Crucify Him

Perhaps there are no more haunting words ever spoken than the cry of the chief priests and the officers when they chanted, “Crucify him, crucify him.” One must read these words through the lens of the entire Gospel of John in order to feel their weight. The one to whom this chant of death was recited was not just an innocent man, he was the innocent man. The writer John has gone out of his way to demonstrate not only the holiness and spiritual vitality of Jesus, but much more the greatness of his nature, the Word become flesh, Emmanuel—God with us.
What do we do with the barbaric words of the chief priests that led to the death of our messiah? Are we to pass them off as some great mistake of history, some foolish error made by some religious zealots back then?

The Christian testimony of faith begins with a deep acknowledgment of one's own sinfulness. Most Christians very rarely take the time to consider the depth of their depravity. This is evidenced by the ongoing absence of real confession in many Christian's lives. The Biblical picture of our condition before saving faith in Christ, is that of spiritual slavery and death. We were rebels to God, through and through. Every thought was tainted by rebellion. Every deed was tarnished by treason. Every prayer was harnessed in treachery.

The Puritan author Thomas Boston offers a doleful description of our condition outside of Christ. "As in a dunghill every part contributes to the corruption of the whole, so the natural man, while in this state, grows still worse and worse… every faculty of the soul serves to corrupt another more and more.” We are far more sinful than we ever dared imagine.

As we consider the cry of these chief priests to crucify the one innocent one who came to set the captives free, we must hear our own treason in their voice. They are easy to condemn because they are so far removed from us. It is always simpler to cast evil upon some villain who stands at a distance. It is far more difficult to see the villainy in ourselves. But this is the true starting point of Christianity. It is only when we not only accept this truth in an intellectual sense, but much more importantly feel this truth at an emotional sense, that the full beauty of the Gospel begins to penetrate our souls.

Christ died for enemies like us. It is through the cross that the enemy—every true Christian— is adopted as a son and daughter, and the rebel is made an honored knight in the glorious Kingdom of God. We must see ourselves, standing among the chief priests chanting, “crucify him,” if we are to experience the full weight of what it means to be loved by God.