Matthew 27:22-26 NIV
“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify him!” [23] “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” [24] When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!” [25] All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!” [26] Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
‘His blood is on us and our children.’ With this brutal line, those crucifying Jesus accepted responsibility for what they were doing, ‘His death is our responsibility.’ The unsettling message of the Bible is that in a sense this blood is on all of us, we are all broken like these people, we are all guilty of acts of selfishness, of cowardice, or violence of word and deed. The good news is that in another sense they are wrong, Jesus’ death is his responsibility, he willingly took on himself all these things so that he could over come them and set us free of our guilt, our responsibility.
Jesus, thank you that you gave yourself to free us.
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