In Monty Python’s Life of Brian, almost at the very end of the film, in the crucifixion scene, is this strange and memorable exchange:
It is not as crazy as it might seem, it is actually quite historically
and religiously accurate, like so many other parts of this comedy.
Samaritans and Jews did hate each other. Their prejudice was mutual and deeply rooted, and just like any other deeply seated prejudice it indeed went beyond the grave.
I cannot go into any details of this complicated and convoluted history, but it can be helpful to observe that just like so many other sworn enemies, Samaritans and Jews shared a lot of commonalities. They had almost identical ethic roots, religious roots and they even shared the same, almost identical, holy books. Yet, they considered each other as heretics, apostates, and bastards (impure, mixed, inferior race).
Their hostility flared up repeatedly into violence. Samaritans sided with mortal enemies of the Jews and Jews payed them back by destroying Samaritan holy temples as soon as they could (just a few generations before Jesus - around 110 BCE).
Both groups were minuscule players on the world scene, but they kept denouncing each other to the superpowers of their times: to Persians, Alexander the Great, the Seleucid Syrian kings, to the Romans, to Byzantines...
They are the prime example of ancient sworn intolerance, prejudice, bigotry and racism.
And as such, they can help us to deal with intolerance, prejudice, bigotry and racism in our own times. On Tuesday of this week the FBI published an official 2018 report on hate crime in our American society. There has been a spike in US hate crimes for the third year in a row. No surprise there, all hate crime increased substantially in the last three years, but religious and racial crimes increased by dozens of percent.
This Sunday we will look for inspiration and support to Jesus, how he dealt with Jewish Samaritan entrenched religious, ethnic and racial bigotry. We need his divine inspiration, encouragement and support.
Samaritans and Jews did hate each other. Their prejudice was mutual and deeply rooted, and just like any other deeply seated prejudice it indeed went beyond the grave.
I cannot go into any details of this complicated and convoluted history, but it can be helpful to observe that just like so many other sworn enemies, Samaritans and Jews shared a lot of commonalities. They had almost identical ethic roots, religious roots and they even shared the same, almost identical, holy books. Yet, they considered each other as heretics, apostates, and bastards (impure, mixed, inferior race).
Their hostility flared up repeatedly into violence. Samaritans sided with mortal enemies of the Jews and Jews payed them back by destroying Samaritan holy temples as soon as they could (just a few generations before Jesus - around 110 BCE).
Both groups were minuscule players on the world scene, but they kept denouncing each other to the superpowers of their times: to Persians, Alexander the Great, the Seleucid Syrian kings, to the Romans, to Byzantines...
They are the prime example of ancient sworn intolerance, prejudice, bigotry and racism.
And as such, they can help us to deal with intolerance, prejudice, bigotry and racism in our own times. On Tuesday of this week the FBI published an official 2018 report on hate crime in our American society. There has been a spike in US hate crimes for the third year in a row. No surprise there, all hate crime increased substantially in the last three years, but religious and racial crimes increased by dozens of percent.
This Sunday we will look for inspiration and support to Jesus, how he dealt with Jewish Samaritan entrenched religious, ethnic and racial bigotry. We need his divine inspiration, encouragement and support.
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