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"Jesus is not for Jews"
A few years ago a Jewish youth
magazine conducted a poll on the most “significant and influential Jew
of history”. Not surprisingly, Moses won convincingly and, among the
characters of the Hebrew Scriptures, Abraham finished third and King
David seventh.
The three great Jews who
have formed modern life, Marx, Freud and Einstein came from fourth to sixth. Bob Dylan, Mel
Brooks and Woody Allen completed the top ten – perhaps proving either
that contemporary characters do better than they deserve or that there
is a considerable American influence on Jewish youth culture! There was
hardly a rabbi to be seen in the top ten, and Israeli generals and
Zionist leaders like Sharon, Dayan, Hertzl and Ben Gurion outpolled
religious leaders like Maimonides and the Baal Shem Tov!
But who else was in this Jewish top of the pops? If
you have been reading carefully, you will have realised that I missed
out who came second in the poll: “And the runner-up to Moses is ... Jesus
of Nazareth!”Jesus of Nazareth … our Jesus, the Christian Christ,
surely not! Well actually, surely so.
And some other Jewish people in the poll said good
things about Jesus. For example, Einstein said, “I am a Jew, but I am
enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene. Jesus is too
colossal for the pen of phrasemongers, however artful”. He further
added, “No man can read the gospels without feeling the actual presence
of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled
with such life … Theseus and other heroes of his type lack the
authentic vitality of Jesus”.
Martin Buber, the great 20th century Jewish
philosopher stated, “I am more than ever certain that a great place
belongs to him in Israel’s history of faith and that this place cannot
be described by any usual categories”. Well, what category would you
use? Israeli scholar Pinchas Lapide conceded, “This Jesus was as
faithful to the law as I am and would hope to be. But I suspect that
Jesus was more faithful to the law than I am – and I am an Orthodox
Jew”. And David Flusser, professor of religious history at the Hebrew
University, Jerusalem stated, “I do not think that many Jews would
object if the Messiah – when he came – was the Jew Jesus”.
So, if Jesus is the second most influential and
significant Jew in history and would thus make a good Messiah, why are
Jewish believers such a minority in Jewish society? It is largely due
to universal human sinfulness and specifically to spiritual blindness.
To put it in context, the overwhelming majority of Jews don’t believe
the gospel. Well, guess what, neither do the vast majority of Gentiles!
Evangelism is always – barring revivals – reaching out to the many to
win the few; most people are in rebellion against God most of the time.
We are hindered in Jewish evangelism by two further
factors. Firstly, the disastrous and prevalent existence of Christian
anti-Semitism has understandably made Jews despise and distrust the
church, the fall-out of which has been the exclusion of Jesus from most
of Jewish life. After all, it’s not normal to be attracted to those who
hate you, and the historical church has moved the Jews to anger far
more often than to jealousy! Secondly, even though Jewish people tend
to be inquisitive and independent, and to think for themselves, even
secular Jews have a tendency to let the rabbis do their religious
thinking for them – and the rabbis have always stated that Jesus is
simply not for Jews.
But if Jesus is the second most influential and
significant Jew in history, surely he must be for Jews! If he is an
historical Jewish figure, surely he is at least as relevant for Jews as
he is for Gentiles. Otherwise it is like saying that Winston Churchill
– who another poll stated was the second greatest Englishman ever – was
for Italians but not for the English.
When witnessing to Jewish friends, I challenge them
to read one of the Gospels in order to develop an informed opinion
about Jesus – whom I believe was the most significant and influential
Jew in history – and to ask the God of Israel to reveal to them what he
thinks of “this great Jew”. Then we can share about Jesus together.
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