On Wednesday 1 May 2024, the House of Representatives passed Antisemitism Awareness Act with a vote of 320-91. Perhaps most curious is that this bill mandates the Department of Education to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. Now what would the (re)Education Department have to do with this issue?
This bill raised the eyebrows of a number of Christians online primarily due to the definition of antisemitism of the IHRA from 2016. Their definition states that
“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
What is antisemitism? (holocaustremembrance.com)
In citing their definition, the IHRA provided several “Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to”:
- Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.
- Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.
- Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.
- Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).
- Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
- Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
- Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
- Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
- Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
- Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
- Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
Much could be said about the list of examples cited by the IHRA above and if Congressional legislation must be enacted to reinforce history or address conspiracy theories it certainly does raise questions. However, one of the points that were highlighted by those who opposed the bill was, “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.” Most online objectors commented that by making it hate-speech to say that the Jews were involved in the killing of Jesus is to go against the words of Scripture itself. This of course resulted in typical heat-generating arguments among believers, at least those who profess Christ, about who gets the proper blame of Jesus’ death.
We’re nothing if not consistent in our desire to argue about nearly everything possible.
Rather than focus on some of the other examples above, which could be an entire book length series of blogs, let’s draw our attention to this particular point and look to Scripture in order to answer the question, Who Killed Jesus?
Now, obviously the question is a bit fallacious because as we will see there are a number of different angles to answer the question, all equally true and valid. However, we’re stating it this way for the point of provocation which has arisen over the subject.
To begin, we will start with God, Himself. This is angle #1 and it technically would begin with the counsel of God before the foundation of the world and the intra-Trinitarian plan of redemption involving the death of the Son of God. In Peter’s speech at Pentecost, Acts 2:23a affirms for us this point
this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God
Acts 2:23a
We will return to this passage shortly, but for now it serves to enlighten us on the predestined and definite plan of God in the death of Jesus. Additionallly, Isaiah 53:10, a verse in the middle of a passage describing the Suffering Servant, affirms for us that it was, “the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief.” This predestined plan is introduced, promised, and prophesied for us in the well-known Protoevangelium from Genesis 3:15.
Angle #2 in answering this question of Who killed Jesus takes us to the words of our Lord and the fact that He laid down His own life, certain to take it back up again as well. John 10:17-18 affirms this with the following
For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
John 10:17-18
Far from the erroneous and heretical claims of Jesus being subjected to cosmic divine child abuse, here His words state clearly that He is in control of His destiny and willingly lays it down so that He can powerfully raise it back up again. Both of these statements from God the Father and Son must be held in agreement that from Their perspective, Jesus’s death was entirely the work of the Trinitarian God.
Third, is a point that many raised in defense of the IHRA language that forbids the claims that “Jews killed Jesus”. Here is the generic statement made that we all killed Jesus, meaning that because of our sin we all had a role in His death. Now this is true, insofar as we are talking about the accomplishment and application of Jesus’ death. We know that Jesus died a substitutionary death, that is in the place of all who would believe. Scripture affirms that for us as well as the reality of the “Great Exchange” of our sin for His righteousness. 1 Peter 2:24 is helpful in explaining this, “He 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,” the latter words here being another reference to Isaiah 53. Again, from this angle it is true that we all are in a sense to blame, at least spiritually speaking. This reality must likewise be held together with the previous two angles in defining and understanding God’s plan of redemption for sinners.
Angle #4 takes us to the day and time of Jesus’ death by providing for us the details of the major players responsible for His death, humanly speaking. In Acts 4, at the release of Peter and John believers are gathered together in order to pray for continued boldness in the proclamation of the gospel. Their prayer includes the following
“Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,
“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,
and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers were gathered together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed’—27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
Acts 4:24b-28
Here we see even back in a Psalm of David (Ps. 2:1-2) it was prophesied that a multitude of rulers would gather together against the Messiah. The believer’s prayer reflects the interpretation and application of this Psalm, then relates it to the present with the death of Jesus at the hands of both Herod and Pilate as well as the Gentiles (Romans) and the peoples of Israel. The parallelism of Herod to peoples of Israel and Pilate to Gentiles is obvious. This is a rather comprehensive assessment of blame upon all those who were present and gave their permissive blessing, passively and actively, for the death of Christ. Additionally, we see an overlap with angle #1 that the death of the Messiah wasn’t merely or perhaps even principally a human effort, rather it was according to God’s will and predestined plan.
Finally, we arrive now at our last and most controversial angle to answer the question who killed Jesus and again we must hold it together with our previous angles as well in order to get a complete and comprehensive view of all parties involved. The background for this particular lens for answering the question can be seen in Zechariah’s prophecy,
“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
Zechariah 12:10
Here, in context, is a prophecy of the coming Messiah and His impending death. While some have seen this as a reference to Jesus’ Second Coming and a mass-conversion of Jews who look on Him whom they have pierced, John 19:37 sees this fulfilled, at least partially, in Jesus’ death on the cross as those who pierced Him look on. This of course refers to those gathered at the foot of the cross. John uses this verse as reference to Himself, a Jew, who was witness to what he and those present had seen. Getting more to the heart of the matter, in Acts 2:23, referenced earlier, Peter at Pentecost addresses the Men of Israel and states that they, “crucified and killed” Jesus “by the hands of lawless men”, reference here of both Jew and Gentile complicity. This theme of placing blame on Israel/Jews becomes prominent throughout Acts but not for the sake of Antisemitism, certainly not, as those who begin the gospel spread among the Jews (Acts 1:8) are themselves Jewish. Instead, it becomes a prominent theme in order to bring conviction of sin at the death of the promised Messiah in order to bring them into the light of the gospel. In other words, by blaming the Jews in their evangelistic speeches to them it had the goal of saving them. This theme is so prominent in Acts that of the 8 evangelistic speeches recorded for us in the book, 7 of them contain this theme of blame upon the Jews. These occur in the aforementioned Acts 2:23 but also in Acts 3:15; 4:10-11; 5:30; 7:51-52; 10:39; and 13:27-29. Again, for sake of clarity all 5 of these different angle lenses of Christ’s death must be held together. No one person or party is to blame. Rather it is clear that there are multiple facets to the reality of Jesus’ death on the cross.
In observing the rise in so-called Antisemitism, especially online over the last year+, it is obvious that there are bad actors, professing Christianity even, who hate Jews and blame them for the death of Christ. This is ironic because they themselves have not bowed the knee to the sovereign Lord recognizing their own need for salvation and their own guilt in the death of Christ. For this reason we ought to heed the pattern of Acts in that the apostles brought blame and conviction to the Jews for the purpose of their salvation. In other words, it was not because they hated them, but because they loved them and wanted to see them saved, by God’s grace. The majority of action and (over)reaction that we are witnessing play out in the world today is essentially an operation to create division, ultimately with the goal of persecuting those who follow Christ, following the same pattern with how they persecuted our Lord. Make no mistake about it, this legislation is an afront on Christians. It is the beginning of making the gospel hate speech for the world. Further, what you are witnessing play out in real time is the preparatory rise of totalitarianism.
Be vigilant, be prepared, be innocent as doves, and wise as serpents.
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” John 15:18
