Dear Friends in Christ and Partners in Ministry,
During the Lent and Easter seasons, many of our readings are from the Fourth Gospel, commonly called, “John.” In those lessons, the writer refers again and again to “the Jews,” often in an unflattering manner. We all know that Jesus, the disciples, and almost everyone they interacted with were all Jews. The Fourth Gospel reflects social conditions in the time and place it was written, nearly a century after Easter. You may recall that St. Paul wrote of stopping at the local synagogue whenever he visited a new town. By the time John was written, however, both Jews and Christians were “circling the wagons” in the face of persecution, which meant defining clearly who was an insider and who was an outsider. Christian Jews were not welcome at synagogues. There was no trust between the two groups that had grown out of the destruction of the Temple and Temple-centered Judaism around 70 CE. Jesus was crucified by the Romans as a seditionist, but the gospel narratives – especially John – make it seem as if it were the Jewish people who were responsible for his crucifixion.
0 Comments
|
FROM THE PASTOR
Sundays: Categories
All
Archives
February 2024
|