Why Did They Crucify Jesus?

If Jesus didn’t do anything illegal or immoral, why did they crucify him?

Let’s put ourselves in the place of a Pharisee:

You, the Pharisee, have studied and practiced Jewish law your entire life. (Scripture 1. – Paul as a Pharisee) You are well respected in the Jewish community. People admire you greatly and you are an avid spiritual leader. People look up to you for guidance. You’ve worked hard all your life to obey all the Jewish laws and traditions. You often pray boldly. You are the picture of godliness and righteousness, which is well earned and deserved.

There is a rumor going around that a man named Jesus, from Nazareth, is preaching and stirring up people. Though he is just a carpenter from a low income family, you are hearing that he is performing miracles and is attracting a lot of people. He is claiming to be the messiah. There is a significant number of people following him. So it is your duty to go and check him out. You believe he is a fake and you want to stop him.

Jesus’ Teachings: – Why Did They Crucify Jesus?

You find Jesus and listen to what he is teaching. He is teaching horrible things about you (Pharisees in general). He is humiliating you and he is going as far as to tell the crowd of people that you are snakes, and hypocrites, condemned to hell. (Scripture 2. – Jesus Spoke About Pharisees). You are so insulted. He must be stopped!

You struggle with catching this man in an unlawful act so you can arrest him. He has so many followers that hang on his every word. You are afraid that the large crowd of followers will attack you if you try to arrest him (Scripture 3. – Pharisees Plot to Arrest Jesus). You must find a way to catch him alone, with only his few disciples, so you can arrest him.

Finally, you get a break when one of Jesus’ disciples agrees to turn Jesus in for money (Scripture 4. – Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus). You were finally able to arrest him, but now you have another problem. You must somehow convince the government officials to crucify him. Much to your delight, all of Jesus’ followers and disciples scattered and denied him. You were able to round up a crowd of people that would protest to crucify Jesus. It took some time and effort, but you did succeed and Jesus was crucified.

Finally, Jesus is dead:

You thought your problems were over, but now that Jesus is dead, you have even worse problems. Jesus’ followers and disciples are gathering and preaching and performing miracles in Jesus’ name. Now even ordinary people suddenly have this power. And this movement is moving so fast. Thousands of people are joining this movement every day (Scripture 5. -Believers in Christ’s Resurrection Grew Fast). It is out of control. You (the Pharisees) put forth a lot of effort to stop this to no avail. It’s too strong; too big; too powerful.

Conclusion: – Why Did They Crucify Jesus?

So the Pharisees missed it. They didn’t realize that loving and serving is so much more important than following and obeying the laws. They let their pride and self-righteousness get in the way. What about you? Are you prideful? I know I struggle a bit with that and I see a lot of pridefulness in people these days.