“Who hath believed our report?”

The above quote is from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) book of Isaiah (53:1). It comes in a passage often referred to as the Suffering Servant Song. This speaks of God’s servant bringing hope and transformation in surprising ways – including an account of the servant’s abuse, unjust treatment and general experience of trauma. That text is commonly linked with the Easter story. And on this point – “Who hath believed our report?” – it connects directly with a part of the story that we read only in Matthew’s version of events. In Matthew (Mt) 28:11-15, we read about the report of the guards who had been stationed at the tomb of Jesus. When the earth shook and the angel rolled the stone away, the guards had trembled and became “like dead men”, frozen by fear. Now, they returned to the city to report to the chief priests what had happened. And the chief priests got together with the elders and concocted a counter-story. They paid the guards handsomely to spread the alternative version, that Jesus’ disciples had gone to the tomb by night and stolen his body – while the guards were sleeping. Because this was likely to come back on the guards for sleeping on the job, the chief priests assure them they’ll satisfy the governor. We’ll circle back to this. I want to look at the final verse of the story, verse 15: “So they took the money and did as they were directed, And this story is still told among the Jews to this day.” At the time of Matthew’s writing, “this day” may have been around 50 or so years after the event. But it does appear that there were Jewish alternative biographies of Jesus that were possibly written down in the forms we now have, perhaps in the 15th century. A text known as Sefer Toledot Yeshu (Book of the History of Jesus)can be traced to around that time. There are possible references to some of its content or traditions in works from the 9th century, and even in the Babylonian Talmud of c.600AD. These traditions will have been oral in the first instance, and quite possibly trace their origins all the way back to Matthew’s late 1st century, or earlier – perhaps to this episode itself. The broad points that Toledot Yeshu and other similar texts, like Maaseh Yeshu (The Episode of Jesus), cover are the illegitimacy of Jesus’ birth; his exceptional intelligence; his miraculous (or magical) works; his death (in disgrace); and explanations of what happened to his body (it was moved by Sages and then hidden by a gardener, to prevent Jesus’ followers taking his body out of the tomb). Some versions of this story are fierce in their derision and denunciation of Jesus, effectively saying, “He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy…” There has been debate about how kosher such stories have been , and whether or not they were rabbinic (ie, endorsed or even perpetuated by the rabbis). The manuscripts that we currently have probably coincide with a time when Jews in Europe were suffering persecution, on account of the argument that ‘they’ had killed Jesus. However, the point here is not that Jews hated Jesus (some might have), because Matthew’s audience were very likely Jewish themselves – ‘Christian’ Jews, exiled from the mainstream, but still Jews. I believe, rather, that the issue is with the powerful. The villains of the piece in Matthew 28:11-15 are the chief priests and the elders. This is one of a long line of examples of powerful, privileged men paying to perpetuate lies and silence the truth, in order to protect themselves and their positions. They did not want this story out there. They would stop at nothing to invalidate the experience, the testimony, of those first followers of Jesus. So they literally added insult to injury. It’s the same old story. I see echoes here of the Me Too movement. Powerful men thought they could ‘get away with it’. Super-injunctions and Non-Disclosure Agreements are today’s equivalent of paying off those guards. So many powerful and privileged men have abused their status, abused others (especially women), and used their often immense resources to prevent the truth coming out, or to discredit the victims, or make them think no one will believe them – “Who hath believed our report?” They try to control the narrative, often by propagating a counter-narrative. This is basically the idea of alt-facts. But it doesn’t need to be that way. Me Too and more recently, Everyone’s Invited, demonstrate that reports sometimes are believed. Harvey Weinstein, in the end, didn’t get away with it. Donald Trump failed to secure a second term in office. What I find comforting about this is, most of us have never heard of Toledot Yeshu before. But we’ve heard the gospel account of Jesus. They weren’t silenced, those first followers, the witnesses. They spoke out. It’s a fine tradition in Christianity – speaking the truth, standing up for the truth. Sharing testimony, one’s own experience. I pray that the church, and all who call themselves followers of Jesus, will always be open to hear and validate the experience of those who suffer – and will never protect the corrupt at their expense.