The Man Who Killed Jesus

It’s strange, isn’t it, that billions  of people in the world have an image of Jesus Christ on the cross emblazoned  in their minds. But the killer of Jesus, a man of the utmost importance, we know  nothing about, or close to nothing. We think he, or even they, deserve some attention,  and after watching the show today, you’ll agree.

Something we need to first talk about is what  crime did Jesus commit to end up on the cross, no doubt in absolute agony. The Romans might have  roasted people alive in a rather large bull; they might have executed people by having elephants  sit on their faces, but even as horrific as that sounds, some Romans decried crucifixion for  being cruel and inhumane punishment. No kidding.

In terms of being executed, crucifixion was no  walk in the park. The Romans understood very well that it could be very, very painful  and humiliating, and without the help of a soldier expediting the process with a  knife or a cudgel, dying could take ages. As the Roman philosopher Cicero wrote, crucifixion  was the “most cruel and hideous of tortures.

” Trust us when we say being squashed by an angry  pachyderm was way better than dying on the cross, and the Romans knew it. So, now the question  is, what in God’s name did Jesus Christ do to make the Romans want to suffer  the worst of all punishments. It wasn’t as if they thought he was the son of God  and was about to put an end to all their depravity and decadence.

They just thought he was another  loon who walked through the streets preaching superstitious nonsense. In  Mark 3:21–22, it’s  written that some of his own family thought he was insane, even possessed by demons. His own brother,  James- that’s right, the famous disciple and Saint James- also believed this, though he changed his  mind after the crucifixion and was eventually put to death by the Jewish authorities for refusing  to deny that Jesus really was the son of God, some were more ready for their death than others.

So, what did Jesus actually do, in terms of a serious crime? Jesus claimed to be the messiah, the savior figure predicted in the Old Testament for hundreds  of years. This didn’t sit well with many of the Jewish authorities, who were specially troubled  by his ever growing popularity amongst the masses.

Fearing his growing influence, they held a sham  trial and then handed him over to the Romans under the charge that he was claiming to be the King of  the Jews, and thus a threat to Rome’s authority. At the start of his last week, Jesus rode  into Jerusalem on a donkey to great fanfare along the way. When he arrived, thousands of  pilgrims were there, many of whom were trading stuff at the temple.

Jesus went into a fit  of rage, calling the place a “den of thieves” and kicking over their stalls. This was because  the merchants who had set up at the temple were exploiting the faithful pilgrims, charging  exuberant prices for sacrificial offerings demanded in Jewish culture for the atonement  of sins. All this happened under the watch, and with the approval of, the Pharisees.

He then went after the Jewish elders directly, calling them out for hypocrisy and their devotion  to tradition instead of their duty to love and care for their fellow man. For them,  this long-haired dude was becoming a right royal pain in the backside.  Jesus was exposing their hypocrisy and avarice and they didn’t much like that.

Those elders struck a deal with that back-stabbing so-and-so Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ disciples. Judas told them for the price of 30 silver coins, he’d betray Jesus. To cut a long story short, Jesus and his disciples later had a Last Supper,  although back then it was just supper.

He broke bread with his guys, and told everyone at the  table, “This is my body, which is given for you. ” He then had them all drink from the same cup,  and said, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. ” Though  none knew it at the time, he was symbolically prophesying his own impending martyrdom.

Jesus also said, to some folks’ astonishment, that someone at the table would betray  him. Jesus understood at this point that a fair amount of agony was coming his  way, and when he and the disciples were hanging out in the garden of Gethsemane, he  prayed that things would work out alright. We can’t overstate how stressed he was.

In fact,  part of the bible says he was so worked up that he sweated blood. That can actually happen if the  fear is bad enough. It’s called haematohidrosis.

Jesus wanted God to release him from this  terrible fate, but in the end accepted his lot. Judas betrayed Jesus by kissing him on  the hand ( the infamous kiss of death) and so showed the Temple guards who they should  arrest. Those guards were working for the chief priests.

As you know, they were all miffed  about Jesus calling them out as hypocrites. One name that comes up in the bible is  the Jewish high priest named Caiaphas. He hated Jesus for exposing all the wrongs,  and so he plotted to have him killed.

