Who Is To Blame?

VIII.WHO IS TO BLAME?

I know, at this point it sounds like Caiaphas and the rest of the Sanhedrin are to blame for putting Jesus on the cross, right? First, let me finish telling of getting Jesus to the cross in the first place, then I'll tell you who is responsible, flat out.

Jesus is now returned before Pilate from being flogged within an inch of his life, his clothing back on him and looking mostly dead. Pilate thinks this swill change the crowd's mind and they will decide to free Jesus and choose to send Barabbas to death instead.

He couldn't be more wrong or shocked. The crowd, now getting to be an unruly mob thanks to the priests' influence, shout out for Jesus, “Crucify Him!” and “You're no friend of Caesar if you let him go because no one who says he's a King speaks against Caesar!” Pilate, fearing an uprising, decides for the easy way out, but, as he does so, he gets a basin of water and before the assembled crowd, washes his hands as he proclaims, “Fine. I shall have Jesus crucified, but I was my hands of the matter. I am innocent of this man's innocent blood.”

The unruly crowd responds, “Fine! Then let his blood be on our heads and on the heads of our children!” And with that, Pilate sends Jesus away to be crucified.

Now. Who is to blame? According to Opus Dei, the secret organization and radically orthodox wing of Roman Catholics, it's clearly the Jews' fault thanks to this part of the Passion of the Christ. But if you keep reading, Pilate still sends Christ to the cross, too, even though he didn't have to agree with the mob. He had the power. And he's a Gentile. And the Romans end up doing all the torture to Christ. So, who's to blame?

Simply put, WE ALL ARE. ALL of mankind. Because we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We ALL put Christ on that cross. The Jews communicated the sentence. The Gentiles facilitated the sentence. It's EVERYBODY'S fault – past, present, and future.

However, what the Jewish crowd DID do was apply a spiritual law. “...The sins of the father will be visited upon unto even the fourth generation.” (Ex. 20:5, Ex. 34:7, Num. 14:18)