As Christians prepare to enter Holy Week, the week preceding Easter, the church faces its most dangerous time of the year. The Gospel of John is the most commonly used text during these days, and its language evokes every anti-Jewish prejudice that has haunted western civilization for two thousand years. At its worst it has ignited pogroms in which Jewish neighbors were exiled and murdered.
No one knows why John labeled Jews as the opponents of Jesus. Jesus was a Jew. All his disciples were Jews. With the exception of some Romans and a few others all the people in John’s gospel are Jews. And it’s reasonably clear that the text was written for a community of Jews throughout the eastern Mediterranean who followed Jesus. It doesn’t matter how often pastors and theologians try to explain the narrative’s context and history. The plain reading of the text by people who have been carefully taught to dislike Jews will use it to justify their hateful prejudices.
It’s the reason many pastors proclaim a cautionary warning to their congregations each year. This year, with the meteoric rise of anti-Jewish rhetoric and behavior, it is more important to make the warning a public condemnation of all forms of antisemitism. There is no room for it in Christianity. Any form of antisemitism is abhorrent to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, in these most holy of days, it is incumbent on Christians to stand as solid walls against all forms of antisemitism. In Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, man or woman, black, brown or white, no East or West. All are one with God in Christ.
That does not exempt Israel’s leadership from criticism of the way they are executing the war against Hamas. Vengeful retribution against an entire population is never justified. Hamas’s cowardly and inhumane attack on an Israeli kibbutz on October 7 is equally condemned. Every “civilized” nation on earth has been guilty of the same unspeakable behavior at one time or another. None are free of guilt, but all understand deeply how morally wrong it was, so there can be no moral justification for it anywhere on earth today.
Remember, John’s gospel also declared that God so loved the world that Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, came to save it, not condemn it. There can be no better time than Easter for Christians to proclaim that saving truth for all peoples in every place, and to participate as they are able in God’s healing and reconciling work.
Hooray for you. Well said. The current Atlantic magazine has a cover story on the rise of antisemitism, which is very, very long. your essay is the bottom line, simply stated. Thank you. I do not understand antisemitism. What’s point–just to find somebody to hate?