sipsake

One of the best arguements I've had the priviledge to read is from a Jewish Rabbi here in my town who's opinion I greatly admire and who also happens to be the leader of the Memphis Ministers Association. I'll reproduce it here in hopes that it may help explain some of the trepidation those of the Jewish faith might feel on the release of this film.

What Should We Do About The Mel Gibson Movie?
Points To Keep in Mind (including an extended history lesson)
Rabbi Micah D. Greenstein, Temple Israel
February 29, 2004 ~ Adar 7, 5764

Remember that a Jew and Christian sitting next to each other in the theatre are, in essence, watching two different films. The Jew cringes at every negative portrayal of Jewish leaders or “the Jews.” He is also disturbed by the picture of a first-century Jew being beaten and bloodied on a Roman crucifix. The Christian sees an entirely different film. He watches God incarnate beaten and bloodied on a Roman crucifix, in fulfillment of the Christian understanding of Scripture. Everything else is secondary.

Our response should represent the very best of our own tradition by being a learning response. Do we understand the way in which the Gospels came into being in the decades after Jesus’ death? Can we describe the intra-Jewish dynamics of first-century Jewish life that led to the birth of Christianity? If not…zil g’mor! Go and learn! Knowing what the Passion narrative is and understanding what it means to Christians will help us maintain a healthy perspective on the Gospel literature. It will also strengthen our understanding of our own faith as Jews. For these reasons, if you choose to see this movie (and I’m not recommending that you do), it is tremendously important for Jews to study the Passion narrative.

Re-igniting anti-Semitic hatreds will most likely not be the consequence for those who
see this film, at least in the United States. I anticipate that believers the film will emphasize instead the evangelical theme, "He died for you/us," rather than "who killed Him?"

This is a Christian movie, reflecting the religious doctrine of at least some Christian movements. “The Passion” is not a Jewish move, and its “truth” is not a Jewish concern. Crucifixion was the means by which Romans terrorized thousands of Jews like Jesus. When the brutal Romans used violence and crucifixion to terrorize the Jewish population, Judaism’s response was, “we will not be like that and adopt your brutality. Our heroes will be learners in search of goodness, not sadistic soldiers committed to torture.”

We know from Josephus and other first century sources that Pontius Pilate was so brutal and ruthless, he was fired from his job for going overboard and butchering Samaritans. Any suggestion that Pilate was this sensitive man who was reluctant to kill Jesus and relented only on the wishes of the High Priest is dubious. We know that the high priest wasn’t even allowed to put on his clothes without Pilate’s approval. He couldn’t do anything in the Temple. Pilate killed locals indiscriminately and robbed the Temple treasury. The Jewish high priest Caiaphas served only at the pleasure of the Roman governor Pilate. Caiaphas did not control Pilate, as some parts of the movie suggest. Pilate controlled Caiaphas. Being faithful to history would mean telling it this way.

But maybe being faithful to history wasn’t Gibson’s purpose in making the movie. Maybe shocking people’s emotions through the violence and gore of Jesus’ suffering is his intention. Christian theology is not for rabbis like me to work out, it’s up to Christians to define who they are. I know that many Jews are frightened when they see a cross, but many Christians I know do not think of blood and gore when they see the cross, they think of victory over death, they think of love, they think of springtime, they think of salvation. They don’t think of slow asphyxiation. Bringing people to Christ by means of the electric chair or gruesome death is for Christians to debate, not Jews.

If Gibson wishes to bring people to his faith, as the website points to, that’s fine, but never at the expense of the sick twist. The sick twist is turning Jesus the Jew who was crucified brutally by Rome into Jesus the Christian who was handed over by bloodthirsty Jews to reluctant Romans. While Gibson says it doesn’t matter who killed Jesus, since he died for all our sins, he is ignoring what his portrayal of Caiaphas as repugnant and Pilate as being sensitive at times leads to. That sick twist has not only led to the deaths of millions of Jews as a result of the anti-Judaism in the gospels, it is now being picked up by the Arab world to the point where the most popular television show in Arab and Muslim media history is a 20-series television show like Dallas, only the theme is Jews, not Israel, but a worldwide bloodthirsty conspiracy of Jews, who kill adults and children, for their blood. This series was shown prime time throughout the Arab world around the dinner table. I didn’t know what to do with the footage from this lethal hatred that was aired less than 2 months ago throughout the Arab world. But when you look at this best-seller in the Muslim world after watching the Gospel According to Mel, you begin to understand the danger that sick twist can cause – even today.

Gibson focuses on the violence of Jesus' last 12 hours. The Gospels don’t dwell on it. The Gospels don’t obsess with violence. Gibson does. Why? This point reminds me of the Jewish master story, the redemption from slavery in Egypt and receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai. To get there, the plagues of boils, lice, and blood flooded Egypt. But the torah doesn’t dwell on it. The torah doesn’t obsess with the plagues. It doesn’t talk about the skin falling off from boils. Why? Because the message is that God wants the enslaved to be free, to move through the pain of slavery to redemption and accept the gift of torah. Jesus dies for the sins
of the world, he dies so that even the guilty can be free. That's the message as
Christians have taught me, the metaphor of dying to self and being reborn again,
not the visual scene of three layers of skin being ripped off and slow asphyxiation
on the cross.

My main wish was for Mel Gibson to have put the following tagline on his movie as an opening or closing quote, “For two thousand years, the story of Jesus’ death has served as an excuse for Christians to condemn Jews as “Christ killers,” to attack them, and to kill them. That is not what the story of Jesus is about, and that is not what this movie is about. We are all responsible for Jesus’ death, just as we are all our brothers keepers.” Gibson is a separatist, though. He doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of the 2nd Vatican Council or the Popes since the mid-1960s, so I doubt such a quote would appear in a religious film by him.

My other wish is that people keep in mind they are not watching history. They are watching Mel Gibson’s personal theology, and the theology of those who identify with Jesus’ slow suffering. The historical fact is that the gospels have been used as justification for the greatest crime in history – the death of one Jew becoming the pretext for the murder of millions more. Christian theology and understanding the attacks upon Jews in the gospels in their proper perspective are matters for Christians to work out, not Jews. Anti-semitism, and even the holocaust for that matter, have nothing to do with Judaism. They’re about what other people did to Jews.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we have come so far since the days of Luther, and even since the pre-1965 theology espoused by Mel Gibson’s Traditionalist Church. The Memphis Ministers Association I am privileged to lead demonstrates that we can work together without sacrificing the particularities of our traditions. If the movie serves to bring us together – to share our fears as well as our hopes – then it will have done a good thing. As A.J. Levine says, “if we’re going to be passionate about anything, it should not be the film, but the shalom that discussions can bring among Christians and Jews.” My hope is that the heartfelt dialogue brought on by this film will lead to deeper concern for each other, and move us closer toward the Messianic Age of peace conceptualized and bequeathed to the world by Jewish tradition.

__________________
When life hands you a lemon, say "Oh yeah, I like lemons. What else you got?"

Henry Rollins