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PASSOVER AND EASTER
The concurrence this year of the Eve of
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and what Christians
call Goad Friday makes us think of one Seder, quite similar f0 that which
we shall celebrate tonight, which was conducted about 1930 years ago by
one Yehoshua ben Yosef, and of the events which followed.
It is not certain, but it is highly probable, that the so-éalled Last
Supper was nothing but
a Seder.
This fact reminds us that Jesus was a Jew,
not merely by birth, but by conviction and practice.
In fact he was what
we would call a Conservative Jew, with some liberal tendencies, and
I
feel
sure that if he lived today he would worship in a Synagogue rather thana
Church, probably in a Conservative Synagogue.
Thus the Jewishness of Jesus
provides a positive link between Passover and Easter.
Unfortunately there is also a negative link.
thinking this wéekend was a Jew.
'He
of whom Christians are
But unfortunately they are not thinkifig of
him g§ a Jew, but rather as a supernatural being rejecteé and betrayed by
the Jewish people. The Gospels themselves give a consed and discrepant
account_of the circumstances which led to his death.
But they lend
ggmg
support, though not much, to thé notion which lingers vaguely in the minds
of most Christians, fihat it was somehow the result of a religious clash
with the Jewish teachers, or even £§ a claim to divinity which amounted
in their eyes to blasphemy.
Mpdern research has proved beyond all reaennable doubt that this notion
is false. I refer especially to a book on "The Trial of Jesus" by Paul
Winter which has just-appeared. However vehemently the findings.may be
denied by those Christians who attach more weight to the ancient traditions
can
it
of
historians,
modern
may now
of the Church than to the investigations
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be'assefted categorically that the_Crucifixion is to be explained
in politiaal, got religious, terms.
The Pharisees had nothing to do
with it.
They, like the great majority of the people, however much they
may have didaggreed with Jesus on some issues, no doubt looked upon him,
with sadness and resignation, as one more victim in the long roll of
Jewish martyrs executed by the Romans. Jesus did not claim to be a human
embodiment of God.
It is not even clear whether he claimed to be the
Messiah.
What is certain is that his teachings stirred up the Messianic
expectations of the people and therefore seditious sentiments, that the
Roman procurétor got to hear of it, and that he, probably with the
collusion of the terrified High Priest, had Jesus arrested and put to
death. The Crucifixion was neither more nor less than a political
tragedy.
But if it was
tragedy for Jesus and his followers, the Christian
interpretation of it has proved a much greater tragedy for the Jewish
a
people, who have been crucified a million times because of it. That is
the negative thought prompted by the concurrence of Passover and Easter.
These wrongs can never be undone.
their repetition
But XXKX can be prevented.
That
is partly a matter of mutual understanding between Jews and Christians,
and we must be grateful fihat there are organisations working to that end.
We must also be grateful that in the behaviour of the ordinary Christian
towards Jews common sense and human decency often triumph over theological
prejudice. Nevertheless the root-cause of the disease of antieemitism,
or at least one of the root-causes, is theological, as certain recent
lectures and publications have reminded us.
If the potential danger to
Jewish—Christian relations inherent in the observance of what Christians
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call "Holy Week"is to be securely removed, then nothing less is needed
than a reconsideration of the whole Christian interpretation of the life
and deéth of Jesus in the light of modern historical research, with a
correspnding amendment both of its dbctrine and its fiturgy.
For that we shall have to wait a long time.
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millennium.
It will not happen in our
But we Jews are accustomed to looking to the distant future
as well as to the distant past.
Cup of Elijah.
I3 an hour or two we shall be filling the
Like all symbolic customs it is trivial in itself but far-
reaching in its significance.
For it symbolises the hope that, as Israel
was redeemed from Egyptian bondage long ago, so all humanity will be
‘redeemed in the far—off future: redeeemed not only from political oppression,
but also from the bondage of hatred, prejudice and ignorance, and from
the tyranny of false history and false theology.'
Then and only then shall
we be able to say of "Good Friday", what the pious Jew says of every tragedy,
3am 5E letovah.
>The Rabbis debated whether the Exodus from Egypt will still be
commemorated in the Messianic Age.
I
do not know whether it will be or
not.
But I do know that the Feast of Passover, m933é3§§¥éiy observed, can
spur us to work more zealously for the comming of the Messianic Age; Then,
whether thé Egodus from Egypt is still remembered or not, the fifagedy of
the Crucifixion, and the infinitely greater tragedy of Jewish martyrdom
throughout the ages, will be forgotten, for the universal recognition of
haudorw im‘0
“a dream
God's Fatherhood will bméffiyqé4firi1-fihe realit¥(of human brbtherhood.
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