Why Crucify, Why not
Stone?
Galatians
3:6-14; Matthew 27:11-44; Deuteronomy 21:18-23; John 19:1-20
© David H. Linden
~~ University Presbyterian
Church, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA August, 2013
Our Lord was crucified. Yet
crucifixion was not the way in ancient Israel to remove a false prophet. (That was the view His enemies had of
Him!) The Sanhedrin said He was guilty
of blasphemy,[1]
and they said to Pilate, “We have a law and by that law He ought to die!”[2]
If Jesus were guilty of blasphemy for calling Himself the Son of God,[3]
then the commanded penalty for this crime was stoning. If the Jews were serious about removing
blasphemy and so meticulous about keeping the law,[4]
why not execute Him that way? Why a crucifixion when the law of God ordered a
different kind of execution?
Then the LORD said to Moses: "Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. Say to the Israelites: `If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible; anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death. (Leviticus 24:13-16)
"We are not stoning you for any
of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere
man, claim to be God." (John 10:33)
They stoned Stephen.[5] We read in John that they twice attempted to stone Jesus.[6] After Judas led them to the secluded place where they arrested Jesus, they had a company of soldiers;[7] supposedly they could have stoned Him then. They had laid the charge of blasphemy repeatedly; they had an explicit commandment for the mode of execution, and they had opportunity. Why would Jesus’ enemies seek crucifixion? The attempted stonings were rash, not deliberated. The decision to crucify was a more careful decision by the leadership. The demand incited was not “kill Him; kill Him”; they were quite specific in what they wanted. It was “crucify Him, crucify Him”.[8]
The Bible does not report
all the reasoning of Jesus’ enemies. We do know of Caiaphas’ view that they
must kill Him or risk a Roman intervention.[9]
They saw so many being convinced by His miracles, they feared losing their
following. A certain desperation was building. Judas’ offer of help meant Jesus
fell into their hands sooner than expected. Since they had Him, they had to
follow through without delay though they did not want His murder during the
Passover.[10]
(Such a wonderful opportunity as killing the Prince of Life[11]
does not happen every day.) Murder was agreed to, now how to do it.
Deuteronomy 13 commands the
stoning of deceivers who lead people astray from the Lord. But there is a later
word in Deuteronomy 21 that must have sent a tingle of diabolical delight up
their spines. Rebellious sons must be stoned. That would leave a corpse under a
pile of rock. Yet despicable as it was, the law of God anticipated that some
might make a dead body dangle from a tree for all to gawk at. God reminded them
that the executed criminal was under His curse, and for that reason the dead
offender was to be put out of
sight. (Note 2
Kings 17:18-23.) He could not be left overnight; that body must come down,
signifying their obedience to God that evil had been purged from the land.
Having a corpse out in the open does not fit purging the evil from their midst,
v.21. The key phrase to remember is “Anyone who is hung on a tree is under
God’s curse” (Deuteronomy 21:23).
Would Jesus’ enemies prefer
that He be under a pile of stones or hung on a tree? They certainly had
sufficient hatred to prefer greater humiliation. They had seen Roman
crucifixions. They knew what Deuteronomy said about bodies remaining up on
display overnight, and possibly for days till the birds picked off all the
flesh. They had undoubtedly pleaded with the Romans numerous times to take
bodies down because leaving them up would desecrate their land! Rome, for its
purpose, wanted rebels intimidated, so would prefer to leave them up. The
Jewish leadership wanted to preserve their law and the sacredness of their
land.[12]
The significance of crucifixion was not new to them.
One day someone came up with
the idea that if they could just have Jesus up there hanging on a cross then
that text in Deuteronomy would obviously apply to Him. They would have the law
of God saying about Jesus, “anyone hung on a tree was cursed by God.” I
can hear that guy now telling his peers that they had in a crucifixion the
ultimate argument to repudiate Jesus. After all, how could anyone ever believe
in a Messiah who had been cursed by God? What a delicious proof for them that
He was an imposter, a deceiver,[13]
one who did His impressive miracles in the power of the devil![14] Surely no one would believe in Him anymore,
and they would be finished with this Jesus nuisance forever. [15]
Some said it sounded as good as showing on the fourth day the dead body of the
man who said He would rise on the third! Things were looking up for the
opponents of Jesus; plus one of His disciples had come to their aid.
