Acts 4.32-35                                                                                                          Carol A. Solovitz

Psalm 133                                                                                                               Easter 2 B

1 John 1.1-2.2                                                                                                        April 23, 2006

John 20.19-31

 

 

 

Five Dangerous Little Words

 

 

On my desk, I have a polished stone that says one word, “Remember.”  I got it back in 1995, when I first visited the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.  It stays on my desk to remind me that I never should forget the atrocities of Nazi Europe.  In many places around the world, this week is known as Holocaust Remembrance, and Tuesday, April 25, is set aside as Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In the church, the second Sunday of Easter traditionally is referred to as “Low Sunday”.  The reason for that term is not completely clear, but it seems to have something to do with its anticlimactic contrast with Easter Sunday.  Back to normal worship after a whiz-bang festival celebration?  Or back to normal worship attendance?  At any rate, we always hear the second part of the 20^th chapter of John on this Sunday, and most of the time, the focus is on the reaction of the disciple Thomas to the news that Jesus not only is no longer dead in the tomb but also has appeared to the disciples in hiding in a little room in Jerusalem.  Usually, the sermon focuses on the “doubt” exhibited by Thomas and his need to see Jesus’ face and touch the wounds in his hands and side before he will believe in the resurrection.  The key lesson is given in the words of Jesus, “Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”  To be sure, it’s a very good lesson for Christians to remember.

Today, however, we are going to focus on five other words in our Gospel reading:“…for fear of the Jews”.  Now those may not seem like very inspiring or important words, but trust me: those words have caused many problems for both Christians and Jews throughout the centuries.  They are dangerous little words, because they have been used as an excuse to hate and persecute and attempt to wipe out Jews of subsequent centuries. It is ironic that when we observe Holocaust Remembrance, these words are in the first verse of our Gospel reading.

Way back in the first chapters of John, there is foreshadowing that Jesus will have trouble with the leaders of his own race and religion.  In John 3, Nicodemus the Pharisee had to visit Jesus under cover of darkness or risk his own safety.  Throughout John, the Jewish leaders are plotting to get rid of Jesus.  The gospel says that “Many of the Jews who had … seen what Jesus did believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done.” Many times, Jesus told his followers that he would be persecuted and condemned and finally killed.

When Judas betrayed Jesus, he brought Roman soldiers along with Jewish police from the chief priests and Pharisees.  Interestingly, in the time of Jesus the office of chief priest was more a political than a religious office, and Jesus represented more of a political threat than a religious one to both Roman and Jewish leaders. The position could be achieved through marriage and lobbying. Although the Jewish leaders were the ones who turned him over to Pilate, it was the Romans who nailed Jesus to the cross and crucified him.  The Romans had the power to condemn and execute dissidents. Still, it was “for fear of the Jews” and not for fear of the Romans that the disciples locked themselves in that little room in Jerusalem.

How ironic that over that centuries, Christians have held onto contempt for the Jews but not for Romans!  Jews have been called Christ-killers and seen as a threat to the mission of the Church.  If the logic of that thinking truly held, wouldn’t we also still hold Italians responsible for what the Romans did in that first century of Christianity? Admittedly, establishing Rome as the holy city of Christendom has helped us forgive Italy. Yet Jesus himself was a Jew, as were most of his followers. Paul, the greatest missionary of the church, was a devout Jew who never renounced his heritage and in fact, often boasted of it. He had once persecuted Christians but later spent his life spreading the news that Messiah had come to us in Jesus. Still, in Romans 11, Paul declared that the Jews continue to be God’s chosen people. So why was there fear of the Jews? Why are the Jews still feared?

Our church forefather Martin Luther could answer those questions.  For many years, he held out hope of converting the Jews, and his relations with them were positive.  In 1523, he wrote a very hopeful thesis called, “That Jesus Was Born a Jew.”  As time went on and most Jews did not become Christian, Luther grew frustrated, angry and vindictive toward them.  In his 1543 diatribe “On the Jews and Their Lies,” he even suggested burning their homes, businesses and synagogues, breaking all their windows and destroying the Torah.  This is Luther at his worst.  Unfortunately, this is the treatise that has been misused the most, especially by Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party, the Nazis. On November 9, 1938 – now known as Kristallnacht - they followed Luther’s suggestions and smashed windows and burned the property of the Jews.

The animosity to Jews had a history. After World War I Germany struggled with financial and political problems. It seemed to many that only the Jews were not as devastated as the rest of the population, and it only took someone like Hitler to bring together a depressed and angry public by focusing their anger and blame on fear and hatred of the Jews. It took just a few years for Germany and Nazi Europe to move from seeing the Jews as a threat to seeing Jews as inhuman – animals to be annihilated so that good Christians could be safe.  While World War II was being fought, the atrocities escalated.  Before the Holocaust ended 61 years ago in 1945–on April 12 when Allied forces liberated the first concentration camp, on April 30 when Hitler committed suicide, and on May 7 when Germany surrendered–six million Jews had been eliminated. In addition, several million more people–Roman Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, homosexuals, political dissidents, members of the Resistance and others–were killed.

Looking at these things now, 60 to 70 years later, we cannot imagine how people could think and act in such ways. We cannot abide the thought that a group of people could be targeted for destruction, as if getting rid of them will solve our problems. Yet, as recent history shows, the problem of genocide is still with us.  It appears that we have forgotten the lessons of the Nazi Holocaust. We may not live in hatred or “for fear of the Jews,” but we cannot forget what happened recently in Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Afghanistan and even now in the Darfur area of the Sudan. Why must people attempt to wipe out an entire race of people? For fear. Fear gives birth to hatred. It was not a huge leap to go from the first disciples in 30 A.D. who hid in that room “for fear of the Jews” to an interpretation of the words of the evangelist John and the writings of Martin Luther that leaned toward hatred of the Jews and ended in the murders of six million of Jesus’ own kindred.

Last week, I read an editorial that warned of more anti-Semitism as a result of the recent discovery of the ancient Gospel of Judas.  This writing is a third-century text that claims that Judas was only following the orders of Jesus when he turned him in to authorities.  The editorialist, Frida Ghitis, fears that the release of the text will trigger another wave of sympathy for the loving and loyal disciple Judas as well as another wave of hatred against the Jews who gave him 30 pieces of silver in exchange for our Lord.  It would not be the first time that a religious text was used for a political agenda.

Thomas would only believe in the resurrection if he saw and touched the wounds of the risen Jesus. The disciples in hiding would continue to fear not only the Jews but anyone who questioned the truth of their newborn faith. In his farewell words to the disciples, Jesus had urged them to not be afraid but to live in love of one another. As Jesus suddenly appeared in that locked room he declared to them all, “Peace be with you.” We trust that he will continue to be present among us and appear in locked hearts, offering peace and love. If we forget his words, we forget the lessons of the Holocaust, and we continue to break God’s heart by our attempts to get rid of our sisters and brothers. So, dear friends, do not fear. Have faith. Love one another. Speak out for one another. And always, always REMEMBER.

 

Shall we pray?  O God, as we light these 6 candles to honor the 6,000,000 Jews killed in the Holocaust, help us to remember the lessons we should have learned there.  Help us to work for justice and peace among all your people and to speak out against persecution and genocide.  Give us love courage to serve and save your people in the name of Jesus, Amen.