Sermon on "The Passion..."

Rabbi Gary Creditor 
February 20, 2004

Thursday morning Rabbi Rosin, Ruby and I went to see the movie "the Passion of the Christ." I did not look forward to this experience. Having read the reviews and reports from those who already had, I anticipated the moment with dread. It was among two of the most difficult hours I have experienced. We are currently mid-stream in the course of events that have preceded the release of this movie, that are currently happening, and those that will happen in the future. Some of this is completely imponderable. Yet I feel compelled to share a few reflections at this moment. I begin with a disclaimer that within the length of this sermon it is impossible to even mention every aspect, every feeling, every topic, never mind to develop them with any depth. Every paragraph is a lecture, not even a sermon. I will develop some of these in the months ahead. I hope that you will be here to share them and respond to them. Beyond all the truly difficult and even horrible issues of this movie lies important religious, spiritual and also political issues that deserve and must be central to us: matters of faith - theirs and ours, the purpose of religion - what we teach/learn and why we do so, and the strength of the inter-faith relationships that in part combat anti-Semitism that we have been building for sixty years if not more, and the nature of societal relations as we live with our neighbors. Whatever we feel about this movie and its content, it has most definitely elevated issues for the Christian community, the Jewish community, our internal existences as faith communities that have nothing to do with each other, and everything to do with each other. This movie isn't easy, nor is this sermon, nor the issues. I pray that God will give us the strength and the wisdom to see it clear through, no matter how difficult the path. 

"The Passion of the Christ" is a most traumatically violent movie. It spares nothing. Mel Gibson intended it to be. Because of this I cannot really recommend anyone to see it. Most certainly this is not a movie for children. I turned my eyes away from the screen numerous times, though I watched other people absolutely riveted. There is no doubt that it could have been done differently or at least some of the violence attenuated. Setting aside theology, I don't believe that we need to be traumatized by such violence to be moved. But perhaps Mel Gibson has identified a key issue from which we have been blinded. The texts of our Bible and the New Testament do contain events that were completely brutal. Soon we will read the Megillah. Read the text carefully. How many died? How did they die? Afterwards we will celebrate Pesach. The last plague was the death of the first born. The redemption from Egypt included the drowning of Pharaoh's army and its horses in the sea. In Genesis is the recorded the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah . We experience them as texts and don't conjure up their traumatic vividness. Perhaps that is the unique Jewish way, to contain our traditions in texts so that every person can experience, interpret and apply them differently and differently as we grow up and experience life. We can plumb them for meaning and apply them to life without the encumbrance of mind numbing violence. It also affords us the unfortunate and unworthy opportunity to reduce them to children's tales and ignore them all together. Yet it does not remove the violence from the pages of our Bible nor from theirs. Let us also remember that we have no lack of cruel and violent historical episodes. We do not lack for Jewish suffering or Jewish pain. We could make graphically violent movies ten times worse. We could show the flaying alive of Rabbi Akiva. We could depict the butchery of Rabbi Hananiayah ben Teradyon burned alive at the stake with a sefer Torah wrapped around him. We can reveal the rape of our women carried away to Roman slavery. Instead we recite our woe in the Martyology of Yom Kippur, the most moving liturgy, Ayle Ezkorah, which I urge you to stay for next Yom Kippur afternoon and not go home. Mel Gibson can make a movie only about one. We have our thousands and tens of thousands. If he really wants to make a move of the utmost violence, then he ought to look into our material. We can really make a blockbuster. And I didn't include the pogroms, the auto-da-fes, never mind the Holocaust. We have chosen to experience our tradition in one way, through the study and recitation of text. Mel Gibson has chosen to make his into a movie. I prefer our way. Ours is a path of love, sensitivity, and responsibility. 