Not all the elders agreed with this, but then  this guy Jesus had been stirring the pot somewhat. Jesus was a rebel, and he was hurting their  power, and so they agreed he had to go. After a trial, the elders handed him  over to the star of today’s show.

This man was named Pontius Pilate. Pilate  was the guy that signed Jesus’ death warrant. But why would the Romans want Jesus dead,  seeing as all he was accused of was getting on the nerves of some dodgy Jewish elders? 

What did the Romans care about this? Well, historians now say the Roman didn’t want this  rogue Jesus upsetting the apple cart. Jesus had been a troublemaker and the Romans wanted harmony. 

The Jewish people were known for being rebellious, and they sought to placate the Jewish religious  authorities in order to calm the region. To say this was faulty thinking is a huge  understatement, but then we have hindsight. Still, Pilate, the governor of Roman Judea, knew  the anti-Jesus Jews were making a mountain out of a molehill.

After all, what had this Jesus fella  really done? Maniacs preaching weird stuff in the street were two a penny, thought Pilate. He  wanted no part in killing Jesus, but by not doing that, he was going to make a lot of folks  mad.

Pilate didn’t want riots in his streets. So, he decided to wash his hands of the matter.  This is a bit from the bible, “When Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing but rather that a  riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying, ‘I am innocent  of this man’s blood, see to it yourselves.

” Pilate was basically trying to get out of  it. Had he not crucified Jesus and some people had lost the plot, he’d very likely  have been fired. He could have stopped the crucifixion if he really wanted to, but  he didn’t want to lose his cushy job.

But this wasn’t the Dark Ages (a joke guys),  Jesus had to go to trial first. Before that, Pilate looked at Jesus and in a roundabout way  said this guy’s so-called crimes don’t come under my jurisdiction. So, Pilate sent Jesus  to Herod.

Herod looked at Jesus and said, hmm, you aint no major criminal, and so he sent him  back to Pilate. Jesus had become a hot potato. Pilate was now stuck with him, though.

We’ll  come back to this thriller very soon, but first… Who was Pilate? Prior to becoming governor, he was a kind of a knight belonging to the Samnite clan. As with many  things we’re discussing today, the matter of his life’s history is up for debate.

But, it’s said  Pilate was probably pretty good with a javelin and went on to be a successful military man. You don’t become a Roman governor for nothing, though. Pilate was skilled, educated,  and likely had a lot of connections.

So, after holding some kind of military command,  he greased a few palms and ended up with his gig as governor of Judea, today the home of the West  Bank and Israel. A long way from Rome for sure, but Roman tendrils back then spread far and wide. Remember, the Romans were pagans.

The Jews, on the other hand, believed in one transcendent  God compared to the Roman’s many Gods. Sure, there was a fair bit of persecution going on,  there always is, but the Romans also embraced religious tolerance for the folks it ruled over  – so long as they paid their taxes, of course. Nonetheless, it’s written that Pilate was  roundly disliked by the Jewish elders, with one reason being that he insulted their  beliefs.

This also led to added pressure when Jesus was in his hands. It’s sometimes written  that Pilate was a bit weak this way - someone who bent to pressure from the mob. Again, you must remember, there are lots of different versions of what happened.

One of them has some dialogue between Jesus and Pilate that sounds like the “Yes  or No” game you all played as kids. Pilate: Are you the King of the Jews? Jesus: You have said so.

Pilate wasn’t going to get  him on the first question. We rather like the dialogue from Martin  Scorsese’s movie, “The Last Temptation of Christ. ” Pilate: It's one thing to want to  change the way people live; but, you want to change how they think, how they feel.

Jesus: All I'm saying is that change will happen with love, not with killing. Pilate: Either way, it's dangerous. It's against Rome…It simply doesn't matter how you  want to change things.

We don't want them changed. You may laugh at us using a movie dialogue, but  those lines are based on the general gist of what might have happened. Pilate very likely  didn’t hate Jesus, but his hand was forced.

In fact, most accounts have Pilate feeling rather  sorry for Jesus. Pilate said, “I find no guilt in him. ” Still, he had to placate those angry folks  outside who Jesus had called every name under the sun.

