Dear Reader,

First of all, you are right to cringe because the roots of antisemitism are found in the accounts of the passion narrative—especially in John’s account.  In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the “crowd” cries out, “Crucify him!”  In John, it’s the Jews who cry out.  In John, the disciples hide out “for fear of the Jews.”  In fact, in John’s gospel, hoi Ioudaoi (the Jews) occurs 70 times.  It’s not hard to see why people arrive at the belief that “The Jews killed Jesus.”  But this is wrong and has caused untold suffering.  Rome killed Jesus using Jewish proxies.  But by the time John’s gospel was written, late in the first century or early in the second, the divorce from Judaism was underway, and the rhetoric was heating up.  To make matters worse, the passion plays that reenact the final week of Jesus’ life, like the one in the German town of Oberammergau, so inflamed audiences that they would attack Jews and destroy their property after the performances.

So here are a couple of suggestions.

1) Let your priest or pastor know that this troubles you and that you are not alone.

2) Ask that it be the occasion for a sermon on antisemitism and its roots.

3) Ask that the passion narrative NOT be read from John’s gospel, and then explain to the congregation why this is important as a “teachable moment.”  And remember that “the Jews” does not mean “all Jews”, just as criticism of Pharisees by Jesus does not mean “all Pharisees.”  Humans tend to generalize from the specific to the general, and therein lie the roots of collective prejudice.  Because Christian congregations are not the object of this prejudice, we miss the impact on our Jewish sisters and brothers.  It is too important an issue to be silent about, so be courageous.

~ Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers