Jesus is not a Christian...and neither is Paul

Like devout Jews of His day, Jesus had been circumcised on the eighth day; went to synagogue; traveled to Jerusalem with his family to celebrate the pilgrim feasts at the Temple; learned Torah; gathered disciples and taught them as did other dedicated rabbis. While His human life was out of the ordinary, His faith was fully orthodox and Torah-observant (he did spar with rabbis over the traditions). His teachings are full of Jewish idioms. His self-described ministry was "to the Jews" (Matt 16:24). Jesus stated He had not come to cancel Torah, but to fill it full, so His followers could more fully live it (Matt 5:17). When He sent out the twelve, He told them to go only to the lost sheep of Israel (Matt 10:5-7). His words are only fully understandable if viewed from a Hebraic, or Jewish, perspective. 

So it would be accurate to say that Jesus was not a Christian. He was not sent by God to start a new religion that replaced the Jews with more reliable types. He did not teach His disciples the Torah was cancelled. He didn't tell His followers to stop being Jewish. He called Himself the Son of Man repeatedly to indicate to them that He was the figure described in Daniel 7, co-equal with God. The Jews understood that's what He meant. The trail of outraged Pharisees that followed Him everywhere is evidence enough of that. 

Well Paul then, Paul is the one who sorted through Jesus's teachings and brought clarity and a new focus and sent us into the Christian era on the right foot. Thank God for Paul. No, Paul too was a Jew. He was Saul of Tarsus, a brilliant, orthodox Jewish scholar. (Paul was his legal Roman name). By his own testimony he was of the tribe of Benjamin (Rom 11:1), circumcised, a Pharisee, likely a member of the Sanhedrin, zealously persecuting believers (Acts 22:1-4). He claimed he was 'blameless under the law," meaning that he lived according to it, repenting when he fell short (Phil 3:4-6). He too worshipped at the Temple and studied in synagogue. He said the law was good and perfect and that he delighted to meditate on it (Rom 7:12, 14, 22). When he was arrested, part of his defense was "I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers" (i.e. He was Torah observant. Acts 28:17).

Everywhere he traveled he first went to the local synagogue and preached to the Jews, as Jesus had instructed. In Acts 18 he cut his hair as part of a Jewish vow. In Acts 21 he pays the expenses of four men associated with a vow in the Temple, in order to quash rumors that he was not observant and was teaching others they needn't be either.   

In Paul's role as apostle to the Gentiles, he argued passionately that they had no need to convert to Judaism in order to be followers of the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua. This is not the same thing as arguing that Jesus's death and resurrection cancelled all of the promises God had made to the Jewish people and that Gentile Christianity constituted a new Israel, replacing God's covenant people. 

So Paul can only be called a Christian if his self-identification is ignored and his teachings filtered through a Gentile grid. And if he truly was teaching something radically different than what Yeshua taught, why are we listening to him? On what grounds does Paul have authority to change what Jesus the Son of God taught? Selah. 

So it appears that Paul did not convert and create a new religion. He was a Jew who'd discovered His Messiah and was learning how to walk out that revelation as a faithful Jew. He was working his brilliant brain through the mystery of the inclusion of the Gentiles, to whom he was called as an apostle. He recurringly admonished them they needn't be "Jewish" in their faith expression, but that doesn't mean that we Gentiles have nothing to learn from our Jewish brothers. 

Take a fresh look at Jesus's and Paul's teachings, setting aside what you think you know. Check your Bible's translation for additions not in the original manuscripts. Take the POV that Jesus came as a Jewish man, to the Jewish people, bringing a Jewish message of the coming Kingdom. Understand Paul as a faithful Jew, learning how to follow Yeshua as his Messiah in that context. Invite the Holy Spirit to guide you. Ask Him to show you where traditional church thought or means of interpretation may have clouded what the Scripture is actually saying. Where might cultural norms have infiltrated your thinking? In what ways might antipathy toward the Jewish people caused Bible interpretation to become slanted away from its Jewish beginnings? 

It's time to put Jesus, Paul and the earliest church back into their original Jewish context, that we might gain the fullness of what they taught. We are part of something much bigger and much older than we've known. As our mighty God draws human history to a close, let your eyes fill with the glory of the coming King. Maranatha!

Matthew 10:5-7  Yeshua sent out these twelve and ordered them, “Do not go to the Gentiles, and do not enter into any Samaritan town. But go instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near!’’ TLV

 

Acts 24:14 [Paul said,] "But this I confess to you, that according to the Way (which they call a sect), I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything written in the Torah and the Prophets. TLV

________

A teeny Bibliography for further study:

The New Perspective on Paul, Grove Biblical Series, Michael Bruce Thompson, 2002

Jesus the Jewish Theologian, Dr. Brad Young, 1995

Throne Room Prayer

Our best thoughts, prayers, motives and actions issue from the fire in the throne room. In the secret place we prostrate ourselves before God, offering our best and He takes that pitiful stuff and passes it through His fire. Then He returns it to us, purified, burnished, multiplied and powerful; ready to be shared with the world around us.  

So our prayer life must go beyond a snippet in our daily devotional. It takes more than a minute to enter through the very low doorway into His presence. It takes vulnerability and courage to present our small, weak offering. It takes intentionality to empty ourselves. It takes time to wait on Him. Adoration and humble emptiness draw His gaze and bring His fire and fill us with His purifying presence. Only then will He fill our hearts and hands and send us out to do His will. Otherwise we are only able to offer the ministry of our own good ideas. 

If we want to hasten the arrival of God's kingdom, we need to minister as Jesus did. We need to walk as He did. Before Jesus spoke to the crowds, before He taught His disciples, He often withdraw for extended times of prayer, then went out and changed the world. Selah.

So spending time in the place of worship and prayer is not just for those with a calling, it is our very life in God. Without a prayer life we are just "doing Christianity." We truly have nothing to offer unless He gives it to us first, so meeting with Him, bowing low in worship, talking with Him, listening to Him, letting Him heal and deliver us, waiting for His Spirit to fill us is of first importance. We are all of us very busy, but we are foolish if we believe that we are too busy to pray.  

In the secret place is where He can correct our misunderstandings, show us our sin, and bathe us in the glory of His love and power. Prayer is the umbilical cord through which the life of God flows into our inner man. Prayer is our confession that we understand we are utterly dependent upon Him; that we can do nothing without Him; that our life flows from Him and returns to Him. If Jesus only said what the Father told Him and did only what He saw the Father doing, then we must follow His example and pray.

So pray. Pray when you want to; Pray when you don't; Pray when you have time; Pray on the run; Pray when you're happy; Pray when you're sad...or angry, or bad; Pray with thanksgiving; Pray with repentence; Pray with fasting; Pray when you feast; Pray for yourself; Pray for others; Pray for your friends, and for those who are not; Pray with words; Pray with tongues; Pray with tears; Pray with silence; Pray alone; Pray in groups; Pray without ceasing; Just pray!

Finishing Well

The problem with getting to be my age, is you've seen pretty much everything. Old age often attracts cynical fatigue...hope deferred and all that. As a life-long melancholy, I grow tired and a bit boneless. Tired of myself and my issues, tired of others and their issues; tired of the church and its never-ending, ridiculous, often unnecessary issues. About the time I find something to lean on, it crumbles to dust. I'm old and starting to fall apart. For me at least, it's easy to shrink back into a 'I'm-waiting-for-God, get-off-my-lawn" kind of attitude. 

But when I do, I am thankfull that God always has the last word. Again and again, His great kindness has been to point out when I start focusing on the wrong things...the things which are passing away. Doesn't mean the issues aren't real, or big, or horrible. But focusing on them means I am less and less likely to finish at all, let alone finish well. 

So when my troubles loom large and I am tempted to focus soley on me and mine, the Holy Spirit has been reminding me what I signed up for and urging me to gaze at that. Disciples have a goal, a prize, a very great reward. The Holy Spirit is nudging me to keep my eyes trained on the far horizon, where our glorious Jesus waits to return. If I keep thinking on that, I will have peace. If I remember what our King brings when He returns, my sense of justice will be satisfied. If I think on the World to Come; evil expelled, all things made right, and being with God and His people forever, I experience joy. In this way, no matter my current circumstances, my perspective is focused and expectant on a very positive outcome. My troubles become smaller and my hope much bigger...set in a vast, glorious kingdom in which I have a place prepared for me. I can keep moving forward, because my eyes of faith can see where I'm going. 

At the end of this age, God extends an invitation to a great Sabbath meal...all of us sitting at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the apostles, and great saints who've gone before us; Jesus blessing the wine and breaking the bread; all of us laughing and eating and swapping stories of back in the day when we thought the Wedding Supper would never come. But it will. And all the sorrow and fatigue of this present age will seem insignificant in comparison to the joy and the glory we will know. 

Whether Jesus returns soon or late, we who are older are in the foyer of the World to Come. So our Master is urging us to finish well; to gather our strength; to keep moving; because we are not done. The only way we fail is if we give up. He will do the work, our part is to choose to continue. This means that when our baggage gets heavy, we do not sit down and rearrange the contents so we can fit more stuff in there. We can't carry all that and do the will of God too. If we hand it to Him, then we are free to do as He asks, when He asks. 

We may be slower than we once were, but He promised we would end well if we lean on Him. He has promised that we would finish--even with health issues; encroaching cynicism; despair over the broken world and unsaved family; even dying in the promise. If we keep our eyes fixed on Yeshua, He will carry us right to the end. 

I believe He is asking once again, “Do you trust that I am enough? Do you still choose to continue? Whom do you say I am?” We answer with trembling breath, "You are the Messiah, the son of the living God." We worship and submit to your perfect plan. Maranatha!

The Chosen People

What comes to mind when you hear 'the chosen people'? Most of us would lean toward making it a title "The Chosen People." Because we are human, we naturally put titles into categories of rank. If I choose steak instead of liver, folks assume that I think steak is better than liver. So Chosen People must mean 'better than those not chosen'. The Hebrew Scriptures seem to reinforce that thinking. God repeatedly calls the Jewish people 'the apple of His eye,' His son, His beloved, His wife, and many others. We Gentiles prefer the Apostolic Scriptures which seem to do away with all that favoritism to bring in a new order of sameness, a doctrine of fairness, if you will.    

But what if being chosen has less to do with ranking and more to do with calling to a particular role? What if, in God's big plan, He has arranged the peoples of the earth into groups not to indicate he likes some better than others, but because He has a plan He is working? What if the Jewish people are beloved only because He loves them and not because they are better? (Deuteronomy 7:7-8) What if His plan from the beginning was to invite all the peoples of the earth into His salvation, and to call the Jewish people into partnership to make that happen? That would mean Gentiles are not an afterthought, or plan B, they are included in God's original plan (with a different role). What if He has arranged things so that no one group could boast about being better, or more loved?

If you step back and look at the big picture, God started with just people, then He created the Jewish people, then He called the Gentile peoples, then He enacted His plan to save people, then at the end He saves the Jewish people and ends up with redeemed people...the ones who love and obey Him. So in the end God gets what He wanted and planned for from the beginning. His perfect plan repairs and restores the earth and creates a set-apart people for Himself, showing the powers and principalities that He is willing and more than able to finish what He started. 

So the chosen people are people chosen for a particular role, or calling. In fact God didn't even just pick a people, He created a people group out of one man (Abraham), perhaps to avoid the criticism of favoritism. So distinction theology, which groups people into either Jew or Gentile, is distinction for calling only. God loves us all the same. We are saved the same way, through the loving grace and faithfulness of God alone. We are all of equal value. Distinction is about calling, not value.  

The choosing of the Jewish people is an identity that has carried great responsibility. The distinctives that mark them were given them by God to mark them as belonging to God. He wanted the world on notice that the God of Israel is not like the pagan gods. His character is not the same; His path is not the same; His worship is not the same; His kingdom is not the same. To follow the God of Jacob would mean living differently than the rest of the world. Those differences have cost the Jewish people for thousands of years. To be chosen by God is to be hated by the world, because the world hates God. To be chosen for God's purposes is a privilege, but it's a terrifying, life-altering privilege. 

We can celebrate that the Jewish people were chosen, because their calling was part of bringing all the nations into God's kingdom. Their obedience gave us our Bible and our Savior. Even their disobedience brought the gospel of the kingdom to the Gentile world. God promises mind-blowing, world-altering blessings when they return to obedience again. We long for the day when God fulfills His promise to gather then once again and reveal their Messiah, our Savior. (Romans 11:26-27). We love them because God loves them. We believe God still has a purpose and calling for them, because the Bible is full of prophecies yet unfulfilled. We remind God of His promises regarding them, because He has asked us to (Isaiah 62). He is a faithful, promise-keeping God and we wait with expectation for His return to make all things new. Maranatha! 

On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; And give Him no rest until He establishes And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Isaiah 62:6-7

Let your Light Shine

Hanukkah (Chanukkah) is the Feast of Dedication or Festival of Lights. It commemorates a miracle which took place several thousand years ago, in the period between the writing of the two Testaments. At that time Israel was ruled by a cruel Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes. He tried to make the Jewish people easier to rule by neutralizing their Jewishness. He commanded them to worship in a Greek manner as the Syrians did, and forbad Jewish customs such as circumcision and Sabbath observance. They could not study Torah nor teach their children to do so. Pagan altars were built in every town in Israel. Antiochus placed a statue of Zeus in the Temple in Jerusalem and had pigs, a ritually unclean animal, sacrificed on its altar to desecrate it. He insisted that all Jews show allegiance to him by worshipping idols rather than the true God of Israel.

