Next week Christians around the globe will spend Good Friday in remembrance of the crucifixion of Jesus. As an Evangelical Christian it troubles me the lie the Jews killed Jesus is still believed by many Christians. Since the 2nd century when church father Justin Martyr proclaimed the Jews would collectively as a people bear the responsibility from generation to generation for killing Jesus, the charge of deicide (the murder of God) has been used by Christians to persecute Jews – think of the crusades, pogroms, expulsions, and ultimately the Holocaust. Though an attempt was made in Vatican II in the declaration of Nostra Aetate to put the lie to rest, it still festers like an infected sore. Bad habits are hard to break.

There are several factors in the gospel accounts and in the historical records that have been overlooked by Christians who still hold Jews responsible for killing Jesus. Here are three:

1.        The Romans and only the Romans controlled capital punishment

During the time of Jesus, Israel was under the occupation of the Imperial Roman authority and was subjected to the policies of the Roman empire – including relinquishing the ability to pass down capital punishment upon criminals.

2.        The Romans were brutal dictators

The Romans were swift and violent against any sign of Jewish uprising – including the hope of a Jewish messiah – and the reality of that threat was ever present. Jesus’ growing popularity among the Jewish people raised the possibility of Roman aggression to a critical level and the Jewish religious leaders were concerned that Rome – if threatened – might not only plunder the nation of Israel but also the holy temple (see John 11:47-48). This fear was realized in the coming years when Rome destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and drove most of the Jews out of Israel.

3.        Pilate was not a saint

In some Christian traditions Pilate and his wife are both beautified as saints. Many Christians view Pilate as an innocent victim who was coerced by Jews into ordering the crucifixion of Jesus. By making Pilate a puppet of Jewish leaders, blaming Jews for the death of Jesus becomes more justifiable.

However, far from being a saint, Pilate was a ruthless barbarian who suppressed one Jewish uprising after another with reckless abandon. The Jewish philosopher Philo said this about Pilate’s reign of terror on the Jews:  “…the briberies, the insults, the robberies, the outrages and wanton injuries, the executions without trial constantly repeated, the ceaseless and supremely grievous cruelty” (Philo, Embassy to Gaius 10.302).

So, who killed Jesus? According to all gospel accounts, Jesus died on a Roman cross.  The fact is that it was Pilate who passed down the sentence of death on Jesus (Luke 23:24) and it was the Roman soldiers who drove the nails in his hands and feet and thrust the spear into his side.

Furthermore, according to Jesus’ own testimony no one could take his life because he gave it willingly, “No one takes it (my life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18). Further still, the entire Christian story of redemption is based on the belief that Jesus’ journey to a Roman cross was in the mind of God before time began declaring that Jesus was, “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). As well, Christian doctrine teaches that God’s purpose in the death of Jesus was to atone for the sin of humanity, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (II Corinthians 5:21).

With these facts in mind, why does the lie the Jews killed Jesus still have life? The lie continues to be immortalized by many Christians in order to place Christianity on a higher moral level than Judaism. By blaming Jews for Jesus’ death, Jesus becomes a non-Jew – a Christian in solidarity with other Christians in opposition to Judaism and Jews. The reality is that Jesus was killed by the Roman’s because he was a Jew.

This Good Friday as Christians solemnly remember the canceling of their sins through Jesus’ willing sacrifice may those in Christendom who continue to falsely blame Jews for the death of Jesus make it a time of humble thanksgiving rather than arrogant blame.