For Christians, the celebration of Easter is a time to reflect on the cornerstone of our faith: the ultimate forgiveness that we believe we have been freely given. In response to the defacing incident that occurred at the cannon last Saturday night, I speak for all of the members of Tufts Christian Fellowship in saying that we sincerely hope that the students who were involved feel nothing but blessed this week.
We also want to state how much we appreciate the Viewpoint written by Mara Judd and Marc Katz, and want to use this opportunity to reaffirm the value and respect we have for Hillel. We have really enjoyed the events that brought members of Tufts Christian Fellowship and Hillel together this year, such as the Interfaith Thanksgiving, and we hope that events like these will continue to take place in the future. We fully recognize that the actions of a few in no way reflect the beliefs or thoughts of the majority. This incident will hopefully instead be a positive beginning to further dialogue and relationship-building between faiths.
What we feel has often been misunderstood about Passover and Easter is that Christians do not see the two holidays as being in conflict with one another. In fact, from a Christian standpoint, they are significantly connected. We see both holidays as celebrations of mercy and deliverance. From our perspective, Moses' leading of the Jews out of Egypt and eventually to the Promised Land was a sign of what Jesus would come to do thousands of years later, for all people.
We view God's taking of the firstborn of Egypt as a foreshadowing of the time He would later give up His own firstborn. To Christians, Jesus is the ultimate Passover lamb, whose blood was sacrificed to cover humankind just as it did when it covered the doorframes in Exodus 12. It is also significant to us that Jesus' Last Supper was actually a Passover Seder. As He broke bread with His disciples, He rejoiced for what had been done in the past as He prepared to fulfill its promise for the future. In effect, our entire celebration of Easter would lose some of its meaning without the remembrance of Passover. Our joy would be incomplete without it.
As Easter is first and foremost a celebration of freedom in God's forgiveness, the defacing of the cannon last Saturday night has given Tufts Christian Fellowship the opportunity to extend forgiveness to others as we ask for it ourselves. It is important to acknowledge that actions like what took place at the cannon are bred from many years of interfaith conflict that stem from misunderstandings and misappropriations of God.
The most unfortunate part of this situation is that so many of the atrocities between people of Christian and Jewish faiths have centered around the event of Easter. "Passion plays," in which scenes of the crucifixion have been historically reenacted throughout Holy Week, have invoked horrible and inexcusable crimes against Jewish people by suggesting that they were responsible for the death of Jesus. As Jesus was Himself a Jew, it is impossible for us to understand how Easter could ever have been misinterpreted by some in the Church as a justification for anti-Semitic actions.
The New Testament makes it very clear that no individual or group of people "killed" Jesus, but that because all humans are fallen He willingly gave up his life so that we could live eternally. This entire message of God's love, sacrifice and mercy has often been distorted in order to further appalling human agendas and diminish the significance of Christ's death and resurrection. Because we believe Easter is the joyful celebration of God's forgiveness and acceptance for everyone, on behalf of Christians everywhere we want to come before Tufts students of all faiths and non-faith to sincerely ask forgiveness for the wrongs that have been done in the name of Jesus.
We hope that the defacing of the cannon will, in actuality, bring healing between Jewish and Christian communities and that the original message that we are all loved will be remembered more than the lines drawn through it.
Emily Bain is a senior majoring in English.
