The following sermon was written by the Rev. Amanda Currie on February 2, 2026, in reflection on Bach’s St. John Passion and John 18-19.
On Good Friday, April 7, 1724, Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion was first performed at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Through the centuries, this setting has remained one of the most revered musical settings of the Passion narrative. Composed in two parts, intended to be performed before and after a sermon during a Good Friday service, the piece contains the text of John 18-19, sung by a four-part choir and several soloists.
As a Christian pastor serving in Regina, it has been a blessing for me to sing in the Ignite Chamber Choir and join with the Regina Symphony Orchestra for the March 2026 performance at Holy Rosary Cathedral. In addition to the welcome challenge of learning the difficult and beautiful music by the masterful composer J.S. Bach, I have enjoyed the opportunity to reflect deeply on the Passion of the Christ as it is depicted in John’s Gospel and the way that Bach interprets the Passion through the music. By the time we were a month into our rehearsals, I knew that I wanted to write a sermon about it.
When I started to read about Bach’s St. John Passion, I quickly discovered that there has been significant controversy surrounding its performance in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Perhaps the average listener without a working knowledge of the German language wouldn’t notice, but there is an issue with how “the Jews” are depicted in the text.
“The Jews” (Juden) are the ones who arrange for Jesus’ arrest, who accuse him of blasphemy, who refuse when the Roman Governor Pilate suggests that he could be released, and who relentlessly call for his crucifixion. In the narrative that is presented, “the Jews” are clearly portrayed as the “bad guys” who killed Jesus the Lord. It’s no surprise that many people have been concerned about how this presentation of the Passion has the potential to promote anti-Semitism and the demonization of Jewish people today.
Of course, biblical scholars would be quick to point out that the negative depiction of “the Jews” in Bach’s composition is almost entirely found in the parts of the text that are straight out of the Gospel of John itself. It is the 4th Evangelist, writing this Gospel near the end of the first century C.E. who made “the Jews” into the enemy in the narrative.
The puzzling thing is that the author of John’s Gospel knew that Jesus was a Jew, as were his disciples. Indeed, almost all the characters in the story are Jewish – Jesus, who is being arrested and killed, his friends who are running away scared, the religious leaders who are trying to hold on to their power and influence, the crowds who get riled up to participate in the spectacle of an execution, and the women disciples who watch and wait in horror and helplessness as their friend is put to death.
The probable reason why John’s Gospel blames “the Jews” for the death of Jesus is that it reflects the hostility between Christian Jews and Rabbinical Jews in the late first century. According to John 9:22, Jews in Jerusalem who acknowledged Jesus as Messiah were expelled from the synagogue around that time. This led to a deep division in the community and the inclination to lay blame on “those Jews” who refused to believe in Jesus, who rejected him, and had him killed.
In the centuries to follow, the Christian Church would often “forget” that Jesus was a Jew, and would continue that polemic against Jewish people, including anti-Semitism, hatred, mistrust, violence, and the horrors of the Holocaust.
When Bach composed the St. John Passion in the 18th century, he used as his text John 18 and 19 in Martin Luther’s German translation, which did not tone down the negative depiction of “the Jews.” However, Bach did more than simply set the biblical text to music. Between the choruses and recitatives that convey the Passion narrative itself, Bach inserted chorales and arias that interpret the Gospel and apply it to the life of the listeners.
For the biblical narrative, the tenor soloist serves as the Evangelist (the narrator of John’s Gospel). The bass soloists serve as Christ (the lowest bass voice), Pilate, and Peter (the highest bass voice). The choir also takes on various voices from the biblical text: crowds of Jews, bands of soldiers, and various people in the courtyard of the High Priest.
For example, the choir whispers “Aren’t you one of his disciples?” accusing and taunting Peter and leading to his denial of Christ. We sing the sarcastic, mocking taunts of the soldiers as they place the crown of thorns on Jesus’ head and say, “Hail to you, king of Jews!” And soon after, we spit out the demands of the crowds who shouted, “Kreuzige, kreuzige!” (Crucify him, crucify him!)
But intermittently throughout this dramatic musical Passion story, Bach has the choir singing chorales in the voice of the Christian congregations that might hear the Gospel and be moved to prayer, repentance, gratitude, and renewed commitment to the way of self-giving love that Jesus embodies.
