What caused them to kill Jesus?

Our daily avoidance of God's promptings hints at Jesus' murder

How far must anyone turn from God to want to kill him?

It’s hard to imagine ourselves boldly standing opposed to God. Much less to string him up and kill him.

Image by Engin Akyurt

If seen from another perspective—that of the murderers of Jesus—we might relate to the dangers that God brings to our lives. It may not sound right when we say it out loud or write it out, but sometimes we’re afraid and even feel forced to avoid God. We’re not trying to kill him, but we’re not always his loyal friends.

I’m unsure about the math on this, but I assume that most of us end up with carefully concocted lifestyles in which we secretly ignore the Holy Spirit’s whispers, shrug off Jesus’ warnings, and tire of the Father’s admonitions. God can be annoying, disturbing, and even exhausting when we’re busy devising our plans.

Yes, it does sound awful. Sheesh. A typical writer’s trick is to ask, “Is it just me?”

No, we’re not alone. That’s both good news and tragic truth. We all have the propensity to avoid God.

The love of money and power moved some powerful Pharisees to decide upon Jesus’ death, which translated into them stopping a competitive, upstart religious movement. In conference meetings, the leaders cite the law and Jesus’ arrogance, but their pompous lifestyle stands out as a large part of the motivation for their worry, driven by the lower classes following him in droves.

Some others cited Jesus’ preaching that he was the Son of God as his death sentence. Blasphemy deserved an execution. According to institutional minds, Jesus twisted scripture from its primary Hebraic purpose as a behavioral management tool into a chaotic restructuring of servants and masters.

Judas’ chagrin with Jesus seemed to focus on Jesus' impending failure to pull off a military revolution, which needed funding and resources. The charismatic rabbi wasn’t dangerous enough for the apostles' financial officer. Since Jesus was undoubtedly going to be killed anyway, the best Judas could do was make some money off the misguided fellow’s death.

Three coinciding dramas in Isaiah 42:1–4 help explain these three angered groups of people that concluded Jesus must die. Contrast the political (Pharisees), social (Scribes), and economic (Zionists) elements (boiling among Israel’s elites) with Jesus’ otherworldly mission prophesied by Isaiah: “He will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.”

Biblical dictionaries define Jesus’ mission of “justice” as “uplifting the righteous and oppressed and debasing the unrighteous and oppressors” (The Lexham Bible Dictionary). Justice is a primary driver in Isaiah’s writing and captures everything that Jesus stood for—ending death's grip on creation with the crucifixion and his resurrection, thereby affirming God’s authority to restore everything by joining us as a human being.

Isaiah proposed three caveats to Jesus’ proclamation of justice—an extension of justice from the Chosen People to the global population—which I think fit neatly into the deathly steps taken by the Pharisees, the Scribes and other leaders, and the Zionist revolution’s goals envisioned by Judas.

Jesus was deferential and did not force followers to love him. Second, humility formed his demeanor. Finally, truth, rather than slogans and hyperbole, stood on its own.

• Isaiah said the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, “will not contend or cry out.” Though blunt with the Pharisees, Jesus did not lobby the Sanhedrin in any way. He called them vipers, clearly stating who he was—“I am,” he said—but he did not gather voting blocs nor attempt to stack the 72 seats with his supporters.

• Adding to the carefulness of Jesus’ mission, Isaiah prophecied that no one would “hear his voice in the streets.” On Palm Sunday, Jesus claimed kingship of another kingdom that would transform creation by parading down the hallowed avenues of Jerusalem. He sat quiet, unadorned, and humble upon a donkey—not exactly the pomp and circumstance of a conquering king or warrior knight.

• Finally, Isaiah presented the two-fold goals common to budding revolutions. That is, finding weaknesses in government and forming allies with others. Jesus did not do that. “A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench.” Jesus did not strike like a shark smelling blood in the water, nor did he inhibit the attempts of rival, underground military revolutions. His mission didn’t develop backroom manipulations or smear campaigns, and Jesus did not mount opportunistic strategies or join other camps.

How about us? Do we contend and cry out rather than trust in God? Do we exalt our roles and missions for attention and glory? Do we form alliances to usurp authorities and partner with rogue efforts to strengthen our cause?

I’m afraid we do all three of those things. When self-centered, we move away from collaboration with God, then wave off his involvement, and when we can’t avoid him, we simply limit God’s role in our lives.

It’s not a stretch to be annoyed with God when he allows us to fail, flail, and make fools of ourselves. That was Jesus’ entire life. What God did with Jesus is no different from what he will do with us if we allow him. Sure, we have miracles and even huge successes. But we get the bear with the honey.

It’s frightening when we don’t allow God to use us, but we’re frightened even when we do! The difference is that collaborating with God furthers a mission to uplift the righteous and oppressed while debasing the unrighteous and oppressors. With God, we’re in a winning circle from the outset. Without God, we get temporary results, at best, and likely cheat to make headway. Fright is why God must tell us over and over again. “Do not be afraid.” He doesn’t say that because we’re not afraid!

Uplifting the righteous and oppressed is often what we’re all about anyway. Many people's mission is to uncover and debase the unrighteous and oppressors, which likely includes finding out that we’re members of the unrighteous and eventual oppressors of some other group of people.

Annoyance at a fetus has caused millions of deaths, along with the elderly costing too much money to keep them alive, and relegating the destitute to a deathly end on our city streets.

It’s God’s job to deal with the unrighteous and the oppressors. If he uses us to do that, we want to be darn sure that it’s God recruiting us and not the devil.

Take the fright head-on, knowing God is with us, using us for his purposes, and has honey for us here to salve our wounds.