There is obviously one sense, you might say one side of the coin, which shows that every person is guilty for the death of Jesus Christ.  Rebellious mankind’s enmity against God was displayed openly through Christ’s crucifixion.  Since all have sinned, no one can truthfully say that they were never part of the general rebellion against God involved in the murder of Jesus nor can anyone truthfully deny they are in need of the atonement which Jesus accomplished through His death on the cross and offers to us all on a conditional basis.

Isaiah 53:6 says : “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

And Romans 14:9 says: “For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.”

With that said, there is another side of the coin to analyze, another sense in which Jesus was only actually killed by certain people for certain reasons.  

Consider that not everyone present at Jesus’ crucifixion was crying for His blood.  

Luke 23:26-27: “And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.  And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.”

Consider also that even though Christ’s Apostles emphasized the guilt of all people before God, and the urgent need of each person to turn to God in repentance and look to Christ to justify them through the bled which He shed on the cross, they did not speak to those who were not directly involved in the crucifixion of Jesus like they spoke to those who were.  The Apostles did not speak to those in the gentile cities whom they preached to exactly like they spoke to the Jews who had actually witnessed Jesus in person and were present in Jerusalem when He was murdered there.  

The Apostles said the following to the Jews at Jerusalem less than two months after Jesus died and rose again.  

Acts 2:22-24: “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”

The Apostles only spoke to those who were, or who at least might have been among the crowd that crucified Jesus, as if their hands had actually killed Him.

It is notable also that while the Apostles spoke to the Jews outside of Jerusalem as those part of the collective entity which killed Jesus, they didn’t rebuke them for being directly involved in the murder like they did to the Jews at Jerusalem.

Acts 13:27-30 (the Apostle Paul is preaching here at a Jewish synagogue in a distant gentile city): “For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.  And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain.  And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulcher.  But God raised him from the dead…”

Though Jesus was actually directly killed by the Romans through the accusation of the Jews which they made before Pilate that He was a rival king to Caesar, it was the Jews who delivered Him up to the Romans and pressured Pilate to have Him crucified.  

The Jewish rulers were the ones who instigated Jesus’ murder- while the mass of common Jews at Jerusalem caved into the pressure from their rulers to form a mob which in turn pressured Pilate to deliver Jesus over to death at the hands of the Roman soldiers under Pilate’s command.

Mark 15:1-15: “And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate.  And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews?  And he answering said unto them, Thou sayest it.  And the chief priests accused him of many things: but he answered nothing.  And Pilate asked him again, saying, Answerest thou nothing?  behold how many things they witness against thee.  But Jesus yet answered nothing; so that Pilate marveled.  Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired.  And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection.  And the multitude crying aloud began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them.  But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews?  For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy.  But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them.  And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews?  And they cried out again, Crucify him.  Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done?  And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him.  And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.”

To supplement that, in Matthew’s account, we read in Matthew 27:24-26: “When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.  Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.  Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.”

We can see better yet from Luke’s account that the Jews accused Jesus before Pilate of being a political revolutionary against the Roman Empire.

Luke 23:1-5: “And the whole multitude of them arose, and led him unto Pilate.  And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar (my note- that was a blatant lie- Jesus actually directly taught the very opposite), saying that he himself is Christ a King.  And Pilate asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews?  And he answered him and said, Thou sayest it.  Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man.  And they were the more fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place.”

Yet if we go back a little bit, it is obvious that the welfare of the Roman Empire was not actually what caused the Jewish leaders to deliver Jesus to Pilate to be put to death- not even in their official, stated reason for condemning Him as worthy of death among the Jewish council- the Sanhedrin.  This council ruled Israel under Roman rule- yet they had to defer to the Romans in certain matters- including in administering the death penalty.

We read in Mark 14:55-64 (this is preceding the passage from Mark chapter 15 that was looked at earlier- this is when the Jews were among their own council before they led Jesus to Pilate): “And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none.  For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together.  And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.  But neither so did their witness agree together.  And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing?  what is it which these witness against thee?  But he held his peace, and answered nothing.  Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?  And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.  Then the high priest rent (tore) his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses?  Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye?  And they all condemned him to be guilty of death.”

It is also evident that several things which Jesus said and did throughout His three-plus year public ministry among the Israelites provoked certain in His audience to seek to have Him stoned (or thrown off a cliff in the case of the inhabitants of His hometown Nazareth in Luke chapter 4).  Jesus’ murder at the hands of the Jews could have happened well before it did.  Nevertheless, there was a build-up of animosity and tension which made it all the more likely that Jesus would be killed by the Jews- especially as He came to the center of the radar of the national Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and continued to teach publicly.

