<< Back to Reading Room

Honoring our Jewish Roots

Bridges for Peace

The prophet Isaiah said, “Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth” (Isa. 51:1-2).

Christianity did not spring forth from a vacuum. It sprang from the highly developed religious tradition and culture of ancient Israel. It is all too easy for us Gentiles to forget this all-important fact.

For instance, if Yeshua were presented to us today, His “Jewishness” would probably shock most Christians. Yet, we know from Scripture that a woman once came to Him and touched the tzit-tzit, or fringes, of His garment (Luke 8:44). He wore the garments of Jewish tradition, just as many orthodox Jews do today, fulfilling the commands of the Law (Dt. 22:12).

Likewise, the earliest church was a Jewish church. It was headquartered in the Jewish capital, Jerusalem, and was presided over by a Jewish leader.

Yeshua said, “Think not that I came to destroy the Law and the prophets...I came not to destroy them but to fulfill them!” (Mt. 5:17). God is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). As Christians, we should see that Yeshua epitomized the Law and the teachings of the prophets as the living Word of God. And yet, so many of us know so little of the Tanach, the Hebrew Scriptures.

Christians refer to these writings of the “Old Testament” as though the term “old” means it is of little value when compared with the “new.” Yet, without the “old,” the “new” loses much of its meaning, and it is often misinterpreted or not fully interpreted. When we do this, we are missing out on much God has for us in His Word.

It was from this “Jewish/Hebrew” perspective that the Church began to reach out to the world of the Gentiles. It was as if Judaism had been uniquely tailored by Yeshua and the apostles to be made “attractive” to Gentiles. Gentiles would now be able to receive the Jewish Scriptures, to heed the Jewish prophets, and to sing the Jewish Psalms. As Paul went out with the Gospel message, he was careful to stress that the message was emanating from Jerusalem and Israel. He encouraged Gentile saints to collect funds for the needy in Jerusalem (I Cor. 16:2-4); he referred difficult doctrinal decisions to Jerusalem and to the Jewish elders there (Acts 15:2); his Gospel journeys usually began or ended in Jerusalem.

He even gave the Gentile church an example of keeping Jewish feasts in Jerusalem (Acts 20:16).

The Apostle Paul did something else as he ministered among Gentiles. He stressed the importance of keeping the right attitude toward Israel and the Jewish people. That attitude was to be one of humility (Rom. 11:20), mercy (Rom. 11:31) and kindness, even to the point of stressing an obligation in sharing material gifts with the people of Israel (Rom. 15:27). It was a wonderful ideal. But, in time, Paul's exhortations began to go unheeded.

There were many factors which brought about the vast chasm which exists today between Israel and the Church. The two unsuccessful wars fought by the Jews against the Romans in AD 70 and in AD 133-135 undoubtedly did much to strain relations, since the early Church refused to help their Jewish brothers in these wars. Instead, in AD 70, the Church fled to Pella, across the Jordan River, following the warning of Matthew 24:16, believing the end of the world was at hand.

The very vulnerability and isolation of the early Church also might have contributed to their sense of separation from those who began to persecute them.

Finally, the early Church Fathers certainly did not help the situation, since many were openly anti-Semitic. The young Church fought for its life against Roman persecution from without and heresies from within. all this led the Church toward exclusivity and into taking a stand against its Jewish roots.

With the conversion of Emperor Constantine in the early fourth century, and the subsequent “Christianization” of the whole Roman Empire, this anti-Semitic trend became crystallized. The Church moved rapidly to rid itself of all Jewish trappings. For example, the Christian holiday of Easter was divorced from its Jewish origins in the Passover; Saturday (Sabbath), the biblically prescribed day of rest and worship, was changed to Sunday; Pentecost was disassociated from Shavuot, etc., as the Church attempted to cast off the influence of “this odious people” (as the Jews were described by some Church leaders).

A theology generally termed as Triumphalism began to be in vogue. The same theology has persisted to this day, occasionally finding renewal under different names, including Replacement Theology.

