I raised the subject of this note as a question towards the end of a previous note. It arose when I thought of a paraphrase of Hebrews 13:8 which reads: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” I find it more telling that the verse I had thought of comes from the only book named after the people of which Jesus was, is and forever shall be.
Upon raising this question, a few people pointed out the banality of the observation. I found it interesting that the people who found it mundane were all Christian. The people who found the observation interesting were all non-Christians. Clearly, what we Christians apparently know and take for granted does not translate to those outside of our faith.
I would like to share a series of quotes to contextualize my thoughts.
“The Jewish religion was admirably suited for defence, but it was never designed for conquest.” Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus, Matthew: 5:17-20
“Indeed, there is evidence that, by the time of Jesus, Jews were regularly praying to God as Father. But that was never explained to us. The intimacy Jesus claimed to have with God the Father was made to seem unique, entirely his. More than anything else, to us, it set him apart from the Jews.” James Carroll, Constantine’s Sword
“Know that we Jews have three types of books. The first is the Bible, and we all believe it completely. The second is called Talmud, and it is a commentary on the merits of the Torah. For in the Torah there are 613 commandments and there is not one of them that is not explained in the Talmud. We believe in the Talmud concerning explanation of the commandments. We have yet a third book called Midrash, that is sermons. This is analogous to the bishop standing and giving a sermon, with one of the listeners deciding to write it. In regard to this book, those who believe it well and good, but those who do not believe it do no harm. We have sages who wrote that the messiah will not be born until close to the time ordained for redeeming us from exile. Therefore I do not believe in this book, where it says that he was born on the day, of the destruction of the Temple. We also call this book aggadah, that is, stories, meaning that these are only things which one person tells another.” Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman Gerondi, at the Disputation of Barcelona of 1263
The root of my motivation for writing is a desire to re-examine what is referred to as the Parting of the Ways, or when it was that Judaism and Christianity actually diverged to the point of understandably separating them out. There is no scholarly consensus on when this event took place. Some point to Luke’s writings in the book of Acts (Acts 11: 26b: “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch”) as evidence for mid-1st century CE dating of the divergence. Others look all the way to 325CE at the Council of Nicaea as the political and theological (i.e. official) parting of ways. And then still others point to various events between or perhaps even outside of these dates. Looking at the world in which we live today, it is undeniable that we have two very separate and very distinct religions. It would be impossible and indeed even counter-productive to demand any sort of primitivism to try to bridge the relational gaps that exist between Jews and Christians. But I find myself intensely desiring if not a Reunion of the Ways, at least a Reconciliation of the Ways. But one must come to grips with the Parting of the Ways before being able to grapple with drawing them together again.
Thus, I feel we must look back to the foundation of Christianity: Jesus.
Jesus Was Jewish. Again, perhaps this is not as intriguing of an admission as I hope. I admit that when I stumbled upon this mental connection, it did not impress me until it was conjoined with the rest of temporality. But the past is where we must begin. We must survey and review where we have been and from whence we come to understand where we are and where we are going. Looking back at the passage of Matthew I have quoted above, we see Jesus explicitly stating that he has not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill. In much Christian literature and discourse, this distinction is consistently drawn. It is treated as a capstone of Jesus’ messiahship. Clearly he was the messiah for he fulfilled the law and the prophets! However, I must press any Christian who says this to search within our history, our theology, our writings, our sermons, our ethics, our actions, our consciousness and then try to tell me that we have not, in fact, called it “fulfillment” but considered it abolition. Some point to the subsequent passage in Matthew where Jesus goes on to explain his take on various key laws regarding murder, adultery, debt, etc. These interpretations of the law are examples of Jesus not just fulfilling the law, but offering new understandings of how the laws work or how they should be treated. I’ve even heard some speak of Jesus altering the law due to his fulfillment of it. These sorts of readings are missing the fundamental characteristic of Jesus: he was Jewish. As seen in the quoted passage, Jesus says that everyone’s righteousness needs to exceed the scribes and Pharisees, which means he thinks they represent a high enough bar of righteousness to which he can point. If I were listening to him tell me I need to be more righteous than the most righteous people I know, I would want know how thats even possible. Then Jesus tells me. It is not the letter of the law that reigns supreme in God’s kingdom. It is the intention undergirding each action undertaken. It is not “Thou shalt not murder” so much as “Thou shalt not become so angry as to harm another.” It isn’t “Thou shalt not commit adultery” so much as “Thou shalt not objectify your sister-in-God through lust.” Jesus offers aid to his fellow Jews on how to more righteously follow the law and prophets they all know and seek to observe. It is not that Jesus FULFILLED the law and prophets (and therefore abolished them), but Jesus FILLED them with his lived-out and died-for message: love. Jesus mnemonically reduced all of the law and prophets down to two commandments, both of which have love at their core. As I read through the Gospels, I see again and again Jesus speaking of reaching out to the lost sheep of Israel, Jesus being a great Jewish rabbi, Jesus seeking to be the Jewish Messiah as best he could.
