Jesus was not crucified because he preached that we should love one another more or because he told us to pray more. However, for many Christians, the practice of Christianity may have turned into something like that, reducing the ethical message of Jesus to just being a good person with good moral character. Not killing, not coveting what belongs to others, helping whenever possible. While commendable, this ethic is not Jesus's. It’s not the behavior that led to Jesus's execution—a punishment not only aimed at killing him but at annihilating his very existence. The goal was to obliterate any trace of reconstruction from those who followed him.
So, if it wasn’t for urging his fellow beings to love one another more, what actually led Christ to the cross? What we know is that different groups had different motivations, and only by understanding the convergence of so many interests from so many groups can one comprehend how the most innocent man in History could be so cruelly and publicly executed. Jesus and His message were (and are) a threat to the powerful—and it’s not hard to understand the motivation of the Roman occupying government or the Jewish upper class, the Sadducees, or the way in which the crowds were manipulated.
Perhaps the most interesting motivation is that of the Pharisees and their scribes. The demonization with which they are often preached about might cause us to overlook the nuance. We cannot oversimplify the complicated relationship between Jesus and the Pharisees. From a similar social class and close to the people just like Jesus, the Pharisees were meant to find common ground with him. What led the Pharisees to demand Jesus's crucifixion? It’s evident that Jesus criticized their hypocrisy and legalism: to be in communion with God, one had to follow an extensive number of laws. Moreover, one of Jesus's criticisms is that many of these laws were not part of the Torah but rather tradition disguised as commandments.
What’s fascinating is that the condemnation of the Pharisees was already prophesied in the Old Testament. There’s a section in the Book of Wisdom, proclaimed on the Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent, that foretells the Pharisees' reasoning: " Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, Reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training. He professes to have knowledge of God and styles himself a child of the LORD. To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us, Because his life is not like that of others, and different are his ways. He judges us debased;
he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure. He calls blest the destiny of the just
and boasts that God is his Father." (Wisdom 2:12–16). Therefore, "With revilement and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him."" (Wisdom 2:19–20).
It’s remarkable to remember that this text, accurately predicting the Pharisees’ motivations, was written no fewer than 130 years before Jesus's birth. Jesus upset those who had set themselves as interpreters and editors of the Torah; those who most quoted the Law were criticized by him for how little they applied it to themselves. Jesus challenged the principles upon which the Pharisees' entire worldview and way of life were based—it is total self-giving and service that will lead us to communion with God, not the strict observance of the letter of the law.
This citation also provided the charge that would serve in the two legal systems that judged Jesus: the claim of "knowing" God, proclaiming himself his Son, and uniting himself with divinity. This is the charge that ultimately led Jesus to the cross, as it constituted blasphemy for religious sensibilities and insurrection under Roman law, for only their representative, Governor Pilate, could impose the death penalty—a right the Romans had taken away from the Sanhedrin around the year 6.
It’s one of the lessons of the cross as we update Good Friday to our current world. It won’t be the minor sins, bad words, or small legal infringements that keep Christ on the cross—although for many, that’s all Christian ethics seem to offer. But no, Jesus's ethics go much further. As the Book of Wisdom prophesied, Jesus opposes what the powerful, the unjust, the inhumane do. Two thousand years later, the Lord's disciples are also called to oppose any abuse, any injustice, any affront to human dignity.
