BS6E - WHAT HAPPENED THAT LED TO CHRIST'S DEATH?
In the spring of 30 A.D. the leaders of the Jewish nation – the most God-fearing in all the world – handed Jesus over to the Roman occupying forces after being betrayed by Judas – one of Christ’s own disciples.
John 18:1-9, 28-32
The Roman governor – Pontius Pilate – found no basis to charge Jesus of anything. What did he say three times?
John 18:38 / John 19:4, 6b
Pilate became a conflicted man. He saw no basis to charge Jesus to be killed, and yet he was afraid of the Jewish leaders and what they might report to Caesar if he didn’t comply with their request for Christ’s death. Therefore, he had Jesus tortured – and then sentenced to the most gruesome way to die – by crucifixion.
John 19:7-18
Then Pilate symbolically washed his hands of having anything to do with his death (Matthew 27:24). But Pilate got the “last word” with a sign he had made to put on top of Christ’s Cross. What did the sign say in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek?
John 19:19-22
What happened that led to Christ’s death? Why were his own people – specifically the Jewish leaders – intent on having him killed?
First, someone as good as Jesus makes us all look bad.
Human nature has something in it that is very twisted and ugly. We don’t like seeing someone who is nicer, kinder, and gentler than we are. It makes us feel small next to them.
Now imagine living next to Jesus – a picture of moral perfection. You’d either love him and strive to be better yourself or you’d hate him and be determined to get rid of him.
Therefore, when the Jewish crowd cried out for his crucifixion, it wasn’t hard to understand. Someone that good makes everyone look bad. There would be no peace until he was gone. His goodness was too much of a threat.
Luke 23:18-24
Jesus put his finger on this dark side of human nature when he said this:
John 3:19-20
Besides making us all look bad, Jesus was rocking the boat and people were afraid. Jesus seemed to set himself against the whole Jewish system of religion. His mission was rocking their way of life and the fragile peace they had with the Roman occupiers.
Now --- The focal points of Jewish worship were the temple, the law, and the Sabbath.
What did Jesus find in the temple that made him act defiantly in righteous anger, which of course startled everyone!
John 2:13-17
The Jewish leaders who were in charge at the temple now demanded a response from Jesus. What did they ask him?
John 2:18
Christ’s response sent them into a quandary.
John 2:19
How were they to make sense of it when Jesus said that his very person could be regarded as a kind of “timeless” temple that God would raise up after His death and make the center of spiritual worship. These were mysterious words that would later come to haunt Jesus at his trial.
John 2:20-21
Then we see Jesus totally opposed to the literal interpretations of the law of Moses that would cause the ordinary person untold hardships. He was ruthless in his attacks on the Pharisees and Scribes for their dishonesty and hypocrisy.
Matthew 23:1-39
And then there was the Sabbath. Literally thousands of rules had been laid out by the Jewish clergy as to what a person could or couldn’t do on the Sabbath. It would have been hard to walk through the day without breaking at least one of them.
Matthew 15:3-9
But Jesus delighted to do just that. In fact, he did many of his healings on the Sabbath insisting that it was a day to save life and not to oppress it.
Matthew 12:9-12
Jesus was making them all look bad, and rocking their “religious boat”. But there was a third thing too --- Jesus was hanging around people who were downright sinful.
Any pious Jew wouldn’t be caught dead near a prostitute or a tax collector.
Matthew 9:10-11 / (Also: Mark 2:15-16 / Luke 5:29-30)
But here was Jesus claiming to be equal with God and hanging around with tax collectors and sinners of all kind. He seemed to have no sense of propriety. Worse yet, Jesus helped non-Jews such as – their Roman oppressors, Siro-Phoenicians, and the hated Samaritans – all of them were uncircumcised scum to the Jew. Worse yet, some of them were women!
Mark 7:24-30 / Luke 7:1-5 / John 4:4-10
But this was the way that Jesus showed us that God cares for the bad and marginalized people as well as the respectable ones. God cares for everyone no matter what their nationality or identity. Jesus was truly rocking the tight knit Jewish world at that time and was on a collision course with his opponents.
John 7:1
Next Study: BS6F - Christ's Death Was Voluntary