While ultimately it is sinners who sent Jesus to the cross to bear their sins, Jewish leaders sought to kill Jesus from the beginning of his ministry for several reasons. Jewish leaders felt threatened by Christ’s leadership when He challenged the temple, but they also made accusations that He worked on the Sabbath, and they felt that He was attempting to make himself equal to God by claiming that He is the son of God. Pastor David L. Brown writes, “…the Jewish leadership (the Scribes who interpreted the Law and the Chief Priests) wanted to kill Jesus. Let’s hear it in Mark’s own words -- Mark 11:18 "And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine," (Brown, 2004). Green wrote in his article, The Death of Jesus and the ways of God, that Jesus raised an eyebrow of outsiders when He mingled with sinners, loved children and shared the table with tax-collectors. Jesus was a threat to those around Him, because his teaching and preaching was gaining Him followers. …show more content…
When the Jewish leaders appealed to the Romans they agreed to crucify Jesus, because it was their form of punishment for crime, "At the time of Jesus' crucifixion, the Romans had conquered all the area in which Jesus lived and taught. The Romans allowed the Jews to continue with their Sanhedrin (their government), but the Romans took away capital punishment from the Jews. In order to have Jesus crucified, the Jewish leaders had to manipulate Rome into doing it. First, the Jewish leaders had to lie - make up charges (Luke 23: 2, 3). The Jewish leaders persisted in their demands for crucifixion (vss. 5-19),” ("Who crucified Jesus,"