Why Jesus was killed

At first glance the question, Who killed Christ?, may seem naive. It was the Romans, surely, in the person of the governor Pontius Pilate. But a more careful reading and reflecting on the gospels reveal a more complex reality. It was the Temple establishment that wanted to eliminate Jesus the preacher and wonder-worker, and it was they who stirred up the crowd to bay for his death. But why?

By the time of our Lord the high priesthood had become corrupt, and the ancient traditions for choosing the high priest by lottery (seen as the will of God) from the descendants of Zadok in the time of King Solomon, had been abandoned in favour of a few powerful families gaining control.

The gospels hint at this situation when Caiaphas, the current high priest when Jesus was arrested, honours his father-in-law, Annas, by sending Jesus to him to be examined. It was probably legitimate Zadokite priests who withdrew to Qumran near the Dead Sea because they had rejected the Temple priesthood and its cult on account of its corruption. These pious Jews, forming the Essene community, had eschewed the sacrifices and liturgies of the Temple, taking with them the scrolls of the Torah, to establish a totally different worship of God and way of living the covenant. They wanted nothing to do with the Herodian Temple and its tainted priesthood.

The ordinary peasants who comprised the majority of the Jewish population at that time had ambivalent reactions to the Temple as well. Were they for it or against it? Was it a place of prayers and sacrifices, or the place of tithes and taxes? Was it the focus for divine indwelling, or the central bank? Was it the link between God and themselves, between heaven and earth, or the link between religion and politics, between Jewish collaboration, as exemplified in the current Temple priesthood, and Roman occupation of their holy land? It was clearly both and so the ordinary folk were justifiably confused.

All four gospels record the expulsion of the traders from the Temple. This revolutionary action has sometimes been called the purification of Gods house. This is quite erroneous and indicates an ignorance of the Temple, its various departments and functions.

The daily sacrifices required grade one animals that had to be clean and available for sale. Likewise the Temple tax could not be paid in coinage depicting a pagan Roman, which coins would defile Gods house. Hence the practical role of the money changers. The Holy of Holies was situated at the west end of the Temple, while the money changers and animal sellers were at the furthest opposite end. John, as always with his own agenda in portraying our Lord, places the incident at the beginning of Jesus public ministry. The synoptic gospels place it just before his arraignment. Essentially the details of our Lords action are the same in all four gospels. He drives out the animal sellers and overturns the table of the money changers.

But Jesus was not threatening to destroy the fabric of the Temple; rather he was speaking of the temple of his body that they would cause to be destroyed. When he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and what he had said (John 2:13-22). Notice, at no point does he say: I will destroy this temple, which is what the Sadducean priests accuse him of at his trial.

Whether the incident took place at the beginning of his ministry, as John maintains, or at the end, after Palm Sunday, what is most significant is that in both versions it is the sacred season of Passover. Thus it invokes the powerful symbolism of the Passover lamb that is slain to ensure the freedom of the Hebrews from slavery and their new life in the Promised Land.

The teaching of Jesus death and subsequent resurrection with its link to the Passover is crucial, and, in Johns gospel, is signified by the raising of Lazarus from the tomb. Again John provides the crucial link for the antipathy of the priests to Jesus. They call a meeting and ask: What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, every one will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy our holy place [the Temple] and our nation.

Ever since the Romans conquered the Seleucid king of Antioch in 63 BC and Pompey invaded Jerusalem, there had been unrest and frequently outright rebellion by the Jews. They were well aware how tenuous the peace was. So Caiaphas the high priest intervened and said: You do not understand that it is better for one man to die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed. So from that moment they plotted to put Jesus to death (John 11:45-53). Another major reason for eliminating Jesus was his blasphemy by claiming to come from God and even arrogating to himself the divine name, I am (John 8:58).

None of the above reasons would wash with the pagan Roman governor, of course, so the wily priests had to invent the specious reason of Jesus preaching the advent of the Kingdom (the reign) of God as a threat to the emperor. As we know, that finally persuaded the reluctant Pilate, who was fully aware of the innocence of Jesus, to invoke the death penalty for rabble rousing and threatening the peace of the Roman Empire.