Week 1: Jesus is a Victim

When Peter first addresses the crowd in Jerusalem to preach the gospel he focuses on an aspect of Jesus’ death that is often neglected: Jesus was a victim. “Wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross” (Acts 2:23) even though “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to [Israel] by miracles, wonders, and signs” (2:22). This is apparently a common theme of early preaching in the book of Acts. Stephen, the first martyr for the Christian faith, proclaims, “Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him” (7:52). This is a key part of the early preaching message of the apostles: Jesus was a victim, of the Roman government, of the Jewish authorities, of his own disciples who betrayed and abandoned him. This week, I will consider some specific aspects of Jesus as a victim: Jesus was a refugee, falsely convicted, a victim of torture, wrongly executed, and killed as a threat to the political status quo.

Jesus was a victim. He was also God in the flesh, Lord, and Savior.