Some commentators on John’s Gospel that we read toward the end of Lent, into Holy Week and the Easter season put quotation marks around “the Jews” to indicate we need to interpret this term properly. Who are “the Jews” John speaks of in his gospel? The term describes different groups of Jews in Jesus’ time. 

First,  Jesus himself was a Jew who loved his people and their traditions. His mother Mary and Joseph were Jews. Most of his followers were Jews, and so they belong in John’s category  “the Jews”. 

“The Jews” Jesus argues with in our readings from John’s Gospel these last  days are the Pharisees and their allies, the scribes. They are often described in the gospels as hostile to Jesus, but not all of them relate to Jesus that way. 

The Pharisees were members of a lay movement that arose in Judaism a few centuries before the time of  Jesus. Reacting against Jewish leaders they saw as corrupt collaborators with foreign invaders like the Greeks and the Romans, the Pharisees started a religious revival based on the Mosaic law and traditions.  They were popular among the people.

The Pharisees and scribes generally could not see beyond the law and Jewish interpretation of tradition, however. In John’s Gospel, Jesus goes beyond Moses and the prophets. “Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” (John 8:29) This was blasphemy to the Pharisees. 

They are “the Jews” opposing Jesus  John describes in our readings this week.

Besides the Pharisees and scribes, the Sadducees, the Jewish ruling class holding  political power in Jerusalem and allied to the Romans, opposed Jesus. They controlled the temple, the center of Jewish worship in Jerusalem,  and when Jesus taught in the temple and performed miraculous works in the Holy City, they saw a threat to political stability and possible revolution..  Along with the Herodians, followers of Herod Antipas who controlled parts of Palestine and were also sensitive to political instability, the Sadducees moved to eliminate Jesus. 

Still, like the Pharisees and scribes, some Jewish leaders, like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, saw Jesus in another light. 

As we enter Holy Week, we meet all those John sees as “the Jews”.  On Monday of Holy Week, the  followers of Jesus  gather around him in Bethany and Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anoints his feet in preparation for his death. Some of his followers will abandon him this week. 

In Holy Week , the Jewish leaders like the priests Annas and Caiphas, anxious about the future of Jerusalem and their nation take action against Jesus, along with some Pharisees.  They approach Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who has the power to put him to death. 

There is another group John sees as “the Jews” we should not forget. They are the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They are pilgrims come up to Jerusalem for the feast or others living in the city who look on,  undecided, uninvolved. They wait and see.  We should not forget them. We hear their voices as we celebrate the mystery of the Passion of Jesus in Holy Week.