 St Alban’s Episcopal Church Bolivar, Missouri Tuesday, April 5, 2022 Moving into Holy WeekAvoiding anti-Judaism  Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday Avoiding anti-Semitism during Holy Week You might think this is a no-brainer. You know you aren’t actually anti-Jewish. But you might also know that Christian preaching, teaching and interpretation of scripture has caused the anti-Jewish attitude about Judaism that have led to innumerable acts of blame, exclusion, and genocidal violence over the centuries. And this is especially true because of the scripture readings for Holy Week. The taunt that Jewish children sometimes still hear is that they are “Christ-killers.” But Jesus died as a Jew. And it was the Roman authorities who crucified him, just as they had crucified many other Jews and others who defied the Roman rule in Palestine. Jesus was a prophet, according to the Bible and prophets do and say uncomfortable things to religious and political leaders. And they are often murdered for their pains. We believe that Jesus was more than a prophet, yes, but he was that, first. And he was killed as John the Baptist was, as a prophet for sedition, for defying, resisting, utterly rejecting the lordship of Caesar. But “the Jews” were – and often still are – blamed, even by the Bible itself. Matthew and John especially, charge “the Jews;” as does Acts, and Paul in 1 Thessalonians: “the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus.”  Maybe it was inevitable. “The followers of the Risen Lord couldn’t understand why so many of their fellow Jews didn’t accept their belief in Jesus as the Messiah. But most Jews saw no sign of the Messianic Age having dawned – no ingathering of the exiles to Zion, no end to death, war, disease or poverty. What was obvious to one group was incomprehensible to the other – which led to mistrust, and mistrust, on both sides, led to vilification.” (Amy-Jill Levine) We need to remember that all the disciples at this time, and all of Jesus’ opponents were either Jews or Roman authorities. And both the Jesus followers, and those Jews who rejected Jesus, opposed and were opposed by Rome. And both groups had reason to be afraid of Rome, too. Martyrdoms of Jews and Christian Jews were common in those early years. The conversion of the Gentiles, (the non-Jews) comes later than the events of Holy Week. . The bitter polemic in the New Testament is mostly between Jews, who understood what it meant to be a Jew very differently. Perhaps we can understand it better if we think about what it means to different groups to be a “Christian” in America right now. We Episcopalians have very little in common with some brands of Christianity, and those others are convinced that we aren’t really Christians at all. But both of us claim to be. And the polemic can run pretty hot. Given that kind of atmosphere, the things that are hurled at each other in the Bible by Jews, make perfect sense. But how these scriptures have been used to blame Jews for the death of Jesus – is not theologically, Biblically, ethically, or politically sound. But exactly that accusation has been leveled against Jews again and again – leading to the holocaust – and sometimes continues to this very day. Please talk to your children about this as they listen to the stories on Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday and Good Friday. They may not have any Jewish friends in Bolivar right now – but someday, we hope they will. |
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