Though many Jews, under pressure, did begin to assimilate, the priest Matthias and his five sons flatly refused. A rebellion began, led by Matthias’ son Judah Maccabee.* Amazingly, within three years, his guerilla warriors began defeating the much bigger Syrian army.

In 164 BCE, Jerusalem was retaken and the Temple cleansed. The priests made plans to rededicate the Temple but when they went to light the giant menorah in the Temple, there was only 1 jar of the purified oil. They were commanded by God never to let the light go out, but this was only enough oil for one day. The process for preparing the pure olive oil was meticulous and time-consuming, much longer than one day. In faith, the priests lit the menorah anyway and were amazed when instead of burning one day, it burned for eight, allowing the priests enough time to prepare more oil for the menorah. 

So at this season Hanukkah celebrates a miracle for the Jewish people, but it teaches us much more than that. Hanukkah celebrates the saving and keeping power of God! God took their small fire of devotion, their insufficient strength and conquered armies with it. God Himself brought light back into His sanctuary. We too are asked not to fear, but to trust in our God, who is more than able to save and restore. We can look around us and despair, or can choose to trust in our God, whose keeping power is inexhaustible. That is why families today celebrate Hanukkah by lighting the Hanukkiah. This special menorah stands as a powerful symbol of a simple truth: light increases when it is spread. With each passing night, a new candle is lit, building on the brightness already shining.

As candles are lit in homes throughout Israel and around the world, we’re reminded that this celebration is not only about remembering a miracle from long ago, but also about recognizing the God Who continues to preserve His people even when the world around them feels out of control. It is about believing that God can take what seems small, fragile, or insufficient and make it more than enough.

God fill us afresh with your spirit, that Your light would shine through us into the darkness and grow, until that day when the knowledge of the glory of God will cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea (Hab 2:14).  Draw those we know to Jesus, the Light of the World and our great King. Joyous holiday! Maranatha!

This year Hanukkah begins at sundown on December 14. Light some candles, dispel some darkness! 

*More may be read about the Maccabees in the works of Josephus and in the deuterocanonical books of I and II Maccabees.

A Better Witness

martyr: from the Greek, martys,

One who brings a testimony

We've all seen courtroom dramas on TV. The witness is placed on the stand, sworn to tell the truth, and then testifies to what he has seen, or heard, or done. The Greek word for that is martys, 'one who bring testimony.' In church history, being a witness often meant exposing oneself to danger or persecution. So martys gradually took on the additional meaning of one who suffers violence or even death for the sake of his testimony, or faith. 

The western church must have a better witness: a bigger testimony than our evangelism campaigns; more compelling than our tithes and offerings; louder than our conferences; more sincere than our worship services; more erudite than our scholarship and books; and better delivered than our sermons. The American church has yet to witness effectively with her life. She has yet to bleed with the world-wide, suffering church. She has yet to witness as Jesus did. Her resistance to the world has been of a more comfortable sort, tempered by her secret enjoyment of it. We like being saved, while retaining our place at the world's table (such tasty and satisfying morsels).

Jesus suffered the loss of everything: reputation, comfort, status, glory, life. He has said that those who are His disciples can expect the same. Honestly, I'd prefer the glory without the crucible first, but passing through the dark night is the only path into the glorious day we've been promised. I'm pretty sure there isn't an air-conditioned, American coach that detours around it. There is one Church, not one for us and another for those poor unfortunates in other parts of the world, who are obviously less blessed of God. I've known the joy of God's presence; the joy of abundance, of peace and quiet; the joy of fellowship. But I have to say that I do not know the joy of unbelievers seeing Christ so evident in my life that they must either fall at His feet in worship or declare themselves the open enemy of God.

We've testified with our mouths that Jesus is better and the world mostly yawns. But when Christian lives completely align with that testimony, the world takes a second look. Going to church is unremarkable. Going to prison is noticed. The testimony of the persecuted church is the most powerful witness of all. God is glorified and His kingdom advanced. Souls are saved. In a world languishing in the dark, people clinging to Jesus as everything is shaken are radiant lights. People have big questions. Men and women who've experienced Jesus as their only hope and treasure, have the answer.

