Who or What Killed Jesus?

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), founded in 1913, is the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry. According to the ADL, throughout history dramatizations of the passion of Jesus Christ have provoked violence against Jewish people as being “Christ killers.” It came as no surprise then that the ADL was seriously concerned immediately prior to the release of Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ.

The ADL was concerned that people viewing the film woukd leave the theater with highly stimulated emotions. That raw emotion can become the breeding ground for the rationalized hatred of or violence against Jewish people. We cannot dismiss these concerns as irrational. They are very much grounded in reality and in history. ADL representatives made it clear that these potential consequences could become reality even though completely unintended by the filmmaker.

Of course it is true that some Jews killed Jesus—2,000 years ago. But so did some Romans. To accuse all the Jews of that generation (or all the Romans) of being responsible for the death of Jesus is preposterous. And in order to hold anyone (Jew, Greek, or other) not living during that generation responsible for the death of Jesus we must move out of the realm of history and into the field of theology.

The theological truth is that we are all responsible for the death of Jesus. He took upon Himself the sins of all human beings—that includes you and it includes me. A related truth is that the evil powers and principalities at work in the spiritual realm also played a role in the death of Jesus.

Therefore, assigning blame for the death of Jesus on one particular race of human beings is an error of the gravest magnitude. Using His crucifixion as a justification for hatred and violence against anyone is in complete violation of what His death means and is as sinful as any human behavior can get.

 

What if We Did Church Jesus’ Way?

“As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.”

“… as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

I’ve never understood how we, self-designated followers of Christ, can be so blind. By Holy Decree He sends us into the world. The reason is obvious—the world is loath to come to us.

And yet, even after all the preaching on the Great Commission (“Go into all the world …”) that goes on within the four walls of the Church House, we still stubbornly cling to our modus operandi: “invite them to come to church.”

What if we did church Jesus’ way? What if instead of welcoming believers to sit on pews as spectators of religious ceremony, we sent them out into the world? No coats, no money, no plans—just a mission and a message. And our assembling together was not about us but, rather, about God’s work in the world through us?

What if we trained people for ministry in similar fashion? Instead of pulling them out of the world and sending them away from the church to learn about God from a book, what if we sent them into the world out of the church to learn about God from firsthand experience?

Instead of spending days in classrooms they could spend nights on the streets. The clear message would be that God does not live in Seminaries or churches; God lives in the world. The church exists so that people have a place to try and make sense of their experience of the divine in the world, as well as a community to support them while they are learning.

What if people were invited to church in order to tell of what they already know about God rather than to learn what they are supposed to believe about God? What if they were honored for what they were already doing in the world for God rather than chastised for what they are not doing within the church? What if the church saw its role as moving people out the door instead of trying to keep them in? What if sermons were designed to convince people that God needed them more out in the world than He does inside the four walls of a church building?

What if all this (and perhaps more) happened? Well, then I believe we would be doing church Jesus’ way.

This Post was inspired by, and some of the thoughts were adapted from, the book Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor (New York: Harper San Francisco, 2006).