{"id":5990,"date":"2014-11-05T00:05:39","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T08:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5990"},"modified":"2014-11-04T14:30:15","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T22:30:15","slug":"blame-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/11\/05\/blame-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Blame Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

As they led Jesus away, a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, happened to be coming in from the countryside. The soldiers seized him and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large crowd trailed behind, including many grief-stricken women. But Jesus turned and said to them, \u201cDaughters of Jerusalem, don\u2019t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are coming when they will say, \u2018Fortunate indeed are the women who are childless, the wombs that have not borne a child and the breasts that have never nursed.\u2019 People will beg the mountains, \u2018Fall on us,\u2019 and plead with the hills, \u2018Bury us.\u2019 For if these things are done when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tTwo others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified\u2014one on his right and one on his left.<\/p>\n

\tJesus said, \u201cFather, forgive them, for they don\u2019t know what they are doing.\u201d And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.<\/p>\n

\tThe crowd watched and the leaders scoffed. \u201cHe saved others,\u201d they said, \u201clet him save himself if he is really God\u2019s Messiah, the Chosen One. (Luke 23:26\u201335)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tAs he was led to the place of crucifixion, Jesus turned to the women who were mourning and warned them about Jerusalem\u2019s future. Jesus\u2019 metaphor, \u201cif these things are done when the tree is green,\u201d pointed out that if the Romans were willing to execute an innocent man, then a guilty Jerusalem\u2019s fate when Rome crushed its rebellion would be horrific indeed. His warning resembled those that he had already given his disciples on the same topic. The phrase about calling upon \u201cthe mountains to fall\u201d is a quotation of Hosea 10:8, describing the Assyrian destruction of Israel.<\/p>\n

\tJesus had told his disciples to love their enemies and to pray for those who persecuted them (Matthew 5:44). Therefore, that is precisely what Jesus himself did on the cross: he prayed for his executioners and asked his Father to forgive them. Any discussion about who was to blame, or who bears the guilt for Jesus crucifixion is misplaced, since Jesus and his Father forgave them. After all, the purpose of Jesus\u2019 death was to bring forgiveness to everyone. Jesus crucifixion makes no one guilty. Quite the contrary: his sacrifice on the cross makes possible our forgiveness and opened the way for all of us to enter the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n

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As they led Jesus away, a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, happened to be coming in from the countryside. The soldiers seized him and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5990"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5992,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5990\/revisions\/5992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}