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Throughout March and into April, Christians throughout our region will be focusing on the journey of Jesus toward Calvary.  As Easter Sunday nears, we will rehearse the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ passion.  Over the course of one week, we will consider the implications of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, his final Passover meal with his closest disciples on Maundy Thursday, the crucifixion on Good Friday, and happily, Jesus’ resurrection on Easter morning.

This year’s observance of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has been transformed by Mel Gibson’s movie, "The Passion of the Christ."  Gibson’s celluloid passion play has evoked extremely heated reactions; some praise it highly, while others criticize it for having the potential of inflaming anti-Semitic feelings.  Since many reviewers have their own biases, I will reserve judgment on the movie for when I see it myself.

Nevertheless, an important question has been raised by the controversy.  Who really is responsible for the death of Jesus Christ?

Are the Jewish people responsible for Jesus’ death?  Even though virtually all of the original Christians were Jewish (including Jesus himself!), later generations of Christians have mistakenly blamed the Jewish people as a collective entity for Jesus’ death.  This misinterpretation of the Gospel accounts has fanned the flames of anti-Semitism and caused great harm to our Christian witness regarding the love of God for both Jews and Gentiles.

Let us make no mistake on this issue.  Although some Jewish leaders were against Jesus, the Jewish people as a whole were not involved in Jesus’ death at all.  Some leaders, like Nicodemus, were impressed with Jesus. Many, if not most, Jews alive in Jesus’ day never met him or heard him speak (this is hard to imagine in a media saturated age where people can become famous instantly).  They had nothing to do with his death. Jesus’ followers were almost all Jewish, and they did not want him to die (in part because they did not understand his messianic mission).  Furthermore, later generations of Jews could not possibly be Christ-killers, since they were not even alive when the event took place.

Since the death of Jesus was carried out under the legal system imposed by the Romans (the Jewish death penalty for blasphemy was stoning, not crucifixion), perhaps we can blame the Romans for Jesus’ death.  Yet this accusation falls short for the very same reasons I outlined in relation to the charge against the Jewish nation.  Romans were involved, to be sure, but it is unfair to blame an entire empire or people for the actions of a few.

So, who really is responsible for Jesus’ death? Jesus himself supplies the most satisfactory answer.  In his famous "Good Shepherd" speech, we read:

According to Jesus, God (the Father) is responsible for Jesus’ death.  It was God’s will for Jesus to die as a sacrificial Lamb for the sins of all humanity (John 1:29).  Jesus’ death was not a historical accident or derailment of God’s will for Jesus; rather, it was for this very reason that Jesus came into the world.  In sending Jesus to his death, God sought to demonstrate the magnitude of divine love for fallen humanity (John 3:16).

Jesus further states that he himself was responsible for his sacrificial death.  Jesus explicitly claims that he embraces his sacrificial death freely and that "no one takes it from me."  He blames neither Jew nor Roman.  Jesus refuses to accept the role of victim in the Passion!  To be blunt, Jesus volunteers for the Cross; no human had the power to force him there.  If this were not true, then Jesus’ death would lose its significance.

Jesus’ attitude toward people who were historically associated with his arrest, trial and crucifixion is clear, and it is the same as his attitude toward all of us.  He came to earth to forgive and redeem humanity, and his death and resurrection were God’s answer to humanity’s spiritual dilemma.  Jesus, on the Cross, prays: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34).

This Easter season, let us proclaim with boldness the Biblical message of God’s redeeming love for all humanity!  And may our witness not be marred by any hint of anti-Semitism! Our message is a positive one – in fulfillment of God’s will, Jesus voluntarily sacrificed himself so that we may gain peace with God and eternal life (Romans 5:1-11)!

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