Who Did It? Who Killed Jesus? Whose Fault Was It?

Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.”

John 19:1‭-‬6 ESV Read More

When I was on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, there were a lot of angry and upset people. It was 1998, not 1890, but plenty of anger was directed at me. The trick to all of that was that I was kind of angry too. None of us could point to who we were angry at and unfortunately, none of us could extract justice from the one that did all of the wrong to the Oglala people.

Anonymous injustice is a rough trap, because no matter how much you point and say “That is wrong and it shouldn’t be that way!” you can’t ever grab the right person and punch them in the face for what is wrong.

Eventually, you have to move on from asking “Whose fault is this?” and move into “What are we going to do about this?”

It applies to our efforts against poverty (Check out the One Life Podcast from the last 2 weeks!), our efforts against racism, and our efforts against the fallen state of the world.

I think that is why John told the story of Jesus’ trial the way he did. Was it Pilate’s fault? Well, yeah, sort of. Was it the Jewish leaders’ faults? Yes, mostly, but they didn’t hang Jesus on the cross. They didn’t have Him scourged. They didn’t do the crown of thorns or the beatings.

So whose fault is it? Do we really want to ask that question?

I didn’t imprison tens of thousands of Native Americans on reservations, but I can take responsibility and work to improve their living conditions and their way of life.

I didn’t force African Americans to drink from different water fountains or not apply for certain jobs, but I can take responsibility and work to make sure people are treated equally in whatever spheres of influence I have.

And no, I wasn’t there that day that somebody killed Jesus, whoever did it. But I can realize that it was part of His plan to save me, and I can take responsibility and admit my sin was the reason why He had to die. Sin always brings about death, but the gift of God is that we can have eternal life if we trade our life for His. By faith, we take that gift and we suddenly take on the responsibility of being adopted as one of His children.

I don’t know whose fault it was or who did it, but I’m taking responsibility and I’m going to act on it now however I can. As we adopt this attitude we Christ, He might lead us to adopt it in other situations as well.

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