www.crosstalk.org

Consider the facts:

* The Jews did not kill Christ because the Jews could not kill Christ.
They did not have legal authority in matters of capital crimes under
Roman law at that time.

* The Jews were a diverse group of 4,500,000 people spread out over
many nations of the world. They could not collectively make a single
matzah ball or take any solitary decisive action for which all could take
credit or all share blame.

* The Jews did not have power over God. The death of Christ was
according to God's sovereign will according to the Scriptures.

*The Jews did not have control over a decision that belonged to Jesus.
Jesus laid His life down. Nobody took it from Him. It would be wrong
to depreciate His love by suggesting that the Jewish people, or other
groups of people were responsible for our eternal salvation. After all,
that is what Christ purchased through His death.

It seems to me that the folks who confuse these matters misunderstand
the real character and true identity of Jesus. Actually, many people
reinterpret the life and purpose of Jesus to fit their own agendas.
They recreate Jesus to fit a pattern they prefer. Perhaps that is what
happened in Mr. Gibson's film.

The producers substituted bread for matzah in the Feast of Unleavened
Bread. Whether intentional or not, this error moved Jesus to a place
outside the flow of Judaism. It is well known that Jews were forbidden
to eat leavened bread during the time of Passover. To ignore this lowest
common denominator that Jesus shared with the Jews of His community
is to ignore that He was a faithful member of the Jewish community.
If He can be extricated from His situation in life as a Jewish man in the
first century, He can be recreated and recast in anyway that anyone
chooses. In essence, He could be molded to fit the need anyone wished
for Jesus to fill. But Jesus does not change at our insistence; we change
at His. God does not change; He is perfect. We must change because
we are imperfect. This may seem like an abstract philosophical concern,
but it is not. It is a fundamental truth and we must let Jesus be Jesus.
If we are permitted to modify Him to suit our fancy then we become God
and He becomes our servant. That is why I refuse to ignore that the Last
Supper was a traditional Jewish Passover. To make it less is to rob Jesus
of His heritage on this earth. Of course that is the pattern for many
Christian traditions. Leonardo Da Vinci had the same problem when he
was commissioned to create The Last Supper for the Convent of Dominican
friars at Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. If one looks carefully at this
most famous religious painting, the traditional Gentile dinner rolls will
become evident.

Jesus was born into the line of Jewish kings. Christians believe He is King
eternal. Had He been born into a non-Jewish home, He would have been
discredited from inheriting this throne. The prophetic mantle would have
remained unfulfilled. Had He sinned in His dietary regimen eating food
not kosher for Passover, He would have been disqualified as a perfect
sacrifice and the Cross would have been pointless in the Father's plan of
salvation. If we ignore the small details of the food Jesus ate at His final
Pesach seder, it becomes easier to ignore other details, such as the clothing
Jesus wore.

Consider what the poor woman with the issue of blood would have done
if the wardrobe designer from Mr. Gibson's film had outfitted our Savior?
She touched the “hem” of His garment and was healed according to
Matthew 9:20. To the uninitiated reader, it might seem that Jesus wore
Levi Docker slacks and the woman grabbed the neatly turned, starched
hem of His pleated trousers gently draping over His penny loafers.
Of course that would be quite ludicrous to suggest because everyone
knows Jesus did not wear slacks. Would dressing Jesus in slacks be
anymore foolish than presuming He disobeyed the commands of
Numbers 15:38 and disregarded wearing His tallith with the proper
long tsithith—fringes in the corners? According to Jewish practice and
the best scholarship, it is these fringes that the women touched. It was
not the hem of His trousers, it was the borders (corners or wings) where
the tsithith hung.

If we can quietly allow Mr. Gibson to separate Jesus from His Jewish
food and His Jewish dress, we can begin to disentangle Him from His
other Jewish characteristics. That is why the subtitle of this book asks
the question, Did the Jews Kill Christ or Has Someone Stolen His Identity?
The Jews are not to blame for His death. I believe He lives! There is no
body. The accusation of murder is a moot point in light of the Resurrection.
The crime is in how Jesus is usually represented. Many groups have stolen
His identity.

That is how the founder of The Great Passion Play of Eureka Springs,
Arkansas, promoted Jesus. He presented images of a blond-haired,
blue-eyed, WASP Savior. Jesus was the victim of identity theft.
He stole the true identity of Jesus and created a fairy tale Christ invented
in his vain imagination. The Bible commands us not to worship false
gods, yet that is what happens when we worship an idea of God that is a
fabrication. This can happen quite easily if we become distracted from
worshipping the God of the Bible and begin to serve an illusion about God
presented by false teachers.

This is an excerpt from Randy's Book "The Passion Conspiracy"
If you are interested in getting a copy for yourself please visit
www.ThePasionConspiracy.com

Copyright 2005 by Randy Weiss, Ph.D.