There remained one sticky
problem. The Jews were not allowed to execute their criminals, even if their
law called for it. They were allowed much freedom to practice their religion,
but Rome retained the execution of criminals as its sole prerogative.
Pilate said, "Take him yourselves
and judge him by your own law."
“But we have no right to execute anyone," the Jews objected. This
happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was
going to die would be fulfilled (John 18:31,32).
Crucifixion was a patented
Roman mode of execution. If Jews did that on their own, they would usurp Roman
right – the sort of thing that might lead to their crucifixion! They had better
get the Romans to do the job for them. [16]
It took some convincing. The
witnesses against Jesus were not well coached or terribly convincing.[17]
Pilate saw through their intrigue in a moment.[18]
They were seeking to use the authority of Rome as their tool. When they applied
sufficient pressure, he gave in and Jesus was crucified, not stoned.
From the angle of the
apostate leadership of Israel, a crucifixion paid a tremendous theological benefit.
Jesus would be acknowledged as one cursed by God. They evidently missed that
this was indeed what Isaiah had said, “…we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.” [19]
So while they pursued their agenda they were unwittingly serving God’s. God had
theological reasons too. The will of God was that Christ should die for His
people, but it was more. In His death Jesus would be cursed for them so that
they could have the blessing Jesus deserved. (Never forget the great exchange:
On Friday He took what we deserved and on Sunday He received what He deserved.)
When Adam sinned, his work
and even the ground he tilled came under God’s curse. [20]
God so loved
the world He sent a replacement Adam, Jesus Christ, the new head of a new human
family.[21]
He would come under that curse and die as a substitute.[22]
If one kind of death shows the curse of God more than another, then that would
be the one most fitting. Jesus said in advance that His death would be by
crucifixion (Matthew 20:19).
That Jesus died as a substitute was taught and illustrated in millions of offerings of animals. These sacrifices anticipated the Innocent One dying for sinners. Jesus’ death was the fulfillment. The ritual God instituted cannot be fulfilled by every kind of death. A certain kind of death fits and others do not. The law required bloodshed in the mode of death for the innocent animals. Jesus too, would have a death of bloodshed. In stoning, one might bleed, but death from the blunt blows of stones does not fit the bloodshed of centuries of Jewish offerings. In those offerings the victim came under the knife. Israel’s priests did not beat the animals to death; they bled them to death, collected the blood, and poured it on the ground.[23] A death by stoning would not fit the ritual that preceded it and was fulfilled by the cross. On the other hand, a crucifixion has no lack of bloodshed to make a clear link to the sacrifices God had commanded centuries before. Such sacrifices anticipated Jesus’ bloodshed on the cross. To the ceremonial law, one must add the prediction in Psalm 22:16 of pierced hands and feet. Stoning would not fulfill such a specific prophecy.
Sin brings humiliation. If
Adam had obeyed, all mankind would have enjoyed the dignity of glory and honor.[24]
Entering our humanity as our Substitute, Jesus took not only guilt and death,
but the full measure of what our sin brought us. He would have sin’s indignity. He would have
the opposite of glory. Therefore He would not die from a painless lethal
injection. He would be humiliated in the shameful death of the Roman cross.
They cast lots for His
clothes.[25]
The Son of God died in a way no film or portrait has ever dared to show. He was
naked with His hands nailed elsewhere so He could not cover His private parts.
Thus did Jesus die by crucifixion with a kind of humiliation we would not have
given to Hitler had we the opportunity to bring him to justice.
The Father was pleased for
our salvation to crush the Son (Isaiah 53:10). It was a dramatic infliction of
sin’s penalty including personal humiliation. We must not miss that Christ’s
obedience in going to the cross was a provision of the loving grace of the
Father that results in Jesus’ glorification and worship by the entire universe.[26]
His offering for sin was not a death of half measures. There was no cheating,
no holding back, no pretending this will do, or that’s enough, or let’s not go
overboard!” Jesus drank our whole cup.[27]
The shame was part of His suffering for our sin. He knew the shame, but that
did not stop Him from going to the cross.[28]
His death was not like one dying in bed with the family gathered around.
