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Les Noces de Cana—The Wedding at Cana By Paolo Veronese


Musee du Louvre, Paris Photo: Sarah Weiner


How do you view Jesus? Is He the “stained glass” Jesus—the one we are famil- iar with in the movies, fair-skinned, blue- eyed, with long, sandy-colored hair? Has He divorced Himself from His Jewish brethren, only to identify with and bring salvation to the Gentile nations? This may not be your concept, but it is a common perception. Some may argue that who Jesus was as a man is irrelevant. They may say He is now Spirit and sits at the right hand of the Father—He is Lord and Savior, and that is all that matters. Yet, how we view Him, how we know Him, does have great bearing on how we translate and understand the Scrip- tures, and ultimately walk out our faith. For nearly 2,000 years Jesus has been cut off from His own Jewish People, who have suffered the most heinous brutality at the hands of those claiming to be His repre- sentatives. This has happened generation after generation, in spite of the many bibli- cal admonitions including:


• “[The gospel] is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first” (Romans 1:16).


• “I say then, has God cast away His peo- ple? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew” (Romans 11:1-2).


• “If some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not sup- port the root, but the root supports you” (Romans 11:17-18).


www.JewishVoiceToday.org From the early Church Fathers, such as


John Chrysostom, through the Crusaders, to the Inquisition, and culminating in the Holocaust of our time, the Bible and the “cause of Christ” have been used to justify hatred and atrocities against the Jewish People—whom Jesus referred to as “the least of these My brethren” (Gr. adelphos, Strong’s G80, “having the same national ances- tor, belonging to the same people, or country- man”). He also warned that whatever is done for His brethren or not done to help His brethren, the Jews, will be judged for or against a person: “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. And these will go away into everlasting punish- ment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:45-46). So how could this legacy of persecu- tion in Jesus’ Name exist? What could have created this deadly polarization between the Church and Israel? I believe that at the core lies a basic misunderstanding of who Jesus was and is—an erroneous belief that Jesus was rejected by all Jews, and that all Jews are responsible for the “murder” of Jesus. Because of this, Jesus rejected all Jews and embraced the Gentiles, establishing the Church that triumphed over Israel. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus the man was a Jew. His Name— commanded from heaven—was Yeshua, because it means in Hebrew “God is salva- tion” or “salvation is from the Lord.” He lived as an observant Jew in Israel (not Palestine as some Bible maps say—the name didn’t exist in His time). He was called Rabbi, and he reaffirmed the authority of the Torah. Yeshua (Jesus) identified Himself as the Messiah of Israel and the Son of the God of Israel. He died “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” In His resurrection, He spoke to


Saul (also known as the apostle Paul) on the road to Damascus from heaven in Hebrew (Acts 26:14). Paul frequently pre- sented Yeshua as the offspring of King David. Revelation 5:5 identifies Yeshua as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David,” titles of the Jewish Messiah. In life, death, resurrection, and return,


Yeshua is identified with His People Israel. Yet we have obscured Him, stripped Him of both His love for and identity with His brethren, cloaking Him in weapons of war and garments of a stranger. We have not only perpetrated (or have allowed by our silence) violence in His Name, we have done violence to His Name—His Name which means love and forgiveness for so many has spoken the opposite message for two millennia to the Jews, creating an almost impenetrable wall against the Gos- pel—the most grievous aspect of all. We in Jewish ministry—and you who support our work—have the opportunity to help heal this 2,000-year breach, bringing the Good News of Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel, to the Jewish People scattered throughout the world in a recognizable, rel- evant manner so that His own can know and embrace Him as they rejoice in the God of their fathers! Thank you for standing with us through


another year of amazing outreach and min- istry. May the year 2011 be a blessed year for you and yours according to God’s promise to you in Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless you.”


—Sarah, Editor All biblical references from the NKJV.


JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011 Jewish Voice Today | 5


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