The kids were sculpting with play-dough while I was making supper last night, and I was talking to them, asking what each of their little sculptures were. I have to admit I wasn't listening all that closely, with a lot of "mmm-hmms" and "oh, that's great" comments. Then Joseph informed me that he was making a person.
"That's nice, Joseph."
"A BAD person."
That got my attention. "A BAD person?" I said skeptically. "What kind of bad person?"
"A Jew," he replied.
I blinked, certain I had heard wrong. "Excuse me?"
"You know, a Jew. Like in the Bible."
Uh oh. "Joseph, WHY would you say Jews are bad people?" I demanded. I knew for a fact that this was NOT one of the lessons I'd taught him during Bible time.
He didn't miss a beat. "Because they killed Jesus," he said matter-of-factly as he smoothed his play-dough man.
Oh dear. What could I say to that? Totally factual and yet...I really didn't want to encourage this kind of blanket anti-semitism! Aaaahh! Why hasn't somebody written a parenting manual called "Awkward statements your children will make and how to answer them"! I could just see my son walking up to a perfect stranger in the grocery store and saying "Jews are bad people. They killed Jesus. Want to see my tattoo from the Aryan brotherhood?" Yikes.
Wherever you fall in the "grafted in/cut off" theological debate, I have always believed that God still honors His "I will bless them that bless you and curse them that curse you" promise. Of course Jews, like all of us, are sinners and have to accept Christ to be saved. The Bible's pretty clear on that. But I do think that we should do everything in our power to befriend, speak well of, and support Israel, because they are still His chosen people. Even when they weren't obeying Him, nothing good happened to those nations that attacked or oppressed them. So I REALLY want to get through to my son that it was ALL of our sin that killed Jesus. That we love His people because He loves them. And that we are all "bad people" until we are saved by Him.
By the time all of this went through my head - I think I sputtered something incoherent and indignant - his 4 year old brain had moved on. The "bad Jew" figured morphed into Queen Esther. (Huh?) I think we will have to have a talk about all this a little later, when he's not distracted by play-dough. But for now, I think I'm just grateful that he didn't come out with that in public!! ;-)
