CMJ USA News and Views

The good news: Messiah is risen from the dead!

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 18:57:02 GMT

Rt. Rev. Julian Dobbs, CMJ USA board member, reads the Gospel of Matthew's account of Jesus' resurrection in Jerusalem

¹ Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. ² And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³ His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. ⁴ And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. ⁵ But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. ⁷ Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” ⁸ So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹ And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

Bishop Julian also offered devotional words and prayers from Holy Wednesday, all given from Christ Church Jerusalem. You can watch them on YouTube:

Holy Wednesday | Maundy Thursday | Good Friday | Holy Saturday | Easter Sunday

Rt. Rev. Julian Dobbs is the Bishop of the Diocese of the Living Word and Dean of the Province of the Anglican Church in North America. He serves as Secretary of the CMJ USA Board of Directors.

Will you believe God's answer to our hosanna?

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:59:18 GMT

God hears our cry for help and answers with what we need, not what we think we need

This sermon was preached at Grace Anglican Church in Edgeworth, PA on Palm Sunday 2026.

Scripture readings:

Messiah announces himself to Jerusalem: Matthew 21:1–11; Psalm 118:19–29
The Passion of the Messiah: Isaiah 52:13–53:12; Psalm 22:1–21; Philippians 2:5–11; Matthew 26:36–27:66

Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!

What do we mean by hosanna? It is a very short prayer that in one word says, “Please, come save us!” Hosanna in the highest! “God, please save us!”

This morning, we’ve heard a lot of Scripture. We’ve heard from Isaiah and David. We’ve heard Matthew’s telling of the life of Jesus, and we’ve heard Paul’s take on how the Son of God did not grasp his divinity but instead humbled himself even unto death for us.

These handful of readings tell a story of the promise-making and promise-keeping God. God keeps his promises. How he keeps them rarely looks like we expect. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, but his thoughts and actions are always communicating that he loves us and wants us to be with him.

What do the palm branches you’re holding speak to us this morning?

I we go back to that first Palm Sunday, the palm fronds speak of a people who know the Scriptures and who are reading the signs of the times. These people have deep expectations in the promises of God and they’ve just seen something that signaled them that God was about to act.

Jesus was born into a time of oppression of his people. Israel was then under Roman rule. Rome was the sixth kingdom to rule over Israelite territory. The people in our first Gospel reading are tired of Roman bullies attacking the temple and killing worshipers inside. They’re tired of soldiers rading their villages. They’re tired of the ruling authority luring their promising young men to be tax collectors.

God has promised through the Prophets that all oppression will cease. The oppressors will be dealt with and Israel will once again feel safe from foreign bullies. God has promised that there will one day be a good king, like David but better, who will bring justice, security, and prosperity.

When might this king come?

The first foreign bully to oppress Israel was Egypt, and God himself freed Israel from Egypt. There’s a whole holiday celebrating that liberation. It’s called Passover.

The Passover story becomes the template for how God deals with Israel. You see references to the Exodus in the Psalms and the Prophets. The call backs are all over the Hebrew Scriptures.

So when might the long awaited king of God come to free Israel from Roman oppression? Certainly at Passover!

As the people of Israel are straining against the oppression of Rome, a carpenter and rabbi – Jesus – comes on the scene preaching about the kingdom of God and doing miracles. His words and actions catch the people’s hopes and imagination. This Jesus has been healing the sick and the demon oppressed like the Prophets foretold the redeemer would. But is he the one?

The people are waiting for biblical signs. Jesus gives them a big one.

The prophet Zechariah says plainly:

Behold, your king is coming to you;

righteous and having salvation is he,

humble and mounted on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zech 9:9)

Four days before Passover, when Jerusalem is already filling with faithful worshipers, Jesus comes over the crest of the Mount of Olives riding on a donkey. The people probably saw him from the temple courts.

Can you imagine you’re in prayer, asking God to send the messiah, and you open your eyes and see Zechariah 9 coming to life before your very eyes!?

What would you do? I know I’d run! I’d run out to meet him. I’d run, all the while remembering what else Zechariah said. And perhaps the people running to meet Jesus with palm branches in their hands are thinking a little further down from ‘behold, your king is coming to you…” where God says:

For I have bent Judah as my bow;

I have made Ephraim its arrow.

I will stir up your sons, O Zion,

against your sons, O Greece,

and wield you like a warrior's sword. (Zech 9:13)

This certainly sounds like war language. This sounds like revolution. The reference to Greece would remind them of how the Maccabees several generations before had thrown off Greek oppression. Jesus must be the one who will overthrow the Romans.

The people respond to this prophetic scene with phrases from a Psalm sung especially at Passover: Psalm 118.

Hosanna, please save us!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.

To this day that is how you say ‘welcome’ in Israel, blessed is he who comes.

The people know – I think it’s unfair to say think – the people know this is prophecy being fulfilled in their time. They know the Scriptures. They recognize Scriptural images. They respond with Scripture.

Jesus is deliberate in announcing himself as king by arranging for the donkey as Passover approaches. Jesus also knows that God’plan salvation is broader and deeper than a quick reading of Zechariah 9.

For one, Zechariah 9 also says that the coming king will speak peace to the nations (v. 10). How?

Today’s reading from Isaiah 53 is the somewhat unexpected climax of a section of Isaiah called the Servant Songs. In Isaiah 42 through 53, God speaks of a servant. It is clear at the beginning that the nation of Israel is the servant of God. But as you read on, God calls an individual servant from among Israel to regather wayward and scattered Israel, scattered and oppressed because of their disobedience to God. Then God throws in a twist in Isaiah 49:

6 …“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

to raise up the tribes of Jacob

and to bring back the preserved of Israel;

I will make you as a light for the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

The call of this Servant is not only to save Israel from her oppressors but to save the oppressors! In other places it is clear that not only is the Servant going to save the wicked nations, but he will also add former-oppressors into the family of God! (Is 49) We hear this same promise in Psalm 22:

27 All the ends of the earth shall remember

and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations

shall worship before you.

28 For kingship belongs to the Lord,

and he rules over the nations.

That mission to turn enemies into family requires not a conquering king but a servant King who lays down his crown to redeem Israel and the nations (Phil 2).

Great, God! How are you going to do that?

Our Isaiah 52 and 53 reading shows that this is the work of not an earthly king but of a heavenly priest.

13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely;

he shall be high and lifted up,

and shall be exalted.

14 As many were astonished at [the Servant] —

his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,

and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—

15 so shall he sprinkle many nations.

Sprinkle with what? With blood. The word sprinkle is the same one that is used over and over in Leviticus where priests sprinkle people and items to cleanse them from sin. The Servant is a priest who cleanses Israel and the nations from sin.

What is astonishing – and I encourage you long-time Christian, to let these truths astonish you anew – is that the Servant of God is not just the priest but also the sacrifice.

5 [The Servant] was pierced because of our crimes,
crushed because of our sins;
the disciplining that makes us whole fell on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, went astray;
we turned, each one, to his own way;
yet Adonai laid on him
the guilt of us all.

This Servant will sprinkle Israel and the nations with his own blood. It is his blood that washes our sins away… atones and forgives our crimes against God and our crimes against our neighbor.

The whole world is united in disobedience. Every person. Every nation, no matter our religion. We have all scattered from the presence of God just like the rebels at Babel. We have all fallen short of loving God and loving neighbor.

For those of you who were here for Ash Wednesday, I remind you of the sins we confessed, sins we all do every day:

unfaithfulness and disobedience,
pride, vanity, and hypocrisy of our lives,
self-pity and impatience, and our envy of those we think more fortunate than ourselves,
our unrighteous anger, bitterness, and resentment,
lies, gossip, and slander against our neighbors,
our sexual impurity, our exploitation of other people,
our failure to give of ourselves in love,
self-indulgent appetites and our intemperate pursuit of worldly goods and comforts,
dishonesty in daily life and work,
ingratitude for God’s gifts, and our failure to heed his call,
our blindness to human need and suffering,
our indifference to injustice and cruelty,
our wastefulness and misuse of God’s creation,
our lack of concern for those who come after us,
For all false judgments, for prejudice and contempt of others,
for all uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors,
For our negligence in prayer and worship,
for our presumption and abuse of God’s means of grace,
For seeking the praise of others rather than the approval of God,
For our failure to commend the faith that is in us.

If you do or have done anything of these things, you have sinned and fallen short of God’s standard for human living. I certainly am guilty of most if not all of these.

Lord, have mercy upon us:
For we have sinned against you.

Isaiah asks, “Who has believed our report?” Have you believed? Will you believe?

Will you believe that God has kept and is keeping his promises to Israel and the nations?
Will you believe that you are sinful and in need of cleansing?
Will you believe that God’s character is always to have mercy and that he has made a way for our cleansing and our healing?
Will you believe that the brutal execution of the Innocent Man Jesus – Son of God, Son of Man – is the fountain of our washing?
Will you believe Isaiah’s report that the Suffering Servant King is the Great High Priest who makes you clean?
Will you believe the Apostle’s report that this Suffering Servant is none other than God himself in human flesh.
Will you believe Jesus’s report that there is no greater expression of love than dying for his friends. He said this hours before he died.

Sinner, Jesus has called you friend.

God keeps his promises. How he keeps them rarely looks like we expect. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, but his thoughts and actions are always communicating that he loves us and wants us to be with him.

This Holy Week let yourself confront your sinfulness. Then look upon the one whom we have pierced and believe his words to you: “I love you.”

Let us pray.

Show favor to your people, O Lord, who turn to you in weeping, fasting, and prayer. For you are a merciful God, full of compassion, long-suffering, and abounding in steadfast love. You spare when we deserve punishment, and in your wrath you remember mercy. Spare your people, good Lord, spare us; in the multitude of your mercies, look upon us and forgive us; through the merits and mediation of your blessed Son Jesus Messiah our Lord. Amen.

Interview: Understanding the Jewish People (915 Talk)

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 20:04:59 GMT

Listen to an interview with CMJ USA director Rev. Cariño Casas on KELP, the Christian talk radio station in her hometown of El Paso, Texas

Below is an transcript of the conversation between Rev. Cariño Casas and Andy Frecka of KELP Christian Talk in El Paso, Texas. The transcript has been edited for clarity.

Andy Frecka: Good afternoon, beautiful citizens of the borderland. This is 915 Talk, and I am your host, Andy Frecka. Today we are broadcasting from the heart of the world’s largest borderplex. We’re here at the KELP studio in El Paso.

A thing I've noticed recently is a rise of antisemitism. You see that out there on social media, and it is concerning. So we're going to be talking about a lot of those things.

With us today, we have a very special guest.

She is a true daughter of the borderland. She's from El Paso. She's lived and served in Jerusalem, and often speaks on topics like the Holocaust, combating antisemitism, and biblical faithfulness in light of Israel and the Jewish people. She's the Executive Director of the Church's Ministry Among Jewish People, CMJ USA.

Cariño, welcome to 915 Talk.

Cariño Casas: Shalom. Shalom.

Andy: How did someone from El Paso become so interested in the Jewish people?

Cariño: Wonderful question, Andy. I grew up in El Paso. I grew up at Abundant Living Faith Center.

I've had the benefit of going to Christian school. I went to Agape Christian Academy, and then it became Faith Christian my last year. I felt like I knew the Word of God.

