Good Friday - my annual perplexity

[yardwork]

Note: This post isn't really about religion. It's about the long-standing misconceptions, hypocrisies and gaslighting that is woven into our nation's culture. These fallacies led directly to the January 6 insurrection and many other terrible events in our history.

I grew up in the rural midwest in the mid-20th century. My community was a homogenous culture made up almost entirely of white Christians, mostly fundamentalist Protestants, including a significant number of rather extreme sects.

Every year on Good Friday, which was not a holiday, the schools were full of the annual accusation that "Jews killed our Lord." This made no sense to me on multiple levels. My understanding was that Jesus willingly sacrificed himself in order to assuage the sins of humanity and assure our passage to heaven. Without this willing sacrifice, the plot doesn't move forward. The whole point revolves around the willing - albeit initially reluctant - self sacrifice. Therefore, our Lord killed our Lord. And on the practical level, it was the Romans who carried out the execution, and they were pagan (later Christian). So the Jews in Jerusalem (who didn't in any case represent all Jewish people, any more than the scary white inhabitants of New York City represented all white people in the minds of the fearful white rural citizens of my childhood), seem to have played a minor role in the whole thing. (Other than the fact that Jesus himself was Jewish, which would seem to elevate the status of Jews, if anything.)

Nonetheless, anti-Semitism and bizarrely irrational accusations against Jewish people persist today, especially in predominately white fundamentalist rural communities in the U.S.

Many members of those communities weren't rational 50 years ago and they're not rational now. They cling to their hateful and fearful beliefs even when they make no rational sense. Their fears and resentment are skillfully exploited by marketers, politicians and other hucksters. Our democracy might not survive this level of meanness, gullibility, and intellectual laziness.

[marble falls]

1. I always go about it as OK Friday. That way I'm neither over celebratory nor crushingly bummed.

[yardwork]

2. The middle way. Sensible.

[marble falls]

3. As you pointed out: these are trying times.

[yardwork]

7. Best to save ourselves first, really.

[brer cat]

4. Thoughtful post.

I have seen changes among Christians during the last 50 years, but you are correct that the fundamentalists cling to their irrational beliefs. Unfortunately, I am related to quite a few of them and have to keep my distance.

[yardwork]

9. My family is rather consistently areligious, which I appreciate.

[jalan48]

5. K & R

[DenaliDemocrat]

6. For what it's worth...

It was Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin who found Christ guilty. Per the story the young rabbi challenged the Jewish elite’s teaching and practices, thus the high priests demanded he be put to death. Pilate obliged with some reluctance.

Rabbinical Judaism today is very different temple-centric Judaism practiced in Christ’s world. It was not until 70 AD was Titus razed the temple that rabbinical Judaism arose out of necessity. You really need to understand the Temple and how it was the center of ancient Judaism to grasp the story.

That is important to remember because it brings the argument to your first point. As temple-centric Judaism was all about the sacrifice, Jesus indeed did HAVE to be crucified. In a nutshell, the sacrifice of the Christ was the end of Judaism. No more sacrifices were required because the perfect one had been made, this anything beyond that was unnecessary perhaps even a blasphemy.

This is where you will see the Orthodox (Catholic, Coptic, Orthodox) different from Protestant teachings. They put a huge emphasis on the sacrifice itself, not just the Resurrection. It’s also why the mass is called a sacrifice. It’s also why Orthodox Christians have a corpa on the crucifix and Protestants never do.

On Edit: Catholic anti-Semitic behavior has historically been a disgrace

[yardwork]

8. This is fascinating! Thank you for posting this.

[DenaliDemocrat]

10. There is a lot to the story people don't understand

For example, the flipping of the tables. Every Republican tries to say Christ hated taxes, but that’s not what it was about at all.

[yardwork]

11. They don't want to confront what Jesus was saying and doing.

There are some highly inconvenient passages in the New Testament.

[DenaliDemocrat]

13. So about the tables...

Temple Judaism was all about the sacrifice (Leviticus). Note that all Jews were to travel to the temple every few years and make a sacrifice as per your means. A rich man may sacrifice a bull, a poor man maybe two pigeons. As an agrarian society, this was a bit of a hardship financially. Per Deuteronomy, the animals were to be unblemished. That probably meant, you cannot sacrifice the pigeons the cat tore up that we’re going to die anyway, but...

So, as the story goes when Christ came to the temple, he found the priests pulling some Shenanigans. For example, they might say”Oh no, your pigeon has a missing feather, it’s blemished and not acceptable. However for the ultra low price of $49.99, I happen to have these two PERFECT ones you can sacrifice.” Imagine some poor pilgrims who traveled 200 miles to do this. What could they do? They paid for the over priced livestock.

So this is why Jesus was furious and stated they were making a mockery of his Fathers house and he flipped the tables.

Had absolutely nothing to do with taxes, but corruption

[yardwork]

15. What you've described was my understanding of what happened.

I've always ignored the taxes excuse. "Render unto Caesar..."

[Sugarcoated]

12. What was it really about?

I'm not religious, just curious

[DenaliDemocrat]

14. See above

Eom