“Let His Blood be on Us and on Our Children”

by Pastor Paul Wolff

From Zion Lutheran Church, Columbus, Ohio

(Matthew 27:15-26)

Now it was the governor’s custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” For he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.

While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”

But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.

“Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor.

“Barabbas,” they answered.

“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?” Pilate asked.

They all answered, “Crucify him!”

“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”

All the people answered, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!”

Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

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Even before Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ” came out in 2004 he received complaints from Jewish groups about the scene where the Pharisees exerted their political pressure on Pontius Pilate to have Jesus crucified. The modern Jewish groups claimed that the words of the Pharisees from Matthew 27:25, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!” would incite anti-Jewish behavior from viewers. Mel Gibson at first tried to alleviate their concerns that he was targeting them for ridicule by saying, “I’ve never met a Pharisee.”

That response was not sufficient because one need not know much history to make the spiritual connection between the modern Jewish religion and their roots in ancient Rabbinical Phariseeism. After further complaints Gibson compromised by removing the captions which read, “Let His blood be on us and on our children” though he left the Aramaic dialogue (for those who understand Aramaic.)

The Crucifixion of Jesus

It is one of many ironies about this scene from the Gospel story that in trying to distance themselves from the ancient Pharisees the modern Jewish groups actually connect themselves very strongly with their ancient forebears. Although the Pharisees were willing and eager to take responsibility for the death of Jesus and the modern Jews are not, both groups are motivated by the same theology, which is that both the ancient Pharisees and the modern Jews reject Jesus as their Messiah.

There is, however, one group of people around today who is willing to take responsibility for the death of Jesus: Christians.

Unlike modern Jews, Christians are not ashamed to say of Jesus, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!” and mean it in every sense of the phrase, including the sense that Jewish groups are so afraid of. The Holy Scriptures explain very well how we are responsible for the death of Jesus and how the blood of Jesus redeems us from our sins:

• “The blood of Jesus [God’s] Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)
• “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? … If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.”(Romans 6: 3, 5)
• “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come? … These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:13-14)

Christians regularly publicly proclaim that they are both individually and corporately responsible for the death of Jesus. We do this every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and every time we have a public confession of sins. In the New Testament St. Paul teaches the Corinthian Christians about the Lord’s supper saying, “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16) The Lutheran Confessions use this verse to show that the body and blood of Christ is truly present in a bodily way in the sacrament. Jesus gives us His body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins and for the strengthening of our faith. St. Paul goes on to teach in 1 Corinthians 11:26, “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” In proclaiming the Lord’s death we are not just saying, “it happened,” but “it happened on account of my sins, and for my salvation.” Jesus wants us to confess our sins so that we might also receive full forgiveness and salvation, so we are bold to admit our complicity and guilt in the death of Jesus. Jesus doesn’t hold our sins against us, but gives everlasting life to all who trust in Him as their savior from sin.

Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)

There is also another teaching in Scripture which would deflect the so-called “blame” for Jesus’ death away from not only the Jewish Pharisees, but also the Gentiles. In John 10:17-18 Jesus Himself says, “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 is shown in the Gospels by the fact that several times people tried to kill Jesus, but until He had completed His work He wouldn’t allow them to lay a hand on Him. The first time this happens is soon after Jesus is born and King Herod sends his troops to Bethlehem to kill Jesus along with all the baby boys in the town. The last time this happens is in the garden of Gethsemane when the soldiers come to arrest Jesus. Before Jesus allows the soldiers to take Him He causes all of them to fall on the ground simply by saying the words “I am” (see John 18:1-11 especially v. 6). Jesus did this to demonstrate that He wasn’t overpowered, but that He went willingly.

This is not to say that we are guiltless. We are all guilty. Our sin makes us enemies of God, and by our very nature we all wish to kill God and put ourselves in His place of power and authority. This is what we do whenever we commit actual sins. When we sin we are exerting our own sinful will against God and trying to push Him out of the way. God knows this very well. In fact, this is the very reason God became incarnate in Jesus Christ in the first place. God knew how hopeless our sinful situation was from before the beginning, so He decided to take care of our salvation Himself and that is just what Jesus did in His life and in His death. This is why Christians are not afraid to both confess our guilt in the death of Jesus, and also to confess our faith that because of His death and resurrection from the dead Jesus has forgiven us all our sins and will give eternal life to all who trust in Him.