Ten years into a journalism career, I found myself in a spiritually dry place. The Lord moved me to be in community with Christians again. I went to look for something to study, and I ran across something in the bookstore that I had never seen before. It said The Jewish New Testament. Right next to it was another Bible called The Complete Jewish Bible. This was a translation by a Jewish believer named David Stern.

He had intended to write the commentary, but then he found there were translational issues in the New Testament that he felt were obscuring or purposely hiding the Jewishness of the text. So he went back to the Greek and translated the whole of the New Testament into Hebraic‑sounding English. He puts all their names back into Hebrew and teases out other connections that we, as non‑Jews, just read over. Sometimes we read Jesus and we're like, “Jesus, what are you on about here?” and we just keep moving.

So when I read Matthew in The Complete Jewish Bible, I felt like I was reading it for the first time.

I went back for the commentary and did a deep dive with David Stern.

One of the cool things he does in that translation—which is available, by the way, on Bible Gateway if you don't want to buy a print copy—is that every time something from the Hebrew Scriptures is quoted, he bolds it. You flip through the New Testament and you see how much bold there is in it.

I finally got to this question: “Okay, why can I, a Mexican‑American gal from the borderland, see that Jesus is the answer to all the promises of the Hebrew Scriptures, but our Jewish neighbors cannot?”

This question moved me to intercession and to prayer. I really just sat praying with this question for a year.

Andy: Wow. Okay. So you're in a spiritually dry place, you pick up a Bible that gives, I guess, the same meaning but different words. Would an example be that instead of it saying “Jesus,” it says “Yeshua”?

Cariño: That's right. So Jesus is Yeshua. Matthew is Mattityahu. John is Yochanan.

I'll give you another example. One of my favorite examples is in John 10. Most of our Bible translations, in the middle of the chapter, say, “And Jesus was in the temple for the Feast of Dedication, and it was winter.”

And we're like, “Okay, what's going on there?” Stern translates that, “And Jesus was in the temple, and it was Hanukkah.” All of a sudden we understand where we are in the calendar.

Andy: Sure. Okay. What are some of the other things that popped out to you as you were reading that? It doesn't have to be the most important things, but maybe some little hooks where you thought, “Oh, this is different.”

Cariño: One of the really important ones that I keep going back to, especially in the Gospel of John: some people will read John—and even Jewish people reading John in our English translations—and Jesus is always after “the Jews” in those translations. He speaks very harshly about “the Jews.” This has been read in the worst possible light, as if Jesus is no longer Jewish and is condemning all of Judaism.

Stern makes a translation choice. Jesus is a Jewish person speaking within a Jewish community to people in different expressions of Judaism at the time. Instead of translating that word as “Jews,” Stern translates it “Judeans,” to show that there's a religious and geographical thing happening.

Jesus grows up in Galilee, even though he was born in Judah, and he practices a particular Judaism that was different if you didn't live near the temple. Part of his critique is for those who do live near the temple and have started to make things harder for people. That's one of his critiques of the Pharisees. So it's an internal Jewish debate. I think that translation choice is very important to remind us that it is an internal Jewish debate.

Andy: One of the things you said is, as you're reading through this, what I heard you say is you're reading and thinking, “As a Mexican American, I understand that Jesus is the promised one. Why don't the Jewish people see this?” So where did that take you?

Cariño: The Lord does crazy things to us sometimes. At the end of this year of intercession, I was freelancing as a photographer. It was 2008, and if everybody remembers who’s of working age, 2008 was an economically tough time.

I was tired of freelancing and I wanted a real job. Be careful what you ask the Lord for, right? I went to church for prayer, and the pastor said, “I know a lot of you are struggling financially, you need jobs, whatever is going on—come up for prayer if you need that.” The whole church came up.

I heard one of the clearest things I've ever heard from the Lord there, as I was waiting for the pastor to lay hands on me. He said, “Your job is not here. It's in Israel.”

I took it pretty seriously and began to pack up my life in Minneapolis. A few months later, I did get to Jerusalem and said, “Here I am, Lord. What are we doing?” That started an adventure I'm still on. I ended up with a ministry there, a house of prayer ministry, and through that I ultimately got connected to CMJ.

Andy: I've had the privilege in my lifetime to travel much of the world. Sadly, I've never been to Israel. What is it that you would want our listeners to know about a first trip? What are some of the first impressions when you visit the Holy Land?

Cariño: One, I think that they're people just like us. A lot of times we idealize—and maybe, dare I say, idolize—Jerusalem. I love it; it's my favorite place on earth. But these are real people with real‑world problems.

One of the things that struck me as an El Pasoan, and that I think the Lord used my growing up on the border to prepare me for, is that Jerusalem and Israel is a land of borders. There's always tension about whose land is what, and whether you've crossed a border. You can see it visually in some places. I even use the analogy that there are parts of the city where you feel like you're in downtown El Paso, and then you somehow cross an imaginary border and it feels like you're in Juárez. Things shift. Language shifts also.

I felt there were a lot of similarities to the culture. It's just that instead of somebody yelling at me in Spanish from the market, it was somebody yelling in Arabic or somebody yelling in Hebrew. It's people wrestling with the same questions that come up when you live near or on a border.

Andy: Interesting. So you go to Israel for the first time, you become involved in a house of prayer ministry. What does that look like?

Cariño: I was with a ministry called Succat Hallel, which means “Tabernacle of Praise.” It's a 24/7 house of prayer. There are a few of them in Jerusalem and around Israel. Their purpose is to be in prayer—for the people of the Land and for the nations. There is always somebody either praying or worshiping with music, 24/7.

That was an opportunity for me to sit before the Lord. To use the analogy people often use of Mary and Martha: I can be a Martha. I'm a “get‑it‑done” kind of gal. Being at the house of prayer, it was, “Let's just sit at the feet of Jesus and listen.” That's what I did, especially those first three months, but I did that for three years at that house of prayer—listening for the heart of God for the people of the Middle East.

One of the things I've learned in my time working in the Holy Land is the power of the ministry of presence. These are a people that have been under conflict since their founding, and war is almost normal now. This particular war that is happening now has been exceptional in many ways. It's the longest war they've suffered since the founding in 1948, and it's been the most costly in terms of lives and psychological trauma.

Because of that, and because of this resiliency—this “we're tough, we live here”—a lot of times foreigners leave when the conflict heats up. When you stay, it speaks volumes. This is a way to do what particular types of Christians would call incarnational ministry—that we are being Jesus to these people by staying and living their situation.

Andy: You're there, you're being present, you're looking to love your neighbors. What are some of the ways that those of us here in the States can be praying for Israel right now?

Cariño: Right now, people need to call on God. That's what we really need to pray for.

They're being bombed by Iran quite regularly right now, just as they are bombing the Iranians. I happened to be in Israel last summer for the last round of Iranian missiles, and I got to experience it for myself.

Andy: We see what's on TV with that. What's it like there on the ground that we don't see on TV?

Cariño: It is fascinating how quickly it becomes a mundane part of your day. It's like, “Okay, we're going to get up and live life. We're going to go to the grocery store. I'm going to go to the laundromat.” You may even go to work, depending on what Israel is requiring of its citizens.

Then a siren goes off and it's like, “Well, time to go to the bomb shelter.” Everybody runs to the bomb shelter. Most of the people who live there and have lived through many bombings are looking at the clock, because they know that after ten minutes they can leave the bomb shelter if they still don't hear things.

It's interesting to see how quickly it becomes a mundane part of your day, but also how taxing it is. I have never been so sleep‑deprived in my life. I got to experience missiles for seven days.

Andy: Wow.

Cariño: Part of the tactic is to break down the people. You wait till everybody's just about to go to bed or has just gone to sleep, and there's a round of missiles. So alarms go off, you run to the bomb shelter, you're down there for half an hour, then it's over. You go back and try to still yourself to get back to sleep. Maybe eventually you do, and then—boom—another siren at about 4 or 5 a.m. That was the rhythm I experienced in June of last summer. You're just exhausted.

Andy: Sure.

Cariño: But you get up and you live life.

Andy: Wow. Okay. Let's get back to David Stern's translation of the Bible. It's been interesting for me—this Sunday is Palm Sunday; we're recording this the week before Holy Week—to see the relationship between Zechariah 9:9, Jesus riding on a donkey into Jerusalem, and then we see the fruition of that in the New Testament.

I've heard it said many times that Jesus read the Old Testament. That's the Bible he read, because the New Testament hadn't been written yet, and he was basically able to preach the gospel, in my understanding, out of the Old Testament. What are some of the other things for us to understand about that, and to keep in mind when we're having conversations with our friends or family, even here in the borderland, who are of a Jewish background?

Cariño: When you're reading the New Testament or reading the Bible – and I hear preachers do this – we talk about the Jewish people in the past tense. That's part of our problem sometimes.

There is a book I recommend to your listeners who may be interested in this topic. The title is quite shocking. It's called People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn. The point she is making is that we'll talk about history and we'll talk about the Bible, and we'll do Holocaust education, but it's all back there. And there seems to be, in her estimation, little care for the living Jews among us.

These are a people—not all of them, because not all are synagogue‑going people—but people who are synagogue‑going are reading the Scriptures every Saturday. They read from the Torah and they read from the Prophets every Saturday. These are people who still have an expectation that the promises in the Torah and in the Prophets are still there—that God is still going to fulfill those promises.

For us as Christians, sometimes we jump to Jesus so fast. We say, “Well, yeah, but Jesus already did it, so let's just move forward.” That is detrimental to the conversation.

Andy: Interesting. So what is another way of having the conversation? Because I'm sure I'm guilty of that.

Cariño: I think we need to listen to their expectation. We need to listen to their interpretation, and then engage in a conversation that says, “Okay, what are you expecting?” We may find we're expecting that too.

I told a guy one time, in a conversation I had, “You know, you've been waiting for the Messiah twice as long as we have. So let's wait for him together.” They've been engaging with the Scriptures—particularly the Hebrew Scriptures—twice as long as we have.

So where can we be listening instead of lecturing, and creating a true relationship and a true friendship that engages with hard questions?

Andy Frecka: You started talking a little bit about antisemitism. What was the name of the book?

Cariño Casas: People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn.

Andy: Right. And it's an interesting point that very often we love historic Jewish people, but how are we loving Jewish people around us today?

My wife and I have talked about this several times recently because we've seen on social media — particularly among young men here in America — what feels like a rise in antisemitism, possibly brought on by geopolitical events. Obviously I'm teeing you up with a huge question, but speak into that.

Cariño: Yes. There's a book called How to Fight Antisemitism by Bari Weiss, and she has a really interesting analogy that antisemitism is like a virus in humanity. In good times it's just sitting there dormant, but tough economic times or war times trigger this virus.

Andy: Interesting.

Cariño: Because we're looking for somebody to blame, and too many times in history throughout the West — and this is a Western problem — the Jewish people become the scapegoat. This has to do with bad theology that came up early in the Church, blaming the Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus and charging them with deicide — the murder of God. And then not only holding the first‑century Jewish leadership accountable, but putting blame on all Jewish people for all time.

