His Blood is on Us
This verse is chilling, especially when we realize how the Jews have been persecuted through the centuries.
Barton writes: The phrase “his blood be on us and on our children” was an Old Testament idiom (see 2 Samuel 1:16; 3:28). It meant that the people as a whole (the entire crowd, not just the leaders) willingly took responsibility for Jesus’ death. This verse has been misused down through history to label the Jews as “Christ-killers,” but this crowd had no authority to pledge the nation in responsibility for Jesus’ death. It was merely the attempt of an unruly mob to persuade Pilate to do what it wanted. Similarly Pilate, by handing Jesus over, was just as guilty as anyone. The early church may well have seen this crowd’s words fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. While Matthew may have pictured “the people as a whole” as all the Jews of the nation rejecting their Messiah, he also knew that, as with the Old Testament prophecies, a faithful few always remained. The first disciples, and indeed the first believers in the early church, were Jews who became Christians. Yet this rejection, and acceptance of the guilt of Jesus’ death, signaled the end of the privileged status of the Jewish nation (see Matthew 21:43).
Matthew 27:25New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update
And all the people said, “His blood shall be on us and on our children!”