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Note: Although I used Mel Gibson’s movie and the surrounding objections as an illustration for this essay I am not unaware of the subsequent accusations of bad behavior on the part of Mr. Gibson. Whether Mel Gibson is anti-Semitic or not is irrelevant to this issue. The scene in question from the “Passion” movie is an accurate representation of the Gospel account from Matthew and neither the scene nor the Gospel of Matthew is anti-Semitic. Even if it turns out to be true that Mel Gibson has sinful feelings against Jews it does not come out in “The Passion of the Christ.” This is proven by the symbolism of Gibson’s cameo appearance in the movie. When Jesus is shown being nailed to the cross it is Mel Gibson’s hands which pound the nails into the hands of the Jesus character. This was Gibson’s way of saying (along with all Christians) “I am responsible for the death of Jesus. My sins caused the death of Jesus, but His death redeemed me of all my sins.”

For further reading: Matthew 27:15-26; 1 Corinthians 10:14-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Revelation 7:13-17; Romans 6:1-10; Hebrews 9:11-28; 1 John 1:5-10.

See also my 2004 newsletter article, “The Passion of Christ”

The Friendly Church vs. the Loving Church

“Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4:4)

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One extremely common truism in American Christianity is that “In order for your church to grow the members must be friendly to visitors.” This is at best a half truth, but as we know – a half truth is a whole lie. What I mean by the “friendly church” is the one that seeks to attract members primarily through their friendliness and not through the Word of God alone. This is not how a church should act. This is how a social club acts.

Holy Scripture never says that we must be friendly above all other considerations. In fact, James shows that “friendship with the world is hatred toward God.” Christ says that we must love our neighbor. Now, you might think that to be friendly is loving, but that is not always true. If a fellow Christian is openly sinning then the “friendly” Church wouldn’t dream of confronting the sinner to call him to repentance. That would seem “unfriendly.” However the loving church wouldn’t hesitate to call the sinner to repentance to save him from destroying himself. Yes, there is the risk that the sinner might become offended and break off the friendship, but it is the nature of love to take that risk in order to save the beloved.

It is no wonder that churches are abandoning their doctrines in order to gain members. They have chosen to be friends with the world rather than followers of Christ. Yes, your social club (I mean, “church”) may grow, but when you seek to gain members by being friendly, you don’t get Christ’s disciples, you get social climbers. The tyranny of filling your church with social climbers is that in order for the institution to continue you must continually keep the social butterflies happy because the minute they aren’t happy they fly off to some other social club more willing or able to slavishly indulge their fleshly desires. In this way the social club (church?) turns their members into idols and spends too much time serving their desires and too little time serving Christ. For the sake of “friendship with the world” many churches would rather be social clubs than call sinners to repentance in order to save their souls.

There are many reasons why church members would rather be friendly than loving, but all of them are sinful. It is much easier to be friendly, but that won’t lead anyone to their salvation in Christ. Loving your neighbor will sometimes make him angry at you. That can’t always be avoided. Sinners often enjoy their sin even when they know it is wrong. The loving Christian is sometimes ridiculed for calling the sinner to repent, even when they do it in the kindest possible way.

This is not to say that the loving church is unfriendly, though sometimes it may be perceived in such a way. The Good Samaritan pictured above would likely be considered friendly, but he was more than that. He not only treated his enemy as a friend, but he did so at considerable personal expense and self-sacrifice. On the other hand, both John the Baptist and Jesus (pictured to the left) lovingly preached God’s Law to unrepentant sinners and were assassinated for their trouble. Neither King Herod nor the Pharisees thought John and Jesus were friendly, but both John and Jesus were willing to die rather than let sinners continue to head toward their destruction unaware. It is likely true that King Herod and many of the Pharisees still continued in their sin to their eternal torment, but others likely repented and found their salvation in Jesus.

Another reason why Christians ought not seek to attract members simply by being friendly is that it is dishonest. Even the best Christians in the best churches are still sinners. There will be conflict and hurt feelings and all sorts of nasty sinful things going on wherever people (i.e. sinners) gather together. The church that intends to cater to the “friendly” crowd must cover up these natural occurrences of sinful human behavior. This is because when we admit we are sinners, even to forgive one another, we admit that we aren’t as good as we would like others to think we are. The loving church, however, deals with sin as if they expect people to sin against one another – even the “best” people! Most often this repentance and forgiveness occurs privately between individuals, but sometimes it must be brought out into the open. It is not unloving to call a sinner to repentance just as it is not unloving to forgive the repentant sinner. In fact, to repent and forgive is exactly why Christ established the church.

The consequences of seeking friendship with the world are also shown in James 4. The people to whom James writes have “quarrels” and “fights” among themselves because their desires are at war within themselves and they seek to indulge their sinful desires rather than control them. James says, “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.” (v. 2-4) This is the state of “church growth” churches in American Christianity (and elsewhere). Pastors desire the big churches so that they can indulge themselves in a luxurious lifestyle such as big homes, fancy cars, etc. Church members ought to reject this worldliness, but they, too enjoy the prestige of belonging to a large, fancy church rather than something more modest.

James warns us that this will end in conflict. Seeking friendship with the world always results in conflict, though the effects are often not seen for a long time. This does not mean that there isn’t conflict from day one. Whenever false teachers come into a church and preach their lies the true believers will resist. The heretics then use various forms of spiritual violence to intimidate and silence the faithful. The “friendly” heretics often try to persuade the faithful that what they are teaching is indeed God’s Will and that by resisting the changes in doctrine and practice the faithful are resisting progress, and maybe even the “progressive” work of the Holy Spirit Himself. If the faithful stubbornly persist in their resistance (as they often do) then the friendly heretic will denounce their views, and maybe even their persons, publicly. If the faithful cannot persuade the congregation that if they follow the friendly pastor they are like the proverbial lemmings running headlong for the cliffs, then the faithful people will get discouraged or tire of the battle and leave quietly.

It’s hard to love and forgive sinners. That is why most people would rather be friendly. Yet, the power of forgiveness is greater than anything that can be gained by friendliness. It wasn’t easy for Jesus to forgive sinners either. In order for Jesus to forgive us it took Him, the Son of God, to become incarnate as a man, live a perfectly obedient life and it took His suffering and death on the cross. If you think that is easy then just imagine what it takes to kill the Son of God! Yet, the life and death of Jesus shows the greatness of God’s love and how important forgiveness is to Him. Jesus doesn’t ask us to suffer the punishment for our sins – He did that in our place – so that He could save us from that same punishment. Since Jesus did this hard work for us, can’t we forgive one another? It isn’t easy, but Jesus did the hard work, and when we forgive we show that we, too have been forgiven.

Click here to listen to the Issues Etc. Blog of the Week segment from May 28, 2010

Carrying Your Cross

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Matthew 16:24-25

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Remember that when Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” the “cross” was not some sanitized, gold-plated piece of fashionable jewelry. The cross was a horrifying symbol of a tortuous, shameful death. So, what Jesus was saying was that to be a Christian is to embrace that which brings you shame and death in this world.

This is a far cry from the idea that to be one of God’s people means peace and prosperity in this world. The Pharisees taught that worldly prosperity was a sign of God’s favor and poverty and disease was a sign of God’s disfavor or even wrath. The present day descendants of the Pharisees still teach these lies, and I’m not only referring to the Jewish descendants of the Pharisees, but also those “christians” who teach the same thing. This teaching* is one of the main reasons why the Pharisees rejected God and conspired to kill Jesus – they were afraid to take up their cross and follow Jesus.

Christians are not afraid to take up their cross because we do not fear death nor shame. We do not seek shame and death, but neither do we seek to save our own lives or seek our own comfort in the face of persecution (except in our sin.) Because of Jesus neither death nor shame has any power over us.

The death and resurrection of Jesus has destroyed the power that death has over those who trust in Him for forgiveness and salvation. Death cannot harm us because even if we die Jesus will raise us up and give us a perfect life which has no end. Likewise, the shame of putting our trust in a savior who was crucified, died, and was buried is completely overwhelmed by Christ’s promise that in the last judgment He will stand upon the earth in all His divine glory and proclaim that all who belong to Him through faith are completely forgiven and blessed forever. When God calls you forgiven and blessed, then all the shame of sin is gone forever, and no one can say anything against you.

* See first comment below.