Pilate had to do something, so then, acting  a bit spineless, he put a question to the crowd, aka, the easily offended angry mob who wanted  Jesus Christ’s mouth canceled once and for all. Pilate asked them, should I crucify  Jesus or this other bloke, Barabbas? Barabbas was also in Roman custody at the time. 

We don’t know what he had done, although in the bible Matthew says that he was “notorious” and  was likely behind a bunch of riots. The Romans hated riots, protests, that kind of thing. The Jewish elders meanwhile had been skulking around the crowd whispering in people’s ears,  saying something like, “Jesus, choose Jesus, that one with the beard and long hair.

Choose  him. He’s bad…Repeat that back to me, ‘Je-s-us’. ” They chose Jesus, even though Barabbas was  arguably a troublemaker of a higher degree.

Pilate was like, damn, but at least he could  kind of blame the crucifixion of an innocent man on the crowd. Now we are sure you appreciate the  term to wash your hands of someone or something. In one account, Pilate looked out at the madding  crowd and shouted, “What should I do with him?

” Like a chant from WrestleMania,  the crowd screamed in unison, “'Crucify him, crucify him, crucify him…” In another account, it says Pilate even thought about releasing Jesus, but that would  have provoked the ire of the elders and basically forced the Roman Emperor to get tough on Pilate  – which will happen anyway, as you’ll see. In this story, a Jewish elder then said to  Pilate, “If you let him go, you disobey Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.

” The elder was basically inferring that taking sides with Jesus would really work out  badly for Pilate. Pilate then went to the crowd again and shouted, “Shall I crucify  your king? ” The chief priests shouted back: “We have no king but Caesar.

” Talk about kissing someone’s behind. The elders probably despised Caesar and  they were actively at odds with pagan beliefs, but anything to get rid of the man who’d  called them out for their hypocrisy. So, now complicit in the murder of Jesus Christ  we have back-stabbing Judas.

We have some slighted Jewish elders. We have a spinless Pilate, who  admittedly, was between a rock and a hard place, and we have the angry mob who Pilate  cravenly asked to make the decision for him. But Jesus was still alive at this point. 

Andwho put the nail in his coffin, so to speak? Who actually, physically  executed Jesus? You can be sure none of the aforementioned folks wanted blood on their  hands, after all, Pilate had just washed his.

Jesus was sentenced to various humiliations before  he met with the dreaded cross, including a hefty amount of scourging. That’s whipping to most of  you, but with a whip embedded with sharpened bits of metal. Some sources say Jesus must have been  close to death after such a vigorous whipping, but he still survived and made it to the cross.

The cross used was likely a cross-beam, as featured in many churches today. Nails  might have been used to hold him in position, although that’s something that’s  also been debated. Various parts of the bible say Jesus said things  on the cross, such as, “I’m thirsty.

” Or, a much more moving account says he said,  “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? ” And then there is arguably the most beautiful  thing he said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing. ” But who were them?

Some of the artistic interpretations  show quite a crowd at the crucifixion, made up of Jesus’s supporters, Roman  soldiers, and as always, that ubiquitous mob. It’s thought that it was Roman soldiers who  drove the nails in, while another soldier may have pierced Jesus’ side. Some of them  were likely still mocking him, saying sarcastically, “Oooh, the king of the Jews.

” One version goes, “When the soldiers had crucified him, they threw lots to decide who would get his  clothes. ” Another says the soldiers played with dice to see who got his clothes. That’s because,  before they killed him, they stripped him.

So, we don’t really know who  delivered the coup de grace. Historians say with so many beatings and whippings  and then the nails, or even without the nails, Jesus would have died of cardiac stress  pretty quickly, or from asphyxiation. As for Pilate, who is usually said to be the man  that killed Jesus, he eventually ended up in court for slaughtering some Samaritans.

Let’s just  say that things didn’t go too well for him once emperor Caligula came to power. His downfall  could have been the work of God’s wrath, but again, that’s just one take on the  long, complex tale that is history. Finally, as this was all God’s plan and  Jesus had, in the end, followed orders, you could blame the death on the father and son.

As they would have said, it was all for a good cause. Now you need to watch the brilliant sequel to this story “Was Jesus Actually Resurrected. ” Or, go  to the dark side with “The Antichrist Explained.