Why Jews and Christians Are Brothers, and They the Elder

It is unthinkable to me that Christians be anti-Semitic. I occasionally hear of these things, but they always shock me. How can you degenerate the people who brought your religion, who fathered your prophets, who obey your God?

A rabbi in Oklahoma once gave a very surprising sermon. He maintained that the Mel Gibson movie, The Passion of the Christ, was anti-Semitic.

I hadn't gotten that impression. I'd seen the film twice.

So I was disturbed to hear that the rabbi thought the Christian producers had purposefully put an anti-Jewish slant on the film. That Jewish peasants were depicted with nasty, crooked teeth while white actors playing Romans had straight teeth. That the movie would incite modern-day Christians to blame the Jews for the death of Christ.

I certainly couldn't understand how anyone could blame today's Jews, or the Jewish people, for the death of Jesus. In fact, here are wise words from a Jewish Christian detailing how to respond to those who persist in the idea that "the Jews killed Jesus." I killed Jesus; you killed Jesus. Sin killed Jesus. Yet Jesus came to die, and it was all meant to happen to make way for the greatest miracle of all to occur. The Jewish people are the bearers of the First Covenant, the chosen people of God, and His special relationship with them is something we can only read the Old Testament/Jewish Bible and wonder at, while they live it. He called them from the desert. They suffered and grew and recorded His scriptures, keeping them safe for us for millennia. It is their history we read and study, their stories. It is how we understand Jesus because He was one of them.  They are the firstborn; we the adopted son. We are brothers, and the the elder.

The best and most scholarly Bible translations are those that include not only Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant scholars, but Jewish experts as well. It would be folly to try to determine how our faith relates to us when it was founded wholly on the texts and fulfilled prophecies of their faith. Pope Francis is wise when he extends his hand in friendship to Jewish leaders, as did his predecessor Pope John Paul II before him, and I personally know pastors and priests who consider area rabbis to be friends and consults. Logically speaking, it makes sense to interpret Jewish scriptures with the guide of a Jewish perspective on the times, culture, literature, and political structure of the day. We Christians can perhaps offer them a deeper appreciation of their own sacred text, with the light of the Holy Spirit showing how prophecies that were fulfilled them are fulfilled anew in Christ, and they can offer us a grounding, a sharing of their understanding of their faith that led so inexorably to ours.