The Jewish Jesus

Howard sighed. “I remember a quote by Martin Luther. My father used to repeat it often. “He paused. “Now let me get it right.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and spoke the words in English, “’our fools, the popes, sophists, and monks, have hitherto conducted themselves toward the Jews in such a manner that he who was a good Christian would have preferred to be a Jew. And if I had been a Jew and had seen the blockheads and louts ruling and teaching Christianity, I would have become swine rather than a Christian, because they have treated Jews like dogs rather than human beings.’”
Stunned, Moshe asked, “He said that? Must have changed his mind later in life,” he added cryptically. “He said some really awful things about the Jews. Anyways, well said, Rebbe, well spoken. Do you know what the church required of a Jew to become a Christian?”
Howard shook his head.
“He had to eat pork-not serious, I suppose, but it constituted a denial of the kosher diet as prescribed in Deuteronomy. Now I ask you, can’t a man be a Christian and follow Kashrut as well?”
“I see no hindrance,” Howard answered with mock seriousness.
“Ah, well, that was the least of the requirements. A Jew had to deny the Holy Books, deny all Jewish Holy Days and festivals. What, I ask you, did they think Jesus celebrated during Passover in Jerusalem? The Gospels are full of festivals sanctioned by the Lord. And yet even now, Christians have only a vague glimmer of what significance those times had in His life and teaching. They have made Jesus a Gentile. “
“But He is still not a Gentile, is He, Moshe? No matter what small and wicked men have tried to make Him.”
“No. He is a Jew.” Moshe held his chin up. “But I believe He came to all men who would seek Him. As the messianic prophecy of Isaiah 53 says, the Messiah came to heal our sins by His wounds as the final sacrifice. He did not come for only one nation.”
“As a Jew I know the laws and have done my best to live them from my heart. In the old days, before the Temple was destroyed, a man sacrificed a lamb to pay a penalty for his sins. After the Temple was destroyed, we still had the laws-still sinned. But there was no more sacrifice. It is only recently, since we found the scroll, that I began to understand the meaning of Isaiah 53. I will never call myself by the word Christian, but I understand why the Messiah came into this world, and I believe I have found the truth that is as old as the Jewish people. He does not want our sacrifices; He wants our hearts. The ultimate sacrifice was one He made for us. Jesus did not destroy Jewish law; He fulfilled it.”
Emotion flooded Howard’s face. “I only wish I had been born a Jew.”
“When you found our Messiah, is it not written that you were grafted into the family?” Moshe clapped him on the back. “I never think of you as a Gentile, Howard. You never have pushed me or tried to convert me to the angry Gentile religion called the church. You have only walked by my side.”
-quoted from Gates of Zion by Bodie and Brock Thoene
This is a conversation between 2 people living in Jerusalem, Moshe a Jew who has come to believe Jesus as his Messiah and Howard the Christian Gentile that he is friends with. I began reading these wonderful books just before we began this walk in Torah. It has opened my eyes up so much to what the Jewish people went through and have opened my eyes in so many other ways. This quote just struck me because too often the church forgets that Jesus was a Jew and that He did the feasts, He kept Sabbath, He kept Torah, He WAS Torah. I had come to think that the Jews that followed Jesus as their messiah dropped all their Jewish ways and became Christians. Too often this is what the church still requires or is told in a way from a Jew that wants to follow Jesus as their messiah. Reading the scriptures I understand that they remained true to their faith and heritage and followed their Jewish messiah and accepted his gift of salvation, his ultimate sacrifice. We are grafted in by accepting THEIR messiah as ours. We follow Jesus and accept his gift to the nations. I want to follow him and be like Him, it’s the least I can do.