	Bob Hostetler > Writing

Passion…or Prejudice?

by Bob Hostetler

Mel Gibson's film, The Passion, hasn't yet been released, and may not yet have a distributor. Yet Gibson's movie, which reportedly depicts the last twelve hours of Jesus' life, has stirred bitter controversy for months. The Anti-Defamation League, based on an early script of the film, condemned it as anti-Semitic. New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind accused the film of resurrecting "the age-old canard of deicide" and inciting "anti-Semitic violence." Many who haven't seen the film are worried that it will paint Jews as Christ- killers.

Gibson-along with many Christians and Jews (like Michael Medved and Matt Drudge) who have screened the film-say it is a highly factual and inspirational depiction of Jesus' final hours, and not at all anti-Semitic. But those claims have failed to silence the suspicions and criticisms. So…just what are the facts, not about the film only but about who killed Jesus?

The source of many of the critics' fears is the language the biblical authors used to describe the conspirators against Jesus. The Gospel accounts of Jesus' life and death include statements like "The Jews tried all the harder to kill him" (John 5:18, NIV) and "Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor [to be tried and executed]" (John 18:28, NIV). Seems pretty incriminating, doesn't it? Not exactly.

You see, the biblical authors used the phrase, "the Jews" in many ways, just as ancient and modern Jews can mean many things when they use the term, "Torah." The word "Torah" can mean the five books of Moses. Or it can mean the entire Hebrew canon, including the prophets and psalms. Or it can mean an even larger group of writings, including the Talmud. It all depends.

Similarly, the phrase, "the Jews," was used by biblical writers (who, by the way, were themselves Jewish) to refer to the entire race of Jewish people (Luke 23:3, John 4:22), religiously observant Jews (Mark 7:3, John 2:6), small groups of Jews (John 11:31), and to one of several groups of national and religious leaders (John 9:22, John 18:14). It was this latter group-the national leadership of that day-that participated in Jesus' trial, sentencing, and execution. In other words, the "Jews" who conspired with Roman Gentiles like Pilate to condemn Jesus were a very small (seventy or so) and very specific group of Jews.

Unfortunately, people who called themselves Christians have, in the past, suggested that because a small and specific group of Jews were involved in Jesus' death, all Jews were guilty of his death. That's a blot on the history of the church, and a tragedy in the history of the Jews. But such reasoning should never have been advanced or accepted in the church because it ignored (and, where it still stubbornly exists today, still ignores) the facts:

Not only the persecutors of Jesus, but also the followers of Jesus were Jewish (John 11:45, John 12:11);
Jesus himself was Jewish (witness the mocking appellation, "King of the Jews," which was posted on his cross (John 19:19)). If the Jewish race bears any guilt for his death, Jesus' himself-as a Jew-must bear that guilt, which the Christian Scriptures clearly refute by stating that Christ "never sinned" (2 Corinthians 5:21, NLT);
A major debate in the first-century church was whether Gentiles could become Christ-followers without first becoming Jewish (Acts 15), which clearly indicates that early they considered Jewishness a good thing;
Jesus could not have been crucified without Gentile (and, specifically, Roman) participation in his trial, sentencing, and execution (John 18:31);
Jesus, rather than laying blame for his death at the door of the Jews, more or less took responsibility himself, saying, "No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord" (John 10:18, NIV).

But even those facts are just a little beside the point. From the first, Christian teaching has clearly and unequivocally assigned the blame for Jesus' death. Paul, the great church planter of the first century, told both Jews and Gentiles that Jesus "was delivered over to death for our sins" (Romans 4:25, NIV). And John, one of Jesus' original twelve Jewish disciples, said that Jesus "is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2, NIV).

In other words, the earliest Christian writers were absolutely clear that Jesus' death was not the fault of "the Jews," nor of the Romans, nor of any one class or race of people. According to the teaching of the Christian Scriptures, it was not the Jews who killed Jesus, it was love: love for the whole world, Jew and Gentile alike. And (again according to the Christian Scriptures) to each of us goes the privilege and the responsibility of determining whether that sacrifice will end up, in our case, achieving its stated purpose: the salvation of our souls.

Perhaps that's the real test of Mel Gibson's film, The Passion: whether it prompts an appropriate response to the passion it depicts.

This article appeared in the October 3, 2003 edition of the Hamilton Journal-News.

More articles by Bob Hostetler...