Fear Of The Jews

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."

Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe." Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name. (John 20:19-31)

The disciples feared the Jews?  That makes no sense because the disciples were Jews who concluded Jesus was the Messiah.  John writes to condemn the Jews [still waiting for the Messiah] who threw John’s Jewish Jesus-is-the-Messiah community out of the synagogue. Either the Messiah had arrived or the long wait was still necessary. 

Tragically this enmity helped lead to the far-reaching and then historical condemnation of the Jews as a people – the “Christ killers.”  Never has there been such a damaging misunderstanding and/or distortion of the truth with horrific consequences arising from the Gospel of John, in particular.  Only the Sanhedrin and Jewish leaders condemned Jesus.  Why?

Let’s remember John 11:45-56 that reads: (begin) Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation” (my emphasis).

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish" (my emphasis).  He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.

So from that day on they planned to kill him. So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews, but he left for the region near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and there he remained with his disciples. (end)

During this Easter season let’s not lose sight of a reason for Jesus’s death.  For our sins?  Yes, of course, according to later Christian interpretation.  Just as likely: “If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation…it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.”  

And the Romans eventually did.  So did the nation, until the 20th century following World War II.

Deacon David Pierce