Growing up Jewish in the Bible Belt of the American South, my Judaism was always a point of pride. But it brought questions. Throngs of questions. (Seriously, "Shit Christians Say To Jews" is remarkably true-to-life.) The most common, and the one that required the most diplomatic answer, was simple: Do Jews believe in Jesus?
"Well, no," I'd say. "We believe he existed, but we don't believe he was or is the Messiah."
But I always felt a twinge of guilt even conceding that Jesus the Person -- not Jesus the Prophet or Jesus the Savior -- could've walked the earth. His possible historical existence, and my acknowledgement of this, seemed to justify all Jews had endured over the ages.
When "The Passion of the Christ" came out in 2004, I remember a subtle wave of terror passing through my community. After decades of virtually complete acceptance in American society, many Jews feared this movie would topple our good standing. Some were sure pogroms would erupt and engulf us, as if we'd never left the Old Country. As if it had all been some fantastic dream.
While Christian revenge for perceived Jewish deicide never materialized, I can't say the existential fear truly fizzled.
For me, the Jesus thing just wouldn't go away. Walking around New York City with two-years' worth of hair on my head and a sizable beard, every day without fail someone asked if I knew that I looked a lot like Jesus. And in a room full of Jews, I wasn't immune either. The Jesus jokes followed me everywhere. I didn't like walking into a room of people because I knew what was coming. I knew I stood out. I didn't want to. I cut all of my hair off.
Though we may not admit it, we are fascinated by Jesus. The latest trend has some reclaiming him as a devoutly Jewish sage -- or at least someone Jews can learn from today. "The Jewish Annotated New Testament," published in November 2011 and written from a Jewish perspective, re-contextualizes Christian Scripture and provides an opening for increased Jewish-Christian communion. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's "Kosher Jesus," to be published Feb. 1, argues that Jesus never claimed that high celestial throne and seeks to give Jews foolproof, text-based responses to "Jews for Jesus" and other Christian missionaries with conversion on the mind. The debate aroused by Boteach's book -- responses range from positive to reasonable to overblown and sensational -- shows that old wounds aren't healed by a couple generations of cultural acceptance. In Orthodox circles, some rabbis have called for "Kosher Jesus" to be banned, with at least one rabbi asserting that Boteach should be excommunicated.
None of this is surprising. The Christian savior elicits emotional (and knee-jerk) responses from Jews across the spectrum of interfaith (mis)understanding. But one post of the many about "Kosher Jesus" was eye opening. Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet, responding to Boteach's response to the elder Rabbi Immanuel Schochet's public ban of the book, described how Jesus was nonexistent in his childhood home:
One of the things my father was consistent about was never using certain terms in our family home. Whereas my father would have typically used the name "J" in lectures, in what would be termed as horoat sha'ah (a need for the moment), G-d help any of us, his children, if we dared ever utter it in our own home. Even as kids we understood the distinction between exceptions when necessary and when not.
The name Jesus? Don't even think about it. The initial J? Even this abbreviation is a line that should rarely be crossed. (Pun unintended.) Thus, a mere man who preached universal love is turned into He Who Must Not Be Named.
The shocking part? In the same post that Boteach's book is referred to as "Kosher J...." -- seemingly to avoid giving spiritual power to a false messiah by invoking his name -- the author brandishes the oldest trick in the superstitious book, writing "G-d" to avoid taking the One And Only Lord's name in vain. All argument aside about whether the English word "God" has anything to do with the many Hebrew names of the Jewish Creator, I was struck by the juxtaposition.
Using words wisely -- and respectfully -- is a noble endeavor. Honoring the sanctity of sacred names is even more important. What, then, does it mean when you resort to the same tactic to avoid acknowledging the existence of a perceived enemy?
The same thing that made me feel guilty about admitting that Jesus might've existed. The same thing that got Jews going about "The Passion." The same thing that made me cut off those hard-earned locks.
Fear.
