Jews And Christians

FRI., NOV. 16, 1990, 7:10 AM
FARM, STUDY

You just knew that I would have some comment on the thought that arose from that silly little rhyme. Initially it seemed logical. Jesus is the main difference between Judaism and Christianity. Judaism is the older faith, and the Old Testament is an integral part of Christian Scripture. Ergo, if there had been no Jesus and no New Testament you, today, would have only the Old Testament and therefore would be Jewish.

On second thought that seemed wrong. I have chided you from time to time about your attitude toward the Old Testament. I have tried to get you to finish Jeremiah, and now you are studying and discussing Ezekiel, as I advised you to do… but without much zeal. You took the course in the Minor Prophets at Synod School, but you feelings about how those men represented Me was not fundamentally changed. You do not relate well to rules and regulations and particularly to commandments that seem impossible to keep.

Judaism is built on the premise that I, as Almighty God, chose Abraham as the patriarch from whom would come a chosen people. But he and Sarah had only one son, and I tested Abraham’s faith in Me by ordering him to sacrifice that only son, from whom would come the chosen folk. (You see a relationship?) But then I changed My command, and Isaac was saved. From him came two sons, one of whom was chosen, and the other rejected. Out of Jacob, then, came the twelve tribes that became Israel.

Thus, in this story heritage, in the physical, “blood” sense and in cultural ways, was very important. And this is not your heritage. You are not of the Jewish line, and you have little positive feeling for the Me that related so damagingly to this developing people. As the Scriptures describe them they were not a very “model” people. And as you see them today they are not people you would wish to join and “be part of.”

There are individual Jews that you like – Mal, Charlene, Harvey, for example – but Jews in general do not attract you. In the Old Testament you like David, and you like Solomon if he, in fact, did write Ecclesiastes. You like My choice of David and you relate to the messages of The Preacher, but you see these as exceptions in the saga of Me and the Jews.

Now Jesus was born as a Jew, of the house and lineage of David, though you question that… and it is rather far-fetched. He grew up as a Jew, learned the Jewish heritage, but then became aware that He was not just a Jew, but was the Messiah, the Chosen One, but for all people, not just Jews. Thus, the Jews rejected Him, because He included others… because He was preaching a message of inclusion rather than exclusion. In one real sense, then, the Jews did have him crucified… for not denying that He was the Messiah, but who had come from God, as God, to be for all people, not just for them.

His was not a harsh, demanding gospel. His anger, expressed only occasionally, was vented on the good Jews. And yet, after His death and resurrection the disciples, all Jews, would have kept their allegiance to Jewish culture. So I raised up Paul, a good Jew who felt the conversion out of his heritage and into Christianity, the worship of the God Who was in the Christ and Who offered salvation by faith rather than following the law.