You may have heard that the terrorist at the Tree of Life Synagogue used a verse from the eighth chapter of John’s Gospel to justify his actions, citing particularly verse 44. In that verse, Jesus tells the people he is arguing with that their father is the devil. I suspect that everyone who is associated with our church knows in their hearts that Jesus was NOT speaking literally and your suspicions would be correct! He was NOT! We know in our hearts what Bishop Curry is fond of saying out loud, “If it’s not about love, then it’s not about God!” I also suspect though, we might all appreciate a little help understanding what Jesus WAS trying to say here since the Gospel of John is the most mystical of the Gospels it is never exactly straight forward or easy to fully understand. It is a Gospel that MUST be read and understood through a mystic’s lens.
I am also painfully aware that this person’s horrific misinterpretation of Scripture has a long history in being used to fan the flames of the sin of antisemitism through the centuries. As a church connected with the Lutheran tradition, we have a particular responsibility and must be constantly vigilant not to even passively repeat the horrible mistakes of our tradition’s past. Therefore in repentance for those past sins and in faithfulness to our true faith which is grounded in love, we must now always speak loudly, publicly and boldly when this scripture and our faith is again horribly misused to fan the flames of the sin of antisemitism. This is a task each of us needs to understand as our both our church’s task AND our individual task. This we MUST DO in order to live deeply into our Baptismal covenant as we “strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.”
The first thing to understand about this bit of Scripture is that it is a part of the whole Gospel of John which was written primarily as a mystic theology first, and historical remembrance a very distant second. You may have noticed it doesn’t follow neatly with the other Gospels and that’s because the author wasn’t at all trying to write a history! He was writing a mystic theology! Because of that, almost everything in this book has deeper meaning than what is read on the surface. For example, there are only seven “signs” or miracles in John’s Gospel. That’s not because John was napping while Jesus did the others, but because the number seven is a mystically “perfect” number, so THAT is the number Jesus would have done! So when I say that everything has a deeper meaning, I mean EVERYTHING.
The second thing that is vitally important to remember, is that when Jesus refers to “The Jews” in this Gospel, he doesn’t mean the entire Jewish people. Remember, Jesus was Jewish. His mother was Jewish. His disciples were Jewish. They weren’t Christians. They were the Jewish mother and followers of a Jewish rabbi, named Jesus! When Jesus says “The Jews” in John’s Gospel or talks about the “Scribes and Pharisees” in the other Gospels, he was specifically referring to the Jewish leadership with whom he was arguing. These were Jewish leaders who had joined with the occupying Roman government as a means to gain for themselves wealth, power and influence at the expense of the poor, hungry and struggling regular Jewish people. When Jesus calls these leaders out, he is calling them out in the long tradition of the prophets like Jeremiah, Amos, Hosea and Micah who also called out Jewish leaders who took advantage of other poor and powerless Jewish people over the centuries.
Throughout history and into today, people of every faith (just watch the news!) have been tempted away from the way of love by the seductive voice of power, wealth and influence. Which leads us to the main point of this reflection. When Jesus uses the metaphor that this group of Jewish leaders’ father is the devil, he is telling them that they, like Adam and Eve in the very beginning, have been tempted away from the way of love, which is God’s Way. He does not mean they are literally the devil’s children. He means they, like all of us from time to time, have metaphorically been tempted to follow a seductive, tempting voice onto a path other than God’s. Jesus’ argument with the Jewish leadership is a moral argument. Jesus was telling them they are walking a path other than the path of their authentic faith, a faith that cares for the widow and the orphan, that welcomes and cares for the stranger and the alien, a faith that does justice, loves kindness and walks humbly with God. He is telling them they are walking the wrong path with the wrong crowd for all the wrong reasons.
When Jesus is asked in Matthew’s Gospel, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Those neighbors are in this moment, specifically our Jewish neighbors! In this particular time we need to be very specific, vocal and direct about who those neighbors are. They are Jewish! Therefore, I recommit myself and our congregation to stand with our Jewish friends and neighbors in their every need. We are ready to be called and directed by them as their allies in any way in which they might ask. I recommit us all to prayer with them and for them, and to continue to actively work to further build our relationships, both between individuals and between our faith communities, and with one voice in our shared community to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with OUR God.
We are blessed at Christ Trinity to have Jewish “members” of our church! Lovely neighbors and dear, dear friends who join us for events, sing with us at beer and hymns, help us at our fair and count us as their friends as we count them as ours. Let us reach out to those friends in particular this week. Check in on them. Send them a card. Let them know you and our church are holding them in our prayers and that the people of the Synagogue in Pittsburgh are in our prayers. When you remember those who were killed, say “may their memory be for a blessing.” It will be appreciated. Remind them when you see them that we do now and always will, stand with them no matter what goes on in the world.
We need to do more than simply know in our hearts that we follow the Way of love and hold our neighbors in our prayers. We need to make that widely, vocally and profoundly known in our community and in our world and now is the time for us to do that!
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