In the reading from Galatians Paul recounts how he went to Jerusalem 14 years after his first visit with Peter and James, the brother of Jesus, 3 years after his conversion (see Gal. 1). Paul says that he and those "reputed to be the pillars of the community," namely James, the brother of Jesus, Peter, and John (son of Zebedee), made an agreement: The apostles in Jerusalem would not interfere with Paul’s mission to the Gentiles, if Paul collected funds for the poor of the Jerusalem church.

The agreement broke down in Antioch, however, when Peter refused to eat with Gentiles after messengers sent by James arrived from Jerusalem. Peter, Paul says, was "afraid of the Jews." We also read that the "other Jewish Christians" in Antioch, including Barnabas who had been Paul’s companion, sided with Peter against Paul. Angrily, Paul condemns Peter and the other Jewish Christians for trying to force the Jewish law on the Gentile Christians. Paul argues that we are saved through faith in Christ Jesus, not through keeping Jewish law.

Given the reading from the gospel of Mark, the argument over eating with Gentiles and requiring Gentile Christians to keep Jewish dietary laws seems very odd. After all, Jesus taught that "nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him." And the author of Mark notes, to be sure the reader understands: "By saying this he declared all foods clean." If Jesus declared (or clearly implied) that all foods are clean, and Peter and John, as his disciples, were there and understood, then how could they possibly argue that Jewish Christians — much less Gentile Christians — need to keep kosher? Moreover, if Jesus taught that all foods are clean, why doesn’t Paul simply claim authority for his point of view by referring to the words of Jesus, as reported in the gospel of Mark? Surely, there could be no stronger argument.

The fact that in his letters Paul never refers to any of the gospels, even though he could do so to support his argument against those resisting his mission to the Gentiles, suggest that he does not know of them. We must conclude, therefore, that the gospels were written after Paul wrote his letters. Furthermore, we must assume the gospels were written by Christians who were well aware of the issues that Paul addressed in his letters. The gospels were written for Christian communities which, like the churches in Galatia and Corinth, were divided by issues of faith and law.

Overall, the gospels in the New Testament support the argument of Paul that salvation comes by faith not by keeping the tenets of Jewish law. The gospel of Mark sets the tone by depicting the disciples of Jesus as men of "little faith," who desert Jesus when he is arrested and crucified in Jerusalem. This language is carried into the gospels of Matthew and Luke, which contain and edit the gospel of Mark as well as report other teachings by Jesus. In contrast to the disciples, a Roman centurion, that is a Gentile, is said by Jesus (in Matthew 8 and Luke 7) to have "great faith" because he trusts that Jesus can heal his servant. Another centurion witnessing the death of Jesus on the cross says, "This man must have been a son of God." (Mark 15:39, Mt. 27:54. In Luke 23:47 the centurion says, "Beyond all doubt this man was innocent.")

The point for the reader of the gospels is clear. At the time that Jesus is misunderstood and rejected by Jews — including his disciples, who desert him — Gentiles already have faith and recognize him as God’s son. We see, therefore, that the gospel writers have taken Paul’s side in the struggle within the early church and have written the success of Paul’s mission among the Gentiles into the gospel story of Jesus.

We need to recall that the gospels were all written in Greek for Greek-speaking Christian communities. The gospel of Matthew has greater concern for the Jewish Christian members of the churches by reporting that Jesus said he had not come "to abolish the (Jewish) law and the prophets" but "to complete" them. (Mt. 5:17) Nonetheless, it is faith and love, not the (Jewish) law, which are central to the witness of the gospels, and these are the heart of Paul’s letters.

A tragic consequence of the successful appeal of the gospels to the Gentile world is that the anti-Jewish attitude that they fostered. This anger with Jewish Christians, who do not see that the gospel offers salvation through faith rather than through the law, pervades the gospel of John. In the first three gospels the enemies of Jesus are Pharisees and Sadduces, but in the gospel of John the enemies of Jesus are "the Jews." Jesus himself tells them their father is not Abraham (the exemplary man of faith in Paul’s writings) but "the devil." (Jn. 8:44) We see clearly in the gospel of John that the phrase "the Jews" refers to Jewish Christians who disagree with the gospel of faith and love. The gospel notes (Jn. 6:60) that many of the disciples of Jesus rejected his teaching that: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and I in him." (Jn. 6:56) Moreover, in John 8:31 we find Jesus arguing with "the Jews who had believed in him," before they seek to stone him to death.

It is helpful, therefore, in reading the New Testament to look first at the letters of Paul in order to see what was happening in the early churches. The gospels were written later than the letters of Paul, and they convey in a narrative form the struggles between Jewish Christians, who felt called by Jesus to exceed rather than reject the requirements of Jewish law, and Greek-speaking Jewish and Gentile Christians, who held that faith and love were sufficient for salvation. The destruction of the temple in 70 CE by the Romans ended the power of the Jewish Christian church in Jerusalem, and the success of Paul’s mission to the Gentiles paved the way for the creation of the New Testament.

Christians, for whom the New Testament is a source of inspiration, must confess that this witness to faith and love has also inspired hatred among Christians for Jews. Clearly, Paul and the authors of the gospels could not have imagined the consequences of their creative resistance to the imposition of Jewish law on Gentile converts. But we cannot ignore what we know to be true and must repent of the fact that scriptures, which have inspired millions to lives of faith and love, have also been used to justify the persecution of Jews.

Those who would proclaim the gospel today should acknowledge that the disciples inspired by Jesus did not reject their Jewish heritage, but only sought to purify and complete it, as we see in the teachings of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew. Peter and his companions did not learn from Jesus that "the Jews" were sons of "the devil." Nor did they learn from Jesus that the Jewish dietary laws were to be rejected. They did learn from Jesus that they were to transform their lives by sharing their goods, praying together, and following his example of not judging sinners but offering them salvation through repentance.

We, who would learn from both Paul and Peter, whose lives were transformed by their experience of Jesus after his crucifixion, must do so with humility and with respect for Jewish faith and law. We should proclaim a gospel of faith and love, for this is how we have come to know eternal life. But we should also acknowledge that Jewish teachings led Jesus and have led many Jews to a deeper experience of God and love for their neighbors, as have religious teachings from the great spiritual traditions of the world. This is the really "good news" that we are all called to embrace. We can discover the God, the Source of life, "in whom we live, and move and have our being," (Acts 17:28) in this life, in this world, in our scriptures, and in community with others.

25 May 1997, Manchester College Chapel Society