For decades we've prayed for revival. We've begged for a return of the book of Acts. We've asked for the Great Harvest, as well we should. What if true revival only comes in the midst of persecution? What if a massive outpouring of the Spirit is accompanied by disdain and loss and sorrow? What if the Great Harvest is given as everything else is taken away? What if liberty in the Spirit is accompanied by loss of civil liberties? What if the 'more of God' we've begged for comes with less of everything else we hold dear? What if I were asked to give, not out of my abundance but out of poverty? Something to think about. Something to pray about. We long for a season of sharing all things in common and breaking bread in one another's homes...the book of Acts come again. The book of Acts also had foreign occupation, limited civil rights, persecution and risk of arrest and death.

Loving Jesus from the safety of our comfortable American lives will never speak as loudly or as compellingly as loving Jesus from the place of danger, persecution and lack. The world has rejected a sanitized, powerless Jesus, but is dying to hear about a Jesus worth dying for...the real Jesus. I believe we are headed into a season in which we will have our chance. Whether we will embrace or reject it remains to be seen. I am asking that He move among us once more, revealing the amazing, glorious, powerful, all-sufficient Jesus. Worth living for. Worth dying for. Worth giving everything in order to have. I am asking and asking and asking again, until the words of the song are not just words, but reality. Give me Jesus, Give me Jesus, You can have all this world, But give me Jesus. I openly confess that I am not there, but I am begging God to make me ready, to make me willing--even to make me willing to be willing to go with Him wherever He takes me. Where else could I go?

"After this a lot of his disciples left. They no longer wanted

to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve

their chance: “Do you also want to leave?”

Peter replied, “Master, to whom would we go? You have

the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed

ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.”

John 6:67-69 The Message

Counting the Omer

When my kids were little they loved to count down the days to Christmas. At the start of Advent I would make a paper chain and let them break off one link per day, so they had a tangible reminder of the approaching holiday. Each day, the chain grew shorter; each day their excitement grew. That sense of anticipation is at the heart of the current season of "Counting the Omer.” Counting the omer begins the evening of the second day of Passover and continues for seven weeks, ending with the feast of Shavuot (7 weeks) also known as Pentecost (Greek for fiftieth). Most of us know Pentecost as a Christian holy day, and it is, but it was a Jewish holy day for thousands of years before it was a special day for Christians. If you think about it, that means the Jewish people were actually the first Pentecostals!

Sefirat HaOmer (the counting of sheaves) is the bridge between the two, spring, First-Fruits celebrations: the early barley harvest and the latter wheat harvest. These harvest celebrations made sense in an agricultural setting, but can they be relevant to a modern industrialized society? Well, when God is the party planner, of course! Shavuot is for expressing gratitude to God for His provision, but also beautifully demonstrates His desire to be in relationship with us.

At the feast of Passover, we remember God’s great deliverance of His people from bondage in Egypt; seven weeks later God made covenant with them. The feast of Shavuot celebrates the initiation of that relationship and the giving of Torah—God’s instruction on how to live in covenant relationship with Him. Now spool forward about fifteen hundred years; God delivered us through the death and resurrection of the Passover lamb, Jesus. Seven weeks later God sent the Holy Spirit, a living Torah written on the hearts of His followers. So the period between Passover and Pentecost is for reflecting on our freedom from bondage and anticipating deeper intimacy with the Lord.

Israel was in the midst of counting the omer when Jesus instructed His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received power. Because He was an observant Jew, Jesus knew that in a few weeks, Jerusalem would fill with Jewish pilgrims from many countries to celebrate the feast of Pentecost. Because He also knew God's plan, He had the disciples wait in the one place they would have a ready-made audience for their very first evangelistic meeting. On a day celebrating the first fruits of the spring wheat harvest, God harvested souls in the city of Jerusalem. God's plan is perfect!

Two loaves of wheat bread were the traditional offering presented at the Temple in Jesus’ day. Some Messianic rabbis teach that these two loaves now represent the people of God—Jew and Gentile brought together in Messiah—the one new man of Ephesians 2:15. The book of Ruth, which takes place during a spring harvest, is often read at Shavuot. The story of the Gentile widow, who left her own people and religion to serve her mother-in-law Naomi in Israel, is a great example for us. Ruth's devotion to her adopted people and their God placed her smack dab in the middle of the lineage of Jesus. We too have been grafted in, nourished by the Jewish root which God planted and has continued to preserve. We too have an important role in the salvation story. The Jews began as God's missionary people, displaying the greatness of their God. Now the nations are returning the favor, growing into fullness in order to draw Israel to her Messiah. 
 

This year as we count down to Pentecost, there are millions of believers all over the world fasting and praying for Israel. I am excited to see the fruit of what God is doing in this season, for Israel and for the nations too! This is day 40 of the Counting of the Omer. Shavuot begins at sundown on May 24th. Maranatha!

Photo by Evi Radauscher on Unsplash