[Oe List ...] 7/20/17: Forrester/Spong: What does it mean to speak of God’s reign?; Spong revisited
Ellie Stock via OE
oe at lists.wedgeblade.net
Thu Jul 20 14:02:28 PDT 2017
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<div style="color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><h1 style="color: #003d4a;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 34px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;">What does it mean to speak of God’s reign?</h1>
<h3 class="aolmail_null" style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 26px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;">By Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D.</h3>
<p><a style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=b7c9c15152&e=db34daa597"><img align="left" class="aolmail_alignleft aolmail_size-full aolmail_wp-image-49801" height="125" style="border: 0px;float: left;width: 125px;height: 125px;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;font-size: 14px;font-weight: bold;line-height: 100%;outline: none;text-decoration: none;text-transform: capitalize;display: inline;" width="125" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/00b950f5-89f5-4075-b257-e18bcac932cc.png"></a>One of the most characteristic features of Rabbi Jesus’ teaching is his experience of the reign of God as present here and now. This manifestation of God’s reign is not a reality to be feared, but as we hear in the synoptic gospels, is to be received as “good news.” But why? What are some of the qualities of the reign of God that tell of its goodness in our lives? And what does it even mean to speak of “God’s reign” in the 21st century within a culture in which kingdoms and monarchs do not exist, and resonate within our imagination and lives as antiquated and oppressive?</p>
<p>Let’s begin by exploring a few of the essential qualities we can associate with the reign of God. These qualities might then enable us to briefly reconsider what we mean when we invoke these biblical words. I am going to draw from several early childhood experiences with my own father, because they are experiences, I now know, that introduced me to qualities of God. There is not necessarily anything gender-specific about these experiences; what is key is that a nurturing adult in my young life invited me to realize within my quotidian existence the presence of Being itself in all of its goodness.</p>
<p>When I was about 4 years old, I awoke early one summer weekend morning and strolled quietly to my parents’ bedroom. My mother was already downstairs with her coffee, but with the door slightly ajar, I could see my dad lying peacefully upon the bed, the covers pulled down to his waist to receive the cooling morning breeze through the open window. I tiptoed in, climbed up beside him – not knowing if he were sleeping – and laid my wondering boy head upon the nest of curly hair on his belly. As I ran my little hands through his hair my head floated upon the undulating movement of his belly, his breath gently coming and going. The sun ever so slowly continued its morning climb, its warmth, like that of my dad’s body, melted any distance there may have been between his heart and mine. A golden sense of Oneness arose, lying pleasurably upon the bed, our single being unencumbered by any edges, expanding endlessly like the azure sky of dawn.</p>
<p>This is one of my earliest experiences of realizing union of heart and soul in all its golden wonder. My father was this tender, strong, inviting gate into the endless expanse of the beauty of creation. I was tasting the gift of being one with the ground of Being in and through the specific being of this young man, my father. There is a basic and undeniable goodness in the melting of hearts that invites us on the lifelong path of letting go and experience the golden quality of merging with Being at the center of our own being. Here is the taproot of Jesus’ realization that he and his Beloved are one.</p>
<p>About a year later, I was with my dad at a football game on a Friday evening in southeastern Michigan. Standing beside him, we were engulfed in an arboreal sea of humanity. As I looked around, I felt as if I were deep inside a forest of giant trees swaying vigorously from a strong wind. I sensed myself as tiny, week, disoriented and vulnerable. I had no idea where to turn. The next moment I was being scooped up and planted firmly upon my dad’s broad shoulders, like a small chickadee suddenly finding a secure perch on a steady oak in a storm. Now, with my skinny little legs within the firm grasp of my dad’s hands I surveyed the scene. My heart relaxed and my eyes excitedly widened; I had embarked on an adventure. I wasn’t simply tolerating the crowd, I was enjoying, even relishing, the excitement. The vital strength of my father’s heart was coursing through my body. The strength of his soul was now mine. I knew that “I can do this.” We strode together, as if he were one of Tolkien’s Ents bearing a hobbit, with the swaying trees of humanity seeming to part as needed as we wandered about.</p>
<p>Strength – knowing that we can do what needs to be done – is an essential quality of being a human being. Without it we withdraw and cower and feel we are without capacity to engage whatever is before us. Strength is an essential quality of the reign of God, and it is critical that we have caregivers in our lives who introduce us to our capacity to do what needs to be done. Over again, Rabbi Jesus’ encounters with people results in the astonishing realization of the strength of their being. Jesus mixes spittle and mud, applies it to the man’s blind eyes, and he discovers the strength to see clearly.</p>
