WHO KILLED JESUS?
(Saturday) The upcoming Mel Gibson film, The Passion, has once again raised the subject of just who is responsible for the death of Jesus. Newsweek, exploiting the fervor to sell magazines, has entered the fray with their current issue. Of course, some people in the Jewish community are concerned that the movie portrays Jews as being somehow responsible for the death of Christ.

And the JEWS SHOULD BE CONCERNED! If you read the gospels they are definitely responsible for the death of Jesus -- but then again, SO ARE THE ROMAN GENTILES. There is a collective responsibility. It's not really a Jewish thing or a Gentile thing. It's a human thing -- a world system thing -- "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him." (John 1:11)

And if you really think about it, God the Father himself is responsible for the death of Jesus. "For God so loved the world that he SENT his only Son..." (John 3:16) And, what about Jesus, the suffering Savior who went to his death without resistance? He died willingly (John 18), even though he had the power to call a halt to the whole thing. Jesus wanted to see it through so that he could defeat death, and its patron the devil.

The only people who are going to get all anti-semitic about this movie are the people who are already anti-semitic. Of course, they're also the ones who have missed what Jesus is about in the first place.