The question has once again emerged due to Mel Gibson’s upcoming movie “The Passion of the Christ,” and it once again sends a chill to the Jewish blood coursing through my veins. It is a chill not easily warmed by discussions and articles like that of managing editor Jon Meacham’s in Newsweek magazine. Numerous discussions have emerged in hope to dissuade a speculated awakening of anti-Semitism as a result of viewing Mel Gibson’s “Passion.” To avoid such a reaction, most of these discussions do one of three things. They weight the culpability of Jesus’ death heavily on the side of the Romans, and particularly Pilate who represented the Roman government, they accuse Gibson of naively skewing history, or they charge Gibson with latent anti-Semitism attached to his Roman Catholic faith.
Only the politically incorrect would ask me the question when the subject of Gibson’s movie comes up, leaving me to ask unspoken questions in solitude: “Did my forefathers kill Jesus and is his blood on their children?”
When I go to interpret the Gospel story that Gibson used, I am immediately confronted with the issue of world view. Is the text written through the unenlightened hand of mere individuals or is the text written by individuals who were enlightened by God at the time of the writing? The question is immense, though rarely asked. Naturalists, the wysiwyg’s among us, dispel a supernatural association with the text, life, interpretation, or history. They by their ‘myth’ must come to a different conclusion than others who hold to the ‘myth’ of the supernatural. In order to get into the writer’s head, I will assume the writers were spiritually enlightened, since they say they are.
Did the Jews kill Jesus? Physically, the answer is no. The Roman soldiers crucified him and speared him to determine that he was indeed dead. Pilate, the Roman governor of the province, permitted it. However, if one gives further consideration to the causal complex behind the crucifixion, it is apparent that the majority of Jewish religious leaders, the Sanhedrin, incited and insisted upon the killing of Jesus. Without their provocation and persistence of the Jewish leadership Jesus would have not been killed; thus, in this sense, yes, the Jewish leaders of that time killed Jesus.
On the other hand, when going deeper, a different look at the Gospel story reveals that no one killed Jesus. The New Testament teaches that Jesus freely chose to undergo the passion and death in order that all humanity might be offered salvation from their sin. There are sufficient verses in the Scripture to affirm that no one took his life without his consent, since the Gospel instructs that He Himself is the omnipotent God. From this perspective, the Jewish leaders did not kill Jesus.
Another startling twist from a totally different perspective is that The New Testament teaches that each person bears the responsibility of killing Jesus. The reason is clear; he died for humanity’s sin. Thus, I am as responsible as Pilate, the soldiers, the Jewish people, the Evangelicals, the mainline Protestants, the Roman Catholics, the Mormons, the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, the agnostics, the atheists, etcetera, and even you. Yet, the story also teaches that Jesus pardoned all who asked for forgiveness. From this perspective, the Jewish people are no less guilty for the death of Christ than the rest of humanity and they are no less forgiven for his death when pardon is asked.
I suppose that it is fair to ask me to cut to the chase and personally answer the question: “Do you believe that you bear the blood for killing Jesus Christ because of your Jewish lineage?” The answer is “No, I bear the blood for killing Jesus Christ because I am part of humanity and I am liberated from blood guilt because I have asked his forgiveness.” It is with this awareness that the chill in my veins turns toward warmth in my soul.
Jerome Wernow is pastor of Gracepoint Fellowship in Camas, and teaches at Western Seminary in Portland. He has his Ph.D. summa cum laude in Religious Studies from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium and is director of the Northwest Center for Bioethics in Portland.
He was charged with the crime of Blasphemy - a Jewish crime.
He was executed by crucifixion - a Roman punishment.
Politics makes for strange bedfellows, and here we have just such a situation. Leadership on BOTH sides benefited from eliminating a threat they perceived from him. Judea was a Roman province populated by Jews administered at the highest echelons by Romans. There is no one else to blame in the literal sense. Theologically, He died for all mankind. This sinner is thankful