The crucifixion of our Lord had another feature to it. If
it had been by stoning, the rest of the world would consider it an entirely
Jewish event. Crucifixion was a Roman message on Roman letterhead. Jesus was tried in a Roman court[29]
and crucified by Roman soldiers. “Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met
together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire
against your holy servant Jesus ….” (Acts 4:27).
Crucifixion gave Jesus’ death genuine Roman involvement, while by means of it the Jews[30] rejected their king, the Son of David. This adds up to a mutual decision. Rome had the innocent Man killed – so much for its vaunted justice! Its worldly glory was corrupt. A Roman death demonstrates that Jewish contempt for the Messiah was a rejection shared by the world.[31] It was not just “the Jews” (see footnote); the rulers of this age [who participated in His death] … did not understand, for if they had, they[32] would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2:8). Scripture teaches a universal rejection of Christ and a universal ignorance of Him unless one is born of the Spirit[33] and the mind is opened to receive things the Holy Spirit reveals (1 Corinthians 2:9-16).
It helps us not to love the world when we see the world's true colors.[34] A Roman death at the instigation of the Jews brought together the world and apostate covenant breakers, whether they liked it or not. They united against Christ as Psalm 2 shows. Could any other mode of murder have done it so well? Roman complicity in Jewish stoning would not carry the same significance. To show a world against God, their hand was also needed in His death.
By bloodshed a sacrifice
conveyed substitution, by crucifixion the divine curse. From the Sanhedrin’s
perspective the crucifixion was meant to ensure that all would reject Jesus as
the promised One to come. Their efforts fulfilled the plan of God perfectly.
They enhanced the gospel by the mode of death they yearned for. A cursed death
fit in with the truth that our sins were imputed to Him.[35]
Later, they had the tomb guarded and sealed;[36]
they thought that would prevent his body from being stolen. What they prevented
was all credibility of their later argument that it had been stolen. It
appeared all was going their way. Actually, it was going God’s.
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. (Galatians 3:10-14)
After the resurrection the
apostles then went on to proclaim Jesus’ death and resurrection. They drew a
powerful contrast between what men did to Him and what God did to Him.[37]
They never avoided that He had been crucified. They showed the humiliation and
glorification in sharp contrast. Rather
than being suppressed, the very word crucified was often in their
preaching. For Paul the gospel was not just Jesus Christ as One Who died, but “Jesus
Christ and Him crucified.”[38]
Peter referred to the cross as a tree,[39]
a choice of word designed to connect with the text in Deuteronomy 21.
In Galatians 3 Paul quotes
the part of Deuteronomy 21 that must have been in the minds of the Sanhedrin, "Cursed is everyone who
is hung on a tree." Follow his reasoning:
The death of Jesus was a
unique sacrifice which cannot be repeated. It was effective to accomplish all
that God intended, and it happened in detail in the way God had decided – death
by crucifixion. By His sacrifice Christ satisfied God, absorbing His wrath
against us for our sin. He took the curse from us and replaced it with blessing
promised to the covenant people. He defeated the power of the devil and set all
His people free. He removed the guilt of our sin from our record and brought us
forgiveness. He reconciled God to us so that in repentance and faith we could
be reconciled to God.
The Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 39: Does it have a special meaning that Christ was
crucified and did not die in a different way?
Yes. Thereby I am assured that He took upon Himself the curse which lay
on me, for a crucified one was cursed by God.
We are called upon to take up our cross and follow Him.[40] Carrying our cross is not penance. It never atones for sin. Serving Him will always entail suffering, a privilege we ought never to avoid.[41] It is a way to side with Christ in a world that opposes Him. We cannot be friends with the world.[42] It crucified Christ, and it will reject us too as we are loyal to Him.[43] Because He was cursed for us, we cannot be cursed by the Lord Who has forgiven us, but we will be cursed by the world. We must never seek its blessing on us.
