Posted on 03/21/2005 1:36:27 PM PST by 1 spark
ABOUT a month before Easter this year, I received a poignant letter from a prominent Seattle-area evangelical Christian businessman, a passionate activist for Israel. He wrote to invite me for a kosher meal at his home — and to discuss Jesus.
He did not, he promised, intend to evangelize me, a believing Jew. Rather, as a leader in the growing movement of Christians and Jews allying on behalf of the Jewish state, he was puzzled about what we Jews believe about the Christian savior. He was, he said, "ashamed that I never engaged my friends in what is the most important aspect of their lives, their faith, simply because some Christians — not Jews — told me to never ask these questions of my Jewish friends, or risk deeply offending them."
With the approach of the most holy day on the Christian liturgical calendar, his questions deserve answers. As citizens of a largely Christian society, most Americans see Easter through Christian eyes: as a commemoration of Christ's death and resurrection, which won salvation for all mankind. My Christian friend was asking why Jews don't see Easter as he does.
In wondering, he is far from alone. The new political alliance of conservative Jews and Christians has aroused curiosities. Jews like me who work with evangelicals and other Christian conservatives are often asked, by friends and colleagues mustering their courage, how nice people like us could possibly reject the risen Christ.
How, indeed. The best answer may be that what distinguishes the two religions above all is that Jews never saw a need for the sacrifice recalled at Easter.
The apostle Paul, who originated the most distinctive ideas in Christianity, taught that salvation is not something you buy with deeds — in particular, not with the Torah's system of 613 commandments, whose practice he explained could now be discarded. Rather, salvation is God's gift. God gave the ultimate gift in the form of Jesus' saving death.
Later Christian theologians boasted of God's unmerited "grace" as if it were a unique feature of their religion, while Jews were stuck with a discouraging faith where you try to earn your way to heaven by performing commandments. This represents a misunderstanding of Judaism.
As the Bible's book of Ecclesiastes, attributed to King Solomon, advises, "Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a glad heart, for God has already approved your deeds." At the same time, Solomon crystallized the heart of biblical religion: "Be in awe of God and keep his commandments, for that is man's whole duty." How were the two ideas reconcilable?
In the Jewish understanding, salvation came in the form of the covenant given to Moses on Mount Sinai — God's gift. The commandments a Jew performs do not "earn" salvation. They are merely the response that God asks to the fact that the Jew is already saved — "God has already approved your deeds." As a fundamental Jewish text, the Mishnah, puts it, "All of Israel has a share in the world to come." Non-Jewish peoples had their own covenant with God, received by Noah after the flood. It worked the same way.
What about the great Jerusalem temple, often depicted as a mechanism for "purchasing" forgiveness with sacrificed animals — before the building was destroyed 40 years after Jesus died? Surely, this made the need for Christ's sacrifice clear.
But Solomon also said that when the Jews were in exile, without a temple, they "should repent saying, 'We have sinned; we have been iniquitous; we have been wicked,' and they [will] return to you with all their heart and with all their soul — may you hear their prayer and their supplication from heaven and forgive your people who sinned against you."
In Judaism, repentance is always available to people, Jews and non-Jews, who wish to "get right" with God. The temple sacrifices were an aid to this, not a precondition. That was proved by the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. The first temple lay in ruins for 70 years (before a new one was built). If God saw no need then for a sacrificial Christ, why would there ever be a need?
The offer of Christianity, for Jews, amounts to giving up the unique grammar of our relationship with God, the commandments, in return for a gift that we already had. This is why Easter is a day on which we should wish Christians all the blessings of their faith — a faith, however, that if we understand our own, we can never share.
ping
There are many Jews today that believe that Jesus is the Christ and their promised deliverer. In fact, Jesus had multitudes of Jewish followers and the entire Bible is written by Jews. It is written in the Holy Scriptures that Salvation comes through the Jews. Jesus Christ is a Jew. In fact, it was the leadership of Israel in Jesus' day when He walked on earth that did not accept Him,(the Pharisees and Sadducees because they did not want to give up their power to Him), BUT WITHOUT A DOUBT, THEY KNEW WHO HE WAS!!
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said unto them:
"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, 'O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to
come?"
