Oh the Irony!

In Matthew 27 Jesus is brought before Pilate. Pilate finds that Jesus did nothing wrong and wants to release Jesus but the religious leaders stir up the crowd to demand that Jesus be crucified. Pilate then ceremonially washes his hands and says: “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.” Then in verse 25 we read this: 25 And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.” Don’t move past that sentence right away….think about it….think about it…Do you see the irony in that sentence? The people shout “His blood be on us and on our children” and they don’t even know what they are saying. On the surface they know what they are saying, they will take the responsibility for this death…His blood be upon them. That phrase is still used today to ascribe responsibility. But under the surface, where it really mattered, they didn’t know what they were saying.

The reason that Jesus allowed His life to be taken was so that His blood could be on those people in the crowd and each of you reading this blog right now. In fact, in Ephesians 1:7 we read: “In Him (Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace”. The only way to receive forgiveness of sin and eternal life is through the blood of Jesus being “on” us; in a spiritual way, through repentance and faith. What these people were asking for, is exactly what they needed; but they had no idea at the time. Oh the irony. They thought they were large and in charge and in fact they were small and not much at all. Yet, the very one they were killing was the key to their own eternal life. What a Savior!