John 8:47-59
“Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple” (John 8:58-59)
Can you imagine that church service!?!
Note the setting for this showdown between Jesus and His Jewish brothers; it’s the Temple. The setting for worshiping God. The place where God Himself dwelt in the Holy of Holies. So, again I ask, can you imagine that church service? Probably there’s some poor rabbi up front trying to interject by saying things like, “Well, as I was saying, here in Esther we see…”
I’ve never known what to make of Jesus squaring off with the Jews so much in the New Testament. I do know that our church history, tragically, is full of antisemitism at least in part because our own prejudices get comingled with these texts and an air of moral authority overtakes our better thinking and doing. But I’ve still never known what to make of Jesus vs. the Jews in the New Testament. I mean, they were all oppressed, occupied people, suffering under the arbitrary laws, blasphemy, and taxation of Rome. The context for this debate – one that threatens to turn murderous rather quickly – would be, by analogy, like you and me hearing that a civil war had broken out on a reservation owned by indigenous people. A curious fact, but probably a little confusing (if not entirely disinteresting).
Recognizing this context is important because if we see “Jesus vs. the Jews” as something akin to “Democrats vs. Republicans” or “Allied forces vs. Axis forces,” then our implicit analogy ruins our moral imagination. Those above disputes can and do have moral significance for many, many people outside of the main group of participants. Jesus vs. the Jews, however, doesn’t carry that same sort of socio-geopolitical clout with it. It is, instead, a family dispute – more akin to Thanksgiving at home that World War One abroad.
The best I can take away from this story (and there are plenty of others that are quite similar throughout the gospels) is this: Theology matters. What we believe is significant, even when we’re in an insignificant position. And that’s good news for the church today, because the church does not have cultural sway or influence any longer. Politicians may pay us some lip service every two or four year, but marketers ignore us consistently and artists, poets, and musicians of all types find more meaning or inspiration in zombie apocalypses than Christian doctrine (with the exception of John Updike, who read Karl Barth and worked him into multiple novels, shockingly enough!). Even still, theology matters. What we believe is worth the hassle of amplifying good theology and confronting bad theology.
I mean, did you notice that Jesus doesn’t say (nor do the Jews) “Well, you can have your opinions and I can have mine. Freedom of speech!”? Did you notice that no one was like, “The way I see it, the Jews need Jesus’ counterpoints for their thinking and Jesus needs the Jews’ counterpoints for His. They’re symbiotic with one another.” No, all parties involved are yearning, striving – with zeal that borders on violence even! – to present and defend their best theology. Naturally, of course, Jesus is right. (The perk of being God). That’s to be assumed. Therefore, what’s important is the struggle; what’s important is Jesus continuing to testify to the Truth; what’s important is the hope that the struggle gives birth to holiness.
Friends, keep the struggle (or join it, if you haven’t yet already). Amen.
