The Dividing Line

            It never ceases to amaze me that one can be Buddhist, Bahai, or even atheist and still be fully Jewish.  But if you embrace Yeshua (Jesus) as Messiah, you are accused of betraying your Jewish heritage, you may be denied citizenship in Israel, and be rejected by family and friends.  There are cases where people who have lived in Israel for many years have been, after being found to be Messianic, threatened with deportation, have lost their jobs and been ostracized on many levels.  A Messianic Pastor in Jerusalem was recently sued along with a couple in their fellowship on a trumped up charge of trying to convert a minor.  They were acquitted, but the anti-missionary group that sued them has now taken it to the next higher court—and so the persecution continues.

            Those who come to faith in Yeshua are not giving up their Jewishness, but in fact are more fulfilled as Jews than ever before.  They continue to celebrate the feasts and find deeper meaning in those feasts as they understand not only the historical significance behind them but also the applications for their spiritual lives today.

            Jesus was a Jew.  Unfortunately, as the number of Gentiles who believed in Jesus for forgiveness of their sins increased, more and more of the roots of Christianity in Judaism were forgotten or abandoned on purpose.  As the Church became dominated by Gentiles, the sense of connectedness to Jewish history and foundations was lost.

            Over the centuries those who call themselves Christians have wrongly persecuted Jews for killing Jesus.  They have changed the true Jewish image of Jesus into a “Christian” Jesus and erased all the Jewish identity he had.  This has further alienated Jews from Christians and set up barriers between them that are very difficult to overcome.  There is a great need for us Believers in Yeshua to humble ourselves and ask forgiveness for the ways our predecessors have treated the Jews in the Name of Jesus. 

            I am not saying Gentile Believers should begin looking like their Jewish cousins by eating Kosher, keeping Sabbath, etc.  Nor should Messianic Believers be expected to look, act and live like Gentiles.  Paul exhorts us to remember that we are saved by faith, not by keeping the law—a spiritual axiom for all Believers, Jew and Gentile alike!