THINK TOGETHER.
Why was Jesus crucified?
READ TOGETHER.
John 19:14-18. 14[Pilate] said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 15They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, 17and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.
Why was Jesus crucified?
In the scripture above, we can see that Jesus was crucified for claiming to be the King of the Jews. Even Pilate called Jesus the king of the Jews – Shall I crucify your king? But the religious leaders would not accept Jesus as their king, would they? They said, We have no king but Caesar. Tiberius Caesar was the emperor or king of Rome, and Pilate’s boss. The religious leaders were reminding Pilate that he might not want to release Jesus as a king that may want to fight against Caesar someday.
So Pilate wanted to crucify Jesus to save his reputation with Caesar.
But there’s more here than just a fear that Jesus will start a war against the Romans (which he wouldn’t do by the way). The Jewish religious leaders were afraid of losing their own power over the people. Jesus has spent the last several years criticizing the religious leaders. He called them snakes and graves full of dead bones. He said that they were hypocrites and actors, that they were blind men trying to lead other blind men. Then you might remember what Jesus did in the Temple (see Day 74). Jesus called what the religious leaders were doing in the Temple sinful and selfish. Yikes!
So the religious leaders wanted to crucify Jesus to keep their power over the Jewish people.
But these are still not the real reason Jesus was crucified, are they? Do you know why Jesus was crucified? Here is how the Apostle Peter explains he crucifixion:
1 Peter 2:24. [Jesus] himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Peter says that Jesus died while bearing all our sins in his body on the tree, the cross. What does that mean? Well, it means that every sin you have ever committed or will ever commit was paid for by Jesus when he died on the cross. Jesus went on to that cross guilty, like us. In dying, he paid the penalty for our sin. Why? So that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. No more guilt, only grace. No more being controlled by our sinful selfishness, instead being controlled by the righteousness and goodness of God. Yay!
Because of Jesus all our sin was paid for on the cross.
With Jesus we aren’t controlled by sin, but by God.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
A few days ago we made Romans 8:1 a family memory verse. Review that verse together. Who can quote it from memory? How does the cross make Romans 8:1 possible?
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, thank you for bearing my sins on the cross. Give me the grace I need to always trust you more than my own selfish desires. Amen.
TLICfamily 