This week’s devotion is based on Cross Examined Week 5 – “Why Kill Him?” (CLICK HERE TO WATCH)
Would you?
If you were in the Sanhedrin’s shoes, would you?
If you were in the crowd’s shoes, would you?
If you were in Pilate’s shoes, would you?
The quick response is, “Of course I wouldn’t. Jesus didn’t deserve to die.”
Looking back on the trial of Jesus, it might be easy to think we would have stood loud and proud as a defender of Jesus. We would like to think that peer pressure would not have gotten the better of us. We would have certainty that life with Jesus around is better than life with him dead.
Or would we?
When I reflect on the charges that came against Jesus, do they in some way still resonate with me? Perhaps I would stop with the extreme of permanently eliminating Jesus from my life, but I might use a similar excuse or charge to push Jesus aside for a moment or a season.
For example the charge of the Sanhedrin was blasphemy.
Luke 22:67 “If you are the Christ,” they said, “tell us.” Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe me, 68 and if I asked you, you would not answer.
To acknowledge the truth about Jesus and his fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies would mean that the religious leaders would have to let go of their wrong beliefs about a political resurgence of Israel. It would mean they would have to reconsider their paradigms around control by using the law. They would have to change their beliefs.
That is hard. Acknowledging Jesus is the Messiah and the fulfillment of the Old Testament has ramifications for us. We have to let go of personal beliefs that contradict with the person and work of Jesus. It would mean acknowledging that Jesus is the only way to heaven and other beliefs head to hell. Maybe we like some things about Jesus, but other things we would rather dismiss…and so we might choose to push Jesus and the truth of who he is aside to keep our personal beliefs in tact.
The crowd charged him with stirring up people with his teaching.
Luke 23:5 But they insisted, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.”
The crowd wanted him dismissed because they didn’t want to acknowledge and follow his teaching. Influenced by their religious leaders, the crowd was more comfortable in the rabbi’s teaching than the One who taught with authority. There are teachings in the Bible that we would rather set aside and not have to follow. We want to ignore things that are called out as sin, or dismiss them as culturally irrelevant. We like the idea of picking the teachings we like, such as, “Love one another” but content to ignore Jesus’ teaching to “love our enemies.” Again we may not call for Jesus to be put on the cross, but like the crowd, we can find reasons to dismiss Jesus and not have to deal with his teachings.
Pilate finally gave in because he was afraid of a riot.
John 19:12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”
Standing with Jesus often means going against the crowd and taking the consequence. Perhaps this happens to us all to easily and all too often. When feeling pressured by our peers to put aside some aspect of our Christian faith, we can cave and push Jesus aside thinking to ourselves, “it’s just for a short time.”
How easy it is to have our own reasons to “kill him.” Standing with Jesus is hard. Standing with Jesus takes courage. Standing with Jesus takes humility.
By his grace he was willing to go to the cross for us, for our sins of acting in a way that wants Jesus dead. He died for you and me, even the times we wished he was dead.
Apply: What situations in your life lead you to ignore or push Jesus aside? Take time to repent and ask God’s Spirit to reorient your heart with a resolve to always follow and stand with Jesus.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive us for the times we not only think about but act on our desire to “kill you,” to push you aside and ignore your person, your teaching, or your presence. Restore us by your grace to follow you with strength, courage, and resolve. AMEN.