The British Messianic Jewish Alliance

Yeshua as a real Jewish man, not a Celtic icon

Yeshua was, still is and will return a Jewish man. The farther we move the foundation of the gospel from its original cultural setting and the whole of the history of redemption in the whole of Scripture, the farther we go into realms of fantasy. In our attempts to make the gospel relevant to various cultures and people groups we can forget that the story of Yeshua is real history, recording events that took place and people who existed. Yeshua is not a multi-purpose man for all nations, he is Jewish. Yeshua did not go to Church; it was his custom to be in Synagogue on the Sabbath (Luke 4:16). If we are looking for a model for a spirituality that  will refresh the parts other spiritualities just do not reach, then we must look to Yeshua the Jew. This is the only ground on which we can build the kind of spirituality that will make a difference to our lives. Only a Yeshua-centred spirituality can bring us the peace, satisfaction and sense of the nearness of God for which we all yearn.

Creating Yeshua in our own image

When you look at the biblical record of those who are referred to as the “spiritual giants of faith” you get a very different picture to the spirituality that is often presented today. Look at the prophets of Israel and Judah. Isaiah and Jeremiah, for example, were not exactly social mixers and charismatic figures who had a hypnotic effect on the people. Yeshua Himself, though fully divine, apart from the one incident when he walked on water, did not move around Galilee supernaturally. He travelled the same way as everyone else, by walking. In the Gospels we see a very human Yeshua, touched in every way with the trials, pains and joys of life, as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15) Yeshua broke all preconceived ideas of what Messiah would be or should be. It was not so much His miracles but, rather, His very humanness that caused such difficulties for the religious establishment. Every one loves a miracle. The uncompromising “lover of sinners”, however, that came with the miracle-working package, was far too hard to handle. 

The genius of the gospel throughout the ages has been its ability to cross great social divides and make a culturally specific message relevant and real to various cultures. The challenge that presents itself to us is to keep the integrity of the historical and spiritual roots of our faith as we proclaim the thirst-quenching spirituality that will bring life to withered souls of all cultures.

The dynamic encounter with Yeshua the Jew

In the film Jesus of Nazareth, Robert Powell, the actor who portrayed Yeshua, spent many long hours learning not to blink. Why? He was trying to capture the mystery of Yeshua, thinking that He would have been physically different from you or me. But Yeshua was exactly like you or me, and in the heat and blinding light of the Mediterranean sun He would have winced as much as anyone else. His real human eyes would have needed to blink as beads of sweat streamed off His forehead in the midday sun. The unrelenting sun would have been blinding as it reflected off the white stones of Jerusalem and Galilee and Yeshua would have needed to blink to protect His eyes.

            It is only when we meet the fully Divine and fully human Yeshua the Jew that we can hope to find refreshment for the dried-up soul. He was not a mystic wanderer; He was called a “winebibber” who mixed with people of questionable morality. He was the Divine Messiah, Son of God. He has been repackaged and sold to us as the Marxist revolutionary Jesus, the New age mystic Jesus, the Rainbow warrior eco-Jesus, and so the list goes on. We must look to Yeshua the Jew, the real man of history whose life, deeds and teachings are accurately recorded in the Gospels.

            Yeshua the Jew must be returned to the centre of our devotional lives and the life of our churches and Messianic fellowships. We cannot and must not recreate Yeshua after our own whimsical image. He was the Word of creation in His pre-incarnate being. We are created in the image and after the likeness of God, not the other way around. In our attempts to make Yeshua relevant to the modern world we must try not to lose sight of who He really was and who He continues to be.

In Luke 18:15-30, for example, the disciples made the mistake of trying to fit Yeshua into their own ideas of Messiah and the Kingdom. Their Kingdom was no place for, and their Messiah had no time for, mere children. We, also, must be careful not to preach, teach or believe in a Yeshua of our own invention. You would have thought that after the pure, breathtaking beauty of Yeshua’s life, the disciples might have grasped how radically different He was. They did not, and neither would we if we had been one of their number, such is human nature. We are unable to begin to imagine the height or depth of the love of God in Messiah Yeshua.

In our attempts to correct the mistakes of the past we must be careful to base ourselves on Yeshua’s life and teaching. So much, that with the best intention and motives, seeks to advance Messiah’s Kingdom, in the end hinders it. We are not to be so much looking for the rainbow spectrum of “diverse spiritualities” in the Christian world so much as the answers to our problems and challenges that face the Messianic movement. We are looking for a new dimension of love that takes us beyond ourselves and directly to the heart of God.

            It is in the dynamic encounter with Yeshua as we read the Gospels that we find His love begins to burn a hole in our soul. Nothing is left of old love; the love of the new world order of Messiah Yeshua creates a radical new dynamic that makes the world take notice that we are His disciples because of our love for one another.

By Richard Gibson

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