Jesus Was Not Murdered!

When Mel Gibson's film about Jesus’ last 12 hours—The Passion of the Christ—came out, someone remarked, “It's a real torture film. The whole film just revolves around the senseless torture of Jesus. I think it's terrible to watch someone dying such a senseless death. What’s the point? I am really upset. How can they kill nice people in such a completely useless way!”

The crucifixion evokes this reaction in many people—a pathetic figure who has died a senseless death. Someone undergoing his tragic fate for no reason at all; a man being beaten to bits on a cross. This is the fate of those who call themselves “King” in the emperor’s realm—they nail Him to a cross like a king without clothes, a pathetic display the world does not want.

For unbelievers, the Passion is nothing more than a fantasy story. For Muslims, it’s a sham; according to the Quran, someone else was martyred and crucified in Jesus' place. There are even those who claim that Judas Iscariot, not Jesus, ended on the cross.

It is important to realize that Jesus was in complete control in the last 18 hours of his life. He was not a Jewish martyr who went to the cross with courage and despair. Nor did God put his Son to death, but prepared Him in detail for those last 18 hours.

The evangelist John testifies that Jesus knew all that would come upon Him (see John 18:4). Six months before His death, God sent Moses and Elijah from heaven to prepare Jesus for the end of His life that He would accomplish in Jerusalem (see Luke 9:30-31). They discussed step by step what would happen, both the severe suffering and the joy that lay before Him (see Isaiah 53:10, Hebrews 12:2).

Then, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said to a confused Peter, “All this happens so that the writings of the prophets may be fulfilled” (Matthew 26:56, NIV). He knew the prophecies foretold His death.

Jesus' followers were convinced that God Himself had written the script of events that took place at Golgotha. After Jesus' resurrection, Peter pointed this out to the people of Jerusalem, where all this had taken place. His words are recorded in the Bible: “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross” (Acts 2:22-23, NIV).

Peter told the people of Jerusalem that God was in complete control of what happened at Golgotha and left nothing to chance. You could say that every scene was set by royal decree, like a heavenly script. Every action of the Jews and the Romans was willed and inspired by God.

Since everything went according to God’s will, The cruel Roman governor, the corrupt high priest Caiaphas, and the Roman soldiers were merely puppets in God's hands. Pilate tried to release Jesus, telling the Jewish leaders He was innocent three times.

But Jesus? He remained silent. Pilate could not stomach this. “‘Do you refuse to speak to me?’ he said. ‘Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?’ Jesus answered, ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above’” (John 19:10-11, NIV).

The powerful Pilate was merely a puppet in God's hands. It was God's plan for Jesus—the innocent lamb—to willingly lay down his life and rise from the dead three days later.

Jesus' death on the cross is not something that happened to Him by accident or was forced upon Him by others. Jesus was not like one of the many freedom fighters in this world, who are eventually overpowered and die for their beliefs and actions. Jesus did not lose control and neither was He assassinated. They did not kill my Jesus.

The Jewish leaders and the Roman soldiers were not even able to capture Him, because Jesus was completely in control. He gave himself over to them. Jesus Himself was very clear about this when He said publicly, one week before He died, “No one can take it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” (John 10:18, NIV).

It wasn’t Judas, but Jesus himself—our high priest—who led the lamb to the altar. This became clear when Judas came in the middle of the night with about 200 heavily-armed soldiers to capture Jesus. John describes this in John 18:4: “Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, ‘Who is it you want?’” If Jesus asks a question, it is not because He does not know the answer—He does so because He wants us to learn something. So when the soldiers answer Him, “Jesus of Nazarth,’” Jesus replies, “‘...I am he’” (John 18:7-8, NIV). The supernatural power that throws these men to the ground is in Jesus’ answer.

So much power came from those words, they all recoiled and fell to the ground (see verse 6). What a display of power. They can’t even capture Jesus.

Jesus is saying Ego eimi (“I am”). These are the same words God used to reveal Himself to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3:14: “I am who I am.” Just as Moses could not get closer to the burning bush, the soldiers could not get closer to Jesus. He is completely in control of the situation.

One of the most important prophecies about the death of Jesus is found in Psalm 34, which says: “The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken” (Psalm 34:19-20, NIV).

Why is this prophecy so important? What does it matter if Jesus' legs were broken or not?

Let me explain. At the end of this bloody day, the Jewish leaders asked Pilate to end the crucifixion. At six o'clock, the great Sabbath of the Passover would begin. The bodies of those crucified had to be removed before then, so they asked Pilate to end the crucifixion by breaking the lower legs of the condemned with an iron rod. This was called crurifragium, literally the “leg-breaker.” The victims usually died within 15 minutes because they could no longer push their bodies up to breathe and suffocated to death. John wrote, “The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs” (John 19:32-33. NIV).

Why are these verses so important? Well, if the soldiers had broken Jesus' legs, His death would have been human work. Psalm 34 tells us that Jesus' death was the work of God alone. They did not kill my Jesus. He gave his life willingly, out of love for us.

On the cross, Jesus showed us what perfect love is. God's greatness was revealed. Just hours before His death, Jesus prayed, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you” (John 17:1, NIV). Years later, John, who was an eyewitness to these events, wrote, “...Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1, NIV).

It was pure love that Jesus held on the cross—a love that had never been seen before. He gave His life for us—willingly—to defeat Death by rising again after three days.