Who Killed Jesus?
Good Friday| Luke 22-23; Isaiah 52:13-53:12| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| April 18, 2025
Who killed Jesus? Well, the Romans did, right? Pilate may have washed his hands saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” (Matthew 27:24), yet he himself said that he had authority to put Christ to death or set Him free (John 19:10), and it was he who wrote the charge against Christ, which hung above His head on the cross, “This is Jesus, King of the Jews.” It was the Romans who mocked Jesus, beat Him, crowned Him with thorns, nailed Him to the cross, and stabbed His side with the spear. Certainly, the Romans are guilty of Jesus’ death.
Yet, the Romans’ guilt does not exonerate the Jews. Despite what many radical Zionists say today, it is not antisemitic to state the fact that the Jews killed Jesus. It was the Jews, who under orders of the chief priests arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was the Jews who brought Him to Pilate saying that He deserved death and accused Him of countless crimes. The Jews cried for Barabbas’s release while they shouted for Jesus to be crucified. And Jesus prophesied that the Jews would kill Him. He told the parable of the vineyard, where the tenants killed the son of the owner of the vineyard when he sent him to collect his fruit (Matthew 21:33-46). The vineyard was Jerusalem. The tenants were the Jewish religious leaders. Christ is the son, whom they killed and threw out of the vineyard. The Jews are the builders who rejected the stone, which became the cornerstone (Matthew 21:42). Christ is the stone. And St. Peter told the chief priest and Sanhedrin to their faces, “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging Him on a tree.” (Acts 5:30). So, it is an historical and biblical fact that the Jews killed Jesus. Yet, it is also important theologically. First, so that you may know that the Jewish religion is a false religion, which rejects the teaching of Jesus and of the prophets of the Old Testament who foretold His coming. You do not come closer to God by following the manmade rules of the Jewish Rabbis today. Their teachings do not bring you closer to the God of the Old Testament. Second, so that you may know that one is not a member of the people of God by blood, but through faith in Christ, because God makes no distinction between Jews and Gentiles, but they are all saved through faith in Christ. That God’s own chosen people killed His Son should strike terror in your heart, so that you do not trust at all in the flesh, but only in God’s promises according to the Spirit.
Yet, much more important than the fact that both the Romans and the Jews killed Jesus is the next culprit. Who killed Jesus? You killed Jesus. Yes, you are guilty of Jesus’ murder. There is no one you can blame more for Jesus’ death than yourself. This is what the prophet Isaiah writes for us, “Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6) He had no sin, yet your sins brought Him guilt and killed Him.
He sweat drops of blood in the garden for the guilt you should feel for your sins. Jesus’ back was flogged until raw, because you have turned your back on your God-given responsibilities. Jesus’ head was crowned with thorns, because wicked thoughts pollute your mind. Jesus was clothed in a purple robe and mocked, because your pride in yourself is laughable in the sight of God. Jesus’ hands were pierced with nails, because with your hands you have carried out evil. Jesus’ feet were nailed to the cross, because with your feet you ran to do wickedness. Jesus’ tasted bitter gall and sour wine, because out of your mouth you have spewed vitriol and slander against your neighbor. Jesus was struck in the face, because you refused to turn the other cheek as He taught. His ears heard the mock and scorn of the people, because your ears have itched to hear praise about yourself and slander about others. His eyes looked upon Peter who denied Him, because your eyes have looked upon that which is forbidden to you with filthy longing. And His side was pierced with the spear, because out of your heart have come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, and slander (Matthew 15:19).
And this teaches you to rightly meditate on Christ’s passion for sins. He suffers for your sins. So, how ought you think of your sins? You should think of your sins as the most offensive thing. Are you upset that men struck Jesus in the face, lied about Him, spit on Him, and nailed Him to a tree? Then be upset at yourself. You have done this. As that great hymn states, “Whence come these sorrows, whence this mortal anguish? It is my sins for which Thou, Lord, must languish; Yea, all the wrath, the woe, Thou dost inherit, this I do merit.” (O Dearest Jesus, LSB 439:3)
Connecting your own sins to Jesus’ suffering benefits you in two ways. First, so that you may learn to mourn your sins and repent of them. Use Christ’s suffering that you may, as another hymn teaches you, view sins nature rightly, and its guilt may estimate (Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted, LSB 451:3). Your sins are worse than you think. Do not trust in your own righteousness. Plead guilty to God and ask Him for forgiveness. Second, connecting your sins to Christ’s suffering may teach you to resist temptation. When you see the grief your sins cause Jesus, that when you satisfy the lusts of your flesh, you are scourging and piercing Christ’s flesh, then you learn to put your sinful flesh to death every day, to be crucified with Christ instead of gratifying sins desires (Galatians 2:20; 5:24). This is what our hymn of the month last month taught us, “Should some lust or sharp temptation Fascinate my sinful mind, Draw me to Your cross and passion, And new courage I shall find. Or should Satan press me hard, Let me then be on my guard, Saying ‘Christ for me was wounded,’ That the tempter flee confounded.” (Jesus, Grant That Balm and Healing, LSB 421:2).
Yet, your meditation on Christ’s passion is not complete if you simply blame the Romans and Jews and even yourself. There is a greater and more important cause of Jesus’ suffering and death than even your sins, which you must be made aware of, lest you die in despair. Who killed Jesus? God killed Jesus. “It was the will of the Lord to crush Him. He has put Him to grief.” (Isaiah 53:10) And why would God do such a thing? Kill His own Son, whom He has loved from eternity? “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.” (Romans 5:9-10) And as Jesus says in John 3, ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” (vs. 16)
God killed Jesus. He did not need to do this. Your sins had no claim on Christ, they could not harm Him or shed His blood, unless God willed for Him to die for them. Jesus explains this eternal plan of God’s love in John 10, “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.” (vss. 17-18) Jesus laid down His life, so that He might give us abundant life.
So, when you meditate on Jesus’ suffering, when you see what your sins have done to Him, you should see what God has done for your sake. If God puts your sins on Jesus, that means that He has taken them off of you, so that you do not need to bear them. Martin Luther explains it in this way in his sermon on Christ’s passion, “When man perceives his sins in this light and is completely terror-stricken in his conscience, he must be on his guard that his sins do not thus remain in his conscience, and nothing but pure doubt certainly come out of it; but just as the sins flowed out of Christ and we became conscious of them, so should we pour them again upon Him and set our conscience free.”
God wants you to recognize that your sins caused Jesus’ pain, so that you repent of them. But God does not want you to take your sins off Jesus and place them on your conscience. Rather, God wants you to take your sins from your conscience and place them on Jesus, so that He may take them away and give you a perfectly clear conscience, that is, peace with God!
When you meditate on Christ’s suffering on Good Friday, you must meditate on God’s love for you. This is the greatest cause of Jesus’ death. God raised up the Romans for this very purpose. The Jews would have had not opportunity to harm Jesus had He not permitted them to arrest Him. Even Satan and Judas who invited him into his heart could not have bruised Jesus’ heel or betrayed Him unless God permitted it for His greater purpose. And if God would decree that His blameless Son take the blame of your sin, how much must He love you? How willing must He be to forgive you? If He had His Son die for that which kills you, how much must He desire for you to live eternally? How much ought you to trust in Him and hold fast to Him in faith and love? May our meditation of God’s love for us not end tonight, but may we meditate on this always, so that our sin does not overwhelm us and so that we may always find ourselves in God’s love. Amen.