Unfortunately, we see this in some of the early Church writings. And I think that's part of what's happening. There is a resurgence right now among young people who are clamoring for the old way of doing church. We're seeing growth in some of our liturgical churches — whether it's the Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, or in my context, the Anglican Church.

But one of the things that has come with that, unfortunately, is that as people go back to some of the older readings, they're reading them without context or critique, and taking at face value some of the really antisemitic things that some of the Church Fathers said, and others afterward. Even Martin Luther, father of the Protestant Reformation, ends his life as an antisemite and says horrific things that set up Nazi Germany for the Holocaust 400 years later.

Andy: Right.

Cariño: So one, we have to see that it's false to blame the Jewish people. There are about 15 million Jewish people in the world — in a global population of 8 billion. And yet there's this egregious lie that they control the levers of power, that they're the reason everything goes wrong in society. It's such a crazy lie.

I really believe there's a spiritual aspect to this that we have to be mindful of. What is the enemy trying to distract us from?

Andy: It's interesting — I asked you about this, and the first thing you said is that it's a Western problem. I think a lot of times here in the West we think, “Well, it's the Arabs who hate the Jews,” which I assume is definitely a problem and definitely exists. But you're pointing toward what's happening here.

And what I heard you say was that during times of war and terror, and also during times of economic stress, this virus seems to flare up again — where everyone starts blaming the Jewish people for economic hardship. And you're saying that's completely false. Is there a way to fight the virus?

Cariño: Yes, there is a way to fight the virus. I believe the antidote — especially within the Church — is to remember the Jewishness of Jesus and the Jewishness of the gospel.

This is why David Stern's translation was so revolutionary for me and is still one of the Bible translations I read. We need to keep that Jewish context before our eyes at all times. And we need to take Paul's words in Romans seriously — that God still loves the Jewish people, even if they can't see Jesus right now.

Cariño: “The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable,” Paul says in Romans 11. Do we take this seriously? Especially as we read the Scriptures and the prophets and what God has promised the people of Israel — and as we engage with Jewish people.

If Jesus has Jewish DNA for all eternity, how are we going to treat his brothers and sisters in the flesh?

Andy: Right? So how are we going to treat them?

Cariño: Yes. As I was saying earlier, we need to listen. We need to listen better. We need to show ourselves friendly. Right now antisemitism is at an all‑time high, and it continues to rise. It was already at an all‑time high before October 7, 2023, and that just seemed to take the lid off something.

And then we also need to check on our Jewish neighbors. Every time something happens in the community like this, it's very traumatic for the larger community.

One of the things Dara Horn writes about is a series of three high‑profile antisemitic attacks in the United States over an 18‑month period. The first one was here in Pittsburgh — a man walked into a synagogue on a Saturday morning and murdered 11 helpless people.

Now we've had all these antisemitic attacks on synagogues and Jewish spaces. We need to check on our Jewish neighbors because, as a whole people, they are very sensitive to this. When something happens in Michigan, the Jewish people here in Pittsburgh are double‑checking their security. They're increasing the security guards they have on Saturday morning.

So I call or reach out to the rabbi or the cantor and say, “Are you guys okay? Do you need anything? Please remember that our church is just down the street. If you need anything, call us.”

Andy: And what's the response to that?

Cariño: I had the great privilege of speaking at a synagogue. They asked me to speak about my last trip to Israel. I also spoke about how I'm pushing the Church on the antisemitism issue and trying to raise awareness.

The cantor came up to me in front of the whole congregation, gave me a hug, and said, “I feel a little less afraid and a little less alone.”

Andy: Wow.

Cariño: Our Jewish neighbors really want to know who their friends are. And the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of Israel, should be at the top of the list. We need to love them for the sake of loving them and for the sake of Jesus.

Do we want to talk about who the Messiah is? Of course we do. But can we love them when they say no? We should. I think Jesus is calling us to love them even when they say no.

Andy: Yeah. Wow. So much to dive into.

I have a question now. One of the things I've seen — our listeners know that I lived overseas most of my adult life, and I've been back for the past four years — is that there are so many organizations working in Israel. I would say most of our listeners are extremely pro‑Israel, so they want to do something.

As I've looked into some of these organizations, at least online, it makes me question how well those funds are being used. Do you have a rule of thumb or two for supporting Israel financially?

Cariño: Yes, I do. Because you're right — there are a lot of organizations. Some are Christian organizations, some are not.

One of the most important rules of thumb, if you're being asked for money, is: what does that organization think about the Jewish followers of Jesus in the Holy Land?

There are a couple of organizations that do wonderful work and a lot of interfaith work — Jews and Christians together. But the instant a Jewish follower of Jesus shows up, the conversation shuts down. They don't want them there. They don't see them as Christian, and they don't see them as Jewish — they see them as an apostate Jew.

That's very important, because there are Christians in the Holy Land — both Arab and Jewish.

So if there's a ministry that is, one, working with the Messianic congregations, and two, even better, working at reconciliation within the Church so that Jews and Arabs who know Jesus get to know each other and work past the political issues for the sake of Jesus — that's a strong ministry.

People have different things they want to support in the Land. If you want to give toward bomb shelters right now, that's great — find an organization doing that. If you want to make sure people are getting food — because right now there's no tourism, which means shops are closed and tour guides have no work — then give to ministries doing food distribution.

Listen to your heart and what the Lord is calling you to, but also make sure they are thinking of the whole body of Christ in the Land.

Andy: That's really helpful advice. Another question I have: when I've seen some of these fundraising efforts for Israel, some organizations are helping the poor in Israel. And when I see that, I guess in my mind I've always thought of Israel as a prosperous nation. So is there a need to help the poor in Israel?

Cariño: There is. I was talking earlier about how sometimes you cross borders and it feels like going from a really clean, prosperous, shiny building to something less taken care of. So yes, there are people struggling — especially right now because of the war — but there are always people struggling.

One, Israel is a nation of immigrants, and people are always immigrating to Israel because they're Jewish and returning to their ancient homeland. Hebrew is a tough language to learn. And sometimes immigrants get stuck because they're not picking up Hebrew fast enough, which means they can't get work other than menial jobs. So some people get stuck in those places.

Others, like in any society, are stuck because of a broken marriage, widowhood, or being orphaned. War is an issue. Terrorism can be an issue. Those things affect people, and that means there's need — on the Jewish side or the Arab side, the Palestinian side or the Israeli side.

Andy: Okay. Love it. Cariño, tell us what your organization is doing.

Cariño: Here in the United States, the Church's Ministry Among Jewish People is encouraging and equipping the Church to build bridges with their Jewish neighbors. If you're not sure how to start that conversation, reach out and we can talk about it. We also focus on teaching the Jewishness of the gospel and the Jewishness of Jesus, because that's so important for framing how we engage with our Jewish neighbors.

In Israel, we work closely with CMJ Israel. We have two churches, two guesthouses, a tour company — which is under hiatus right now — study tours, and a primary and secondary school that teaches kids from across the spectrum: Arab, Jewish, Christian, Muslim.

We also have the Mercy Fund that does practical ministry: food distribution, language lessons for immigrants, and helping people who are falling through bureaucratic cracks.

Andy: The website is cmj-usa.org. Or people can Google “Church's Ministry Among Jewish People.” Love what you're doing and hearing all of that.

Cariño, if the internet is correct, it says you've done some tours at the Holocaust Museum in El Paso. What would you want our listeners to know about that? Why would it be worth visiting?

Cariño: If you can't get to Poland or Germany to study this, I really think — for the small space that it is — they did a wonderful job of recreating one of the camps so you have an idea of how they worked. And that is important history we need to wrestle with as Christians.

I've been to Poland twice. I've toured many of the camps. The director of Christ Church Jerusalem does a yearly Jewish history tour of Poland — he's going again this summer. It's called the Narrow Bridge Tour, narrowbridgetour.com. I highly recommend it.

I remember getting to a camp called Majdanek outside of Lublin, and I kind of hit a wall and cried out to the Lord: “Why did you let this happen?” And we have to wrestle with those hard questions.

This is this is a good God. This is the God of Israel that we have attached ourselves through through Jesus. And the Holocaust is horrific. I can't even describe when you see the evidence.

And we have to wrestle with God and understand how can we trust God with even these horrible things, trust that he is sovereign and that he has righteousness and justice lined up for these horrible things.

If you've never engaged with these questions, the El Paso Holocaust Museum is a great place to start.

What I love the most, especially as an El Pasoan, is that at the end they have this panel of Holocaust survivors who settled in El Paso.

Andy: Oh, wow.

Cariño: And their stories are marvelous — stories of survival, stories of what must be providential protection. From all the way over there, from that horrific scene in Europe, they landed in El Paso, Texas of all places. I was so encouraged by those stories. You’ll recognize some names — prominent businessmen at the time, or families who may still be around. It's encouraging how the Lord saves people and where He plants them.

It's important for us to know Jewish history and how it engages with us. The Jewish people have been in the United States since colonial times. They came here for religious freedom just like the pilgrims did.

Andy: Yeah. We have a historian who comes on this program once a month, Bernie Sargent, and he was saying that even from the times of Oñate, the original Spanish explorer to come here to El Paso in the late 1500s, he had a group of Jewish people with him who were looking to escape what was happening in Spain. They were kind of undercover Jewish people in this very Catholic entourage crossing the desert.

There definitely is that whole connection here in El Paso. I have not visited the El Paso Holocaust Museum — I need to remedy that. I did have the opportunity to visit Auschwitz in the late 90s. And I think that's really important — just as you're saying — to at least begin to understand the history, what happened then, and then we can begin to see what's possibly beginning to happen again right now.

Cariño: That's one of the things I appreciate about the way Rev. David Pileggi does the Narrow Bridge Tour of Poland. You look at how people responded to what was happening — the people who responded well and the people who responded poorly. And it challenges us: are we ready to protect our neighbor when something bad comes for them simply because of who they are?

We need to think those things through. We need to look at the mistakes of the Church especially, and learn from those mistakes.

Andy: Earlier in the program you said it would be a good idea to call the local synagogue, tell them we're here, ask if they need anything. And you would recommend that — like if a pastor is listening — just look it up online and make a phone call?

Cariño: Definitely. Pastors especially — if you're near a Jewish center, look up the email address. It's Passover. This year Passover and Holy Week are right on top of each other. First night of Passover is Wednesday night, the 1st.

Send a greeting card and say, “Happy Passover. We're thinking of you. If you ever need anything, let us know.” Shoot an email. “Can we go for coffee? I'd like to hear how you're feeling, what security issues you have, and how we can help you.” Start a conversation.

Now, it takes patience and grace because there's a lot of antisemitic history, and the Church has made many mistakes in its 2,000‑year history in how we engage with the Jewish people. So there may be a, “Why is this guy talking to me?” kind of reaction.

Be prepared for that skeptical look — but this is where we need to be persistent and say, “No, we want to make sure you're cared for. We want you to know we see what's happening and we want to know how it's affecting you, because we need to learn.” If we approach with humility, a friendship will start, and the hope is that it will sustain deeper conversations down the road.

Andy: Love it. Cariño, if you could pray one prayer for the Jewish people, what would that prayer be?

Cariño: That everything they want and hope in Messiah will be revealed to them — and very soon.

