Anti-Judaism

Anti-Judaism is a danger in reading and preaching the New Testament: a biblical narrative may portray Jewish people or leaders negatively, and a sermon can turn that portrayal into hostility toward Jewish communities. The book calls preachers to name this interpretive problem, challenge its theological implications, and refuse to let Christian witness to the Realm become a warrant for exclusion.

Luke’s portrayal and its theological challenge

The book identifies Luke’s account of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple as a particularly stark case. Luke connects the Temple’s fall with Jerusalem’s failure to embrace Jesus; the author calls this an unmistakable expression of the Gospel writer’s antipathy toward many leaders of traditional Judaism. Luke’s explanation is placed within the wide-ranging theological debate of that time over why the Temple fell, but historical context does not remove the preacher’s obligation to assess its claim.

The author rejects the idea that a God of unconditional love would reduce a city to rubble because its people did not welcome Jesus. This objection reaches beyond the interpretation of one episode: if God abandons Israel after promises made to that community, the integrity of those promises is threatened, and Christians cannot assume that they themselves are exempt from such abandonment. The book insists that God can embrace Gentiles without discarding the Jewish community.

Reading conflict without turning it into prejudice

The discussion of Acts 17:1–15 distinguishes Luke’s portrayal of opposition in Thessalonica from the responses at Beroea. The preacher is cautioned not to authorize anti-Judaism when discussing the Pharisees and synagogue crowd in Thessalonica. Luke’s account presents hostility there, while Jewish people at Beroea welcome the Realm and help Paul find safety. Holding both responses in view prevents the narrative’s conflict from becoming a blanket judgment of Jewish people.

The book also suggests reading these episodes alongside Luke 11:33–12:12. Paul, Silas, and Jason are presented as witnesses who act fearlessly amid public conflict; the account also emphasizes God’s care for those who witness. A sermon can connect that call and assurance to contemporary conflict, while identifying Luke’s invective against unsympathetic Jewish people rather than reproducing it. The contrast between opposition and welcome can help congregations recognize both resistance to the Realm and the support that enables its witnesses to continue.

Rejecting anti-Judaism in communal practice

The book describes anti-Judaism as a force that discolors relationships needed for Realm-like community, and as a prison that cuts a congregation off from potentially liberating relationships with the synagogue. These images make prejudice not merely a mistaken opinion but an obstacle to shared life and mutual mission. The proposed response is for the church to renounce anti-Jewish ideology and work toward a world in which Jewish and Christian communities engage one another in service to people confined by prejudice and other forms of imprisonment.

Luke’s story of Peter’s release offers a related model of providential support for witnesses in difficult circumstances. The book notes that miraculous prison doors rarely open in the present setting, and invites congregations instead to act as instruments of release: supporting faithful witnesses who are incarcerated and working for the freedom of people held in prison. This application widens the story’s concern beyond imprisoned disciples to the local prison population, while keeping the larger question of liberation connected to the church’s public witness.

Preaching the promises without discarding Israel

In considering Acts 13:46–47, the book again warns against accepting Luke’s strong language as a theological reason to suppose that God turned away from Jewish people who did not join the church. The author argues that unconditional love is incompatible with such a rejection. A pulpit conversation about this passage can help a congregation clarify what it believes about God’s continuing relationship with Israel and about the reliability of divine promise.

The book proposes an alternative preaching strategy: as Paul summarizes God’s promises to Israel and presents the story of Jesus as its next stage, a preacher can recount God’s promises to the congregation and invite it to see its own witness as part of that continuing story. The Realm may be embraced and witnessed to in new ways without making the Jewish community the discarded past of Christian faith. On this account, resisting anti-Judaism is inseparable from the church’s understanding of promise, witness, and its relationship with Jewish communities.