An almost universally agreed upon fact by both Christian and secular scholars is that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified under the orders of Pontius Pilate in the early first century likely around 30-33 AD/CE.
But what caused Jesus to be crucified?
Who killed him?
The short and literal answer is the Romans who carried out Pilate’s orders. It does not matter if Pilate attempted to wash his hands of the act, he was still the one who bent over to the will of the mob. He may as well have been the one to drive the nails into Christ’s hands and feet.
However, since the fledgling days of Christianity many have pointed their finger at the Jews. It was the religious authorities of the first century who were unhappy with how Jesus was teaching and handed him over to the Roman authorities. Never mind that Jesus and most of his first followers were Jews, in many unfortunate cases, Christians have attempted to seek revenge against them.
At the end of the day, arguing over who is responsible for Jesus’ death and seeking “justice” for him, is completely missing the point and purpose of his sacrifice, and ignores the hard truth.
I, Melanie, killed Jesus.
It was for my and the sins of everyone who ever lived that he died, but this is by no means a reason for despair or to attempt to harm oneself or seek out punishment.
My mother once told me, we should not be doling out justice for Jesus or avenging his death. Our salvation did not come without a price, but it is also important to remember what the sacrifice gave us. My mother also told me, if I were to look up at Jesus from the foot of the cross he would not say. “Look what you did to me.”
His words would be, “I did this for you.”
It was not Pilate, but it was my sins who condemned thee to death. -St. Alphonsus Ligouri
No comments:
Post a Comment