The Villains of the Crucifixion

In our family scripture study, we're getting close to the end of Matthew, which means we've been going over the events of the crucifixion (in greater detail than we might otherwise have, since we started stopping to discuss what we're reading whenever there's something we want to comment on or discuss), and something that I've noticed is that there were a lot of people involved. It wasn't just Judas and Pilate. There were a number of chief priests and Roman soldiers, not to mention a large, angry mob. There were literally dozens of people that aided in the scourging and the crucifying of Christ.

Now, I can picture one person being totally and absolutely evil, completely cold and heartless, the devil's right-hand man. There could even be a dozen such people united in the purpose of accomplishing the greatest amount of evil that could possibly be performed. But this sequence of events called for more than just a handful of utterly evil people. It required dozens of people, and I can't imagine all of them being all bad.

Pilate doesn't strike me as being a completely evil person. He was just too afraid of the mob. And while the mob was shouting "Crucify him," one person must have shouted it first, and the rest may have simply being going along with it. Maybe they were hopelessly evil, or maybe they just weren't thinking. The Roman soldiers were the ones physically performing the act, and maybe some of them were truly evil in heart, but I strongly think that at least some of them were just following orders. And I highly doubt that Judas ever meant for all of this to go so far, because he hung himself when it did.

The crucifixion happened. It was probably the greatest act of evil in the history of the world, and just about everyone listed above had a hand in it, but I really don't think they were all evil. I think they were all human. Most people are neither all good or all evil. We all have both good and evil inside us, struggling to influence our actions. Maybe all of them happened to give in to the evil spirit at the exact same time, or maybe they were all responding to  natural feelings, such as pride and fear. I don't know what was in any of their hearts when they all did what they did, but they were all on the right side in the war in heaven, weren't they? There's got to be at least some good in each of them, and I think that some of them were (or could have been) mostly good, but they simply made a bad decision at a certain point - and which of us hasn't done that?

I don't know any of them well enough to judge them. Fortunately, judging them isn't my job. I've got my own soul to worry about. I'll let the one who suffered for their sins and said "Father, forgive them," worry about theirs.