Passions Over 'The Passion'

This blog fears to tread on all matters religious. But the emerging brouhaha over the yet to be released Mel Gibson film, 'The Passion,' has this blog feeling somewhat nonplussed.

It seems that a number of Jewish writers and community leaders are concerned that the film will unleash a wave of anti-Semitic hysteria in the Christian world that will only be rivalled by the unmitigated anti-Semitism in the Islamic world. Because I am not a Catholic, and probably indeed because I was raised in an area of the country where even the Catholics and Jews in my neighborhood were rather WASPy, I never had a firm grasp of the old "blood libel" against the Jews as the "killers of Christ." Whatever vague awareness I had of this notion came from studying the history of the Inquisition and the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, when the Nazis used the blood libel to suit their own purposes.

Although the years I spent living in Europe gave me somewhat more of a sense of the history behind this issue, I simply do not relate to the emotions that it seems to have aroused. I have consquently taken what one might call an "agnostic" view toward the simmering debate over 'The Passion.'

But after reading this article, I felt the need to do something to help set the record straight, and to perhaps ease some of the fears of my Jewish friends, at least on behalf of the Evangelical Protestant traditions in which I was raised.

Protestant Evangelicals are fond of quoting verse John 3:16, which states that God so loved the world that He sent into the world His only begotten Son, so that whoever should believe in Him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life. They believe that this is the key verse of the New Testament, because it alludes to God's willingness to sacrifice His only begotten Son as atonement for our sins. The understanding among most Protestants is that Jesus was sent into the world for the purpose of dying; i.e., His death was part of God's plan. Thus, whoever condemned Jesus to death was only playing a role in that plan.

More to the point, most Protestants are taught that the crowd that called out for Jesus to be put to death represents each of us in our own imperfect struggles to understand God's meaning in our lives. In other words, because each one of us has rejected God's love or God's word at some point in our lives, we have each condemned Jesus to be nailed to that cross. In that sense, the crowd of Jews calling out to Pontius Pilate is only a symbol, a microcosm, of every human's relationship to the Almighty.

The story of Jesus' death also fulfills a bit of dramatic foreshadowing from the Old Testament. In the story of Abraham and Isaac, we are taught of how God tested Abraham's obedience by ordering Abraham to sacrifice his son. It is only when it is clear that Abraham intends to obey that God commands him to stop. Evangelicals are taught that the New Testament brings the lesson of Abraham and Isaac full circle: God's love for us being more perfect than even Abraham's love for Isaac, God voluntarily sent His only Son to be sacrificed for our sins.

Of course, the brutality of Christ's death is part of this message. It was necessary to be so cruel, otherwise the point would be lost.

Evangelical scholars also see what they call a "type/anti-type" relationship between the doctrine of the Old and New Testament. In the Old Testament, you have a chosen people whose communication to God is governed by the high priests, who are commanded to undertake ritual sacrifices to cover up the sins of the chosen people. In the New Testament, you have God sending His own perfect sacrifice in order to cleanse all of our sins forever, allowing each of us direct communication with the Almighty (symbolized by the rending of the Temple curtain at the moment of Christ's passing).

This blog's Biblical scholarship is more than a little rusty, but that is about the gist of it. The notion of the Jews as "killers of Christ" misses the point of the Christian religion. If Jesus hadn't been killed, then Christianity would have never existed.

Comments

[Kris Hasson-Jones]

Yeah, if they so firmly believe that it's the Jews' fault that Jesus died, then they should be down on their knees thanking us for making the resurrection possible.

[Chris Josephson]

I've grown up in the Protestant Evangelical churches and I want to second what I've just read. I had *never* heard anything taught or preached against the Jews because they were 'Christ Killers'. I was unaware this even existed until I was in my 30's.

I live in Massachusetts. Catholics are in large numbers here. Most of my friends were/are Catholics. I *never* heard any of them say anything about the 'blood libel' either. My best friend growing up was Jewish. If remarks were going to be made, I'm sure I would have heard them. (You know how mean kids are.) I never did.

I'm a church goer. I've attended many churches. I was taught as a child, and it is preached today that we owe a debt to the Jews because of Christ.
We're also taught that gentile Christians are sort of adopted into the family. Jewish Christians are the ones the Gospel was extended to first.

The biggest supporters of Israel, in the US, are Evangelical Christians. It's a given that we do everything we can to stand with Israel and the Jewish people. We believe the Jewish people and Israel are special to God.

There are various Christian sites on the net where people are periodically urged to contact our Washington reps. and let them know we expect them to remain allied with Israel.

I'm guessing... but it could be that one of the reasons Bush's poll numbers have dropped is because many in the Evangelical community are not pleased with how he has handled Israel. Many don't like the pressure he's put on Israel so Israel can't mount the defense needed against the Palestinians.

As far as the Passion goes, I'd consider the sources. The majority of those in utter hysterics about this movie are the same bunch in hysterics about our current war. The same bunch who believe the Israelis and Palestinians are morally equivilent. (Note: I said majority, not ALL.)