<p>One final vignette. The summer after I turned seven, my parents gifted my older sister, brother and I with an unescorted train trip from Michigan to Illinois. Illinois may well have been China for me; it was a far away land that we would reach by rail after many hours. Such pride: we had been deemed capable of making an exotic trip without our parents aboard. The evening before our departure, neighbors joined us for a celebratory spaghetti dinner. As the eating and partying progressed I found myself feeling worse and worse; I quietly stole away into a corner alone in what quiet could be found. It didn’t take long before my mother discovered me curled up. My temperature had soared and my tummy had become exquisitely tender to the touch. Dad scooped me up and drove me to the emergency room. There I sat upon the vinyl clad examination table, covered by that crunchy white paper in place to ward off germs. The room was cold and sterile. The doctor probed and prodded and muttered to himself until finally he said to me, “son, you aren’t going anywhere. Your appendix is infected and about to burst. You need to have surgery right away.” I sat stunned and crushed, with tears rolling down my ashen cheeks. The adventure had vanished as if it had been a midnight dream. My dad came and stood in front of me as I sat on the table. He held the gaze of my eyes gently but firmly and said, “I think you should be the one to call and tell your mom.” Without question, my heart knew that he was right. But even more, I knew, even though I was in tears and heartbroken, that I could do it. There was a powerful peace in my dad’s gaze and it held me and touched me and assured me of my own power to be with what was happening. Nothing was being denied – not the pain, not the sorrow, not the lost dream. It was all there and I hated much of it; but it was there held within the power of my little being to endure.</p>
<p>Essential to the reign of God is the realization of the power to be the truth of who we are within the circumstances of where we are. In this most simple and intimate exchange between my dad and I, he was inviting me to discover the power that is woven into the very substance of my soul. This power was not reactive. This power was the response of Being as my being. It was the same power that enabled Rabbi Jesus to accept the cup before him in the Garden of Gethsemane.</p>
<p>Union. Strength. Power. These are essential qualities of the reign of God. They do not come to us magically out of the blue, but are introduced to us through the significant people in our lives who don’t miss the chance when the chances arise. Nature is grace, but we often fail to perceive and respond. History is God manifest, but often unrecognized and unseen. On these three occasions, my dad was graciously attuned to the present moment. He had no conscious idea of the mystery he was inviting me to discover. But, because his own heart was soft and open, Love drew his heart and soul to mine in an act of trust in its wisdom to guide us both.</p>
<p>What happens when we don’t have someone to introduce us to these qualities of the reign of God in our lives? We can become like ashes, without substance, and a victim to the forces that blow all about us and through us. Without a sense of union, strength, and power (and these are just a few of the qualities of God’s reign), we can feel unbearably thin and without the capacity to engage life. Like Peter, when confronted with the unknown we can seek the shadows or find ourselves sinking below the turbulent waves of life.</p>
<p>In their book, <em>Proverbs of Ashes</em>, Brock and Parker describe such ashes in the lives of women who experience themselves with no strength or power to act in order to relieve themselves from violently oppressive relationships. To add insult to injury, they find in such language as “the reign of God,” religious justification to remain powerless and seemingly disunited from God. They believe they need to suffer the blows and indignities of abuse, because that is what they think Jesus did – the reign of God demands acquiescence. If we suffer like Jesus, perhaps we will then be graced with the chance to rest our heads in peace and know the union we long for.</p>
<p>Here is where we need to return to the matter of what we mean by the reign of God, which is simply a poetic way of speaking about Divine Presence. Rabbi Jesus is a wisdom teacher who invites us to discover that <em>within</em> our daily interactions we can come to experience and know directly the living and abiding Presence of the Beloved; not apart from nature and history; not above nature and history; but as the very warp and woof of nature and history. There is a depth to reality we tend to overlook in our habitual ways of skating along on the surface. This depth is the Divine heart of <em>this</em> life. This Presence, Jesus teaches, can come to reign in our lives as our way of living, which means we can come to know Being as our being, as the true nature of our own human nature; as the sure and strong beat of our own powerful heart.</p>
<p>We each need living, breathing, human beings to introduce us to the essential goodness of life. Jesus is such a human being in the lives of the disciples. There is nothing magical about his interactions, nor those of my father. But when those relationships don’t exist, tragedy arises in history as human ashes. Divine Presence, the reign of God, has many essential qualities that enable us to experience the goodness of our own human fullness. Three of these are union, strength, and power.</p>
<p>~ Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D.
