Crucified Hearts

Before the Resurrection was His humiliating death on the cross at the urging of “his own”. “Crucify, crucify”, they shouted to Pilate, yet a few wept at the cruel sight of His humiliation.

“And following Him was a large crowd of the people, and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him. But Jesus turning to them said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Two others also, who were criminals, were being led away to be put to death with Him.”
— Luke 23:27-32

In 70 AD, Titus and his Roman army sacked Jerusalem, destroying the 2nd Temple after a five month siege. Hundreds of thousands died, most of them civilians, non-combatants. As the Roman soldiers attacked the city the insurrectionist murdered, raped, and cannibalized themselves. It was an unspeakable horror, the curse of God for defiling His Son. He answered their demand for blood.

At Jesus’ trial, when Pilte balked at sentencing Jesus to death by crucifixion, the people cries out for His death, shouting, “His blood shall be on us and on our children!”.

Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Crucify Him!” And he said, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they kept shouting all the more, saying, “Crucify Him!” When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man’s blood; see to that yourselves.” And all the people said, “His blood shall be on us and on our children!” Then he released Barabbas for them; but after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified.
— Matthew 27:22-26

Not long before His greatest suffering, Jesus wept over them.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
— Matthew 23:37-39

But it would be a great mistake to count only the Jewish nation as sinners for rejecting Christ. The guilt of sin is on us all, Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

As the apostle Paul proved,

“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
“Their feet are swift to shed blood,
Destruction and misery are in their paths,
And the path of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
— Romans 3:10-20

He is returning soon and every eye shall see him, including those who crucified him. There will be a special resurrection of those wicked so they can witness his glorious justification by God.

Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.
— Revelation 1:7

At that time the whole world will cry out, as it did long ago, for the rocks and mountains to fall on them.

Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
— Revelation 6:15-17

How many of us who celebrate his death and resurrection this Easter weekend are anymore than mere religious formalist, professing of faith in him yet denying him as Lord by our disobedience?

If they’ve done this to the Tree when He was green, full of divine life, what will God do to the dry, fruitless trees?

Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
— Luke 3:9

So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
— Matthew 13:40-43

On this Easter weekend, with so much pius hypocrisy filling the world, when “…It was also given to him [the Beast] to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. (Revelation 13:7), how will we answer the cry of conviction that comes to those who realize they have crucified the Son of God?

Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!”
— Acts 2:37-40

As the history of crucifying the Son of God afresh is repeated day by day, the answer for our guit and shame remains the same: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
— John 1:10-13