“What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?" Pilate asked them. "Crucify him!" they shouted. "Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!" – Mark 15:12-14“Crucify Him,” is what the crowds demanded of Pontius Pilate. Given their cultural history, given their need for Him, how could they demand this? How could they so thoroughly reject the Messiah they had anticipated for thousands of years when He was right in their midst?
Jesus Christ may have been a Savior, but He was not the sort of Savior the people wanted. For these were not a people distraught or concerned about their sinfulness, but a people consumed by their worldly desires and the lusts of the flesh. The crowd surely wanted a King… but the King they wanted was one who would stomp and destroy their evil Roman oppressors, a King who would eliminate Rome and usher in the days of milk and honey.
So when the Lamb of God, this man of sorrows acquainted with grief, when HE came on the scene, their hardened hearts would not recognize Him for who He was… because He did not resemble what they wanted Him to be!
Would it be any different in our day?
It is necessary to ask ourselves what kind of Savior we are seeking. The Lord of our salvation must be a reflection of the Christ that we find in Scripture, and NOT the Christ we've fashioned from our sinful desires.