Basically, this belief proclaims that God is finished with the Jews: that Christianity has indeed replaced Judaism and that the Church is the true Israel. This theology universally applies all the scriptural blessings to the Church, and all the curses to Israel.

To show the fallacy of this teaching, read Romans 9-11 and everywhere it reads “Israel,” replace it with the words, “the Church.” You will quickly see how erroneous is this theology. Israel is Israel, even in the New Testament. And, when the Gentile Church is included in that concept, we are given that position by virtue of “grafting in,” “adoption,” “partakers,” and being “made near:” never by “replacing.”

Of course, the almost immediate result of such a theology was the outright persecution of Israel by the Church. This malady has persisted through most of the 2,000 years of Christian history, contributing even to the Nazi Holocaust. It is surprising for most Christians to learn that Hitler only put into practice what the Church in Europe had believed and taught for centuries.

Even today, after this awful disaster, anti-Semitism abounds in the Church. An example of this is seen in the fact that many otherwise loving Christians are suspicious of “those Jews.”

I see many pastors and parishioners who are happy to visit Israel and see where Jesus walked, but they have utterly no interest in the miraculous and prophetic renewal of the Jewish state, which is now in progress. Perhaps this is an expression of the ultimate in anti-Semitism, the denial that the Jewish people have any place in God's plan today.

Recovering Our Roots

What we see prescribed in the Bible is a far cry from what we see in the Church today. We see that God had purposed from the outset that Gentiles are to be a part of His plan, but not the whole plan. We receive glimpses of this program of God as far back as Father Abraham. God promised the patriarch Abraham that he would be the father of multitudes of goyim (peoples, nations, Gentiles) (Gen. 17:4), and that all nations would be blessed in him (Gen. 12:3). This theme is carried on in the descendants of Abraham. We see it particularly in Joseph, who was married to a Gentile woman in Egypt.

One of his children, Ephraim, was destined to become one of the most numerous and powerful tribes in the Northern Kingdom. The blessing upon the head of this little Jewish lad was this, that he would be the father of multitudes of Gentiles (Gen. 48:19). Much later, Ephraim was dispersed into the nations, along with the other nine “lost tribes.” The dispersion of these Jews among the nations, their effect upon nations, and their recovery and restoration to their land, still remains a mystery too great for us to fathom.

We see the theme picked up again in the woman Rahab, who was saved from the doomed city of Jericho and allowed to join with the people of Israel; and again as the prophet Isaiah describes the Messiah of Israel, called the “Root of Jesse.” It is said that this Messiah would “stand as a banner for the peoples (Gentiles); the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious” (Isa. 11:10). But perhaps we see the theme of Gentiles being joined to Israel most clearly in Ruth the Moabite, who was not only allowed access into Israel, but who became the great-grandmother of King David.

The beautiful story of Ruth expresses for us most clearly what a proper attitude toward Israel should be. In fact, this woman seems to illustrate, in her life, most of the fruits of the Spirit mentioned by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23. She was truly devoted to her Israelite mother-in-law. She loved her with a deep love and commitment which led her to forsake her own heritage, and even her country, in order to be with Naomi. When Ruth arrived in Israel it was not with a feeling of superiority as many Christians have today. Instead, “she bowed down with her face to the ground...” (Ruth 2:10). She was willing to abase herself to a position lower than a servant girl’s (2:13). Her attitude was one of continual mercy and generosity as she shared her meager gleanings with Naomi (2:18).

The life of Ruth was also marked with obedience (3:5), kindness (3:10), holiness (3:10), discretion (3:14), true love, faithfulness and commitment to Israel (4:15). Ruth said to Naomi, “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16).

Perhaps in Ruth's life we get a visual example of what the engrafting into the olive tree of Romans 11 is all about. It is time that we, the Church, put aside our arrogance and, in humility, understand what it means to be that wild olive branch graciously grafted in by God to receive from Israel those everlasting covenants, promises and hopes that we have been “made near” (Eph. 2:11-13) -- lest we be broken off for our arrogance and boasting.

Let us honor our roots and show love and mercy to God's natural branches!