Read the essay online <a target="_blank" style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=ec6ac7e4fa&e=db34daa597">here</a>.</p>
<p><strong>About the Author</strong></p>
<p>Kevin G. Thew Forrester is an Episcopal priest, a student of the Diamond Approach for over a decade, as well as a certified teacher of the Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition. He is the founder of the Healing Arts Center of <a style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=e1c51a5f64&e=db34daa597">St. Paul’s Church </a>in Marquette, Michigan, and the author of five books, including “I Have Called You Friends“, “Holding Beauty in My Soul’s Arms“, and “My Heart is a Raging Volcano of Love for You” and “<a style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=93574ac0f8&e=db34daa597">Beyond my Wants, Beyond my Fears: The Soul’s Journey into the Heartland</a>“.</p>
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<h2 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 30px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;">Question & Answer</h2>
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<span style="font-size:18px">NJ via FaceBook, writes:</span></p>
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Question:</h4>
<p>How is it that liberal-minded people who claim that they are open to allowing people to believe what they want and live the way that they want attack people like me who stand on the Bible? That's real tolerant now isn't it?</p>
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<span style="font-size:20px">Answer: By Rev. David M. Felten</span></h4>
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<p>Dear NJ,
First off, allowing people to believe what they want is just one characteristic of “liberal-minded people.” But to characterize liberalism as some willy-nilly-believe-what-you-want perspective is a false claim. True, liberals are OK with people believing what they want – but only insofar as those beliefs respect the basic dignity of other people and doesn't do others harm. That's a big difference. I've also heard it said that liberals tolerate anything but intolerance. I think that's about right.</p>
<p>And let's be clear, you're probably not being "attacked" for being a person who "stands on the Bible," but for being a person who's "stand" on the Bible is not in keeping with other peoples' "stand" on the Bible.</p>
<p>Let me remind you that people "stood on the Bible" to defend slavery, they "stood on the Bible" to keep women from having the vote, they "stood on the Bible" to defend segregation. Without "liberals" who opposed those racist, misogynist, and un-American practices, our world would be a very different place indeed (and not for the better). Many of those appalling liberals, by the way, were faithful Christians who appealed to the Bible to further the causes of freedom and basic human rights. I’m going to assume that, in these areas, you agree with them and their “liberal” interpretation of the Bible.</p>
<p>Among today’s front line issues of defense on behalf of basic human dignity and human rights are LGBTQ rights and reproductive choice. Bizarre Biblical attitudes toward women and sexuality notwithstanding, neither of these (as we currently understand them) are topics in the Bible (uh-oh, no place to “stand”!). Similarly, although there’s no mention of cultural practices like female genital mutilation and sex-trafficking in the Bible, many conservatives “stand” with liberals in opposition to these sex-related challenges – and do so on the grounds of that eminently liberal notion of human rights.</p>
<p>Then, if you manage to filter out all the propaganda, cultural prejudices, and superstitions from the Bible, there are plenty of examples of where scripture is clearly aligned with what you would call today’s “liberal agenda.” Opposing racial injustice and the U.S.’s unjust immigration policies are just two examples where liberals have all kinds of Biblical precedent on which to “stand.”</p>
<p>So, don't mistake the liberal tendency towards tolerance (which allows you – in broad strokes – to believe what you want and do what you please) to remain silent when what you believe and advocate fails to respect the rights or freedom of others. You can claim that your “stand” is the definitive interpretation of what the Bible says, but so did the slave-owning, sexist, and racist Christians of the past – and so do the discriminatory, misogynistic dogmatists of today.</p>
<p>~ Rev. David M. Felten</p>
<p>Read and share online <a target="_blank" style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=f51d41244a&e=db34daa597">here</a></p>
<p><strong>About the Author</strong></p>