None of this is taking away from the fact that Jesus died voluntarily through obedience to the Father in order to make the atonement necessary to redeem a special people to Himself.  Yet it is also nevertheless obvious that it became more and more dangerous for Jesus to teach publicly, especially in Jerusalem.  His murder soon became virtually inevitable (as long as He didn’t flee to a sparsely populated area and remain there nor resort to the supernatural deliverance at His disposal which He could have resorted to).

It is especially notable that many Jews wanted to make Jesus their King- but not in truth and righteousness.  

John 6:14-15: “Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.  When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.”

This was right after Jesus had fed the 5,000.  The chapter goes on to show how the same group would pursue Jesus to the other side of the sea in an attempt to obtain more bread.  They were not interested in eternal life.  They were rather wrapped up in their natural interests.  It is also evident and obvious from the historical context of the Gospels that the Jews wanted a deliverer from the Roman rule over the Jews- along with the prosperity and security which they thought would come along with such a deliverance.  

Some blasphemously say that Jesus did not want to be the Jews’ Messiah.  This discounts the fact all of His original disciples were Jews.  He preached Himself as the Messiah, He called people to submit to His Word, and He received worship of Himself as acceptable and proper.  All of this was among the Jews (though there were gentiles also among them which He interacted with; and He was eventually preached to the nations through His disciples which were commanded to teach the nations to observe whatsoever He had commanded them).  

Jesus came as a King and He will return to assume His rightful authority as the King of mankind.  Note this interaction which transpired between Jesus and Pilate in the proceedings leading up to the crucifixion.

John 18:33-38: “Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?  Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?  Pilate answered, Am I a Jew?  Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?  Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence (my note- His kingdom has clearly not arrived yet though its principles must be operating in those who would be His followers in truth- many go astray because they take one of these truths and illogically conclude that it has to exclude the other truth).  Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then?  Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king.  To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.  Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.  Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.”

However, the Jews whom Jesus fled from that wanted to make Him a king back in John chapter 6 did not want Him to be their King according to truth and righteousness.  They wanted Him to be their king according to their natural interests.  

There is strong reason to believe that the Jewish nation as a whole would have received Jesus as the Messiah if He had preached the Zionist doctrine which teaches that Jews have a birthright to their own Jewish state in the land formerly known as Canaan; and if He had also used His divine power to oppose the Romans with the purpose of achieving that goal.

Consider the following moment involved in the events culminating in Jesus being killed.  The Jewish leaders of course already knew before this point that Jesus was not a Zionist.  Yet at this point, Jesus induces a vague confession from highly powerful Jewish leaders that they indeed ought to lose their place and their nation.  He does this through a general parable- and then He proceeds to blatantly apply that parable to them.  

Matthew 21:33-46: “Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.  And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.  Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise.  But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.  But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.  And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew (killed) him.  When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?  They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.  Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?  Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.  And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.  And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke of them.  But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.”

Refusal to be a Zionist and support the alleged right of the ethnic Jews’ to their own sovereign nation was a key factor in Jesus’ killing which occurred through the plotting, false accusation, and pressure of the Jews before the Roman Governor Pilate.  

The Zionist Christians then betray Christ by their Zionist stance and support the crowd which is principally implicated in His murder (in the very endeavor which was one of the key factors in why the Jewish leadership so fiercely opposed Him).  

It is clear then that though it is possible to be an enemy of Jesus Christ and not be a Zionist, it is also the case that faithfully following Jesus Christ and being a Zionist at the same time are diametrically opposed to one another.  

The Zionist Christians need to repent by acknowledging their unconditional support of Israel as enmity against Jesus and forsaking it.  Otherwise, they will end up in hell with the blatant Christ-rejectors, including that segment of them who so especially hate Him and whom they so irrationally justify and show partiality towards.

The Jews who have received Jesus as their King in truth, and who follow Him faithfully, have gotten the message that they cannot place one iota of stock in their natural Jewishness if they are to be in God’s grace.  Every faithful person in the Bible, Old and New Testament, has spoken consistent with this if they have not basically said this directly.  

Matthew 3:1-12 (this is right before Jesus’ public ministry began): “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias (Isaiah), saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.  And the same John had his raiment (clothing) of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat (food) was locusts and wild honey.  Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.  But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bring forth therefore fruits meet (fitting) for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.  And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn (chopped) down, and cast into the fire.  I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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