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Princeton, New Jersey — April 1995
We are aware that the Jewish Community remembers the Holocaust on April 27 — Yom HaSho’ah. And we want to express our grief with them over the unfathomable Darkness that ended, now, fifty years ago. We wish to express our remorse that the institutional Church helped to create an environment in which the Nazi regime could flourish. Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions in Europe both share responsibility for negligence, arrogance, and even contempt toward the people of Israel. We are also ashamed of Christianity's centuries-long contribution to the sufferings of Jewish people, because it utterly distorts the character, work and message of Yeshua (Jesus). He was not the inspiration behind any of that — notwithstanding that much of it was done “in His name.” According to the New Testament, Yeshua identified with his people: he was a Jew. He took upon himself their cares, hopes and sorrows. He experienced anguished separation from God during execution by the pagan “nazis” of his day. And because Yeshua wept over Jerusalem’s future (Luke 19:41) — and because Hitler would have killed him too — we believe he suffered along with the Six Million who perished between 1933–45.
We also believe that his death was not merely the tragic execution of another pious Jew, but a purposeful provision of the Almighty to mend the world and restore lost fellowship with God. The Roman cross became — in God’s mysterious counsels — an altar upon which Yeshua became a burnt offering (Greek, holokaustos), a sacrifice with ageless, atoning value (Isaiah 53). Yeshua’s deadly encounter with human rage was ultimately an encounter with the fire of God’s wrath on all human sin. His personal holocaust confirmed the everlasting love of the Creator of Israel and his mercy toward all nations who know not “the God of the Fathers,” Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Isaiah 49:6). The destinies of Yeshua and of Israel are thus intertwined. And at this season of remembrance we are awed into silence . . . aware that events of the past — whether 50 years or 20 centuries ago — rush toward us with life-changing significance.
— Paul Sumner (Artwork and design by Mary Sumner; photos by Paul Sumner.) |