What Makes Jesus Jewish?

What makes a Jew a Jew?  In other words, what is it that distinguishes the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob from all other peoples of the world?  It is their covenantal relationship with the King of the Universe, the Creator of all things.

I recently read “The Jewishness of Jesus: Relevant or Essential?”[1].  And I’ve got to tell you, I was very frustrated by the baseless conclusions of the author.  In fact, I scrawled notes all over the place, highlighting this, underlining that.  But in the end, I could hear God whisper, “Take a deep breath and look at what is going on.”  I then realized that the writer, educated as he may be, simply did not have the foundation he needed to accurately consider his subject matter.  

Here is the foundation I believe he missed: The ‘Jewishness’ of the people of Israel comes from God.  As they follow His covenant, His Torah, their covenant lifestyle sets them apart from all other people of the world.  God chose them to live differently.  He gave them a set of rules to live by.  This set of rules calls them to holiness.  And it is this holy lifestyle that testifies to His holiness.

Now, I need to clarify here that I am not talking simply about ethnicity, but about those who take their covenantal relationship with God seriously.  So what makes them look different?

There is a huge difference between the lifestyle of the descendents of Abraham and the lifestyle of the rest of the world, but here are just three examples:

1)      Sabbath

-          The Sabbath is kept on the day God said to keep it.

-          It is not a day just to do whatever you want, but a day to rest and honor God. A day to be kept holy/sanctified/set apart.

2)      The Name of God

-          'OMG' did not likely come from the text of a Jew

-          They are serious about not taking God's name in vain, even using 'G-d' in their writing

3)      Food

-          Their standard of what to eat and what not to eat comes from God and His instructions in the Bible.

(Many Christians have looked at Peter’s vision in Acts as saying God told Peter that all food was now clean.  However, there are some problems with this interpretation. First, we are never told that Peter actually ate that food; and second, Peter’s own explanation of the vision is that God showed him that He had enabled Gentiles to repent and be saved.[2])

When Jesus came, He was completely Torah observant.  He taught us that the covenant is based on love for God and love for man[3].  The example of His life shows us that the covenant - God’s Torah - teaches us how to live out that love. This is what makes Jesus Jewish – walking out the love of God for man by His covenantal obedience to the Torah of God.

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[1] Reitsma, Bernard; Theological Review; Apr2005, Vol. 26 Issue 1, p55

[2] Act 10, 11 and 15

[3] Matthew 22:35-41

Are We Really Peculiar People?

As followers of Jesus, do we look different from the people of the world?  Does our lifestyle clearly say that we are a peculiar people[1]?  Or when the world looks at us, do they see nothing that says we belong to the King of the Universe?  Sadly, I believe the latter is often true.  

God told the Israelites (in Leviticus 18:3) “You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes.”

Paul repeats this same teaching in his letter to the Romans when he writes, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”[2]  How do we do this?  Paul gives us the answer in his letter to Timothy.  He tells him, “Timothy, you’ve been reading the sacred writings since you were a kid.  These are what you need to use to teach, reprove, correct and train people in right living. (My paraphrase of 2 Tim 3:15-16.)

What too many people don’t realize is that when Paul wrote his letter to Timothy, there was no ‘New Testament’.  That means the sacred writings Paul referred to was the Tanakh - the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings.  

So, when Christians don’t know Torah – God’s standard of right living – how can we possibly know what we are and are not supposed to do? How can we live lives that cause people to know that we belong to God?

Unfortunately, there has been such a mindset against Torah, coupled with an over emphasis on grace and non-judgment, that many Christians ignore what happened to Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts.  Instead they chose to believe they can do whatever they want and it is okay with God because He is full of grace and mercy.

However, when you look at Torah as being a set of instructions on how to love God and man, you realize the Torah is full of mercy and grace, yet it is also full of consequences for wrong action.  Why? Because God disciplines those He loves.[3]

 

And Jesus didn’t change that.  He clearly said, “Until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”[4]

When we strive to live our lives lined up with the Word of God - His instructions for right living - then we stand out from the crowd of humanity.  When we chose to obey God when He tells us not to live like the people of the world live, not according to their statutes and laws, but according to His statutes and laws, people see a difference in us.  And in seeing that difference, they want to know the God who made us different.

Choosing to live by God’s standards found in Torah does not give us salvation.  But once saved, should we not strive to be the ‘peculiar people’ God calls us to be?

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[1] 1 Pet 2:9 King James Version

[2] Romans 12:2

[3] Proverbs 3:12; Hebrews 12:6

[4] Matthew 5:18 New International Version

Did Jesus Rescue Us from God?

What many non-Jewish Christians don’t get is that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Oh, we say we get it, we say we believe it, but do we really?  When it comes to a discussion of Torah, our words often reveal something entirely different – and we don’t even realize it.

Because we have distanced ourselves from the Jewish roots of our faith, we look down our noses at the Torah of God.  I even had a dear lady, completely sincere and with a loving smile on her face and a look of pity in her eyes, misquote Paul as she informed me that the Torah is the law of sin and death.

We so often see the Torah as a bad thing that Jesus came and rescued us from.  If that’s true, then it follows that since the ‘God of the Old Testament’ is the One who wrote the Torah, we must need to be rescued from Him as well.  

On the surface, I’m sure you will agree that this is so far from the truth that it’s scary.  But when we look at the Torah as a bad thing, we must look at its author as bad also.  Didn’t Jesus say a good tree cannot produce bad fruit? So if God is good (and I’m sure we all agree His is), then what He gives us is good also.  This includes His standard of right living – His instructions, His Torah.  

Jesus also said, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father".  Look at that – Jesus referred to God as the Father. As a non-Jewish Christian, I always thought this was something unique to Jesus. That He came and gave us a new perspective of God.  But as I’ve studied the Torah and read Jewish commentary, I found this is not true.  Many of the Lord's chosen people view Him as Father.

When we take the time to read our Jewish brethren’s writings, we walk away with a much different picture of the ‘God of the Old Testament’.  He is no longer this vengeful, blood-thirsty God.  On the contrary, He is merciful, gracious and long-suffering.

The God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  He has a standard of right living that we are to strive toward on a daily basis.  And when we cannot achieve what our heart longs to do for our Father, He made a way to atone for our failings. Why? Because God’s desire has always been to have a relationship with us.  

God is all about relationship.  Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and the people of Israel are all proof of this.

Jesus told us that the Torah, the first five books of the bible, can be summed up in two things – love God, love man.  When we study Torah based on these two things, a loving relationship with our God and with man (who is made in His image), we clearly see that God is the same from Genesis to Revelation.  His Torah speaks volumes of His love and His desire to be in a loving relationship with us.

As I study the month of Elul, from a Jewish perspective, I hear the echo of my Savior’s voice. So much of what is written about this time of introspection sounds like it came from Jesus’ own mouth.

I hope you follow along with me this month as I explore the subjects of repentance and reconciliation – the very theme of the month of Elul, the very theme of our Savior's life.