Who nailed Jesus to the Cross?

Acts 2:22-36

²² “People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know. ²³ But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him. ²⁴ But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip. ²⁵ King David said this about him:

‘I see that the Lord is always with me.
I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.
²⁶ No wonder my heart is glad,
and my tongue shouts his praises!
My body rests in hope.
²⁷ For you will not leave my soul among the dead
or allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.
²⁸ You have shown me the way of life,
and you will fill me with the joy of your presence.’

²⁹ “Dear brothers, think about this! You can be sure that the patriarch David wasn’t referring to himself, for he died and was buried, and his tomb is still here among us. ³⁰ But he was a prophet, and he knew God had promised with an oath that one of David’s own descendants would sit on his throne. ³¹ David was looking into the future and speaking of the Messiah’s resurrection. He was saying that God would not leave him among the dead or allow his body to rot in the grave.

³² “God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this. ³³ Now he is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today. ³⁴ For David himself never ascended into heaven, yet he said,

‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit in the place of honor at my right hand
³⁵ until I humble your enemies,
making them a footstool under your feet.” ’

³⁶ “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”

The four accounts in the bible, that we call the “Gospels” all say the same thing when explaining who killed Jesus. They all say … “They crucified Him” (Mark 15:25, Matt 27:35, Luke 23:33, John 19:18).

But here in Peter’s first ever sermon, he levels an accusation at the audience of thousands of people: “… YOU, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”

This audience was full of people from all over the Roman world at the time, so they could have easily been defensive and said that they weren’t the ones who killed Jesus.

Any here I am, centuries removed from the situation. As I read “YOU, with the help of wicked men put him to death on the cross” I can choose to read this as a fable or myth, or perhaps a historical fact. But the deeper reality is that it was my sin and yours, as much as the executioner’s, that drove those nails through the flesh of Jesus.

It was my wrongdoing that held him there as that dreadful killing took place.

It was my moral failings that caused God to turn his back on the Son as he cried out “why have you forsaken me!?”

Lord God, as much as the weight of the punishment for my sin is shocking, it is also stunningly beautiful that Jesus would take all that pain, to be crushed for me, so that I can be set free from guilt and made right with you. Thank You for the indescribable suffering that You bore so that I can be free.

Written By Ps. Justin Ware