touching on gospel antisemitism?

On the church calendar, today is Holy Saturday, isn't it - - yesterday was Good Friday and tomorrow is Easter Day and today is Holy Saturday - - a day of repose in which nothing is to happen because Jesus lies in the tomb and, theologically, God is dead.

For some, Holy Saturday can be a strange place and Time, a spiritual void of hope and hopelessness in which there is nothing, no one; nobody and nothing to pray to, to hear prayer. Indeed, looking out into the heavens, the stars should be winking out.

Again in some sense especially because we have the calendar, we actually know what's going to happen - - even for us if we live through the day - - Holy Saturday is a liminal place filled with history and future, despair and hope, tension and peace, but nothing here right now.

Yes, it's possible to wander too far off the path with a thought, and that's far enough.

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What I'm actually thinking about is the Gospel according to John, the Passion Narrative we read yesterday, an essay I spotted headlined in my email earlier this Holy Week, entitled something like "what to do about antisemitism in John's gospel." It's a topic that intrigues me, and I meant to go back and read the piece but can't find it again. Antisemitism in John and our other gospels is a common thought, one that surfaces especially this Time every year. The conversation can't be put to rest, because the New Testament canon is closed and permanent, and isn't going to be changed, so we are stuck facing the question.

Is Gospel John antisemitic? Yes, I think so. It's subjective, one can disagree and be deeply offended by such a suggestion; so it's sort of like Jesus mentioning Truth in yesterday's reading and Pilate shrugging, "What is Truth?" Truth depends, and one can either see it that way, or one can be like my seminary theology professor, who asserted about Christianity, "It is NOT some hesitant, tentative, weasel-wording 'true for US,' it's objectively True." I'm on the other side of that.

I'm on the other side of that. In one parish I served, my administrative helper for a while was a highly intelligent and observant woman named Margo, whose proud birth, family, and cultural heritage was American Indian. There are more politically correct terms nowadays, but Margo told me she was Indian, and she used to tell me tribal stories (I've recalled this before here on +Time). Sometimes a story would seem so outrageous to me that I'd ask Margo if she really believed that. And she'd say something like "We know it isn't really true, but it's true for us."

In Judaism and Christianity we have stories like that. When you step into Heilsgeschichte, holy history, holy stories, you're in a liminal place that doesn't want justifying or rationalizing to outsiders. And, we insiders can take it literally or take it symbolically, as we will.

Wandering off the trail again. It's some of the deliciousness of arising at two o'clock in the morning to enjoy the new day with a mug of hot & black. To appreciate Time, nomesane?

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But antisemitism and John and the other gospels. It really isn't so obvious until Jesus gets to Jerusalem (a trip that takes him ten chapters in Luke - - Luke 9:51 to 19:28). As does every writer have an agenda, so do the gospel evangelists, and though each one has his own specific agenda, their overall general agenda is to persuade their readers that Jesus is Lord, Messiah, Christ, the anointed one, King, the one Moses foretold, the expected one; and that what happened to him when he arrived in Jerusalem that final Time was not the ultimate discrediting failure, but part of the plan, The Plan itself; indeed, God's OWN plan.

By the Time the gospels are written, from Mark to John - - probably sometime between 60-70 AD when tension between the Christian sect and their Jewish origins was becoming untenable, and 90-125 AD by which Time the belligerent split was total and Christians more and more from pagan gentiles than Jews - - the memory and therefore story was one of unfair Jewish animosity toward Jesus; and the hostility shows in the what the Christian writers have to say.

So, I'm looking at John's passion narrative again (scroll down), appalled as usual at its hostility toward the Jews/Judeans, which has directly stirred so much hatred and antisemitism over the centuries, violence, cruelty and death for many Jews - - hardly a good word for Christian piety. I know from other reading that Jews have been the object of violent antisemitism for millennia. Not just the era of the German Third Reich, though stirred violently by them, but existing way back before Jesus' Time, and at least into gentile experience with Abraham's claim and Joshua's conquest of the Holy Land.

