Who Killed Jesus?

While this may seem like a simple question to answer at first, it actually has many layers. There wasn’t just one person or group responsible for Jesus’ death: there were many factors at play working together to bring about His death. We are going to take a brief look at each of them.

The Jewish Religious Elite

The Jewish religious elite, including the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes, strictly opposed Jesus. These groups held much influence among the general Jewish populace, and Jesus was very popular with the people.

This shift in influence greatly upset the religious elite, whose status depended on the people’s favor. This, alongside their misunderstanding and rejection of Jesus’ teaching, led them to falsely put Jesus on trial and before Roman officials for sentencing, where they demanded He be put to death.

We find our biblical evidence for all this in John 5:18, which reads,

“So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.”

The Romans

However, the blame does not just fall on the Jews. In his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, Peter indicates that the Jews alone did not kill Jesus:

“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: 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).

The Romans were the “wicked men” by whom Jesus was killed. The Romans also share the blame for killing Jesus.

Now, the Romans themselves were the ones physically responsible for the act of killing Jesus. After enduring the mounting threats and demands of the Jewish religious elite who were insistent on Jesus’ death, Pontius Pilate, the Roman official of the area, gave in and sentenced Jesus to death by crucifixion.

The Roman soldiers were the ones who

carried out the subsequent torture and killing of Jesus. They strung Him to a post in the public square, beat Him severely with barbed whips, and then led Him to the hill where they nailed Him to a cross and hung Him to die.

Sinful Humanity

It can also be said that sinful humanity is to blame for the death of Jesus. Why is that? Because Jesus was sacrificed to absolve the sins of humanity. If humanity had never become sinful in the first place, Jesus wouldn’t have had to die.

Romans 3:23-25 reads, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.”

God the Father

Many have mistakenly attributed God the Father as responsible for Jesus’ death. While it was God’s plan for Jesus’ sacrifice in order to reconcile humanity back to Himself, it was always God’s plan to raise Him to glory and new life once again.

We even see God’s plans develop in the Old Testament, long before the life of Christ on earth.

Isaiah 53:5 reads, “He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.”

This was not done out of any malice but rather out of love. God knew that this was the only way in which to show His love for humanity and restore their relationship with Him.

It was humanity’s sin that put Jesus on the cross, not God Himself. God’s plan was an expression of His great love.