The latter question is far more frequently asked than the former. So much is embedded in its asking: Jesus had to die. It was part of God's will. He died for us. The answers lead to more questions, often focusing more on the theological meaning behind his death than the socio-political realities that resulted in his death.
Asking why was Jesus killed leads to another question: who killed Jesus? That is easy enough to answer: the Roman occupiers of Palestine. Crucifixion was for the crime of sedition, so one way or another, Jesus was viewed as seditious for either his message or activities.
That seems hard to reconcile with what most people think of Christianity today: deferential to authority, decent, and respectable in its elite forms, or hypocritical, judgmental, and exclusive in its popular image. Just read surveys of young adults if you don't believe me!
Asking why was Jesus unjustly killed can help us ask questions for today as well. Why did the police kill Africa of Skid Row? Why are Black and brown young men and women, here and around the world, killed every day, while the powers that be are given the benefit of the doubt? They are called terrorists, criminals, evil-doers, and the like. And Christ is crucified with them. Like the disciples seeing Jesus killed, we might ask, "Where is God in all of this?" Will she raise these men and women from the dead? Will they be given back the lives that were taken too soon? Where is divine justice in a world where the powerful seem to win, again and again, and where oppression endures?
In our obsession with security, do we, like the Romans, crucify Christ all over again? Where do we find ourselves in the story? Now that's a question worth asking!
Awaiting insurrectional resurrection,
Timothy Murphy
Executive Director