Volume 20 Number 4
March/April 2004
Adar/Nissan, 5764

The Perplexity of The Passion

by Rabbi Barney Kasdan
 

As we enter into one of the most important times of the religious calendar, a renewed debate has arisen. It would seem that Mel Gibson did not intend to stir up such controversy with his newly released film called “The Passion of the Christ” which depicts the last 12 hours of Yeshua’s earthly life. I have not yet had the opportunity to see the film at the time of this article but will be able to see it firsthand on February 28. That screening will be followed by an interfaith panel discussion in which I have been invited to participate. One thing I would say even at this point: if Mel Gibson did not fully anticipate the strong reaction, he should have. Of course, Yeshua has been the source of controversy in many different cultures and nations. However, just a cursory knowledge of the tragic relationship between the church and the synagogue should be enough for anyone to understand some of the Jewish sentiments towards Christianity. It is important to say that many of us who have come to follow Yeshua now realize that there were often big gaps between the actual, historic person and the twisted version sometimes portrayed in later history. Add to this the strange presentations that were called passion plays. These dramatic events, which were popularized in medieval Europe, often cast our people as demonic villains complete with horns. “The Jews” therefore were anyone who was in opposition to Yeshua yet, amazingly, “The Christians” were the ones supported him. Left out was the fact that the Christians were actually fellow Jews who believed this Yeshua was the Promised One of Israel. The fruit of these passion plays was division, strife and often anti-Semitism. It was not uncommon for such portrayals to be presented during the holy season of Lent and Easter only to be followed by terrible pograms and physical attacks on the Jewish communities of Europe. They don’t call it the dark ages for nothing! All this is nowhere close to the truth that Yeshua taught and lived. His earliest followers, even among the non-Jews, understood their enduring debt of love to Israel for providing the Bible and the Messiah. As the New Testament says, “For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things” [Romans 15:27]. Many true Christians of our generation are still modeling this and many in the modern Jewish community recognize that some of the best friends of Israel and our people are in fact Christians who actually follow the teachings of the New Testament.

Yet the perplexity of The Passion is still very strong. That is actually the way it has been since the days of Yeshua in the Galilee and his ministry throughout all of Israel some 2000 years ago. It always stirred up a measure of debate and controversy as Yeshua proclaimed to be the promised Messiah. It was not just his words however. One can find a few self-proclaimed messiahs even today among the delusional. However, this Yeshua did not act in the same mode of a delusional person. In fact, the controversy around this Nazarene was due to the fact that he often backed up his tremendous claims with miraculous, testifying signs. As often happens, therefore, we Messianic Jews find ourselves in the middle of the debate. We understand the concerns of our people as it is our common experience. Yet, we can see the true spiritual message of the death of Yeshua that actually fulfills the first part of the messianic mission spoken in the Hebrew Scriptures: “But Adonai was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief; if He would render himself as a guilt offering” [Isaiah 53:10]. The story of the passion still captivates and perplexes at the same time. Maybe the latest controversy will be worthwhile if it causes this generation, both Jew and non-Jew, to re-examine the original context of the event as still recorded in the Jewish book known as the New Testament.