Dealing with ancient sacred texts of any tradition is very difficult. Mel Gibson is not a Bible scholar. He didn't claim to be. But he made a choice and a most grievous error. He chose to ignore the complexity and contradictions in the four Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John and has inserted material that is not in the Gospels, from the German nun Anne Catherine Emmerich 1774-1824. There is no depth of understanding that Christian Biblical critical scholarship stretching over one hundred and fifty years has revealed a deeper perception of the writing of the documents sacred to Christianity: that they were written decades after events and are not eye witness testimony; that they were written in different places, for different audiences, for different purposes; that these documents reflect the early history of the church in its struggle for identity separate from its Jewish origin; that there is other source material to deepen the perspective of these texts and explain how, why and wherefore they were written. That is just for starters. It distorts the true historical Pontius Pilate who didn't have the slightest compunction of slaughtering by crucifixion thousands of Jews. It doesn't reveal the breadth and depth of Judean Jews who wrote apocalyptic literature, of which Jesus was so reflective. It doesn't reveal that the High Priest was under Roman control. It doesn't depict the violence of Roman domination that made Judea a political tinderbox and thus the enormous pressure to suppress sedition against Rome . That is the meaning of the sign: "King of the Jews." The movie, far from being "true to the Gospels" is fundamentally flawed. How important is this depends on who is watching this movie and from what perspective they are watching it. 

Everyone viewing this movie does so wearing their own particular glasses. For me, this movie reflects one Jewish man, representative of his time and place, faithful to his faith, Jesus the Jew, not a prophet, not a Rabbi, surely a teacher of students, who was brutally murdered. The responsibility for that, guilt, has historically been placed on us. That is the "me" who saw the movie. What became of and after this moment in time is not our story. It is the foundational story for Christianity. That is something that we as Jews and Judaism must recognize and respect. It is the cornerstone of Christian theology and reason for their existence. 

How this story was used is tragically our story. 

Our neighbors come to the see the movie as the how, why and wherefore of their faith. I came to watch the movie for how it portrayed the Jews, knowing how it became the instigation for anti-Jewish legislation, restriction and persecution through the ages, and how the Passion Play initiated pogroms and murder of Jewish communities throughout Europe in the week of Easter. Christians watching the movie went to experience the underpinning of their faith. We are worried if they are going to come out and say: "You killed Christ." 

The faith communities and its leadership, you with your neighbors and co-workers, me with my fellow ministers have a great deal of work to do to insure the continued suppression and eradication of anti-Semitism. I am not afraid of pogroms and riots in the streets. This is not the first movie ever made of Jesus. And we didn't make it. There has been a tremendous amount of interfaith work done for decades. We join with eight churches to celebrate Thanksgiving. We hosted in this sanctuary the interfaith service after 9/11. I met my friends, the ministers of these churches last Friday and saw them before and after the movie on Thursday. I invited them, and they have responded positively, to sit together and talk about this movie in all its aspects, after we have digested and assessed this experience. We need to preach and teach: 

that the Romans killed Jesus who was Jewish, in Jewish Palestine, 
that the Romans feared that he would ignite a revolt against them, 
that the Jewish leadership under the Roman thumb was worried about what would happen to Judea and their control if revolt broke out, 
and that among Jewish beliefs was that of the immanent coming of the Messiah to redeem them from Roman rule, 
as our prophets foretold.

This was our story. It is a Jewish story, of the Jewish people in our own land when the Second Temple stood. 
Its development in its own direction is the story of the church. The church and the synagogue are sisters in faith that developed specifically and fundamentally differently. We have been and will forever be intertwined. It can be no other way. 

Of necessity I must be so forward to say that they need to focus on the question "Why did Jesus die?" and teach responsibly that the answer to the question "Who killed Jesus?" which the Church gave for millennium in its struggle and even hatred of its mother and sister faith, of us, paved the way for the railroad tracks to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. 

The materials circulating on the Internet, given out by the Virginia Council of Churches at our viewing on Thursday for use in the churches, by the statements from the centers of different Christian denominations exhibit a deep understanding and sensitivity to these issues. It is fair and proper for us to understand that this movie is more about their faith in Jesus and their theology of his death, resurrection and redemption of mankind from sin, than about us. No doubt, there is much difficulty in this movie. We have done much good work in the past that has benefited us all, and we will not shirk from that task now and forever. 

I pray that all communities of faith will turn to common texts wherein God commands us all "To love thy neighbor as thyself." Being Jewish and being Christian, along with members of all faiths, commands us to respect "the other" no matter who the other is, to uplift the poor, the widow and the orphan, to be charitable, take care of the physical world, and search for the holiness that the One God has implanted in every man, woman and child, regardless of any and all differences there may be. Some day, hopefully soon, God from on high will witness that there will be no more violence on earth, rather peace among His children here below. Amen.