Ephesians 1:7-8a “ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.” Today's episode talks about the fact that we are all responsible for Jesus' death. He died for our sins, each and every one of us and that means we share in the responsibility of his death. This time of year is a good opportunity to take a look at our lives and see if we are doing things in our day to day lives that are still hurting Jesus. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Who Is Responsible For Jesus’ Death?
Ephesians 1:7-8a “ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.”
During Holy Week the fact that Christ died for our sins is on the top of our minds. As we go through the week we are all anticipating Good Friday, which is only Good Friday now that we know what happened and why it happened. Back when it happened, no one was calling it good Friday. It was a day filled with complete and utter sadness. The Savior, the Messiah had been murdered. How could that be? It was not only heart breaking, it was confusing. Why didn’t He save Himself? He helped all those people over the last three years, he brought Lazarus back from the dead, why couldn’t He just come down off of the cross? No one understood, no one heard Him when He told them what was going to happen. It definitely did not feel like a “Good Friday.”
The reason we celebrate it as “Good Friday” is because we understand why Jesus had to die on the cross. We understand His passion for a greater purpose. We understand that the Jewish chief priest and elders were not responsible for Jesus’ death. We understand that Pontius Pilate and the Romans were not responsible for Jesus’ death. We understand that Judas is not responsible for Jesus’ death. Jesus died on a cross because that it was He was sent here to do. Jesus died on a cross to redeem us from original sin and reunite us with our heavenly Father. Jesus came to fulfill the Father’s plan.
I have been listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast with Father Mike. I am learning to so much about who God is, who Jesus is, who the Holy Spirit is. I am also learning a lot of about what the Catholic Church actually says about a lot of things as I think the world can kind of take what they think the church is saying and then get it all twisted up. Father Mike said he was talking to a man one time that was really upset because the man said Catholics blame the Jews for Christ’s death and yet Christ dying was a good thing because He saved us from our sins. So why do we blame the Jews when it was a good thing? Father Mike explained that we do not blame the Jewish people for Christ’s death. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which spells our exactly what the Catholic Church believes, #598 says, “In her magisterial teaching of the faith and in the witness of her saints, the church has never forgotten that "sinners were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings that the Divine Redeemer endured." Taking into account the fact that our sins affect Christ himself, the church does not hesitate to impute to Christians the greatest responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus, a responsibility with which they have all too often burden the Jews alone: we must regard as guilty all those who continue to relax into their sins since our sins made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross, those who plunge themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the son of God a new in their hearts (for he is in them) and hold him up to contempt. And it can be seen that our crime in this case is greater in us than in the Jews as for them, according to the witnesses of the apostle, "none of the rulers of this age understood this for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.” We, however, profess to know him. And when we deny him by our deeds, we in someway seem to lay violent hands on him. St. Francis of Assisi said, “Nor did demons crucify him; it is you who have crucified him and crucify him still, when you delight in your vices and sins.”
This really hit me when I heard it. I have heard many people say the Jewish people killed Jesus. I would always say, yes, some did, but not all of them. However, I never really thought of it like this. I never thought of us all having a part in it because Jesus died for our sins, all of our sins, every single person on the the planet, past, present and future. None of us can escape responsibility for it. I don’t know that our responsibility for His death should be our focus. I don’t know that we should focus more on that than the fact that He died to release us, to set us free from sin. I think when we think of Jesus dying on the cross we should celebrate what He did for us. Our freedom came at such a high cost. I think the fact that He took our sins with Him to the cross and that sin no longer has dominion over us is definitely where we should focus our thoughts.
However, I do think it would be good to take some time every now and then, especially during Holy Week, and examine your behaviors. Take a look at your life and your choices. Are you continuing to crucify Christ daily with your choices? I have been thinking a lot about what St. Francis said, “Nor did demons crucify him; it is you who have crucified him and crucify him still, when you delight in your vices and sins.” We all talk about how horrible the crucifixion was. We talk about how amazing it is that Jesus died for our sins, but what an awful experience. That pain and that suffering is nothing we would ever want anyone to go through again. And yet, St. Francis is saying when we continue to delight in our sins we crucify him still. That is powerful to me. Maybe it is just the Holy Spirit convicting me, maybe that is not resonating with you or sticking with you. I hope that is the case. However, I felt moved to share it with you in case it did resonate. In case it did cause you to stop and think about the various ways you may be delighting in your vices or your sins.
Lent is a time when we usually stop and take a look at our vices. We see which ones we want to take a break from for the 40 days of Lent. We examine our lives and how we want to live differently during Lent. Maybe we are being called to live differently every day and not just during lent. Do we have vices or sins that we need to give up once and for all and not keep turning back to them? Are we doing things on a regular basis that are causing Jesus more pain that we need to? Can we stop these things? Yes, I know we can stop these things if we choose to because Jesus defeated sin when He died on the cross. Sin no longer has dominion over us. If we partner with God to give up our vices, to give up our sins, He will help us. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!
This episode is not too make you feel guilty. I am not saying you alone are responsible for Christ’s death on a cross. We all, as a human race are responsible because He died for our sins, each and every one of us. The point is not to feel guilty, the reason I shared this with you is so that we can all take a look at our lives and see the things that we may still be doing on a consistent basis that are continuing to hurt Jesus. The first step in changing anything is to be aware something needs to change. This is why I felt compelled to share this with you. If you heard what St. Francis said you and felt convicted to change something, great! If you didn’t, that is great too. God puts on our hearts what He wants us to work on. If you didn’t feel compelled to change anything then that is great. This may not be an issue for you. I know it resonated with some of you though. I know it did with me too.
Dear Heavenly Father, I pray you bless everyone listening to this episode today. Lord, please put on our hearts any recurring sins you want us to change. Please put on our hearts any ways we are not showing up in the best way we can. Lord, we thank you for sending your Son to die on a cross for us. We know it wasn’t easy and it came at great cost to you. We love you Lord, you are amazing. We thank you for taking away our sin and the hold that sin had over us. We ask you Lord to help us remember that sin no longer has dominion over us. Help us to remember we are stronger than our desires. Help us to remember, just because we want it doesn’t mean we have to have it. Help remind us of the strength and power we have because you are within us. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy and powerful name, Amen
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I am so excited to bring you a witness tomorrow from my mother in law. She was brave enough to step out in courage and share two witnesses about two different times when God showed up for her. I know you will love it! I look forward to bringing that to you tomorrow. Remember Jesus loves you and so do I! Go out and celebrate life today!