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Morning Mediation
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
The Righteous Gentiles
John 19:10-15
Pilate therefore said to him, ‘Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?’ Jesus answered him, ‘You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’ From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, ‘If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor.’
When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, ‘Here is your King!’ They cried out, ‘Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!’ Pilate asked them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but the emperor.’
Mediation by Jeremy O’Neill
Today the church calendar commemorates a group of people referred to as “The Righteous Gentiles” who are remembered for their resistance to the Nazi regime and commitment to saving Jewish and other persecuted people during the Holocaust. Much has been studied about the various factions in this tragedy, and what is often most troubling is the indifference or consent among the German public about what was going on. This includes members of the church, as referenced by a poem written by Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemöller called “First they came for...” that has become famous. The literal translation of the text is as follows:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I kept quiet; I wasn't a communist.
When they came for the trade unionists, I kept quiet;
I wasn't a trade unionist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I kept quiet;
I wasn't a social democrat.
When they locked up the Jews, I kept quiet;
I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to protest.
These words serve as a startling reminder of not only our capacity for violence but also our capacity to permit violence. We do this for many reasons: to preserve ourselves, to preserve institutions, to avoid confrontation, out of an assumption that someone else will speak up. But the reasons for our complicity do not matter when the outcome is the same.
In John’s Passion narrative, which was selected for today’s commemoration, we hear Pontius Pilate trying to release Jesus. But the crowds do not just permit the violence, they encourage it. They justify their call for violence as a desire to be faithful to the empire, and utter the response “we have no king but the emperor.”
I believe that this passage from John is one of the most pivotal in all of scripture. It shows us that empire is a seductive thing. Empire promises (to a select few) prosperity in the short term and no need to ask at what expense or at whose expense the prosperity is coming. It is important that the crowds deny Jesus in this moment. But it is also important what they deny him for.
The Righteous Gentiles will be remembered for the ways in which they chose humanity over empire. And when we choose humanity, we also choose Christ. For Christ suffered as people today suffer, and we are always called to choose to side with the vulnerable rather than the powerful. Jesus could have become incarnate and chosen political power or status. But he was incarnate as a vulnerable man from Nazareth, an area they said no good could come out of. (John 1:46)
Prayer:
Lord of the Exodus, who delivers your people with a strong hand and a mighty arm: Strengthen your Church with the examples of the Righteous Gentiles of World War II to defy oppression for the rescue of the innocent; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
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