We're scared that maybe this time of unprecedented Jewish acceptance in the world is an illusion. We're afraid that the Christian embrace is just a trick. We're afraid that learning -- or just talking openly about -- the Scriptures of other people will somehow devalue our own or embolden theirs. We're afraid that they are right. We're afraid that maybe we're both right. We are afraid because we were raised this way. We are afraid because we don't know the answers. We are afraid because we do know the answers, and still the world remains broken.
We must stop being afraid.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, a Jewish Hasidic teacher who lived in a time and place of real fear of pogroms, and who had his own messianic qualities, said: "If you believe you can break something, believe you can fix it."
In 2012, the topic of Jesus should not be a Jewish taboo. If we believe so much that our relationship with Christianity is based on deceit, tragedy and senseless hatred -- that it has broken us -- then we are obligated to believe it can be based on trust, opportunity and boundless love -- that it can be fixed.
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The point is, fear is initiated and nurtured on all sides of religion and all sides of culture and race. The fear is debilitating and counterproductive. Grow your curls back and take a stand. If some one in the Jewish Community calls you Jesus, say "thank you. I hear he was a man who believed in the equality of all people."
Most jews don't serve God or worship Him, but yet think that they are somehow favored be a gene
I found the Bible and found that Jesus fullfilled all the prophecies. I then became a Jesus man.
Jews accept the prayer books written by men but reject scripture. I never even knew a fellow jew that read the Bible. 99% of them are secular.
:^)
Just sayin'......
(1) Jesus who was from a Jewish background came to fulfill the Law.
(2) Jesus teachings were to correct misunderstandings about Judaism and the refinements were to try and make the religion more humane.
(3) He gave the Jews first choice to listen to Him and to follow Him.
(4) Christians do not blame Jews for Jjesus' death. We don't even hold too much grudge against the corrupt Sanhedrin of the time or Pontius Pilate for that matter. Jesus was willing to suffer and to die on the cross for our sins. Through that He offers salvation both to the Jews and the gentiles. If He didn't do that I and many others wouldn't be Christians today.
(5) Most of the earliest Christian converts were originally Jews., i.e the Apostles, disciples, the early followers of the Church in Jeruslaem post-Pentacost. Even in Rome, the early Christians there were from the Jewish community which then spread to the wider city population.
(6) From a Christian perspective, If Jewish people today were to turn to Jesus then that would please God the Father no end.
As an aside, the Christians in Rome were expelled by Emperor Claudius only to return on the emperor's death.
I also forgot to mention in my previous list one of the more influential Jews regarding the spread of Christianity. I'm referring to the former Jewish orthodox enforcer, Saul of Tarsus, who turned Christian promoter, St. Paul. He was responsible for bringing the Word to the gentiles.
No matter how you look at it, Christianity's roots are firmly in Judaism. It just that Christians believe that the Messiah has already come in the person of Jesus and that He gave us the gift of Salvation while religious Jews believe that the Messiah has still to arrive.
God wrote it with His finger in stone.
Are you saying He made a mistake
This error that it was changed to Sunday is a deception of Satan Theres not a single Bible verse that insinuates that the Sabbath was chanced to another day.
Hebrews 6:20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
7:1 ¶ For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
7:11 ¶ If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
13 For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar.
14 For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
15 And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest,
16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
17 For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
18 For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.
19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.
20 And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest:
21 (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)
22 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.
23 And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:
24 But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.
25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
28 For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.
(KJV)
Jesus also requires you, go and learn what this means" I desire mercy and not sacrifice". We killed that Jesus on the cross and we comfort ourselves saying it was a sacrifice for our sin. When will we learn what this means" I desire mercy and not sacrifice" ?
"When will we learn what this means" I desire mercy and not sacrifice" ?"
Here is the full quote from Matthew that also includes a part you left out:
Matthew 9:13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Matthew is quoting Hosea from the Old Testament. God's desire is evidence (mercy) not ritual but even still, God gave the ordinance of sacrifice that began with Adam and ended with the cross.When Jesus said, "For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners unto repentance," He could have included the Pharisees, because they were sinners(if you read it in the context as written that Jesus was addressing the Pharisees). In fact all of us are included --"For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God". (Rom. 3:23)
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.