We All Crucified Jesus

Read Mark 15:21-32, John 19:16b-30
When I was little and I did something wrong (lie, get in fights with my siblings, etc), my mom would sometimes say that I was “nailing Jesus to the cross all over again.” She had a valid point that I understood back then, but she might have been more right than she realized. On reading different accounts of the crucifixion in the gospels, I see a plethora of different people and they all were involved in the crucifixion of Christ. Let’s take a brief look at where they all were:
Disciples Herod Pilate Mob
Simon of Cyrene Pilate’s Wife Women Soldiers (Roman)
Guards ( temple) Criminals Joseph Nicodemas
Scribes Pharisees Barabas Sanhedrin council
And brief list is not even including Judas, the high priest’s servant, the girl accusing Peter, or the random guy in Mark that ran away naked. It’s a lot of people and quite varied at that. Some of their roles were more passive, while some had a direct hand in his death. Are they any different from us? If Christ were “crucified” today would you be a passive onlooker watching from the convenience of your tv or youtube? Would you have been the follower who ran away and hid so people wouldn’t link you two together? Would you be the helpless committed that watched on the side as he died? Would you be the unconcerned trying to nab a piece of Jesus memorabilia while you still could? Would you be the mob crying out for his death because your leaders told you to? Or would you be the one watching on the side secretly congratulating yourself that you’d rid the world of a menace to the social order? Sometimes I think we can judge those involved a little too harshly, we expect them to somehow act differently or better than us, when it comes down to the fact that everyone involved in Christ’s death was fallen, as are we without Christ. While we were not actually there, our sin did put him there, each and every one of them; and not just the ones that we have already committed, but the ones we will do today and every other day until we die. Everyone of those is another nail, another thorn, another splinter in the already marred flesh.
Fellowship
So how do we respond? All of us are involved in Christ’s death, but those of us who find our life in Christ are also involved in the body of Christ and our new life in him. I remember Michael Card saying something at a meeting where I heard him speak that has stayed with me, “When God gives a gift, he wraps it in a person.” God’s gift to us for salvation was wrapped in Christ. God’s gifts through the Holy Spirit to the body of Christ are each wrapped in Christians. People are created for community, and when we get together we can either do something terrible, or as Christians we can accomplish the will of God. Reflect today on how you’re working communally with the body of Christ. Are you allowing God to give his gifts to the body of Christ through you? Are you accepting the gifts he is sharing through others?

O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Saviour, the Prince of Peace:
give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions.
Take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one body and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may henceforth be all of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.