"And their doors were locked for fear of..."

This verse, John 20:19, may be familiar to a lot of you.  It describes the disciples during the anxious time between Jesus's execution on the cross and his resurrection from the dead: "and their doors were locked for fear of the Jews."  While preparing for a sermon on the gospel of John, I ran across some interesting commentary on this recurring phrase: 

"We have already drawn attention to the dangers of failing to recognize that 'the Jews,' as they are portrayed in the Gospel [of John] are not a uniquely blind or stubborn people. They represent established religion.  They represent us.  If the cross is the bearing of the sin of all people, not just the Jews; if the question, 'Were you there when they crucified my Lord?' must be answered and whispered by an awestruck 'Yes' by every human soul, then--equally--these words of Jesus are not addressed to Jews only, but to all.  The strategies by which 'the Jews' [in John] seek to exclude the possibility that the living God himself might be confronting them in this man are but the local and temporary examples of the strategies by which all human beings seek to protect themselves within their worlds of thought and belief" (Newbigin, 62).  

My respect to him, but I doubt Leslie Newbigin has ever gotten prizes for being short-winded!  What I basically get from this is the reminder that John's shorthand description "the Jews" stands for the institutional, established church of the time. More pointedly, it stands for us.  Any time we are so established in our church culture and trappings that we miss what God is doing, we are part of this establishment. 

I think it would be an interesting exercise to read this phrasing this way: 

"And their doors were locked for fear of THE EVANGELICALS" (John  20:19) 

"So THE BAPTIST SUNDAY SCHOOL BOARD made plans to kill Lazarus as well (12:10)

"And the LUTHERANS were puzzled by this statement, 'Where is this man planning to go?'" (7:35) 

"'But Rabbi,' they said, 'A short while ago the ENLIGHTENED POST-MODERN HIPSTER CHRISTIANS were seeking to stone you, and yet you are going there again?'" (John 11:8)

...does this phrasing give it a little more bite?

I don't even need to mention the idiocy and tragedy that have come from mis-interpreting this kind of phrasing in the gospels.  People have used it to justify all kinds of racist activity in history, saying they are doing so in the name of Christ.  As Newbigin points out, that is just another strategy to avoid God.

Don't we do this all the time?  I'm definitely guilty of the tired discussion of "this world" or "this culture," as if I'm separate from it.  Instead of looking at my own sin and the business God wants to do with me there, I'd rather gripe about "the world today" or the "church today" or some other people group I think I don't belong to.  Some incarnation of the "hoi polloi" that I've come up with.

John's intention here is much more pointed, much less escapable.  He was talking about the institutional religion of the time, which missed Christ then and continues to miss him today.  If ever we become fixated on defining ourselves against the "them" (the world, the church, the non-Christians, the young, the old) in our discussions, then it is time to step back and look at the "us."

Would the disciples have locked the doors for fear of us?