Wasn’t it the Jews? When we look at what people did to
Jesus, we often try to detach ourselves from the scene. We say, ‘We are not part
of it’. We think how awful those people were and feel that we would not want
anything to do with people like that. We would not want to have had any part in
the crucifixion of Jesus.
We need to remember that the very sins which are seen
at Calvary have parallels in our own hearts. Why did Judas betray Christ? Well,
he was the man who kept the money bag. He kept the common treasury of the
twelve disciples. We read in John’s gospel chapter twelve that he “was a thief,
and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it” (John 12:5-6). But
he wanted a little bit more. So he was willing to give information about the
whereabouts of Christ so that it would be easy to arrest Him without a public
riot. He sold the information for 30 pieces of silver. One sin which put Christ
on the cross is that one man wanted a little bit more! It is sin like that that
crucified Christ.
Then there were the chief priests who were willing to
pay the 30 pieces of silver because they were jealous. They were jealous that Jesus
Christ was popular and they were not; that the whole city went out to meet him
and they were just left behind. They were burning with jealousy. He was good
and just and holy. There was no fault in him. Yet although there was no fault
in him their hearts were filled with murderous thoughts towards him. And those
murderous thoughts were stocked up in their hearts by nothing else except envy.
Do we not have the same problem in our lives? Often we
look at another person who is good or no worse than ourselves, we look at
someone who is in a public position or getting some attention, then we are
jealous without any rational explanation. It is a sin which shows the depravity
of our hearts. It was jealousy that crucified Jesus Christ. Without people wanting
a little bit more and without the jealousy of the religious rulers, Jesus would
never have gone to the cross.
And then there was Pilate the governor. He gave in. He
had made up his mind not to crucify Christ, but the people prevailed against
him. They put pressure on him. He knew that if he didn’t give in, his own
prestige would suffer. He had a certain image which he wanted to maintain. He
wanted to leave a certain impression in people’s minds. In the end he was willing
to stand down on any principle as long as his prestige would remain intact. If
that meant the death of someone who was innocent, so be it. But whatever happened,
his own image must remain intact.
Friend, the sins which put Christ on the cross are sins that feature in our lives too: wanting a little bit
more, jealousy and self-love. We cannot detach ourselves from Calvary. We too
have our part in the crucifixion of the Son of God. Although we were not there
physically, it was our sins that nailed him to the cross as he took the
punishment in our place.