- Jul 11, 2022
- 10
- 10
- 19
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Male
- Faith
- Christian
- Marital Status
- Private
I'm not going to tackle the outright issue of antisemitism but I will say that it is wrong and we should love all people regardless of their ethnic or religious background as a way to bring them into the faith (as Jesus said, Christians are the salt of the world (Matt 5:13) and if we aren't doing His work, the world is going to lose its saltiness and it would be no good).
But something that really frustrates me is the term "Christ Killer" as a way to stick it to the Jews. The term, from what I know, originated as a way of basically saying that Jews have no right to exist because it was the Jews in the 1st century who wanted Jesus crucified. So to my understanding, this is a way to say that Jews are solely (or mostly) responsible for the crucifixion. Well Christianity 101 says that is false and even blasphemous.
EVERYBODY is the Christ Killer. All sinners killed Jesus, not just the Jews. The crucifixion of our Lord is a central aspect of Christianity and for a man to deny the theological significance of his own sin causing the death of Jesus, is he really a believer? Is Jesus' death an atonement for your sins after He suggested multiple times that He was going to be crucified for humanity's sake? So to call a Jew the "Christ Killer" is a way to essentially say that the Jews murdered Jesus when Jesus allowed himself to be killed for OUR sake (a snap of His fingers would have summoned 72,000 angels to come to His rescue during Jesus' arrest but He refused). Yes, there is more fault at the hands of those who personally killed him (such as Judas and the 1st century Pharisees) but 'Jews killed Jesus' in the 21st century is denying the atonement of our sins that can be found in Jesus' sacrifice for humanity.
But something that really frustrates me is the term "Christ Killer" as a way to stick it to the Jews. The term, from what I know, originated as a way of basically saying that Jews have no right to exist because it was the Jews in the 1st century who wanted Jesus crucified. So to my understanding, this is a way to say that Jews are solely (or mostly) responsible for the crucifixion. Well Christianity 101 says that is false and even blasphemous.
EVERYBODY is the Christ Killer. All sinners killed Jesus, not just the Jews. The crucifixion of our Lord is a central aspect of Christianity and for a man to deny the theological significance of his own sin causing the death of Jesus, is he really a believer? Is Jesus' death an atonement for your sins after He suggested multiple times that He was going to be crucified for humanity's sake? So to call a Jew the "Christ Killer" is a way to essentially say that the Jews murdered Jesus when Jesus allowed himself to be killed for OUR sake (a snap of His fingers would have summoned 72,000 angels to come to His rescue during Jesus' arrest but He refused). Yes, there is more fault at the hands of those who personally killed him (such as Judas and the 1st century Pharisees) but 'Jews killed Jesus' in the 21st century is denying the atonement of our sins that can be found in Jesus' sacrifice for humanity.