Andy: Love it. Today we've been with Cariño Casas . She's with the Church's Ministry Among Jewish People. The website is cmj‑usa.org. Cariño, really appreciate your input, your time, this conversation.

Cariño: Thank you so much, Andy, for the opportunity.

A Jewish view of replacement theology, supersessionism

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 17:21:03 GMT

Jewish writer Mira Fox at the Forward analyzes, comments on the idea that Jesus made Judaism obsolete

Editor's note: Our Jewish neighbors are watching how we talk about them and Jesus.

We commend this article from the Forward talking about supersessionism, the theological idea that the church has replaced Israel in the eyes of God. We don't agree with everything this article says. Still, it's important for us to see how our Jewish neighbors are processing what they see and hear from Christians around them.

We at CMJ say without reservation that supersessionism is wrong. The church has not replaced Israel. The Jewish people's calling and gifts given by God are irrevocable (Rom 11:29).

What would Jesus think of the things some Christian commentators are saying right now about Jews?

This article is republished in whole with permission. The links in the article originated with the Forward and are presented intact as condition of the republication permission.

Why including Christians in Jewish traditions is key to fighting antisemitism

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:30:37 GMT

Is celebration of Jewish holidays by Jewish followers of Jesus an act of appropriation? And is it inappropriate for Gentile Christians to participate?

This is an excerpt of an article by Isaac Brickner at Inherit Magazine.

Like most modern Jews living in the diaspora, I’m a little bit of a lot of things. I’m a minister and a sixth-generation Jewish follower of Yeshua (Jesus) as Messiah; I direct Upside Down, a new art space/coffee shop in Los Angeles; and every spring, I lead Passover seders in congregations across America.

I highly value my Jewish identity and culture, and one of the ways I stay connected to these things is by listening to Tablet’s “Unorthodox” podcast. So, this past spring, when the hosts spent the first five minutes of their show in a lively digression about Messianic Jewish seders, I was all ears.

I’ve always respected the way they represent the wide range of thoughts and opinions that comprise Jewish culture today. So I was surprised when the conversation only hit a single note, giving an uncharacteristically one-sided viewpoint of the subject: they accused Messianic Jews of appropriating Jewish culture by celebrating Passover, and of encouraging Christians to do the same.

I was disappointed not only by the narrow and unbalanced viewpoint, but also because it reminded me of the many times I’d heard it from others before.

Appropriation is a serious offense; it shouldn’t be a claim leveled lightly, and it shouldn’t be an act addressed lightly. It makes sense that some members within the Jewish community are tempted to make this accusation; having endured as much persecution as we have, the Jewish people need to be vigilant when it comes to safeguarding our continued survival.

But is celebration of Jewish holidays by Jewish followers of Jesus really an act of appropriation? And is it inappropriate for Gentiles to participate in such celebrations?

Jewish Followers of Jesus Celebrating Jewish Holidays

As a Messianic Jew, I’ve made a conscious decision to continue to be authentically engaged with my own culture rather than pretend I’m no longer Jewish. I’m fully aware that some Jewish community leaders claim that as soon as a person is baptized, they become outsiders. But I join many Jewish people throughout history in questioning the legitimacy of any authority within Judaism that would draw a boundary marker to exclude those who claim Jesus as Messiah.

Jewish holidays were a key part of my childhood and celebrating Passover is a central part of my family’s heritage. God told the Jewish people as we were leaving Egypt that it would be a feast to observe throughout all our generations. Why would that change just because I believe the Messiah has come and is returning (like some ultra-Orthodox Jews also believe, I might note)?

Believing in Yeshua doesn’t change my desire to celebrate these holidays – if anything, it strengthens that desire. After all, if he taught about and celebrated Passover, observing all three of Rabbi Gamliel’s key elements (the Passover offering, matzah, and maror), why would it be inappropriate for followers of Yeshua to continue in the footsteps of their spiritual teacher?

Gentile Christians Celebrating Jewish Holidays

It is a reasonable fear that leading a Passover presentation or hosting a Shabbat dinner for a Gentile audience could play into a romanticized fascination some Christians may have with Judaism.

Sometimes this can go too far—like when non-Jewish followers of Jesus start to think of themselves as “the new Israel,” a dangerous mentality that, in extreme cases, has even led to bloodshed (as it did in Poway this year). ¹ This is a particularly insidious form of antisemitism, and as someone with both a Jewish and a Christian identity, I find it especially repulsive—a gross manipulation of the Christian faith.

But here’s the thing: Christians can enjoy Passover, or any other Jewish holiday, without it being weird. When you’re not Japanese but you go to a sushi restaurant and enjoy a great meal, is it weird? Of course not. But if you call yourself Japanese because you like sushi, that’s definitely weird.

How Do We Ensure Appreciation Doesn’t Turn into Appropriation?

When I teach Christians about Passover, the danger of appropriation is never far from my mind. In reality, non-Jewish Christians have a responsibility to learn about the traditions associated with the roots of their own faith, to understand the context of the Scriptures, and to recognize the value of their religious heritage without feeling the need to co-opt the history and identity of the Jewish people.

The difference lies mainly in education, and the best way to ensure that Gentile appreciation doesn’t veer into unhealthy territory is for us to offer these cultural experiences ourselves. When people have the opportunity to experience another culture with someone from that culture, they can be shown how to appreciate it in a healthy way. It’s a fine line, but it’s one that needs to be approached.

Educating Christians on traditional Jewish rituals and cultural celebrations can play an important role in the ongoing battle against antisemitism in the world today.

Read the rest of the article at Inherit Magazine.

Rev. David Pileggi on the Iran-Israel War, antisemitism

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 18:46:01 GMT

' What a time to be alive!'

Below is a condensed transcript edited with the help of AI.

Anglican Unscripted: Special Episode 957

Date: March 19, 2026

Host: Kevin Kallsen

Guest: David Pileggi

Kevin Kallsen: Welcome to another edition of Anglican Unscripted. This is a special episode. I'm Kevin Kallsen, and I have David Pileggi with me. We're going to talk about the Middle East, antisemitism, and lots of crazy things going on here in America as well. But first, welcome back to the program, David.

David Pileggi: Well, thank you very much. Please be assured that I am at least one of your many fans here in Israel and other parts of the Middle East. We appreciate keeping up with all the ins and outs of the Anglican world; it helps us take our minds sometimes off the disasters happening around us all the time.

Kevin Kallsen: Yeah, all the time. In fact, I'm just going to say this right now: What a time to be alive.

David Pileggi: It is absolutely incredible. What a shock to be alive at this time, because for many of us—at least in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world—we've been living in the "post-world bubble". We've had relative security, lots of prosperity, and lots of free time to pursue all kinds of ideologies or hobbies that are now getting us into trouble. Now that world is changing quick, and it's going to be necessary for us to adjust psychologically and spiritually to what's happening around us, and not sit around and talk about the "good old days".

Kevin Kallsen: Well, what were the good old days?. I was born in the 60s and raised in the 70s and 80s. For me, the good old days were living under the Iron Curtain and the Cold War. There was always a threat that somebody over there, for reasons that I did not understand, would want to blow the USA to smithereens. Capitalism, I guess, was the evil of the day. I remember Mr. Burroughs, my history teacher when I was a sophomore in high school. He said, "I think there will be a time that the wall will fall. Maybe in your lifetime, you will see the end of the Soviet Union".

David Pileggi: Okay, that's cool.

Kevin Kallsen: Guess what? It happened. It happened in 1989. Let's talk more then about these extraordinary times happening now. Recently, President Trump and the President of Israel launched attacks on Tehran and Iran and have taken out several layers of leadership in the Ayatollah committee.

David Pileggi: Well, there's actually a division of labor here, and the United States has assigned Israel to taking out Iranian leadership. The estimate is that 50 percent of its critical, upper-echelon leadership has been brought before the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords for judgment. Israel is pursuing a policy specifically trying to degrade the regime and enable people to rise up. Probably more importantly, it is meant to scare the Iranian military into thinking, "We’d be better off overthrowing the mullahs and saving our skin than to continue to fight". As Stephen Kotkin put it last week, if we want the Iranian people to defect, they have to have something to defect to.

Many of the mullahs and top military commanders are being eliminated, and the Israelis are calling up junior officers and police officers, speaking to them in Farsi and telling them, "We know who you are. We know where you live. You need to stand with your people and quit your support of the regime". The Americans are focusing on military targets, and Israel is doing that as well. But there is a division of labor, and it appears that Israel has invested quite a bit of money, time, and energy in penetrating the Iranian regime in a way that the Americans haven't been able to do.

Kevin Kallsen: I am surprised by the intel the Mossad and Israel itself knew about their enemy. They knew Iran very well, top to bottom, and they knew what to do if they ever got the opportunity to take out a group of leadership.

David Pileggi: Well, people do praise Israel’s intelligence agencies and air force, but I’d really like to remind folks that as brilliant as Israel may be, it also is a country that has experienced quite a few screw-ups. At one time you have intelligence services, a military, and a high-tech sector that can be brilliant, and on the other hand, they can sometimes make some of the dumbest mistakes. I always say that so people will have a proper perspective of Israel—don't demonize Israel, but do not begin to idolize or praise Israel in a way that's unjustified. So yes, we have a relatively dramatic success in Iran right now, but of course there was a major screw-up on the border with Gaza on October 7th.

Kevin Kallsen: Yes, there was.

David Pileggi: So there we have it. In one respect, nobody knew anything; in the other respect, everybody knows everything.

Kevin Kallsen: It's the tale of two wars here. You are a priest at Christ Church in Jerusalem. What does the average lay person think now? Is there stress? Is there confusion? Or are they all like, "What a time to be alive?".

David Pileggi: Well, again, we have quite a wide range of reactions. I would say that on the whole, people are in fairly good spirits, but most of us are war-weary. That would include Messianic Jews or perhaps Arab Christians who live in the north. The consensus, at least amongst Israeli Jews and quite a few of Israel's Christians, is that Iran is a danger and it has to be dealt with.

David Pileggi: But at the same time, people are saying, "Why now?" We’ve been through two years of war which have brought death and destruction, not just for Israel but also for Gaza. Palestinians in the West Bank are finding life extremely difficult for a number of reasons and have it harder than the Israeli population. The sentiment, especially last October when Donald Trump was able to bring about a ceasefire and the release of hostages, was: "This is over, and we hope it will finish". Now here is another round that's quite serious. This war has gone on for 20 days now. People are taking it in stride, but it's also frightening at the same time. You have those mixed emotions.

Kevin Kallsen: I agree with you. But one of the problems is that anybody 50 and younger has only understood the violence and the radical Islam following the revolution 47 years ago. For their entire lives, all they know is that the Iranian regime is an enemy.

David Pileggi: Well, it's not that Iran is an enemy; the regime in Iran is the enemy. 90–95 percent of the Iranian population does not go along with the regime; they don't like it. They have shown their disdain for the mullah version of Islam by either converting to Christianity or becoming quite agnostic, religiously speaking. Maybe some of your listeners don't know that Iran is quite a secular state, as the way religion has been shoved down their throats has caused the majority of people to rebel, at least inwardly, and maybe outwardly.