Anyway,

top, an image of Jesus before a tentative, sympathetic, and reluctant Pilate (whom Jewish writers put down as actually having been a brutal, cruel despot),

below, an image of a page from JR, the Journal of Religion published by the University of Chicago Press - - very notably in their Volume 21, No. 1 issue, January 1941 when the Third Reich was in full swing but the unspeakably horrific outrages of their evil and the extent to which they carried it, apparently were in the air, but not really yet known to the rest of the world. Written in 1940 or earlier, Walter W Sikes notes an uprise in antisemitism that we are tragically seeing again in the early 21st century. Humanity is as yet no where even close to the godly image in which Genesis says we were created - - from our origin, evolution of the species has miles to go and promises to keep.

and below that, scroll down, John's narrative for Good Friday, the part that we read at Holy Nativity yesterday Noon; then some of my observations - -

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John 18:1-19:30

The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.

The customary response is omitted. The congregation may be seated until the arrival at Golgotha.

Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.

Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, "Whom are you looking for?" They answered, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus replied, "I am he." Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, "I am he," they stepped back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, "Whom are you looking for?" And they said, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus answered, "I told you that I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these men go." This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken, "I did not lose a single one of those whom you gave me." Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave's name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?"

So the soldiers, their officer, and the Jewish police arrested Jesus and bound him. First they took him to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was better to have one person die for the people.

Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. The woman said to Peter, "You are not also one of this man's disciples, are you?" He said, "I am not." Now the slaves and the police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing around it and warming themselves. Peter also was standing with them and warming himself.

Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. Jesus answered, "I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them; they know what I said." When he had said this, one of the police standing nearby struck Jesus on the face, saying, "Is that how you answer the high priest?" Jesus answered, "If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?" Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They asked him, "You are not also one of his disciples, are you?" He denied it and said, "I am not." One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, "Did I not see you in the garden with him?" Again Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.

Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate's headquarters. It was early in the morning. They themselves did not enter the headquarters, so as to avoid ritual defilement and to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate went out to them and said, "What accusation do you bring against this man?" They answered, "If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you." Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law." The Jews replied, "We are not permitted to put anyone to death." (This was to fulfill what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death he was to die.)

Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here." Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." Pilate asked him, "What is truth?"

After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, "I find no case against him. But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?" They shouted in reply, "Not this man, but Barabbas!" Now Barabbas was a bandit.

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and striking him on the face. Pilate went out again and said to them, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him." So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!" When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him." The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God."

Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate therefore said to him, "Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?" Jesus answered him, "You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin." From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, "If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against Caesar."

When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge's bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, "Here is your King!" They cried out, "Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!" Pilate asked them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha.

Congregation please stand.

There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'King of the Jews,' but, 'This man said, I am King of the Jews.'" Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written." When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it." This was to fulfill what the scripture says,

"They divided my clothes among themselves,
and for my clothing they cast lots."

And that is what the soldiers did.

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), "I am thirsty." A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, "It is finished." Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

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Many, many things jump out at me as I stand and listen to this story being read, and as I read it myself. Just a couple:

> for his readers, Gospel John contrasts Pontius Pilate as the good guy overagainst the wicked Jews who mistreated our Jesus, a literary image that has cost the lives of untold millions of innocents over the next two thousand years and more at the hands of arrogant Christian certitude. (certainty in religion is the greatest sin, and the foundation for incomprehensible evil that contradicts what the religion itself claims to stand for). What is known of Pilate is quite sketchy, but not this kindly, sympathetic figure.

> the "other disciple" who was known to the guards and so got Simon Peter into the courtyard is, no doubt in my mind, meant to be understood as the disciple whom Jesus loved, namely Lazarus of Bethany, who, when Jesus gave his mother to him just before Jesus died, then took her straight home just around the hill in Bethany. To me, the Gospel according to John is so subtly clear about this that I see the traditional naming of "John the beloved disciple" as sheer rubbish. (This idea and tentative internal evidence has also led some scholars to suggest that this document that we know as the Gospel according to John actually should not have been credited to John but to Lazarus).

> details of the passion narrative vary noticeably among the four canonical gospels, and Bible inerrantists and literalists may be stumped by this. Which story is "Truth"? To me, as my friend Margo used to say about her Indian tribal lore stories, they're our tribal stories and they're all true for us. The details depend on whose story we're reading at the moment, Mark, Matthew, Luke, or John, and the differences make them all the more fascinating.

Holy Saturday - - a liminal place and Time just to Be and shiver fearfully yet hopefully.

RSF&PTL