Lenten Bible Journey 2026

Disarming the Gospel of John and its Good Friday Passion Narrative

With:  Fr. Ngema

When:  Tuesday, February 24, March 3, 10, 17, 24, 31

Time:  7:00 pm

Where:  Zoom, link in Friday Flocknote

We must not shy away from the harsh reality that sacred texts can be weaponized in very destructive ways. In the course of history, such tendencies have been associated with the Gospel of John in general and John’s Good Friday Passion Narrative in particular. The charge of antisemitism against the Gospel of John is a complex and painful subject that has shaped centuries of Christian-Jewish relations. While all four Gospels contain elements that have been used to justify prejudice, John’s specific linguistic and narrative choices make it more vulnerable.

Regardless of the author’s original intent, the belligerent dimension of the reception history of John is undeniable. From this history, the troubling fact that linguistic generalizations can lead to dangerous stereotyping stares us in the face. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era, passages from John were used and abused to fuel "blood libels," pogroms, and the characterization of the Jewish people as "Christ-killers."

In the face of this risk of an antisemitic undercurrent engineered from John, various people have made various suggestions about what to do with the gospel of John in the Lenten liturgy and the Good Friday Passion Narrative. The spectrum of responses ranges from a call for minor linguistic tweaks to an insistence on a total structural overhaul. Thus, some voices advocate that instead of reading "The Jews," lectors should sanitize the text by reading "the Judeans" or "the religious leaders" or something else. Others think the Bible should be censored in the sense that the most inflammatory verses in the Gospel of John should simply be excised from the public reading. There are also voices that advocate the strategy of a structural replacement according to which the passion narrative according to John on Good Friday is replaced by the version from Luke or Matthew. It goes without saying that these solutions each bring in its own problems that may end up actually creating more difficulties than what they set out to solve.

Cognizant of this slippery, thorny, and burning issue, how then do we use John devotionally today without perpetuating harm? This is the core issue we shall be considering in this year’s Lenten Bible Journey. Afterall, Lent, being a season of reflection and repentance, is the appropriate time to confront this issue of how sacred texts can be abused to cause harm.

In a world where old animosities are resurfacing, confronting the antisemitic weaponization of the Gospel of John is more than a Bible study—it is an act of peacemaking that is called for by the season of Lent. Whether you are merely aware of the harm caused by the weaponization of the Gospel of John or are actually troubled by it, or whether you simply want to fully explore the riches of the fourth gospel in the Lenten liturgy, your voice is needed at the table.