It’s Christmastime, a celebration of the birth of Jesus. Amidst all the hoopla, we rarely hear anything
about the Jewishness of Jesus. I know
some people know this, but I think it’s worth repeating. Jesus was not a Christian. Jesus was and is Jewish. His mother Mary was Jewish. Joseph, his father was Jewish. The Gospel writers were Jewish. Jesus’ disciples were Jewish. The Apostle Paul was Jewish. Most of Jesus’ early followers were Jewish. Jesus attended and taught in the
synagogue. His scriptures were the
Jewish scriptures. He died with a Jewish
question on his lips taken from Psalm 22.
There is an old joke that Christianity is a Jewish sect
which has had good numerical growth. I
think Jesus was out to make non-Jews as Jewish as possible. There is an ongoing continuity and discontinuity
between Jewish and Christian believers. The
closer your relation to someone the deeper the disagreements can be. The response to Jesus, the Christian “yes” and
the Jewish “no”, are both holy, honest and valid.
I wish all Christians
a holy season to contemplate the mysterious and vital relationship between
Christians and Jews. Let’s not forget
how close and how far we are from and to each other.
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