Who's to Blame for Jesus' Death - Faculty Writings

A friend of mine, for instance, who was raised Catholic told me recently that she grew up believing that it was her fault that Jesus died — that because of her sins, she was personally responsible for His death. A different woman told me that she flat out refused to believe in Jesus specifically because she wanted no part in the guilt of having caused Him to be crucified. She said that she would rather deny the fact that He died on the cross at all than to take on such a weighty load of blame. Providentially, on the night before Mel Gibson came to APU, a Protestant Christian man (an elder in his church) just so happened to have told me that he knows it is his fault that Jesus suffered and died for his sins. Indeed, Mel Gibson himself has been saying the same thing.

So here’s the question: What does the Bible say? Again, we are confronted by the facts. For the Bible records the story of when Peter said to the Jews, “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene . . . this Man . . . Whom you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death” (Acts 2:22-23). Granted, it is true that both the Romans and the Jews sinned by having Jesus put to death. They sinned, and yet, that is not the same as saying it is their fault that Jesus died.

No sinner is at fault for the death of Jesus. For those who disagree, it might be helpful to engage another question: Where in the Bible does it say that sinners are to blame for Jesus’ death?

Nowhere. Nowhere does the Bible blame the Jews, or the Romans, or the Christians who count themselves guilty. On the contrary, the inspired Word of God says something quite shockingly different.

Bear in mind that these are the exact words of Jesus. He said that “no one” had the power to take His life. He said that no one — not the Jews, not the Romans, not the Christians, not the world, not even the devil — had the power to extinguish His life. Verbatim He said, “I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:17-18).

Pilate did not understand this. Pilate thought Pilate had authority over Jesus. Thus Pilate said to Him, “Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?” Jesus answered him saying, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it has been given you from above.” To paraphrase Jesus said, “Pilate, you’re not taking my life. I’m giving my life.”

To miss this very point is to miss the Gospel message. The Good News is that God so
loved the world that He gave His only Son. The gospel is that Jesus gave His life. He chose to die voluntarily.

Some of us feel guilty (or defensive) because mistakenly, we believe that we are the cause of Jesus’ death. Mistakenly we see a cause and effect relationship that is not biblical. We see ourselves as the cause and Jesus’ death as the effect of our sin. But the cause of Jesus’ death is not our sin. The cause of Jesus’ death is Jesus’ love.

Jesus’ love became manifest in the light of humanity’s need for salvation. Even so, our need was not the cause. Rather, our need was the occasion. In the context of our need, Jesus took the initiative to lay down His life on behalf of the whole world though none of us deserve to be so loved. Because of His love, He made the decision to offer Himself to anyone in the world who might believe.

The Gospel message is that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son Whom He did not have to give. The basic Gospel message is that Jesus laid down His life voluntarily even though He did not have to. It would not have been unjust for Him to allow the world, each and every person, to pay the full penalty of sin, for each of us to experience the wrath of God. (By the way, that is what hell is, an everlasting experience of God’s wrath). Jesus did not owe it to us to die. In other words, we are not entitled to salvation.

It is fundamentally wrong to think that anybody’s sin somehow overpowered Jesus to the point that He had no choice but to die. The Bible says His death was utterly and completely gratuitous. It was His choice. His gift. His grace. In fact, it took authority for Jesus to lay His life down. It took power for Him to surrender to the point of death.

So what does that mean?

It means it is not your fault that Jesus died on the cross. It means it is not the Jews’ fault, not the Romans’ fault, and not Mel Gibson’s fault either. Indeed, to focus on who’s to blame is to turn our focus away from Jesus and His love.

I began by describing a little boy who ran away and hid because mistakenly he thought that Jesus was missing and that he himself was to blame. How many people have likewise been blaming themselves for the voluntary death of Jesus Christ? If so, then we have been self-absorbed. As a result, we have also developed a propensity to spend time unnecessarily trying to prove ourselves, absolve ourselves, hide ourselves, or escape ourselves. If this describes you, then hear the Gospel message: it is not your fault that Jesus died on the cross. You do not have to compensate for what He did for you. You do not have to earn God’s favor. Besides, it is impossible since there simply is no way to repay Him. The idea, rather, is for all of us to thank Him, love Him, model our lives after Him, and make it our ambition to exalt the Name of Christ above all.

I was struck at the end of the interview when I heard Mel Gibson say, “You know, something’s happened to me in the process of making this film. I’m an addicted guy, but I’m finding I don’t need that stuff anymore. I haven’t had a cigarette in a year.”

What Mel Gibson is discovering is the power that resides in Jesus Christ. It is the power of forgiveness, the power of transformation, the power of God’s love that Jesus freely gives to the whole world.

PAGE 1 • 2 | < BACK

‹ Return to Faculty Writings Archive