What did Jesus do to make the Jewish leaders hate Him enough to kill him? As N.T. Wright puts it, what made Jesus “crucifiable”?

There are many answers. Jesus publicly shamed Pharisees and scribes with His parables, ripostes, and rebukes. He attacked symbols of Jewish identity – the Sabbath and the temple – and redefined them around Himself. He said His ministry was the Messianic climax of Israel’s history.

One of the main answers may be surprising: The Jewish leaders hated Jesus because of His table practices. They killed Him because they didn’t like the way He ate.

Pharisaism was a renewal movement within Judaism, focused on purity. Pharisees encouraged all Jews to keep the same purity requirements as the priests.

Table fellowship was so central to their program that one Jewish scholar called Pharisaism an “eating club.” But meals had to be clean, and they were polluted if Jews ate unclean food – pork, shrimp, horseflesh – or had unclean table companions.

By keeping rigorous rules of table fellowship, Pharisees believed they could make Israel pure enough to prompt God to send the Messiah. Yahweh would save Israel – so long as Israel cleaned herself up first.

Along came Jesus, eating with the very people the Pharisees believed were polluting Israel – Gentiles, tax collectors who were contaminated by collaborating with Rome, and “sinners,” Jews who didn’t observe Pharisaical purity rules.

And Jesus gathered followers who do the same thing. Jesus posed a danger to Israel’s future. If Jews followed Jesus, the Pharisees though, the Messiah would never come and Israel will never be redeemed.

Jesus never actually broke any of the Torah’s purity commands. But He deliberately offended the Pharisees’ taboos. Breaking made-up rules was part of His mission.

To the Pharisees, Jesus was a stain in Israel who needed to be expunged, a cancer to be excised. Better for one man to die than to endanger the whole nation.

Many Jews hated the early church for the same reason. After Pentecost, Christians broke bread with Gentiles, tax collectors, and “sinners,” and accepted hospitality from deplorables.

 Celebrating the Lord’s Supper seems pretty tame to us. It’s not. The table is right at the center of Jesus’ revolution. If you do it right, it’s the kind of thing that can get you killed.

Blessings,
Pastor Leithart