business of selling sacrificial animals, the exchange of money and catering to pilgrims, etc., etc., was in the hands of the high priest and his clique. They surrounded themselves by a host of secret police and common thugs, who mixed among the people in order to overhear and apprehend anyone who as much as dared to whisper a word against the high priest or his actions.

Such were the high priests before whom Jesus had to appear. Their antagonism towards Him was a foregone conclusion. Did He not only a short time before His apprehension drive the sellers and buyers out of the Temple, scolding them for making of His Father's House a den of thieves? (Matthew 21:13). Of course such action cut into the vital interests of the high priest, and that alone, apart from any other motives, religious or otherwise, was sufficient reason for wishing to have Him removed from the scene.

The Elders and Rulers

Then, as we turn again the pages of the New Testament, we read that in order to investigate the guilt of the Lord Jesus Christ, the elders and the scribes were called in. They were Sadducees and Pharisees. The Sadducees were the rationalists of their day, denying the resurrection or the existence of angels, or anything supernatural. Many of the priestly hierarchy belonged to the

ranks of the Sadducees. They represented the aristocracy of the people and the possessing classes. They were in fear of any religious or political upheaval that might endanger their positions. They were the collaborationists. As for the Pharisees, they were men who sought to interpret God's will in the minutest details of daily life and had built up hedges around the Word of God so as to make trespassing as difficult as humanly possible. These were men who were out to please God, as the apostle Paul said about them on a later occasion: “For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:2–3). The spirit of God and the spirit of the Pharisees were as different as the mind of God and the mind of men.

Although the Pharisees nurtured in their hearts the hope of Israel—the steadfast faith that God will send His Messiah and Deliverer to Israel—their understanding of Messiah's mission was largely based on national and political expectations. They hated the foreign invaders and their ways, so their Messiah was to drive the Romans out and reestablish the ancient glory of the house of David. How could they believe a poor Galilean Rabbi, now under arrest and about to be condemned to death, to be the Messiah of God, upon whom generations had fastened their dearest hopes and aspirations? 

It must be pointed out, however, that the appearance of Christ before the High Priest and the elders and scribes did not constitute a formal judgment. Indeed, at the time the Jewish council or the Sanhedrin had already lost authority to pronounce the death penalty in capital cases. This was reserved for the competence of the Roman governor in Palestine alone. The informal and hastily convened meeting of the Sanhedrin made an investigation against the Lord Jesus Christ, and sought to incriminate Him, so as to be able to demand His execution as a blasphemer and a peril to the Roman Empire (Luke 22:66–71).

Pilate, the Roman Procurator

Like all of his tribe who came as imperial administrators to rule the provinces of Caesar were interested in two things: 1) to get rich quick; and 2) to preserve the appearance of peace in the provinces under their rule, so as not to have to justify themselves when reports of their mismanagement and subsequent unrest reached the ears of Caesar. Personally, Pilate was inclined to let Jesus off as a harmless individual and a dreaming teacher of the truth, in which he, the cynical politician, had no faith whatsoever. However, the pressure of the elders and Jewish rulers was too great, and Pilate was prevailed upon by their insistence to pronounce the death sentence upon Christ, for fear of his job and for political and imperial reasons. Thus, self-seeking cynicism and political intrigue made a major contribution to the crucifixion.

The Legionaries and the Cross

Standing beneath the cross we find the soldiers, the actual executioners. They were not Jews; they were Roman Legionaries. Their officers were mostly Romans, but the rank and file were men from the vast Roman provinces, mainly Germans, Gauls and Britons, the ancestors of modern European and American peoples. It was as if God intended to illustrate the sin of all men, Jews and Gentiles alike, so that no man might be justified in His sight. Yet by a curious perversity of the human mind, while attaching all blame to the Jews, one never thinks of blaming the Italians or the present-day Germans or British or French. By the same token as the Jews are called “Christ-killers,” the others may be equally named in the same way just as illogically and just as unreasonably.

It was as if God intended to illustrate the sin of all men, Jews and Gentiles alike, so that no man might be justified in His sight.

Antisemitism and the Cross

The Gospels tell us that the soldiers did their job not as mere executioners acting upon orders, but with zest and zeal. They scourged Him; they put on His brow a mock crown of thorns, a rod into His hand as an imitation of the royal sceptre, some scarlet rags to imitate the kingly robes; and with derision they shouted: “Hail, King of the Jews!” (Matthew 27:32-37). All their pent-up feelings against those hated Jews with their obnoxious ways and customs, their stubborn faith in an invisible God and their stiff-necked resistance to the rule of the Roman occupants, found expression in their mockery against Jesus. In Him they perceived not a mere Jew, but a representative of the Jews, their so-called king. Here we see antisemitism in its ancient form taking a hand in the crucifixion of Christ.

The Jewish People and the Cross

The careful reader of the crucifixion story will find that standing beneath the cross were not only the fickle and easily goaded and misguided mob, which shouted: “Crucify, crucify,” but also “a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him” (Luke 23:27).

The world in its eagerness to accuse the Jews remembers the hostile crowd which shouted, “away with this man,” but forgets those who stood heart-broken over the cruel fate of their beloved Master and Friend.