"the entire Bible is written by Jews."
Except for Luke-Acts, you are correct.
Thank you for your correction. I believe you are right about that.
To fulfill the law? Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. The law was fulfilled with the shedding of the blood of the perfect sacrifice, the lamb without spot or blemish.
After the perfect sacrifice was offered, who is man to think that any further sacrifice (other than a broken heart and a contrite spirit) he can make is greater?
To attempt to do so would be to try to please God with a lesser sacrifice and would be a return to the law, as a dog to its vomit and would make the Crucifixion of no effect for you.
I think the Jews were the only ones who understood that concept back then, and that made it harder for them to lay down the sacrificial aspects of their worship, having had it ingrained for centuries. Salvation came much easier to those who were not under those laws, as they had less religious programming to overcome.
But it seems it was planned that way, as the hesitancy of the church to accept the fulfilling of prophecy was responsible for the invitation of the gentiles out on the highways and biways to attend the wedding.
But not to worry. The Jews will be the most joyous when their day comes. Well nigh upon us, in my opinion.
Thanx for posting this Spark. There are alot of things that exist in Hebrew Scriptures that Christians oftentimes and mistakenly think are revolutionary concepts that began with Jesus. Such as the "born-again" experience (Teshuva)andmercy/grace.
And your source for this is, what exactly? The gospels and epistles of the Christian scriptures? I expect you'll disagree, but I don't think we can count on them to give a fair and accurate depiction of Judaism and Jewish reaction to the early Christian movement. These are polemical works, advancing their own particular viewpoints. They are not objective histories.
Untrue, based upon a misreading of one passage of Leviticus, and contradicted repeatedly throughout the Hebrew scriptures.
The law is vomit?
My scriptures don't agree with you.
The law of the LORD is perfect (Psalm 19:7)
It is written in the Holy Scriptures:
Jesus said:
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
The Gospel of John, Ch. 3 vs. 3
Not in my Bible. Please point to me where in the Hebrew scriptures it says that eternal life depends upon "believing in" a dying-and-resurrecting god-man savior.
Can you explain why the first family in Genesis offered up blood sacrifices?
Please check your Torah, Isaiah 53. This scripture was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Abel offered a sacrifice. Genesis does not record God requesting it.
The Torah is the five books of Moses. Isaiah is in the part of the tanakh called the nevi'im, or 'Prophets'.
I'm quite familiar with the Christian mistranslations and misinterpretations of Isaiah 53. Having had this debate innumerable times on FR, I have no burning interest in rehashing it again. There are plenty of Jewish sites you can go to if you are really interested in a Jewish understanding of the passage.
I'll simply ask you this. In the gospels, when Jesus tells his disciples that he must die, they are shocked and horrified. Why would this be the case, if they knew that moshiach was to be a "suffering servant"?
The fact is, the idea of a "suffering servant" messiah was a new interpretation developed by the early Christian movement after the brutal execution of their teacher. It was not an extant Jewish concept. Those who asked Jesus when he would establish his kingdom were expressing the normative understanding of messiahhood as found in a literal reading of authentically messianic passages of the Hebrew scriptures.
Prophetic Scripture Isaiah 9:7
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
Fulfilled in the Gospel of Luke, Ch. 1, 32, 33 by Jesus Christ:
He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
And He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
What you posted is what Christians believe. However, Jews believe that one person cannot die for the sins of another, that blood sacrifice is not a requirement for remission of sins, that God hates human sacrifice, and that God is not a man, and man is not God. These beliefs are supported by OT scripture. Here's a good link explaining those concepts in detail, with scriptural support.
http://www.whatjewsbelieve.org/
That Jews do not see Jesus as an unblemished/perfect sacrifice, or the fulfillment of the law,as Christians do, is explained here:
http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/web/faq/faq-at.html
Jesus, a practicing Jew, never taught that we ought disregard God's Law. The following link covers the importance of God's Law. Scroll half way down the page to get to what Jesus taught regarding the Law.
http://www.mindspring.com/~sjayg7/sample.htm
I'll simply ask you this. In the gospels, when Jesus tells his disciples that he must die, they are shocked and horrified. Why would this be the case, if they knew that moshiach was to be a "suffering servant"?
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