<p>David Felten is a full-time pastor at <a style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=faab993d0b&e=db34daa597">The Fountains</a>, a United Methodist Church in Fountain Hills, Arizona. David and fellow United Methodist Pastor, Jeff Procter-Murphy, are the creators of the DVD-based discussion series for Progressive Christians, “<a style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=ec165c8088&e=db34daa597">Living the Questions</a>”.</p>
<p>A co-founder of the <a style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=26efefca87&e=db34daa597">Arizona Foundation for Contemporary Theology</a> and also a founding member of <a style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=abe77062c5&e=db34daa597">No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice</a>, David is an outspoken voice for LGBTQ rights both in the church and in the community at large. David is active in the <a style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=acbde68db1&e=db34daa597">Desert Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church</a> and tries to stay connected to his roots as a musician. You’ll find him playing saxophones in a variety of settings, including appearances with the <a style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=d95a9e97cc&e=db34daa597">Fountain Hills Saxophone Quartet</a>.</p>
<p>David and his wife Laura, an administrator for a large Arizona public school district, live in Phoenix with their three often adorable children.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">______________________________________________________</p>
<p> </p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 26px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;"><strong>Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited</strong></h3>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>"The Passion of the Christ"
Mel Gibson's Film and Biblical Scholarship – Part II</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p><img alt="Spong" class="aolmail_wp-image-49832 aolmail_alignleft" height="128" style="border: 0px;width: 121px;height: 128px;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;float: left;font-size: 14px;font-weight: bold;line-height: 100%;outline: none;text-decoration: none;text-transform: capitalize;display: inline;" width="121" src="https://johnshelbyspong.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Spong-283x300.jpg"></p>
<p>Mel Gibson claims that in his film, "The Passion of the Christ," he has "followed faithfully the texts of the Gospels." That is demonstrably not so, as I sought to show in this column last week. Yet, what interests me about this even more is that many religious people think that biblical accuracy is the only criterion by which this film should be judged. If it is true to the Bible, then it seems not to matter whether it increases the virulent cultural prejudice against Jewish people. Upon viewing the film, no less a person than John Paul II, for example, stated approvingly, "It is as it was!" The Pope clearly bought the argument that the biblical account itself is accurate. These words reveal a failure to embrace some uncomfortable aspects of contemporary biblical scholarship on his part. It is not dissimilar with the other Christian leaders. To make that clear, one has only to lift several facts of history into the public awareness.</p>
<p>First, the most elementary study of the familiar material in the passion story will reveal that it is not the work of eyewitnesses. Jesus' earthly life came to an end around the year 30. The first account of the events in Jesus' life from Palm Sunday to Easter was not written until Mark's Gospel came into being between 70-75 or, at a minimum, forty years after the events being described. This means that these narratives were developed and passed on orally in some context for at least forty years before they were written down for the first time. In that world there were no places to go to research events of the past.</p>
<p>Second, this Passion story in Mark's Gospel was then, during the next ten to twenty years, incorporated into both Matthew and Luke, each of whom wrote an expanded version of Mark. Matthew, who copied some ninety percent of Mark into his gospel, wrote probably between 80 and 85, and Luke, who copied some fifty percent of Mark into his Gospel, wrote probably between 88-92. Since we can compare these narratives today, we recognize that both Matthew and Luke changed the passion details dramatically, adding new things and omitting others. For example, Matthew develops the story of Judas Iscariot by placing into the narrative such things as the 30 pieces of silver as the price of his treachery, the attempt to return the money, the refusal of the high priests to receive it, Judas hurling it back into the Temple and his suicide by hanging, none of which were in Mark's original story. Matthew also introduces the story of the Temple guard placed around Jesus' tomb, heightens Mark's messenger of the resurrection into being an angel with the power to cause these guards to faint and adds an earthquake to his story. Then he contradicts Mark on whether the women, who came to the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week, actually saw the Risen Christ.</p>
