Why did the Roman Soldiers take part in the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ when Pontius Pilate said Jesus Christ did not commit a crime and he washed his hands, and he gave Jesus back to the Jewish High Priests and then they gave Jesus to the Romans?
Let us look first at why the High Priests and elders involved the Romans in the first place. The Lord Jesus had been falsely convicted of blasphemy. After listening to several paid false witnesses, we read in Mark 14:61-64, “Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death.” Of course, the Lord Jesus is indeed ‘the Christ, the Son of the Blessed.’ Yet, He was accused of blasphemy for speaking the truth. Under the Law, true blasphemy was punishable by death as we read in Leviticus 24:16, “And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death.”
Now, let’s read John 18:28-31, “Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover. Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring ye against this man? They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee. Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, IT IS NOT LAWFUL FOR US TO PUT ANY MAN TO DEATH.”
These religious rulers might have judged Jesus according to their law, and they might have voted him worthy of death; but they could not put him to death. The power of life and death was in all probability taken from the Jews when Archelaus, king of Judea, was banished to Vienna, and Judea was made a Roman province. This happened more than fifty years before the destruction of Jerusalem. When Pilate instructed the Jewish leaders to handle the judgment of Christ themselves, they showed their true intentions. They wanted Christ to be crucified, but they were not permitted by Roman law to execute such a judgment.
There was so much rage against the Holy Son of God who only came to love and save this sinful world. We read prophetically of the Lord in Psalm 69:4, “They that HATE ME WITHOUT A CAUSE are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.” Even though Christ was hated so greatly, the evil ruler Pilate had to admit, “I find no fault in this man.” (Luke 23:4).
We read in Matthew 27:26-31, “…Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.”
None of this surprised the Lord Jesus. He said in Matthew 20:18-19, “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.” Both the Jews and Gentiles were guilty of the crucifixion of the Lord. But, this was all in God’s perfect plan to provide a way salvation to sinful man. The very Son of God would die so that all who put their faith in His finished work might be saved. Christ said in John 10:17-18, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”
It was the hatred of men and the council of God that caused the Lord to be crucified. Peter said in Acts 2:22-24, “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”
Men wanted Christ to be crucified because they hated Him. God wanted Christ to be crucified because He loved those sinful men. What about you, my friend? Have you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who was crucified so that you might be saved? “(Christ) gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity…” (Titus 2:14). (481.6)