SERMON

I believe it was during my candidating week, six years ago, that Maria Murphy first approached me with her beginning Esperanto lesson. Has that happened to anyone else? It was a memorable experience because the speaker at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Corvallis, Oregon, I attended on my pilgrimage to the west coast fifteen years earlier also extolled the merits of Esperanto as an international language. The presence of people interested in Esperanto along with singing familiar hymns and meeting highly individualistic people active in liberal social causes contributed to one of those moments of recognition that helped me to feel religiously at home again here in Charlotte County.

Maria has encouraged me to speak on Zamenhof, the founder of Esperanto, and I may yet still do it. She has also strongly encouraged me to talk against the war on drugs. While I'm not ready to legalize drugs because of the socially destructive implications of drug use, I am against the punitive, unjust construction of our current drug policy. Rather than putting people in jail, we should be removing the economic incentives to sell drugs and offer many more treatment programs for self motivated addicts.

The one subject she hasn't asked me to speak on which I know is near and dear to her heart is the question of who killed Jesus. When Maria attends the Polish Catholic Church[1] to hear Polish spoken and socialize with those from her homeland, she encounters a great deal of anti-Semitism. Easter is the culmination of that hatred because she often hears the priest blame the Jews for Jesus' death. The most holy day in the Christian calendar is also the most hurtful and hateful. During Conversation Among Friends on Tuesday mornings, she has shared her pain listening to the priest support the people's prejudice against Jews.

Polish anti-Semitism isn't unusual. The hatred of the Jews found in every country of the world goes beyond the typical hatred one race or ethnic group has for another. The term anti-Semitism was coined in 1879 by the German agitator Wilhelm Marr to designate the anti-Jewish campaigns underway in central Europe at that time. Even though the term dates from the end of nineteenth century, the hatred has a much longer history.

The explanations for this kind of hatred can be broadly classed into six theories which I'm sure most of us have heard (and some may believe)[2]:

1. The Economic Theory: Jews are hated because they possess too much wealth and power.

2. The Chosen People Theory: Jews are hated because they arrogantly claim they are the chosen people.

3. The Scape Goat Theory: Jews are a convenient group to single out and blame.

4. The Outsiders Theory: Jews are hated because they are different .

5. The Racial Theory: Jews are hated because they are an inferior race.

6. The Deicide Theory: Jews are hated because they killed Jesus.

The Deicide Theory we need to look at more closely this morning as we remember the Rabbi Jesus who brought a renewed and inspiring understanding of Jewish faith which has survived to this present day. It is easy to forget that the first Christians were required to be observant Jews and to be circumcised. That's right--if you wanted to follow Jesus and you were male, you had to be circumcised. Without St. Paul's efforts at Romanization of the church, Christians all might be keeping kosher today.

Before the time of Jesus, the Jews were singled out. When the Ancient Greeks and the Romans conquered an area of land, they generally respected the religions of the indigenous people but required them to perform sacrifices for their Gods as well. Since in Pagan cultures there were many different Gods, most people went along with it (what's one more God if you're having more than one already)--except the Jews who refused to worship any God but their one God. The Jews also segregated themselves socially in those days. This caused much irritation among the Pagans who were much more pluralistic as we'd say today.

When Christianity became Romanized in the 4^th Century, it also inherited from Rome their Jewish problem. The Jews rejected the Trinitarian formulation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit since there could only be one God not three. These are the same roots of our Unitarian and Universalist faith, seeing Jesus as a human teacher to follow rather than worship as a deity. Persecution of the Jews has continued up until about the last fifty years as official Catholic policy.

Many believe the roots of this Christian Anti-Semitism is fueled by the Gospels. In particular, the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate. Here is the most offending passage from Matthew:

Now at the [Passover] feast, the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barrabas.

So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release for you, Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ?" For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. Besides, while he was sitting on the judgement seat, his wife sent word to him, "Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much over him today in a dream." Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the people to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.

The governor again said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?" And they said, "Barabbas." Pilate said to them, "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?"

They all said, "Let him be Crucified."

And he said, "What evil has he done?"

But they shouted all the more, "Let him be crucified."

So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood, see to it yourselves." And all the people answered, "his blood be on us and our children." (27:15-25)

Can we believe this is what actually happened? Actually there is good evidence via the historian Josephus' writing that Jesus died in the time of Pilate with the cooperation of the high priests similar to this report in the Passion narrative. Placing blame, however, is another matter.

The first of the cannonical Gospels was written, at the earliest, about thirty years after Jesus' death. This reconstruction of the end of his life is unlikely to be a historical account as we have at best two independent conflicting sources since scholars agree that the Canonical Gospel writers used similar material in constructing their narratives. We know that the earliest Christians believed Jesus to be a messianic figure. To understand who he was, what he did and what his life and death meant, they couldn't go to him and ask him since he was at best able to appear in spiritual form to them after his death. To understand what had happened, most likely, they would look at the prophecy in their scriptures that they believe he fulfilled. They wouldn't see this as rationalization of their beliefs but rather as a means to understand what they had witnessed. It is parallel for us to read about a court case in the newspaper, pour over a columnist's analysis, speak with a friend of a friend who attended the trial and think we know what happened. We'll get some of the facts (Jesus was a trouble maker, got arrested, went before Pilate, got convicted, was sentenced to die, his body disappeared mysteriously) but miss a great deal of the meaningful detail. Detail especially needed to determine who is guilty and innocent.

