You Killed Jesus
This Holy Week, do not let the Christ child walk alone
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“With loud shouts, however, they persisted in calling for his crucifixion, and their voices prevailed.”
Luke 23:23
In the light of Palm Sunday, we go from Jesus being heralded to Jesus being crucified. His glorious entry into Jerusalem becomes the tomb of His demise. How could the same people who loved Him, ushered Him in, and welcomed Him become the same people that hated him, shunned Him, and handed Him over to death?
It has always perplexed me how we go from reading the story of the Lord’s triumphant procession on Palm Sunday to his betrayal, torture, and ultimately his crucifixion. How quickly our loyalties can change. The godman who was celebrated and heralded as He seemingly ushered in the Kingdom of God was now the subject of the crowds’ ire. We could sit back like Peter and say, “Lord, I am prepared to go to prison and die with you.” We think that when the time comes to do hard things for Jesus that we will do them without hesitation. But as Jesus reminds us, we are very human.
In the same breath that Peter pledges His undying love for Jesus, is the same breath He uses to deny Him.
We can sit back and say that it is the “others” who crucify our Lord. We can blame any number of groups of people, but dare we look inward to blame ourselves.
How many times have we left Jesus on the cross to die alone? We did not honor our parents. We did not pray for our enemies. We chose not to forgive. How in the world will they ever know we are Christians if we have become like the world? Jesus looks down from the cross and says those words to us, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
We are the ones that killed Jesus. We’ve betrayed Him and denied Him. We have watched His beating. We have sat idly by as He was spat upon and mocked. Because we want to call ourselves Christian but we do not want to walk through Calvary. We do not want to take the way of the cross. So we let Jesus walk it alone.
The good news is that you have time. Time to repent, time to change your mind. You have time to follow Jesus.
As we enter Holy Week, think about these things. When have you betrayed Him, denied Him, chosen not to heed His will and calling for your life? Instead of going through this most Holy week as a mere observer, place yourself in that crowd of sinners. Because you are one.
Let that humility lead you to Calvary.
Keep watch of His precious ones for Him. Tell someone you know Him. Stand up for the oppressed who are Him.
Do not be a spectator on the road to Calvary, be a participant.
I believe your interpretation of the crowd on Palm Sunday is the most common, but Pope Benedict XVI differs in his exegesis in the second volume of his Jesus of Nazareth series writing:
"All three Synoptic Gospels, as well as Saint John, make it very clear that the scene of Messianic homage to Jesus was played out on his entry into the city and that those taking part were not the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but the crowds who accompanied Jesus and entered the Holy City with him.
This point is made most clearly in Matthew’s account through the passage immediately following the Hosanna to Jesus, Son of David: “When he entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying: Who is this? And the crowds said: This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee” (Mt 21:10–11). (Joseph Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth: Part Two: Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2011), 8.)
Pope Benedict XVI's exegesis of the Gospels passages brings about an astute observation, which crowd do you find yourself in? Are you coming into the Holy city with Jesus as your king or are you in the Holy City of Jerusalem scandalized by the commoner riding on the poor man's beast annoyed at the marginalized crowd coming into Jerusalem? It's even deeper when theologians throughout the centuries have interpreted Jerusalem as the Church.