A good friend of mine who was a Conservative Jewish rabbi once said, “I could get into a boat and sail off in the ocean of Jewish blood that has been shed in Jesus’ name.” The ocean of Jewish blood shed in Jesus’ name? Absolutely. Edward Flannery writes,
The vast majority of Christians, even well educated, are all but totally ignorant of what happened to Jews in history and of the culpable involvement of the Church. . . . It is little exaggeration to state that those pages of history Jews have committed to memory are the very ones that have been torn from Christian (and secular) history books.[224]
What was it that provoked such “Christian” hostility toward the Jews? Above all, it was the belief that the Jews killed Jesus, leading to the charge of deicide (killing God!). Not surprisingly, some Jewish groups were up in arms before Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ came out in 2004, fearing similar attacks from “Christians” who watched the movie. That is how deeply this issue touches the Jewish people.[225]
Of course, even if the broad statement that “the Jews killed Jesus” was totally true, it would not justify Christian hatred or persecution of the Jewish people, and we can safely say that only hypocritical or counterfeit Christians could have been guilty of committing atrocities against the Jews for this reason. But did the Jews really kill Jesus? What does the New Testament say?
(1) The primary message of the New Testament is that God gave His Son for the salvation of the world, and therefore the death of Jesus was the explicit, foreordained will of God (see 1 Peter 1:18–20). True Christians, therefore, do not blame anyone for killing Jesus; rather, they thank God for sending His Son. This is a central theme of the Scriptures: “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” (John 3:16). “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, [Messiah] died for us” (Romans 5:8).
(2) Jesus Himself testified that no one took His life; He laid it down willingly.
This is how we know what love is: Jesus [the Messiah] laid down his life for us.
1 John 3:16
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. . . . The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.
John 10:11, 17–18
Who among us does not live with constant gratefulness to the Lord Jesus for laying down His life on our behalf? Who would ever think of blaming the Jews (or Romans or anyone) for killing Him? Yes, Jesus “loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood” (Revelation 1:5), and for that we give thanks. That’s why the words of Revelation 5:9 will be sung through the ages: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
(3) Jesus died as the payment for our sins, and therefore it was our sins that nailed Him to the cross. As expressed in the classic words of Isaiah:
Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
But 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 53:4–6
It has sometimes been said that a person has not truly repented until he realizes that it is his own sins that nailed Jesus to the cross. As expressed by John Newton, the former slave trader who went on to write the hymn “Amazing Grace”:
My conscience felt and owned its guilt,
And plunged me in despair;
I saw my sins His blood had spilt
And helped to nail Him there.
I ask again: What man or woman with this understanding would think for a moment about blaming someone else for Yeshua’s death?
(4) There is Jewish responsibility for rejecting the Messiah and giving Him over to the Romans to be executed, but when the Jewish people are confronted with this in the New Testament, the Jews are told either that they acted in ignorance, or that Jesus’ death was ordained by God or that Jesus rose from the dead and that there is hope for redemption if they would repent. The message is even called “Good News”! (Note also that Jewish responsibility for the death of Jesus primarily fell on a limited number of Jewish people as opposed to the nation as a whole.) Listen to the testimony of the Word:
“Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth . . . was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. . . . Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
Acts 2:22–23, 36–39; see also Acts 4:25–28
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. . . . Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.
Acts 3:13–15, 17
Brothers, children of Abraham, and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.
We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus.
Acts 13:26–33
What a contrast between the historic “Christian” message, which condemned and hated Jews for killing Jesus, calling them “Christ killers” and often going on violent rampages against Jewish people after Easter services, and these New Testament messages, which recognize Jewish responsibility in giving Jesus over to the Romans to be crucified but which state that: (1) His death was the preordained will of God; (2) the leaders acted in ignorance; (3) Jesus rose from the dead; (4) the door of repentance and mercy is still open wide; (5) God wants to bless them, not curse them; and (6) the message is good news![226]
And note carefully that there is not a single time in the entire New Testament that the charge of deicide is ever raised, either explicitly or implicitly.
(5) The Romans made the legal decision and committed the physical act of crucifying the Son of God, but this only highlights the point I have been making, since no one would ever think of hating the Italians today because some of their ancestors crucified Jesus. Of course not!
With this in mind, we can see how utterly diabolical it has been to hate and persecute and blame Jews for the death of Jesus. Even the fact that the great majority of Jewish people have continued to reject Him as Messiah provides no justification for anti-Jewish sentiments, since the Word reminds us that we, too, were once ignorant and blind to God’s love (see Titus 3:3–7; for Paul’s own testimony, see 1 Timothy 1:12–13). Jesus also prayed for forgiveness for those who crucified Him (see Luke 23:34), and if Jewish people were guilty of His death, then they were included in His prayer for forgiveness. Quite tragically, the “Church” has often been its own worst enemy, driving Jews away from Jesus rather than attracting them to Him.[227]
We can safely say, then, that to blame anyone for Jesus’ death is to obscure the greatness of His self-sacrifice and to diminish the depth of His love, and if He died for any reason other than His willful atonement for our sins, we have no Gospel, no New Testament, no hope.