Living in a Roman world and facing rejection by the Jewish community, the early Christians felt called to bring their message to the gentiles and universalize their message beyond Judaism. To find a way to make a bridge into the Greco-Roman world and identify themselves as the legitimate heirs of a transformed religious tradition once the Temple had been destroyed, the early Christians needed ways to transfer the blame from the Romans for Jesus' death to their adversaries, the Pharisaic Jews who rejected them.

Hand washing is a good example of this transfer. Hand washing, as a way of establishing innocence, can be found in Deuteronomy and the Psalms. It declares one's innocence of blood unjustly shed. It is unlikely that Pilate literally washed his hands of the blood of Jesus as it was a Jewish ritual. He'd probably never heard of it or, if he had, it would have been at the instruction of the high priests. We do know the use of hand washing in the Passion narrative is an effective metaphor to transfer religious responsibility. The Jews didn't crucify Jesus, the Romans did. But the story cleverly masks this truth.

The illustration of hand washing suggests the words and images tell the story of faith but are not historical records. In particular the passage "his blood be upon us and our children" is almost certainly unhistorical. Roman Catholic Biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan calls the passage, fictitious "Christian propaganda[3]." Much blood has been shed over this reconstruction of Jesus' sentence to death by a mob, an event which probably never happened.

If anyone is complicit in the death of Jesus, it is the high priest, Joseph son of Caiaphas. Caiaphas served as the high priest at the same time as Pilate and likely colluded with him as he kept his office for 18 years and left office the same time Pilate did. In such turbulent times, Caiaphas must have been an excellent politician to manage to stay in power that long under two different prefects.

So if it wasn't the Jews who killed Jesus--who did?

The precipitating incident that probably got Jesus in trouble was overturning the tables of the money changers. This action challenging the authority of the temple surely would have come to Caiaphas and moved him to action. This mob inciting action against the temple would have been even more dangerous during the time of Passover when many crowded into Jerusalem. The potential for insurrection would have motivated Pilate to action as he had a legion of soldiers in the city to keep control during the festival.

Jesus didn't die because he was a religious reformer. The land was rife with two bit messiahs. He died because he was perceived as a political reformer--King of the Jews. He made that statement riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, a mock king entering the gates of the city, and paid with his life.

The Jewish and Roman elites collaborating to hold on to their power plotted to destroy him. Why did the powerful elites kill him? Because they were afraid. They feared what would happen if he inspired people to rebellion against Rome inviting a Roman crackdown and subsequent blood bath. The Gospel writers were well aware of this threat as they edited Jesus' prophetic warnings foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem. In Caiaphas' fear was likely the fear of Roman hatred of the Jews.

What killed Jesus was less his message and more fear of his capacity for truthtelling which inspired the Jews as he cleansed the Temple.

And the miracle of Easter morning is that the truth he told cannot be killed. It cannot be walled up in a tomb to decay and disappear.

The truth does not die with the truth teller. The truth cannot die because what is true is identical with what is real. Reality can be warped and distorted only in our minds. Truth can be hidden yet it remains constantly calling out to all who will have the courage to feel it and know it. Repressive regimes are eventually their own undoing because fear cannot command the loyalty of the heart. When the fear is removed, obedience quickly turns to contempt. Torture and terror cannot win the people's devotion only their temporary capitulation. If the masters loosens their grip, they will be destroyed by the terror of their own making.

This is our mistake in the Balkans. If we think we can terrorize Milosovich and the Serbs we have another thing coming. We only firm up their future resistance and unify his people behind him. Milosovich will self destruct without an enemy to keep the people in fear. We are only feeding their fear.

Our awareness of truth is reborn again and again because there is no love to be found in lies. Jesus' reported resurrection is a powerful metaphor for the persistence of truth. Even the most cruel and isolating death with the rejection of his disciple Peter three times cannot kill the spirit of truth which animated him.

May we welcome the story of the risen Jesus as a reminder that who we are is bigger than death. The truth cannot be killed by fear. It rises again in a loving heart.

Closing Words

Just as truth never dies--
What is most essentially us has nothing to fear from death.
Much of who we think we are is transient.
It buds, blossoms and fades like the Jacaranda tree in April.
Much of what we really are is eternal.
What the tree is made of and rooted in has no beginning or end.
Strive with diligence to know who you really are.
And be liberated from the prison of your self conception.

Copyright (c) 1999 by Rev. Samuel A. Trumbore. All rights reserved.

[1] The priest in this particular congregation has responded to Maria's concerns but other ones I'm sure have not.
[2] Visit this web site for a good analysis http://www.aish.edu/seminars/whythejews/wtj02000.htm
[3] Crossan, John Dominic, Who Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus., 1995, HarperSanFrancisco, p. 152 This is my source for some of the argument presented.