<p>Luke continues the development of Judas' story by finally giving the reason for the betrayal and expanding the dialogue that Judas has with Jesus. Luke also adds three of the familiar "last words of Jesus" from the cross, while omitting the cry of dereliction that, according to Mark, were the only words that Jesus spoke there. Only in Luke do we find the sayings: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," spoken to the soldiers; "Today you will be with me in Paradise," spoken to the penitent thief; and "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit," spoken presumably to God. In the Resurrection narrative, Luke denies the Galilean tradition as the locus of any resurrection experience for the disciples, which contradicts a major feature in both Mark and Matthew. Luke expands Mark's resurrection messenger into not one but two supernatural angels. The story is certainly not static.</p>
<p>John, writing between 95 and 100, adds the words from the cross committing Jesus' mother to the care of the beloved disciple, the cry "I thirst," that was related to a prophetic saying (Ps. 69:21) and the final words of triumph, "It is finished." He introduces the story of the soldiers breaking the legs of the thieves to hasten their deaths, but not breaking Jesus' legs, relating this to a prophetic saying (Ps. 34:20), the account of a soldier hurling the spear into Jesus' side, which he suggests was foreordained by the writing of the prophet Zechariah (12: 10) and the story of the soldiers rolling dice for Jesus' clothes. John's resurrection narratives are also radically different from the other gospels. John focuses on Mary Magdalene, a miraculous entry by Jesus into a locked and barred home in Jerusalem, and the conversation with the doubting Thomas. He then tells a Galilean story of a resurrection appearance, together with the account of Peter's restoration, which was set months after the crucifixion. None of these details are found anywhere else. It is quite clear that between the first Gospel of Mark and the last Gospel of John, the story of Jesus' passion and resurrection has grown considerably. The question that this brief sketch raises is simply this: "If the details grew that much between 70-100 when the narratives were written, how much did the story grow between 30 and 70 when there were no written narratives?"</p>
<p>The only things we find in those hidden years are scanty details in Paul's writings during the mid-fifties (I Cor. 15:1-6). There is no narrative here about Jesus' betrayal, his arrest or his torture. Paul says only that, "Christ died." There is no crowd, no trial, no thieves, penitent or otherwise and no words spoken from the cross. Then Paul says just as simply, "He was buried." There is no tomb, no garden and no Joseph of Arimathea. Next Paul says still sparingly, "He was raised on the third day." There are no women coming to the tomb. Indeed there is no tomb, empty or otherwise. There are also no angels, no earthquakes, and no narration of an appearance to anyone. Paul provides only a list of witnesses to whom, he says, Jesus appeared.</p>
<p>That list is fascinating in several details. Cephas or Peter is first. The mention next of the number 'twelve' implies that Judas is still among them. Paul does not seem to know the tradition that one of the twelve was the traitor. The name James, third on this list, begs the question as to which James is intended. Is it James the son of Alphaeus, James the son of Zebedee, or James the brother of Jesus? The phrase, "the apostles" placed fourth on this list causes us to wonder who they are, since the 'twelve' have already been named! Then after mentioning 500 brethren, Paul lists himself as the last one to whom the raised Jesus appeared. The fact that Paul's experience was certainly not that of a physically raised body suggests that Paul did not regard the resurrection of Jesus as physical at all. Paul thus offers us no clues about the historicity of the passion narratives as the gospels describe them. Perhaps the papal words about Gibson's film, "It is as it was," ought to be rendered, "It is as gospel writers 40-70 years after the event suggested it was." That is not a very vigorous claim.</p>
<p>Another thing that causes scholars to question the historicity of the passion narratives, as they appear in the gospels, is the kind and sympathetic way that Pilate is portrayed. He is exonerated from blame. In no way does this portrait connect with the historical references from secular sources that we have about this Roman Governor.</p>