In researching this topic a bit, one interesting distinction I came across is that a Jewish refutation of Jesus as Messiah runs something like this: Jesus was not a false messiah. He was a failed messiah. Because the Jews are still scattered (you can thank Christians in large part for that), and that the Jewish people historically and contemporarily experience oppression, obviously Jesus was a failed messiah. But that is different than a false one altogether.
Jesus Is Jewish. This is often times difficult to see when one enters a contemporary Christian worship service. Two millennia of development has allowed Jesus via Christianity to be viewed very apart from his Jewish context. Sure sermons might reference his Jewishness, use research on 1st century Judaism(s) to elucidate Jesus’ message more, or perhaps even a few 1st century customs might be enacted to heighten the spiritual feeling. But what of the Jewish customs of today? Jesus Is Jewish. Jesus would be in synagogue. Jesus would take Saturdays off. Jesus would celebrate Hanukkah (and we’d probably throw him a pretty rockin’ birthday party too). I can’t speak to Jesus’ tastes regarding being Reformed or Orthodox or anything like that, but I like the idea of him choosing to look very different than the Aryan Jesus myth we’re still trying to overcome (or are we?). Christian anti-Semitism might strike him as grossly unjust. Israeli conflict with Palestinians would probably outrage him. Not necessarily just because it’s Israelis involved, but because it’s such a clear-cut case of neighbors not loving one another. But then again, perhaps Jesus would be greatly limited by today’s world. If Jesus came again as a human (without all that Second Coming business), his being Jewish would greatly undercut his ability to affect change in the world at large. More to my point of writing, the Judaism(s) of today are vastly different than the ones of Jesus’ lifetime. Christianity’s obsession with Jesus’ Judaism has blinded it to the Judaism with which we are currently co-existing. I am a victim of this neglect in my own upbringing. I am taking a class on Modern Judaism next quarter in an effort to alleviate this ignorance. But, I do know that the Judaism Christians talk about is consistently the one in which Jesus lived. But, it is always a Judaism defined against an anachronistic understanding of Christianity. Jesus combatting legalism, Jesus fighting materialism, Jesus lashing out against sacrifice, Jesus decrying Temple worship, Jesus abrogating Jewish law…. these are retrojected readings. When reading anything about Jesus today, we must remember that Jesus is Jewish today.
Jesus Will Forever Be Jewish. This is perhaps the most striking to me. All of the jibber-jabber about the Rapture, talk of converting all of the world to Christ, etc. seems to lack the respect for the Son of Man who comes in clouds with great power and glory will be a Jew. And if Hebrews 13:8 is at all accurate, then our Christianity has to change quite a bit if we want to be Christlike because the Jesus that is coming, the Jesus that is, differs greatly from the one we have fashioned ourselves around. Our Christianity has historically managed to allow the Jewish people anything but power and glory. And even today we do not afford them the respect deserved by any fellow believer in the One God.
I shall stop here because speaking of the future (especially the “eternal future” whatever that means) is tough. Instead I shall close with another two quotes:
“Looking backward we think we know what happened. Looking forward, we have to contemplate diverse outcomes. Such questions focus attention on cause and effect, help us distinguish between major and minor, direct and indirect influences, suggest possibilities otherwise overlooked.” David Landes, Wealth and Poverty of Nations.
“The discovery that the past might have gone another way is simultaneously a discovery that the future can be different.” James Carroll, Constantine’s Sword.
