Whatever you thought of the movie "The Passion of the Christ", it drew considerable media attention all around the world at the time of its release. One of the main questions that the movie seemed to prompt was "who is to blame for the death of Jesus?"
In the past, many people have blamed the Jewish people for the death of Jesus. Sadly this includes people who claim to be 'Christians' yet have no real understanding of Jesus or why he came to this earth. This gross ignorance has unfortunately led to anger and in some cases active persecution towards the Jewish people. Other people, seeing that it was the Roman legal system that was the actual instrument of Jesus death, claim that it is the Italians who are to blame.
However, when we study the situation from Jesus point of view, things start to look very different. While the death of Jesus may have come as a shock to some of his followers at the time, it came as no surprise to Jesus himself. In fact we have the written record of Jesus own words as many times he predicted this event, exactly as it was to happen! Even more surprising is the fact that although Jesus clearly knew that he would soon be put to death, he made no attempt to flee or hide.
Here are just a few examples that show that Jesus willingly went to his death:
Matt 20:18-19 "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!"
Mark 10:32 "They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, ...[a]gain he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him."
When we look to the question of who took Jesus life, Jesus himself answers:"...I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father."John 10:17-18.
While it is true that Jesus died at the hand of humanity, even this was only possible because it was part of a larger plan. At any time Jesus could have stopped his death as he states in Matt 26:53-56, "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?...this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled."
So now the important question becomes 'what prophecy is Jesus fulfilling and why?' Over 700 years before Jesus birth, a prophet named Isaiah wrote this about him:
"...he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:5-6.
No one took Jesus life. He laid it down willingly. The reason why he died was due to God's love for us. We have all broken God's commandments and should rightly receive punishment. However the good news is that "...what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Rom 8:3-4.
In other words, although in our weakness none of us have met the requirements of God's Law, God sent Jesus into this world to take the punishment we deserve upon himself so that through faith in him, we can be forgiven. This is what Jesus meant when he said the words that have become some of the most well known bible verses, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." John 3:16-18.
The last line of Jesus words quoted above are the two choices we all face, either stand guilty before God and accept our due punishment, or put our faith in Jesus Christ and thank him for the punishment he took in our place.