If the Lord Jesus was persecuted by various groups of Jewish men and had to withstand their ill will and outright malice, this attitude was more than compensated by the love and devotion of many other Jews.

While some Jews persecuted Him, there were others who followed Him, forsaking all they had.

While some Jews hated Him, there were others who loved Him more than life.

While some Jews required that Jesus should be crucified, others were faithful to Him even unto death and endured all things for His sake. It is untrue and unfair to speak of the Jews only as the persecutors of the Lord Jesus Christ and to forget those of them who served Him with every beat of their heart and suffered for Him all manner of evil. True, Judas, who betrayed Him, was a Jew; but so was John, the beloved disciple. Peter, Matthew, Paul and other apostles were Jews. The first Christians, Saints and Martyrs who gave their lives for Christ, were Jews.

While some Jews persecuted Him, there were others who followed Him, forsaking all they had. While some Jews hated Him, there were others who loved Him more than life.

The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified by ungodly men, both Jews and Gentiles. 

We fully endorse the opinion of Dr. Scofield who, in his notes concerning the crucifixion, says as follows: “Jesus crucified is the true touchstone revealing what the world is.” “The people stood beholding” (Luke 23:35), in stolid indifference; the rulers, who wanted religion, but without a divine Christ crucified for their sins, “reviled”; the brutal amongst them mocked and railed; the conscious sinner prayed; the covetous sat down before the cross and played their sordid game. The cross is the judgment of the world (John 12:31).

The Cavalcade of Sin

And so we see a whole array of ancient people with all their evil passions, unholy desires, and ungodly deeds. Ancient? Yes, but oh how familiar and well known to us modern men! We scrutinize those men of old, and lo, in their faces we suddenly discover our own sin-marred images. These men still live in us today. Their sins are our sins; their guilt, our guilt. We still propose to establish our own righteousness, ignoring the righteousness of God. We still are steeped in the same vices and sins, seeking to satisfy our own earth-born cravings and aspirations rather than obey God and seek His Kingdom. We still crucify the love of God and mock His Holy One. We smite Him in the face and say, “Guess who did it?” The actors in the drama of Calvary were indeed our spiritual ancestors, even if they were not our physical ones. Beneath the cross of Jesus stands humanity, Jewish and Gentile alike, condemned out of its own mouth and on the testimony of its evil deeds. “Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself: for thou that judgest doest the same thing” (Romans 2:1). 

Beneath the cross of Jesus stands humanity, Jewish and Gentile alike, condemned out of its own mouth and on the testimony of its evil deeds.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

God and the Cross

Thus far we have considered only the human element of the crucifixion. But there are two viewpoints from which the cross may be seen: the human and the divine. We tarried under the cross for a while, and we beheld ourselves guilty of the blood of the One wholly without sin. Like they of old we smite our breasts and with the Roman Centurion we confess: “Certainly this was a righteous man” (Luke 23:47).

Yet we shall never understand the true meaning of the cross if we confine ourselves to the vision of the cross as seen from under, from the human viewpoint. The real and full meaning of the cross is revealed to us from the standpoint of God. For there upon the cross we beheld the perfect expression of God's love for me, a lost sinner. Nailed to the cross is the Lamb of God, which in His eternal counsel has been slain from the foundation of the world. The cross tells all who have eyes to see and ears to hear that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

In Jesus was fulfilled the prophecy of old which God gave to His servant Isaiah concerning the Messiah: “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; ... and the Lᴏʀᴅ hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5–6). 

The chief stage manager of the Calvary drama is the Lord God Almighty Himself, who gave Himself in His only begotten Son as a ransom for our sins, so that we should not perish but have life everlasting. “This is the Lᴏʀᴅ’s doing: it is marvellous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:23).

What Jesus Thought About the Cross

What did Jesus think about His death? The Lord Jesus Christ was not merely a helpless and passive victim of human wretchedness. He was not just another martyr who died a noble death for his convictions and for his faith. He was the Good Shepherd who came to lay down His life for His sheep. His own words were: “I am the good shepherd, . . . and I lay down my life for the sheep. . . . Therefore, doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:14–15, 17–18).

I was the sinner who crucified God when He in His love took upon Himself the form of man to live amongst us. But God in His boundless mercy took upon Himself my sins that I, through the blood which He shed on the cross, might be ransomed, washed, and forgiven.

Only after having looked at the cross of Christ from the two perspectives—the perspective of human sin and that of Divine love—can we arrive at a fuller and deeper understanding of the meaning of Christ's death.

I was the sinner who crucified God when He in His love took upon Himself the form of man to live amongst us. But God in His boundless mercy took upon Himself my sins that I, through the blood which He shed on the cross, might be ransomed, washed, and forgiven. In the face of this overwhelming and all-overshadowing fact of God's mercy towards men, how pale and insignificant becomes the question: Who crucified Christ? But how infinitely important the question: Dost thou believe in the Son of God? 

Who is guilty of the death of Christ? You and I, if we scorn and shame the love of God in His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, if we believe in Him, the same cross becomes a sure sign of pardon and acceptance by God as His children (John 1:12).

Do you believe in Christ, or do you crucify Him even today?

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