Who Killed Jesus?

Introduction

Over the past two millenia the following question keeps coming up: “Who killed Jesus?” This topic always raises a concern in the Jewish community. Historically, every time that Christians ask, “Who killed Jesus?” there is a wave of hate and persecution against the Jewish community. Jews are fearful with good reason when Christians discuss who killed Jesus.

The Lamb of God - Slain Before the Foundation of the World

However, I wish to bring up the issue from a different point of view to the question. “Who Killed Jesus?” The one who planned and executed the murder of Jesus is none other than God the Father. It is He who premeditated, predicted, prepared, timed, and approved the death of the Messiah hundreds of years ahead of the historical event. Look at the following passages in this light:

Note in this verse that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. This means that God had prepared and premeditated the slaying of the Lamb of God that takes the sins of the world before the world was created. There were no Jews in existence at that time who could have had any hand in this plan.

Isaiah 53

Note the last verse in this text:

The emphasis ought to be on two words, “Lord” and “us all.” The death of Yeshua was predetermined and prepared to be executed “in the fullness of time” by God Himself. We, the Jewish people, played a role in this drama – for the sake of the Gentiles, the sake of the nations, who were all worshipping idols before Yeshua. Look at the following texts:

Is it not clear that the Gentiles have received an incalculable and inexhaustible benefit from the fact that some of the Jewish people (the leadership both religious and political) have rejected Yeshua as the Messiah? So, why, during these last almost two thousand years, have the churches persecuted the Jews and blamed them for the death of Yeshua? The gentiles ought to be first to rejoice and say, “Thank God that by the rejection of Yeshua by many of the Jewish People, we have received salvation!”

Yes, as a Jew who has given his life to God in the service of the Messiah, I can state with certainty that the Jewish sources are clear that the Sanhedrin judged Yeshua to be killed. The evil leadership that was mostly Hellenized Jews (the Sadducees in the Sanhedrin) handed Yeshua to the Romans. But it was Roman hands that held the hammer that nailed the nails in the hands of Yeshua. It was Roman hands that wrote the words on the sign that hung over the head of this Galilean Jew, “Yeshua of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”

Today, may I suggest that the reaction of both Jews and Christians to this question ought to be a humble repentance for the sin that brought God to sacrifice Yeshua, one Man to die for the sins of the many.

Instead of our pointing the finger at each other, the recollection of the death of Yeshua and the resurrection of Yeshua on the third day, ought to cause all of us to take personal responsibility for our own sins that keep inflicting pain and suffering in the world and also on the One who died for our transgressions and upon Whose shoulders our sins have been loaded, Yeshua of Nazareth – God and Man.