<p>Pilate is introduced into the Christian story by Mark (15:1-44) who portrays him as "wondering" at Jesus' lack of response when being interrogated, as trying to free him and being overwhelmed by the crowd's cry for his crucifixion, and as protesting Jesus' innocence by asking, "Why, what evil has he done?" Finally, Pilate is pictured after the death of Christ as granting Joseph of Arimathea permission to bury Jesus properly. Matthew follows Mark's story line closely (Mt. 27:11-65), but adds a scene in which Pilate's wife sends him word to "have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much over him this day in a dream." Then Matthew has Pilate wash his hands, claiming to be innocent "of this man's blood."</p>
<p>Luke introduces Pilate earlier by name when Jesus emerges to be baptized by John (Lk. 3:1). He also refers to Pilate's atrocity of mingling the blood of Galileans in pagan sacrifices (13:1). Luke then quotes Pilate in the crucifixion story (Lk. 23:1-53) as saying, "I find no crime in this man." Later, Luke says, Pilate tries to escape involvement with Jesus by sending him to Herod since Jesus was a Galilean and thus not part of Pilate's responsibility. Next, Pilate reiterates his belief in Jesus' innocence and tries to release him after scourging him, hoping that whipping the prisoner will satisfy his enemies. Only then does he acquiesce to the crowd.</p>
<p>In John, Pilate is portrayed as seeking to save Jesus by ordering the Jewish accusers to try Jesus according to their law that did not provide for an execution; then as waxing philosophical by asking, "What is truth?" Finally, John has Pilate repeat his belief in Jesus' innocence, seek again to release him, and even to refer to him as the 'King of the Jews.'</p>
<p>The story line of the gospels read as if Pilate is simply trapped by events over which he has no control, benign at worst, benevolent at best. Even Jesus is quoted in John's Gospel as establishing Pilate's innocence by saying, "He who delivered me to you has the greater sin (19:11)." This, it must be stated, is a far cry from the portrait of Pilate that we meet in history.</p>
<p>Pilate appears, in the records of antiquity available to us, to have been a murderer of unspeakable cruelty. A Jerusalem Post writer, after researching his life, has referred to him as "the Saddam Hussein of his time." His contemporary, King Agrippa, in a letter written to the Emperor Caligula, referred to Pilate's corruption, his murder of untried and presumably innocent people and his ruthless inhumanity. Philo, a first century Jewish philosopher, called Pilate an "unbending and recklessly hard character, famous for violence ----ill treatment of the people --- and continuous executions without even the form of a trial." Roman records indicate that Pilate was recalled in the year 37 for sadistic actions, among which was his slaughter of 4000 Galileans who had gathered on their holy mountain, an act that made Pilate a political liability even to the Romans. At the same time, historical records abound in which the Romans routinely crucified self-proclaimed messiahs and kings of the Jews: There was Judah in the year 6, Theudas in 44 and Benjamin in 60, just to name the most famous. None of this negativity, however, appears in the New Testament portrait of Pontius Pilate or of the Romans.</p>
<p>So, where is the truth? How trustworthy historically is the biblical account of the crucifixion of Jesus? Is there some other agenda operating at the particular time that the gospels were written that caused their authors to exonerate Pilate and to shift the blame for Jesus' death from the Romans to the Jews? Is it enough for Mel Gibson to claim that he is following faithfully a biblical text that becomes nothing but his pious rationalization for pumping enormous amounts of anti-Semitism into the bloodstream of the western world? Is it not time for Christian leaders including even John Paul II, to acknowledge that the way the gospels describe the death of Jesus may well not be the way it was?</p>
<p>Next week, I will propose a different way to read the Passion story in the New Testament, by placing it into the context of its own history, some 40 to 70 years after the crucifixion. Perhaps that exercise will help us to understand why the annual reading of the story of Jesus' final days has continuously created anti-Semitism which Mel Gibson in this film has now raised to an art form that will be seen by millions and for which he apparently feels no shame.</p>
<p>~ John Shelby Spong
Originally published March 3, 2004</p>
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