Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 27-28.

Traditionally, when the crowd responded to Pilate during Jesus’ trial, “His blood is on us and on our children!” it has been interpreted as the Jews taking responsibility for Jesus’ death.  From that many Christians have interpreted the suffering of the Jews over the centuries as being God’s judgement upon them for His death.  Some have even gone so far as to interpret it as justification for hating Jews and doing horrible things to them.  However, it struck me that nowhere does Matthew identify the crowd as Jews.  Yes, I know that a crowd gathered in Jerusalem in the First Century right before Passover would have been overwhelmingly made up of Jews, but that’s not the point.  Throughout his Gospel, Matthew repeatedly refers to “Jews” opposing Jesus.  So, it occurred to me that when Matthew refers to the crowd here he intends for us to view ourselves as part of that body.  When the crowd cried out “His blood is on us and on our children!” we were part of that crowd.  The guilt for Jesus’ unjust crucifixion lies not on the Jews, nor on the Romans, not even on Pilate or the Sanhedrin.  It lies on all of us.  If not for my sins, if not for your sins, Jesus would not have died on that cross.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.