The world united against
Christ, yet all nations in it are promised to Christ.[44]
Their redemption can only come by the crucifixion they imposed on the One they
rejected. Salvation has come to many and will come to more. God in grace has
turned human treachery to our salvation. Jesus said of the cross, “When I am
lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself." [Then John
added] He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die
(John 12:32,33).
The cross still repels the
world, and its message is still foolishness to them, but for us who are being
saved it is the power of God to salvation. [45]
Jesus took our shame, let us never be ashamed of Him,[46]
but proud of Him and all He has accomplished, and grateful for the grace that
planned it all. Nothing more is needed to satisfy God. All we need is Christ.
[1]
Mark 14:63
[2] John 19:7 “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God."
[3]
John 10:36
[4]
Matthew 23:23,24
[5]
Acts 7:57-60
[6]
John 8:58,59; 10:31-39
[7]
John 18:2,3
[8]
Mark 15:13-15; John 19:6
[9] John 11:45-53
[10]
Of course the timing of Jesus’ death was according to God’s plan not
theirs. They preferred later, not on the
feast day. But God would have the
Passover Lamb (I Corinthians 5:7) offered on Passover Day.
Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. "But not during the Feast," they said, "or the people may riot." (Mark 14:1,2)
[11]
Acts 3:15
[12]
John 19:31
[13]
Matthew 27:63
[14] Matthew 12:24
[15] In the minds of His enemies, it was settled early that He was not the Messiah. They thought He broke the Sabbath and they were certain He was a blasphemer for saying God was His Father, John 5:18. What they needed very much was something highly convincing for the people. As late as the week of the crucifixion, the chief priests and Pharisees “feared the crowds because they [the crowds] held Him [Jesus] to be a prophet” (Matthew 21:46).
[16]
When Pilate said that they should crucify Him, they knew Pilate, now irritated
with them, was taunting them about something they had no authority to do. They understood this and waited for the Roman
decision to do the crucifixion.
[17]
Mark 14:56-59
[18]
Matthew 27:18
[19]
Isaiah 53:4
[20]
Genesis 3:17-19
[21]
Romans 5:12-19 & 1 Corinthians 15:20-22; 45-49
[22] The imagery of the law had the guilty accused of sins by hands being placed on their heads, Leviticus 20:9 & 24:14. The ritual of imputing sin to another, in this case a live goat, involves placing hands on the head of the substitute who will die in the place of the sinner, Leviticus 16:21.
[23]
Pouring blood at the base of the altar appears five times in Leviticus 4.
[24]
Compare Hebrews 2 with Psalm 8
[25]
Luke 23:34
[26]
Philippians 2:5-11
[27] Compare Isaiah 51:17-23; Jeremiah 25:15-29 and Luke 22:42.
[28]
Hebrews 12:2; Luke 9:43-45
[29]
John 19:28
[30] “The
Jews” Note
that "the Jews" in the Gospel of John is a shorthand term for
referring to the leadership of the nation: “the elders, the chief
priests and scribes” of Matthew 16:21. But we must include the Pharisees and
Herodians who wanted to destroy Him, (Mark 3:6). The Sadducees dominated the Sanhedrin, and
Mark 14:55 says the whole Council was “seeking testimony against
Jesus to put him to death.” So
“the Jews” of John 5:18 who sought to kill Him, are simply the leaders. Not all His covenant people rejected
Him. John 1:10,11 is followed by 1:12
& 13! Each apostle was a Jew, as
were those who believed in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost. The Bible is not Anti-Semitic, as Romans 10:1
makes plain.
[31]
See Psalm 2 and Acts 2: 23 & 4:24-28
[32] The ‘they’ cannot be limited to Jews in this verse.
[33]
John 3:3-8
[34]
1 John 2:15-17
[35]
2 Corinthians 5:21
[36]
Matthew 28:62-66
[37]
Acts 2:23,24
[38]
1 Corinthians 2:2
[39]
1 Peter 2:24, a verse that means much to me, since it is engraved on my
grandfather’s gravestone.
[40]
Matthew 16:24
[41]
Philippians 1:29
[42]
James 4:4
[43]
John 15:18-21
[44]
Psalm 2 & Isaiah 2:1-4
[45] 1 Corinthians 1:18
[46]
Mark 8:38