Posted on: Tuesday, April 6, 2004

ISLAND VOICES
Passover and the 'Passion'

By Tom Levy
Newsletter editor who lives in Honululu

In 1963, as Vatican II was softening ancient dogma holding Jews responsible for Jesus' crucifixion, a 10-year-old Catholic neighbor taunted me as we walked home from school. "You killed Christ," the redhead yelled, pummeling me in an alley as other kids watched. I never forgot the humiliation.

Four decades later, along comes Mel Gibson, a powerful and charismatic movie star who rejects Vatican II. His talent, celebrity, genius for publicity and hunger for spirituality have converged into his "Passion of the Christ," loosely based on the four New Testament Gospels.

A debate supposedly put to rest by Vatican II has been rekindled: A recent photo in The New York Times shows a Denver church's marquee proclaiming, "Jews killed the Lord Jesus."

And recent articles in The Advertiser say many in the Arab world are pleased with a film they see as anti-Jew, and that one in four Americans now believe Jews were responsible for Jesus' crucifixion.

Clearly, the "Passion" isn't just a movie, it's a global cultural phenomenon with the power to resurrect crucifixion blame.

As Jews sit down to Passover tonight, the ceremonial meal where we celebrate freedom from slavery in Egypt, it's important to put the "Passion" into historical context.

Many Biblical scholars agree the Gospels aren't journalism, but likely written years after the events portrayed, by writers eager to gather converts without angering Rome.

Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who ruled the Jews of Judea, and some of the Jewish priests who served at his pleasure, were threatened by the fervor stirred by Jesus' teachings and found it in their best interests to get rid of him. Crucifixions were human billboards advertising this message: Mess with Rome and this is your fate.

What many Jews fear in Gibson's "Passion," which picks and chooses from the Gospels, is that viewers will not see the film as an artist's representation, but as fact. It isn't.

Fortunately, there are non-Jews sensitive to the finger-pointing that the "Passion" can arouse. In a recent Advertiser column, Pastor Rick Stinton wrote, "We were all there at the crucifixion of Jesus."

What these words say to me is that humanity is responsible for Jesus' death. We're all part of the family of humanity, a message Passover also teaches.

Today, two millennia after the Last Supper, we all sit together at the Seder table, celebrating our freedom from slavery and ignorance. Will you join us?