Remarkably, those who respond to the Passion according to St. John do not lay blame on “the Jews” as the biblical text has done. Instead, the chorales give voice to the listeners’ sorrow and grief concerning the torture and execution of Jesus, combined with a confession that it is their own sin and wrongdoing that has caused this horror to take place.
For example, in Chorale 11, we sing to Jesus: “Who has struck you in this way, my saviour, and with torments treated you so badly? You are indeed not a sinner as we and our children are. Of wrongdoing you know nothing. I, I and my sins, that are as many as grains of sand by the sea have provoked for you the misery that has struck you and the host of troubles and torment.”
In Chorale 14, remembering Peter’s denial, we pray: “Jesus, look at me also when I am reluctant to repent. When I have done evil, stir up my conscience!”
Then, after the death of Jesus, we sing: “Oh help us, Christ, God’s Son, through your bitter suffering, so that always obedient to you, we may shun all wrongdoing, and thinking of your death and its cause, we may profit from our reflections, and in this way, however poor and inadequate it may be, give you an offering of thanks.”
With the choir singing both the calls for crucifixion and the confessions of sin, Bach is interpreting the death of Jesus not as the fault of “the Jews” but of the whole human community, including those who identify as Christians and strive to follow the way of Christ.
As listeners today, perhaps we may be wondering how we could possibly be responsible for the torture and execution of a man who was killed in another part of the world almost 2000 years ago. It may seem absurd that on Good Friday, Christians around the world mark the death of Christ with somber worship, recounting of the Passion narrative, and confessional prayers in which they claim their responsibility in what happened that day.
A text from another Gospel may help to make sense of it. In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus tells a parable about the end of time and the final judgement of all the people and nations. The king (Christ) will separate the sheep from the goats, and the separation won’t be based on whether the people are Jews or Christians or some other religion. It won’t be based on their nationality, culture, spirituality, or the colour of their skin.
The sheep that will receive the gift of eternal life will be those who fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, provided clothing for those that needed it, took care of the sick, and visited those in prison. Jesus tells the sheep that whenever they did these things for the least among them, they did it for Christ Jesus himself.
The goats, however, will receive eternal punishment because they encountered neighbours in need, and did nothing to assist them. Jesus tells the goats that whenever they neglected to care for the least among them, they neglected to care for Christ Jesus himself.
When I used to live in Saskatoon, there was an annual ecumenical “Way of the Cross” walk on Good Friday. It was an adaptation of the traditional Roman Catholic “Way of the Cross” in which there are 14 stations for prayer and reflection on the stages of Jesus’ Passion and death. Using Scripture, song, reflection, and prayer, the Saskatoon “Way of the Cross” drew the attention of the Christian community to people in our world today who are suffering, struggling, and being “crucified” as Jesus was.
We were not present to physically participate in the death of Jesus, but whenever we cause harm to others in our time, whenever we neglect to offer assistance, and whenever we condone hatred and violence, we nonetheless participate in the crucifixion of the Messiah.
During those walks, we remembered and prayed for the hungry and homeless people in our community; for refugees and asylum-seekers who have had to leave their homes and flee from violence or discrimination; for Indigenous people who continue to suffer from the intergenerational trauma caused by Residential Schools and the whole colonial project; for members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community who are harmed by religious intolerance and discriminatory policies; for people who suffer from physical or mental health issues and do not have access to the care they need; for Jewish people around the world who experience anti-Semitism, hatred, and violence; for the people of Gaza who are living and dying by the thousands with the relentless attacks against their communities and infrastructure; and for many other people today who are being crucified as Jesus was.
As the Regina Symphony Orchestra and the Ignite Chamber Choir perform Bach’s St. John Passion on this Passion Sunday weekend in 2026, it is not intended to convert anyone to Christianity, but rather to celebrate and enjoy the powerful music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Nonetheless, I wonder if our diverse and compassionate community of musicians and audience may be inspired by Bach’s theological reflection and be moved to respond with a humble commitment to turn from our sins against one another and serve our neighbours with love. That will be my prayer as I participate in this remarkable performance.