Scripture

All the people yelled back, “We will take responsibility for his death- we and our children.”

Observation

Pilate sees a way out of having to condemn an innocent man. His annual custom is to release a prisoner to the crowd. This year, he offers the people a choice of Jesus the Messiah or a notorious criminal called Barabbas.

Pilate’s wife send a message to Pilate to leave this innocent man alone as she had a dream about him the previous night.

So Pilate asks the crowd who they want released. Again they call for Barabbas. Pilate then washes his hands of the blood of Jesus.

The people then say they will take responsibility for His death, and their children also.

Application

How terrible it is to claim responsibility for the death of the Messiah. The crowd essentially called down a curse on themselves and subsequent generations when they said, “We will take responsibility for the death of the Messiah, the Son of God.”

This call gave satan and the armies of Rome a spiritual authority to destroy the city of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 A.D.

Everybody who refuses to receive the pardon of Jesus also suffers from this curse. Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. To reverse the curse of sin, we must come to Jesus and ask His forgiveness. Our sins nailed Jesus to the cross, and unless we receive forgiveness for our sins, we too are guilty of killing the Lord.

Prayer

Oh Jesus, what a terrible curse was released by those people on their own heads and the generations to come. Than you for lifting from me the effects of this curse and turning it into blessing. Amen.