Acts 3:1-26
Acts 3:11-17
11While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. 12When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see. 17“Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.
Recently, I was in a forum in which a number of Christians, agnostics, atheists, and Jews participated. It was a fascinating group of people who gave me many ideas which I had not considered before.
The thought which I will carry with me forever is what one woman, who is a Jew, had to say. I will call her Rachel, but that is not her name.
Rachel wondered how those of us who are Christians can perpetuate anti-semitism as we have done throughout the years in our teaching of the gospels. I jumped in and said that Christians do not do any such thing. In fact, I expressed great indignation at the very idea that Christians teach prejudice against Jews.
But let me ask you a question for you to answer quickly. Who are the “bad guy” in the Gospels? Every person to whom I have addressed that question has quickly answered, “The Jews.” And the people of whom I asked the question are long-time Christians. When people give the question some thought, they give a variety of answers which includes the Romans, the Sanhedrin, Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate…and the Jews.
In the following scripture Peter addresses the people to whom he is speaking as “Men of Israel”…and the men of Israel are Jews.
13The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15You killed the author of life (emphasis added)
We tend not to say in our Christian teaching that “all Jews did not ask for Christ’s death.” We do not know how many people wanted his death. We do know that not all of the Sanhedrin wanted Jesus to die…but when we teach, we make it sound as if “all” Pharisees and Sadducees are “bad”. I do not ever remember as a child or as an adult having anyone point out to me that there were just a few “bad guys”. Therefore, I wonder what we are teaching our Christian children today and what we are teaching adults as well.
I challenge you to read the New Testament from the point of view of a Jew. You will be astonished at what you read when you read from a different perspective from that of a Christian. And in my opinion, it ought to make us all stop and think about what we teach as well as what we say in general.
Jesus was a Jew. If we teach anti-semitism, we are also teaching against Jesus. I do not know of one Christian who would want to do such a thing. Jesus was not a Methodist, a Catholic, a Presbyterian, a Jehovah’s Witness, a Mormon, or any other religion. Jesus was a Jew in religion and in ethnicity.
Do we teach anti-semitism? I leave it to you to decide for yourselves. But I have made up my mind thanks to Rachel. I believe we do…not intentionally, I hope, but we do nonetheless. We sin in our teaching by omission of important information.
The challenge is made. Try reading at least the Gospels as if you were a Jew. And if you don’t know enough about Judaism to do that, then it is time to learn. We are a product of the Judeo-Christian Ethic. If we do not know the “Judeo” part, we are only partially aware of who Jesus was, is, and will be throughout eternity.
Carol
Bible Breath: Make us aware / Of our words
