Don’t allow Christ’s sufferings to be simply a theological concept . Too often we distance ourselves from the suffering’s of Christ. We place blame on Judas or the Jews or the Romans. True, Judas betrayed Christ. He was a zealot with a passion to see Christ take Rome by force and was motivated by greed. Yes, the Jews hated Christ and wanted him killed. They were envious of Christ (Matt 27:18). They were proud, and Jesus threatened their position. He came with authority, and it wasn’t their authority. He humiliated them time and time again as their people followed Him, a nobody, a Galilean. Of course Pilate was no innocent bystander. He was willing to sacrifice Christ so as to preserve his political position. Pilate, Judas, the Jews, they may be the historical figures involved with the death of Christ, but we full well know that they were just actors on the great stage of God’s redemptive story. They are the “servants of your sins, and you are truly the one who strangled and crucified the Son of God through your sins.”[1] John Stott wrote, “Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.”[2]

[1] Luther, Martin. The Complete Works of Martin Luther: Volume 2, Sermons 13-41 (Kindle Locations 3376-3378). http://www.DelmarvaPublications.com. Kindle Edition.

[2] John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 53.