So, the regime is the enemy. Israelis and Iranians throughout history have had a very close relationship. I think, actually, in Iran, Israel is somewhat popular, and on the whole, I think Israelis like Iranians. What happens in the Arab world, or amongst the Arab minority of Israel, is that there's quite a dislike for Shiites and for Shiism. People recognize, even in places like Lebanon, Turkey, and Egypt, that Iran and its Shiite version of Islam is somehow a threat to the stability of the Middle East and also a theological challenge to Sunni Islam.

There is certainly a distaste even amongst the Arab minority here for the Iranian regime and their version of Islam.

"90–95 percent of the Iranian population does not go along with the regime. They don't like the regime. They have shown their disdain for the mullah version of Islam by either converting to Christianity or becoming quite agnostic, religiously speaking."

- Rev David Pileggi

Kevin Kallsen: Doesn't that distaste exist amongst all the Middle East for them? Saudi Arabia doesn't like them, Egypt, Jordan—I think Iran has lost all favor.

David Pileggi: Iran has certainly lost all favor except for Russia and China, who have promised to support and help Iran but have really done very little to come to its aid. They want Iranian oil, but I think on the whole they don't care much for Iran. So, yes, Iran is more or less alone.

Throughout history, this is perhaps a theme that has continued. The Iranians decided they were going to fight the whole Hellenic world, then they were going to challenge Rome with great self-confidence and an extremely high sense of their own self-importance. After challenging Rome, it was the Byzantine Empire, and then of course they were going to challenge Sunni Islam. It's been one empire and one ideology after another: Iran against the world, Iran against the majority.

They're quite a phenomenal people, and the regime is quite sophisticated and very clever. Of course, it's extremely evil and it has brought chaos not only to the region, but it has been at war with the United States for 47 years. I think the statistic, Kevin, is that 80 percent of all American deaths in Iraq were indirectly or directly related to Iran.

Kevin Kallsen: War brings out kooks. We have some anti-Semitic kooks here in America who think they know what's going on, and they will go on television—guys like Tucker Carlson—and put them on their show.

David Pileggi: Exactly. Tucker Carlson claims to be a Christian and, never missing the opportunity to pontificate, may I remind Tucker and all those who are in his train: one of the Ten Commandments says, "Thou shalt not bear false witness". Thou shalt not lie. One may have an honest critique of Israel and Israeli policy, or disagree with the government or military action, but thou shalt not promote propaganda or manipulate and exploit myths.

Tucker Carlson’s claim that Christians in Israel are being persecuted is a downright lie. We have our issues and harassment; things aren't necessarily perfect for us, but to talk about persecution is false. We don't have any martyrs or anyone being beaten for Christ. In fact, we have a lot more religious freedom than Qatar.

Why did Tucker lie about that? To undermine American evangelical support for Israel. He did the same thing in Ukraine by accusing the government of persecuting Christians. Out come the revisionists and the liars who bring nothing but distortion and rile people up. In the end, Jews in the United States suffer from this conspiracy talk, racism, and neo-Nazi ideologies.

"One of the Ten Commandments says 'Thou shalt not bear false witness.' Thou shalt not lie. One may have an honest critique of Israel and Israeli policy—I certainly do. One may disagree with the Israeli government... but thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not promote propaganda. Thou shalt not ... manipulate and exploit myths."

-Rev. David Pileggi

Kevin Kallsen: But isn't it antisemitism to criticize the government?

David Pileggi: No, it’s not. We have some Christian Zionists who perhaps idolize the state of Israel and can see no wrong in this society, which is very unfortunate. It is not a sin, blasphemy, or "cursing the Jewish people" to be critical of the government of Israel or critical of certain Israeli policies.

It only becomes anti-Semitic when we begin to expect Israel to live by a code of morality that we don't expect from others like China or Russia. It also becomes anti-Semitic when people use old tropes—claims that "those Jews" deceived Donald Trump into starting this war, or that they control Hollywood and the press to lead America into conflict. We even see the old tropes reappearing that suggest Jews use human blood in rituals. Using these conspiracy theories and lies is what promotes antisemitism.

Furthermore, if someone wants the Israeli establishment to alter its policy, pressure and boycotts generally do not work. Israelis respect their friends, and it is their friends who need to have those critical conversations with them.

I cannot think of a worse witness for the church than to be involved in this malicious hatemongering. As Christians, we had a bad history of antisemitism, and we turned a corner after the Holocaust when we saw the consequences of demonizing Jews. Antisemitism not only hurts the Jewish people; it distorts our understanding of God and Scripture. It hurts our witness. How are we going to witness to the world if we are a community promoting crude nationalism or telling the world how "cowardly" Jews or other ethnic groups are?

I cannot think of a worse witness for the church than to be involved in this malicious hatemongering. As Christians, we had a bad history of antisemitism, and we turned a corner after the Holocaust when we saw the consequences of demonizing Jews. Antisemitism not only hurts the Jewish people; it distorts our understanding of God and Scripture. It hurts our witness. How are we going to witness to the world if we are a community promoting crude nationalism or telling the world how "cowardly" Jews or other ethnic groups are?

-Rev. David Pileggi

Kevin Kallsen: Eventually, this will be a victory. At some point, the straits will be opened, shipping will be able to go back and forth, and global oil commerce will continue. How does that add as a prospect to Israel?

David Pileggi: Well, I’m going to hope and pray that this will bring more security to Israel and the region, and that the Gulf states and even Saudi Arabia will improve their relationship with Israel. At the same time, I hope and pray that there will be a new government that comes along in Israel that will want to work towards reconciliation with the Palestinians.

Both Israelis and Palestinians have this notion that we don't have to compromise or reconcile. Some Israelis think they can just build settlements and the Palestinians will eventually realize we aren't going anywhere. There are Palestinians who think they don't have to compromise because they can continue the international demonization of Israel until it is a pariah with no choice but to give in.

Kevin Kallsen: But without Iran, the Palestinian money—the Hezbollah and Hamas terrorism money—is gone.

David Pileggi: Yes, it should hopefully cause many people in Israel to feel more secure. It will certainly pull the plug on Hamas and Hezbollah, as they were supported by Iran. Many are looking forward to the day that Israel joins the Abraham Accords, there is political progress with the Palestinians, and Israel is more integrated into the Middle East.

Our hope at Christ Church is based on Isaiah 19. It prophecies a highway between the great enemies of the ancient world—Assyria and Egypt. It says that in that day, Egypt will be "my people," Assyria "my handiwork," and Israel "my inheritance". People from all these countries will walk on a highway and worship the living God together. We aren't waving the flag of war; we are hopeful that even in the midst of human sin and demonic maliciousness, God will turn evil into good.

The Lord promises that this part of the world, which many see as just a "cesspool of trouble," will actually be a blessing in the earth. God has a "two-eyed vision" for the Middle East. He has a vision for Jews and Israelis, and a vision for Arabs, Persians, Turks, and Greeks. We don't have to hate Arabs to love Jews, and we don't have to hate Israelis to love Palestinians. As outsiders, we should not take up someone else's offense to the point where we can no longer love both sides or work toward reconciliation.

Kevin Kallsen: Let's finish up here. God can use evil for good. After 47 years, who is the greatest evangelist in the Middle East?

David Pileggi: For 200 years, missionary efforts brought schools and hospitals, but the fruit was quite small. But in 1979, a new "evangelist" arrived: the Ayatollah. While he brought chaos and fanaticism, many thoughtful Muslims saw it and said, "If this is Islam, I want nothing to do with it". Many became agnostics, and quite a few others in Iran, Algeria, and Iraqi Kurdistan have turned to the way of Jesus. They have become disciples, mostly in house churches. What the devil meant for harm, God has turned for good.

I encourage folks, instead of wringing their hands, to pray. Our Anglican services are lovely, but they are no substitute for our prayer closets and serious intercession. Please pray for us at Christ Church; our ministry—our Mercy Fund and our schools—hasn't stopped. We are grateful for the Lord's protection and the opportunity to share what we believe.

Kevin Kallsen: You have survived another Unscripted. I want to thank you so much for your time, David.

David Pileggi: I really appreciate it, Kevin. I hope to see you on the first plane to Israel—or that trip to Poland you’ve been promising for years with your Polish wife and her twin sister.

Kevin Kallsen: Yeah, we'll do that. I'll get them to call the guy. I’m Kevin Kallsen, I’ve been with David Pileggi, and this has been Unscripted. Thank you for watching.

Rev. David Pileggi is the rector of Christ Church Jerusalem, which was founded in 1849 through the work of CMJ. David has lived in Israel for more than 40 years, where he has worked as a journalist, tour guide, and Christian minister. He is married to Carol and they have three adult children together.

How CMJ’s work in Israel continues during the war

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 19:22:43 GMT

CMJ's guest houses, school, and Mercy Fund minister to all Israelis amid the conflict

Thank you for your continued prayers for the people of Israel during this time of conflict. Our teams on the ground are deeply grateful for those prayers and your faithful support.

As war with Iran shapes daily life across Israel, CMJ’s teams remain at work—serving communities, caring for the vulnerable, and continuing ministry during a difficult season. This week we would like to highlight three areas of CMJ’s ministry that are ongoing despite the challenges.

Beit Immanuel: A Place of Peace and Witness

In Jaffa, Beit Immanuel continues to offer a place of welcome and quiet stability in an unsettled time.

At the beginning of the war, the guesthouse was full, though many travelers eventually left as the situation escalated. A small group of guests has chosen to remain. Some have said they want to stay in Israel to stand with the Jewish people.

The café continues to open each morning and has become a gathering place for neighbors and regular visitors. People arrive with dogs, children, and friends, looking for a place to talk and breathe for a moment, even as life now includes the rhythm of sirens and trips to the shelter. Sometimes guitars and worship songbooks make their way into the shelter as well, and people worship as they wait for the all-clear.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. —Colossians 3:16

These moments have opened surprising opportunities for conversation. Visitors often ask why volunteers from other countries remain in Israel during a war, questions that naturally lead to deeper conversations about faith, hope, and the peace found in Yeshua.

One staff member shared, “Even when the sirens sound, people continue to come. Sometimes the most meaningful moments happen while we are waiting together in the shelter.”

Many who come through the doors notice the atmosphere. The calm presence of a community trusting in God speaks quietly but powerfully, and simple acts of hospitality—a cup of coffee, a conversation, a prayer—continue to open doors for meaningful dialogue.

The Mercy Fund: Sharing God’s Love in Practical Ways

CMJ’s Mercy Fund is seeing a growing number of requests for help as the effects of the war ripple through communities.

Requests for food and medicine for vulnerable families have increased significantly in the areas we serve, particularly in Bethlehem.

Many people are struggling, not only with immediate needs but also with the complex process of accessing government assistance. Our Mercy Fund team often walks alongside them through this process, helping them navigate the system while offering practical support.

Additionally, food and medicine are being delivered, hot meals are prepared for elderly residents, hospital visits are made, and families facing sudden hardship are receiving help.

The Anglican International School: Education Continues

After the current conflict began two weeks ago, the Anglican International School Jerusalem (AISJ) moved quickly to ensure that learning could continue for its students. Having experienced similar disruptions in the past, the school took a single day to prepare before launching an online learning program across all year groups.

Teachers have focused on providing consistent and engaging distance education, while the school’s leadership team has given particular attention to the pastoral care of both students and staff. Maintaining connection, stability, and encouragement has been a key priority during this challenging time.

Throughout these weeks, our staff have served with remarkable dedication and care for their students, offering a quiet but powerful testimony to the Lord’s work in and through the school community.

Reflecting the Father’s Heart

Throughout Scripture, love for God is closely connected with compassion for people. Jesus summarized this when He said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39).

The Gospels repeatedly show this heart in action: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

God’s compassion for His people Israel is also seen throughout the Old Testament: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you” (Isaiah 49:15).

Reflecting this heart, loving God deeply and showing compassion to others, remains central to CMJ’s ministry in Israel today. In times like these, your partnership means more than ever. Please continue praying for the people of Israel, for those affected by the conflict, and for CMJ’s staff and volunteers. Pray that the Lord would give strength, wisdom, and opportunities to share the hope found in Yeshua.

If you feel led to support this work financially, your gifts help sustain these ministries of hospitality, mercy, and discipleship during a time of great need. We are deeply grateful for your prayers, encouragement, and faithful partnership in God’s work here in Israel.

CMJ Israel

Twisted Scripture: Reclaiming the Bible from antisemites

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 19:25:01 GMT

There are some who, like Satan, misuse the Scriptures to incite hatred

Sermon preached on First Sunday in Lent at Servants of Christ Anglican Church, Gainsville, FL on Sunday, February 22, 2026.

Matthew 4:1–11

Good morning, Servants of Christ.

What a great name for a church. I pray that you are all meditating on how to live into that name everyday.

I am the director of the Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People. We are the oldest of the Jewish outreach agencies. We were founded in 1809 by a Jewish believer named Joseph Levi Frey.

We’re in 10 countries, including Israel. We’ve been active in the U.S. since 1982.

CMJ’s work looks a little different in each country. Here in the US we

Teach the church about the Jewishness of Jesus and the New Testament
Educate about rising antisemitism as it affects Jesus’ DNA family
Encourage churches to befriend Jewish people for the sake of Jesus the Messiah of Israel
And we support the believers in Israel through our partnership with CMJ Israel

Having a right understanding of how we are to relate to our Jewish neighbors starts with ‘rightly dividing the word of truth.’ The New Testament is a Jewish text. The Gospel is a Jewish message first proclaimed to the Jewish people. The Gospel is still for the Jewish people as well as for the nations.

The Gospel speaks to us today because it is the Word of the Living God. Yet, it is a part of a message and story that God has been speaking to humanity since Adam and Eve believed the lie of self-sufficiency and rebelled in the garden.

Today we are going to zoom into a handful of verses in Matthew 4 to see the Jewish context of the Gospel and to consider an error that has led some into antisemitic readings of the New Testament.

In the chapter before our Matthew reading, Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River “and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.”

Jesus is born of the Holy Spirit. He is both God and man at his birth. At the Jordan, God confirms this to Jesus and others there by the Spirit physically descending on him.

Now, at the top of chapter 4, it says, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness…” Why? To be tempted by the devil. This testing is not a surprise to God.

There is a pattern of God testing and allowing the testing of his servants as he calls them.

God tests Abraham’s faith by asking him to sacrifice Isaac.
God tests Joseph by allowing him to be falsely accused and imprisoned.
God tests David by giving him opportunity to kill Saul in the cave.
God tests Job to show the enemy that Job is righteous.

That is what is happening here. Jesus is tested to prove to the enemy that Jesus is the Son of God.

A Jewish sage named Rabbi Jonathan said: “When a potter tests [the dishes he made], he does not test the vessels that are defective; for if he barely knocks on one, he breaks it; but what does he test? The choice jugs; for no matter how often he knocks on one, he does not break it. So, God does not [test] the wicked, but the righteous.” ¹

Consider that next time you find yourself in a trial, that the LORD is proving to the Enemy that your faith is sound, your love of God secure.

I want us to sit with verse 2 for a bit: “And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.”

Well, “he was hungry” is the understatement of the passage. Of course he was hungry after 40 days!

But why 40 days?

We call Jesus the Christ. Christ comes from a Greek word for ‘anointed one.’ This Greek word christos is translating a Hebrew word for anointed, mashiach , from where we get the word messiah. Kings and priests were anointed, but by the time of Jesus, messiah had become a title full of expectation.

But messiah was not the only title of expectation. In John 1, John the Baptizer is asked if he is “The Prophet.” Twice, after Jesus does and says marvelous things in John 6 and 7, people ask, “Is this the Prophet?”

Who is this capital P Prophet?

In Deuteronomy 18, Moses tells the people of Israel:

15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.

There have been multiple ways to interpret this, and one way was to expect an Ultimate Prophet who was greater than Moses. This expectation is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Samaraitans also were expecting The Prophet, because they only accepted the five books of Moses of Scripture. They have to this day no expectation of a Davidic king.

Peter says Jesus is the Prophet in his sermon in Acts 3 . And Matthew here in the temptation story is also telling us that Jesus is the Prophet Like Moses.

In Exodus 34, when Moses goes up to receive a second copy of the 10 Commandments, “he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water.”

Now Jesus neither eats nor drinks for 40 days and 40 nights.

I’ve always wondered what Jesus was doing for 40 days and 40 nights. Have you? But if Jesus is the Prophet Like Moses, Jesus and the Spirit were in the presence of the Father for those 40 days and 40 nights going over the plan of redemption, reviewing how the Seed of the Woman was going to crush the head of Satan (Gen 3:15) and so regather Israel and the nations back to God.

It is only at the end of the 40 days that Satan appears to tempt Jesus to see if he really believes the plan of redemption he’s agreed to. We see this in the last temptation, when Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and says,

9 “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’”

Have you ever been on the spiritual mountain top where you sensed the presence of God, maybe even heard a word from him. Then you leave the service or retreat, the prayer time or the conference and – BAM – some bad news, some tragedy, some loss, a relationship breaks. And you think, “I was just with God. I was so joyful with God. What is this grief? What is this trial? Why this loss?”

In that moment of grief or confusion, can you hold on to that word, that calling, that encouragement you heard straight from God on the mountain top? Can you prove to the enemy that you still love God with all your heart, soul, and might in the midst of incomprehensible loss?

You don’t need to prove it to God. He knows. Satan is probing whether you know, whether you trust, whether you can hold fast to the promises of God.

In our remaining time together, I want us to consider the second temptation, and how Satan is using similar tactics to stir up antisemitism in our nation today.

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’

and

“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

This is one of the passages that tells us that Satan knows the Scriptures, but he twists it to his purposes.

Satan is quoting Psalm 91:11-12 but verse 11 is incomplete. The full verse is

11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.

Some translations refashion this to “everywhere you go.” And it can certainly have that meaning. But in the two other places where “in all your ways” shows up in Hebrew, it refers not just to where we walk but the ways in which we live, to morals and behavior. ²

So then we could think of the Psalm 91 verse as For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in how you live before God. ³

The context of Psalm 91 is about trusting God and thereby living by his ethics:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

We dwell with God when we accept his kingship. We listen and obey when we trust God. And, of course, Satan is probing whether Jesus really trusts the Father, dwells in the shadow of the Almighty.

I realize there is a tension here. Jesus is God. Jesus is also fully human, tempted in every way like us so that he can be our advocate before the Father… a mystery of the Godhead we will not solve today.

What I want to alert you to is that Satan still misquotes the Scriptures out of context to deceive people. Of late, we’ve seen this happening with people speaking out against Jews and Israel.

Before I continue, I want to make clear that I’m not here to argue on behalf of the State of Israel. That is not my job. I’m not trying to change your mind about the Israel-Palestine Conflict. You are welcome to your critiques or praises of the State of Israel and of Hamas-led Gaza and the Palestinian Authority.

What I want to address is the misquoting of Scripture to attack Jews, particularly our Jewish American neighbors.

In January, a young man raised in Catholic school allegedly started a fire in the Jackson, Mississippi synagogue. ⁴ When questioned by police, he reportedly said he targeted the synagogue because it was Jewish, calling it a “synagogue of Satan.” ⁵ When he was read his rights, he replied, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”

The convicted murderer of the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh in 2018 also cited “synagogue of Satan” as a justification.

Political commentator Candace Owens also used the phrase “synagogue of Satan” to criticize pro-Israel elements in the the U.S. government. ⁶

This phrase is from the Book of Revelation, where it is used to speak of first and second century Jews who persecuted the earliest Jesus followers.

Yet, I’ve just told you of an alleged arsonist, a convicted murder, and 21st century political commentator who have applied it to our Jewish neighbors in our time. These three all claim to be Christians. They all claim allegiance to Jesus Christ, the Jewish man from Nazareth.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus argues with some Jewish leaders and he calls out their hypocrisy by telling them that they are of their father the devil ( John 8:39-47 ). It is wrong to read that and say that all Jews for all time are of the devil. That is antisemitism, aka Jew hatred. It is wrong. It is a sin.

Satan is certainly roving around like a lion seeking those who believe his lies so that he can devour them.

Jesus is the Prophet Like Moses who mediates for us before the Father and who teaches us how to live godly lives. Part of his identity as Prophet Like Moses is that he is an Israelite like Moses. Jesus IS Jewish. Let us not say was, because we are people of the resurrection and we know that Jesus is alive, sitting at the right hand of the Ancient of Days.

And I believe that Jesus, like Paul in Romans 9, longs for his DNA relatives to know him. He has compassion on them. He calls us to minister mercy and comfort to them.

This Lent, go into the wilderness with Jesus to sit in the presence of the LORD. As you read and meditate on the Scriptures, pay attention to the Jewish context. Dig in to see more of Jesus as Prophet, Priest, and King.

And when you hear someone use the Scriptures out of context, especially to malign the Jewish people, respond to them:

It is written: The Jewish people are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Remember what Paul says:

13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Go speak comfort to your Jewish neighbors. Tell them you love them for the sake of Jesus.

Let us pray.

O God, our heavenly Father, you manifested your love by sending your only-begotten Son into the world, that all might live through him: Pour out your Spirit on your Church, that we may fulfill his command to preach the Gospel to all people – Jew and Gentile. Send forth laborers into your harvest; defend them in all dangers and temptations; and hasten the time when the fullness of the Gentiles shall be gathered in, and all Israel shall be saved; through your Son Jesus Messiah our Lord.

Amen.

Footnotes

Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud & Midrash , ed. Jacob N. Cerone, trans. Andrew Bowden and Joseph Longarino (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2022), 150–151.
Prov 3:6 , Ezek 16:47
For more on this concept from Second Temple Judaism that angels help humans keep Torah as well as the idea that angels mediated the giving of the Torah, listen to What Jude Means by “Slandering Angels” from The Bible Project Podcast, 26 Jan 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWxKJCCee5o
Ebrahimji, Alisha, and Caroll Alvarado. “A Baseball Player and Honor Student: What We Know about the Teen Who Confessed to Burning Mississippi’s Oldest Synagogue.” CNN. Cable News Network, January 14, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/13/us/stephen-pittman-mississippi-synagogue-fire-wwk.
Keene, Louis. “Synagogue Arson Suspect Posted Satirical Antisemitic Cartoon on Day of the Attack.” The Forward, January 14, 2026. https://forward.com/news/796632/stephen-spencer-pittman-mississippi-synagogue-fire-suspect.
https://x.com/RealCandaceO/status/2017966480797618613

Psalm 121 in a time of war

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 19:33:13 GMT

Praying for CMJ Israel staff during this conflict

Psalm 121:4 declares: Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

Though written thousands of years ago, these words speak with striking clarity into moments of uncertainty and danger.

Over the past ten days, the Middle East has once again become the focus of global attention. The conflict, involving Israel, the United States, and Iran, has intensified into full-scale war. Military strikes, missile attacks, and escalating rhetoric have placed millions of people on edge.

Here in Israel, the sound of sirens, the movement to shelters, closed schools, and apprehension about the future have become part of daily life.

Against this backdrop of geopolitical anxiety, Psalm 121 offers a hopeful perspective on security and protection. The psalm invites us to lift our eyes beyond immediate circumstances and remember that behind the shifting events of history stands the God who watches over His people.

Psalm 121 belongs to a group of psalms that Jewish pilgrims sang as they traveled up to Jerusalem for the great festivals—the Songs of Ascent. The journey often meant long days on rugged roads through the Judean hills, where travelers were exposed to danger.

Within this context, the psalm begins with a deeply human question: I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? (Psalm 121:1).

The answer is immediate and decisive: My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth (Psalm 121:2).

Verse 4 deepens the assurance that security does not rest in geography, alliances, or human strength but in the Creator. The “keeper” of Israel (Hebrew: shomer) never sleeps. Shomer refers to a guardian or watchman, one who carefully protects what has been entrusted to them. Watchmen grow tired. Soldiers must rest. Leaders become weary. Even the most advanced protection systems have limits. God, however, does not.

Psalm 121 does not promise that danger will disappear, nor that God’s people will never face hardship. Instead, it reminds us that, even in anxious times, God remains present and active within history.

A Call to Prayer

In the days following October 7, 2023, many people in Israel read and wrestled with Psalm 121. Some asked painful questions: Had the One who watches over Israel fallen asleep? Many looked to heaven in anguish and wondered where God was in the midst of tragedy.

As the recent salvos of rockets remind us of the fragility of life in this region, we are faced with the psalmist's question asked long ago: where does our confidence come from?

Psalm 121 answers: The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand (Psalm 121:5).

Please join us in prayer:

Give thanks that the Lord watches over His people and guards our lives and our souls (Psalm 121:7–8).
Pray that believers in this land would remain confident in God and put their trust in Him.
Pray that leaders and governments across the region would seek wisdom.

Standing with Us in This Season

As we serve in Israel during these difficult days, we are deeply grateful for those who stand with us in prayer and support.

War has had a significant impact on the sustainability of CMJ's ministry here. Our businesses that have helped fund the work of CMJ Israel for decades—particularly through tourism and hospitality—have seen activity slow dramatically or come to a halt. Since October 7, these resources have been greatly reduced.

Yet the ministry continues. Our team faithfully serves in Jerusalem, Jaffa, and across the land, sharing the message of Jesus the Messiah and caring for the communities around us.

If you are not already a monthly supporter of CMJ Israel, we invite you to prayerfully consider supporting our ongoing mission by joining our community of monthly givers. Regular monthly partnership provides the stability that allows the ministry to continue even when local income is disrupted.

Psalm 121 concludes with this promise:

“The LORD will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life.
The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.” —Psalm 121:7–8

Thank you for standing with us in prayer and support during these difficult days.

CMJ Israel

The Servant of the Lord who gathers Israel & the nations

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 22:13:20 GMT

We are also called to carry the light of the Messiah to our neighbors and the world

Preached at St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Uniontown, PA on World Mission Sunday.

Isaiah 49:1–7

Psalm 67

Acts 1:1–8

Matthew 9:35–38

Good morning.

It’s World Missions Sunday! Not to be confused with Super Bowl Sunday.

I’m Cariño Casas, the director of the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people. CMJ is the oldest of the mission agencies reaching out to Jewish people. We were founded in 1809 by a Jewish believer named Joseph Levi Frey. We’ve been active in the U.S. since 1982. Our call is to remind the church that

Jesus is Jewish and the New Testament is a Jewish text.
These truth about Jesus and his Gospel message being Jewish must affect how we as Christians engage with our Jewish neighbors… especially now as antisemitism is at an all time high.

So on the World Mission Sunday, I’m here to remind you of a people group the church has struggled to engage with since the book of Acts – the first hears of the Gospel, the Jewish people.

Jesus IS Jewish. Let’s not say ‘was.’ We are people of the resurrection. We know Jesus is alive, sitting at the right hand of the Father. We know from the Gospels that Jesus is alive in the same scarred body that was dead and buried. That body has Jewish DNA for all eternity.

This truth is important for us to hold in the front of our minds as we read the Bible, the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. This context helps us better understand Jesus and his message and reminds us that the Gospel is as much for our Jewish neighbor as it is for a pagan in a far away land.

Today, I want us to walk through Isaiah 49:1-7. Here, in the words of an ancient Hebrew prophet, we see and hear a clear proclamation of the Gospel, the good news that God has for Israel and the nations.

When I say Israel in my sermon today, I mean the collective, physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The modern state of Israel is related but not what we are discussing this morning. For the purposes of today, when I say Israel, I mean the Jewish people.

Now let’s begin in Isaiah 49. I encourage you follow along in your Bible.

1 Listen to me, O coastlands,

and give attention, you peoples from afar.

Listen up, people, because this verse is talking to us. The word coastlands appears several times in this section of Isaiah. It literally means islands and sea coast. Poetically, the Hebrew prophet uses it to refer to far away lands. ¹ We see this meaning in the parallel line, “give attention, you peoples from afar.” This is a poetic way of saying, “Hey you, Gentiles, listen up!” Gentiles just means nations. So, “Pay attention, nations, I’m talking to you.”

Who is talking? Someone called the Servant of the LORD.

Isaiah 49 is in the middle of chapters that contain the Servant Songs, poems that speak of the Servant of the LORD. Chapters 41 to 53 of Isaiah speak of the Servant of the LORD.

The most famous Servant Song among Christians is Isaiah 53, the Song of the Suffering Servant.

3 He is despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. … He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

5 …He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53 is the climatic last passage telling of the call and mission of the Servant of the LORD.

There is a disagreement between Jewish and Christian commentators on whether the servant is the people of Israel or an individual. I believe both are in view. I will explain that as best I can in our short time.

The first mention of the Servant is in Isaiah 41. Chapter 41 begins like 49, “Listen to me in silence coastlands…” Then later God says,

8 But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; 9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”

Isaiah is clear here. The servant is the people who descend from Abraham, friend of God. Here in Isaiah, we must read Israel as the physical descendants of Abraham. God reiternates this in Isaiah 44:

21…for you, Isra’el, are my servant. I formed you, you are my own servant; Isra’el, don’t forget me.

In other places, the servant appears to be an individual. The clearest case for this is in the passage we read in Isaiah 49:

5 And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him—

In Isaiah 49, the servant is an individual called to bring the people of Israel back to God. One man is called to regather all the people of Israel.

So the servant is a people, and the servant is an individual. Especially in Isaiah 49 the servant is an individual.

What do we know about the individual servant?

He’s human. It says twice that he has been called from the womb.
He is called to bring Israel back to God.
The servant is despised and hated.

This certainly can apply to Isaiah. Isaiah lived about 200 years before the destruction of the first Jerusalem temple. He is called by God to prophesy to a wayward people (Isa 6). Like all true prophets of God, he was hated by those he was calling to repentance. Jewish legend says he was killed by Manassah, the most wicked king Judah ever had. ²

Elsewhere in the Servant Songs, there are hints that the singular Servant is divine. The Servant may be the Arm of the LORD that freed Israel from Egypt (Isa 51:9) and the one who is given the Word of God to establish the heavens and the earth (Is 51:15-16). ³ Isaiah 53 tells of how the Servant suffers for the sins of the people. ⁴

Who is then the Servant of the LORD?

The New Testament proclaims that this servant is Jesus of Nazareth.

Earlier last week, the church celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. It’s the same day as Groundhog Day. Every year when you see them drag Punxsutawney Phil out of his hole, I want you to remember Mary and Joseph taking Jesus to the Jerusalem temple for the first time. ⁵

One of the first people in the temple to see Jesus is a Jewish man named Simeon. He was in the temple waiting for the consolation of Israel (Luke 2:25-35). And when he sees the baby in Mary’s arms, Simeon exclaims:

30 … my eyes have seen your salvation…
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.

That’s a reference to Isaiah 49, the Servant who is a light to the nations!

After Jesus is resurrected and ascends to the right hand of the Father, the apostles can’t help but see Jesus all over the Servant Songs. Matthew sees that Jesus is the Servant who with the Holy Spirit announces justice to the non-Jews, noting that the Servant will not fight or shout and that the Gentiles will put their hope in him (Matt 12:15–21, cf Isa 42:1-4). ⁶

Isaiah 53, the last of the Servant Songs (Isaiah 52:13–53:12), appears over and over throughout the New Testament. In Acts, there’s the story of an Ethiopian reading the scroll of Isaiah on his way home. He’s reading from from Isaiah 53:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opens not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.” (as quoted in Acts 8)

Then Philip comes along side and asks, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

“How can I, unless someone guides me? About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip, beginning with this Scripture, told him the good news about Jesus (Acts 8:26-40).

Isaiah 49, which we read today, is quoted by Paul to explain why a Pharisee was preaching a Jewish message to the Gentiles in the Roman empire. Paul actually quotes it angrily at the Jewish leadership that rejected him in Antioch Pisidia:

Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,

“‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” (Acts 13:46-47)

Unfortunately, Christian responses to our Jewish neighbors have looked more like angry, hurt Paul than the heartbroken, compassionate Paul we see in Romans 9. There, he laments:

1 I am speaking the truth in Messiah —I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

So Paul here has this anguish because the Jewish people can’t see the individual suffering servant that has come to save them.

I could keep going because these passages excite me and I pray that the LORD would stir up an excitement for them in you, too! Read the Servant Songs at home, meditate on them, and notice how their themes show up in the New Testament.

Here are the takeaways:

The Servant of the LORD is called first to gather the scattered sheep of the House of Israel. Jesus says this himself in Matthew. (Matt 10:6, 15:24).

This is reinforced by our Acts reading, in that Jesus sends the apostles first to the peoples of Jerusalem and Judea. Later in Acts, we see Paul always go first to the synagogue in every town he visited. Paul says the Gospel is the power of salvation, to the Jew first and also the Greek (Rom 1:16).
God’s salvation plan always included us Gentiles. Since the Tower of Babel, God has been working toward regathering the rebellious nations. God tasks the Servant with this mission when he says:

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

The Servant brings salvation to all the nations of the earth.
We, here in church, are those among the nations who have answered God’s call of repentance. We worshiping together today are the fruit of the work of the Suffering Servant who died for our sins.

And like the apostles in Acts 1, we have a call to go proclaim the Good News we have received to others around us – Jew and Gentile.

I realize there is no defined Jewish community here in Uniontown. So I exort you to share the light of Jesus with those neighbors that do not yet know him. God longs to regather every scattered soul wandering lost and alone.

I also ask you to remember our Jewish American neighbors, wherever they may live. Antisemitism – acts and words of Jew-hatred – are at an all time high. Many Jewish Americans are worried about their safety.

When Jesus saw the crowds coming to him for healing, “he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt 9:36). That’s how I feel every time I read a news story of antisemitic vandalism or assault. That’s how we should feel when we see any people group being harassed and attacked for their ethic or religious background.

Every single human is made in the image of God. Every single human – black, white, or brown, Gentile or Jewish – is loved by God. He wants every single one to come to him for rest, refuge, and cleansing.

We are called to imitate the Servant of the LORD and gather Israel and the nations to our God. Let us go work the harvest fields with Jesus.

Let us pray.

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Messiah our Lord. Amen.

(Re)Introducing Krystal Hustead, Assistant Director

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 21:24:18 GMT

Former CMJ USA staffer returns to run operations and help with teaching content

If you were around CMJ USA a couple years back, you might have seen Krystal's name in an email or on the website. From 2023-2024, Krystal served as CMJ USA's administrative assistant. We're happy to announce that Krystal has returned as assistant director. She takes over operations and is helping us create teaching material.

Krystal and and Executive Director Cariño Casas met at Trinity Anglican Seminary, where Krystal studied for a Masters of Divinity and a Masters of Sacred Theology. She is married to the Rev. Michael Hustead, and together they have two sons and a daughter. Krystal is a priest serving in the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh.

A note & invitation from the Assistant Director

Turn the Page with CMJ: A New Book Club Initiative

WHAT: Turn the Page with CMJ USA, a book club
READ How to Fight Antisemitism by Bari Weiss throughout February
MEET WHEN: Thursday, March 5, 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT
SIGN UP for video call link

How an ‘all-American boy’ became a synagogue arson suspect

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 17:04:13 GMT

Jewish Media Review - January 2026

2025 ended with the Hanukkah massacre on Bondi Beach. 2026 started with the burning of the synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi. The Australia attack was done by Muslims angry about the Israel-Hamas War. The arson suspect is an “all-American boy” educated in Catholic school, radicalized by internet antisemites.

We must be alert and vigilant, especially in our Christian communities, that antisemitic thought does not slither in.

These headlines are presented as a snapshot of what our Jewish neighbors are thinking and feeling and to provide data as you pray about these issues.

CMJ USA does not necessarily agree with the opinions expressed in these articles.

�� How an ‘all-American boy’ became a Mississippi synagogue arson suspect (Forward)

There was little warning that Stephen Spencer Pittman, who police arrested for arson, was poised to strike Jackson’s lone synagogue

Synagogue arson suspect posted satirical antisemitic cartoon on day of the attack (Forward) What we know about Stephen Spencer Pittman, who faces federal charges for the attack on Beth Israel Congregation
Deborah Lipstadt has second thoughts about tying Jackson synagogue arsonist to ‘Globalize the Intifada’ (JTA) By prematurely suggesting that an arson attack was linked to pro-Palestinian activism, the former antisemitism envoy highlighted the broader challenge of confronting bigotry from across the ideological spectrum.
The Holocaust Torah that survived a Mississippi synagogue fire was brought there by the state’s only survivor (Forward) Gilbert Metz, the state’s only Holocaust survivor, brought the Torah to Beth Israel decades ago
After synagogue arson, Jackson’s Jews find solidarity, and complexity, at interfaith prayer service (JTA) “We live in the buckle of the Bible Belt,” said Beth israel Congregation’s leader. “We just have to be grateful for the support that we’re receiving.”

�� Suspects arrested for painting swastikas on Brooklyn playground two days in a row (Forward)

Vandals targeted Gravesend Park with dozens of swastikas

�� Jewish caricature in Ukrainian Christmas tradition resurfaces at New Jersey church, drawing criticism (JTA)

The pageant at St. Mary Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Clifton is known as a vertep — and the “zhyd” who opposes Jesus is a core character.

NJ church deletes video of pageant featuring antisemitic character but says critics took it ‘out of context’ (JTA) The Anti-Defamation League said St. Mary Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Church had not responded to its outreach.

�� The Jewish Test (Tablet)

History has already run the experiment that Tucker Carlson and his friends are urging upon us. The results are not favorable for America

⚠️ Antisemitism is permeating everyday life (Washington Post)

Jewish people know what it means when threats are tolerated until they become irreversible.

�� Nick Fuentes, Andrew Tate and other right-wing influencers filmed singing Ye’s ‘Heil Hitler’ at Miami nightclub (JTA)

The nightclub, Vendome, has apologized for the incident.

Ye apologizes for his antisemitism in Wall Street Journal ad: ‘I lost touch with reality’ (JTA) The apology follows an earlier conversation with an Orthodox rabbi.
Nick Fuentes says his problem with Trump ‘is that he is not Hitler’ (JTA) Fuentes’ comments came a few days after Trump said he doesn’t approve of antisemites in the Republican Party.

�� No Communion for Candace Owens (Times of Israel)

How can the Church let a public figure who professes to be Catholic spread the vile, antisemitic tropes that Catholicism disavowed decades ago?

Editor’s note: The writer’s opinions are his own and do not reflect any CMJ opinion or position. I share this piece to show how our Jewish neighbors are watching us and understand the dissonance of professing faith in Jesus and antisemitic speech. His perspective should cause us to think deeply about what it means to obey Jesus to eat and drink of him – a Jewish man, Messiah of Israel – and how we as his followers should speak about and treat Jewish people, his brothers according to the flesh.

✡️ For 250 years, American Jews have answered prejudice with defiance (Forward)

Starting with the Revolution, writes a historian, Jews publicly rebutted wartime slander and asserted their place in the American story.

��‍�� American Jews can’t agree about anything — except Iran (Forward)

American Jews have rallied behind Iranian protesters in a rare show of solidarity, anti-Zionists and Israel hawks alike

Why do they march for Gaza, but not Iran? (JTA) The movement that turned out en masse to demonize the State of Israel for defending itself is uninterested in the slaughter of Iranians. Maybe it’s because they can’t blame it on the Jews.

��️ The Anti-Zionism Versus Antisemitism Debate (Jewish Journal)

Because they often claim to oppose only “Zionists” and not “Jews,” anti-Zionists can evade accusations of antisemitism while still harassing Jews at synagogues and in Jewish neighborhoods.

�� Why New York’s Sephardic Jews are more Zionist — and more wary of Mamdani — than their Ashkenazi neighbors (Forward)

Different histories of exile and migration help explain why some Jews view Mayor Mamdani differently

✡️ From Alfred Dreyfus to Josh Shapiro: How the ‘dual loyalty’ charge shadows Jewish public life (JTA)

A historic antisemitic accusation collides with modern Jewish attachment to Israel.

��️ Oct. 7 spurred this secular private school in Manhattan to start holding an annual Shabbat gathering (JTA)

The Town School’s head of school is also the vice president at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.

�� A Jewish baby became the face of Nazi Aryan propaganda. Her life story outlasted the lie. (JTA)

“I feel a sense of revenge,” said Hessy Levinsons Taft, who died Jan. 1 at 91.

��️ King David is having a moment in Christian pop culture. We would do well to join in.

The rabbi author of a book on David says the ancient Israelite king’s time is now.

Historic churches forget their Israeli Jewish brothers in Christ

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 21:39:26 GMT

Pastor says statement by Jerusalem clerics asserting sole authority over all Christians of the Holy Land ignores evangelicals, reduces Jewish believers to a political ploy

On January 18, 2026, most of the heads of the historic churches in Jerusalem issued a statement concerning Christian Zionism and their authority over Christians in the Holy Land.

They said, in part, that "local individuals who advance damaging ideologies, such as Christian Zionism, mislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock. These undertakings have found favor among certain political actors in Israel and beyond who seek to push a political agenda which may harm the Christian presence in the Holy Land and the wider Middle East."

They also said, "The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem reiterate that they alone represent the Churches and their flock in matters pertaining to Christian religious, communal, and pastoral life in the Holy Land." Read the whole statement here.

There have been responses by Ambassador Mike Huckabee and the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem . However, the best, most thorough response has been by Israeli Pastor David Zadok. We share an excerpt below. You can read the whole essay at All Israel News .

As an Israeli Local Messianic Jewish pastor, I felt compelled to respond to the recent statement by the Patriarchs of Jerusalem, published on January 18, 2026. The short statement of condemnation did not make any claim that activities by or which local individuals “mislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock,” except mentioning “such as Christian Zionism.”

As a pastor of a congregation that will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary in the land of our fathers, we see our historical roots in the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua, and in the first Apostles, the authors of the New Testament and the first Believers, who were all Jewish. As such, the congregations in the land are no less historical, if not more so, than the Roman Catholic, Eastern and Western Orthodox Churches.

I, and many other Messianic Jews and ministers of the Gospel love the Lord Jesus the Messiah, love and care about His Church, no less than others. I was born in this land, served for many years in the Israel Defense Forces, serving Christ and at the same time am a faithful citizen of Israel. In fact, part of the membership covenant of our congregation states: “We will submit to the authority of those over us in the Church, in society and in government. We will endeavour to be exemplary citizens, faithful church members, and devoted servants of our God.”

I respect the historic churches of the Holy Land and the centuries of faithful witness they have borne, often under great hardship. Their presence is an undeniable part of the Christian story in this land. But at the same time, I read the statement with a sense of disappointment and sorrow, because a large and very important part of Christ’s Church is entirely absent from the picture that is presented by the statement. The evangelical part of the Church, in which we as the Jewish Believers in Christ are part has been totally neglected. One wonders, how in the name of unity, as even quoted in the statement and referenced from the Epistle of Paul to Romans 12:5 , a vital part of that body, namely, Jewish believers in Jesus, the Messianic Jews, who live, worship, raise families, and serve the Lord here in Israel, is neglected.

We are here, and we belong to Christ

The “Historical Church” for two millennia has not only ignored its older Jewish Brothers, but has rejected the Jewish roots of their faith, adopting some of the pagan traditions and customs. As Messianic Jews, we are not newcomers to the Gospel, nor are we a political movement. We are Jews who confess Yeshua as the Messiah of Israel, the Lord of the universe, and the Savior of the world. The One that our prophets of old, like Moses, Isaiah, Hosea, Micah and others, prophesied about Him. Many of us are second and third generation believers and have deep roots in this land even before 1948. Our congregations pray in Hebrew, read the Scriptures in their original languages, and seek to follow Jesus faithfully within our Jewish identity, culture and tradition. Today, there are some 280 evangelical congregations in Israel and the number of Jewish believers is continuously growing, especially among the younger generation. We are not separate from the Church; we are part of it. And yet, when statements about “the flock of Christ in this land” are issued without any acknowledgment of our existence, it leaves us wondering if the “historical church” has not learned any lesson from its history.

Read the rest of the essay at All Israel News.

Remembering and loving our Jewish neighbor

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 21:21:43 GMT

The Jewish context of the New Testament should move us to love our Jewish neighbors today

This sermon was given at Holy Comforter Anglican Church in Sumter, SC, on January 18, 2026. The text provided was Galatians 2:1-10.

Good morning, friends. Shalom to you.

It is a joy to worship with you today.

As the director of the Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People, it is my job to

1. Remind you of the Jewish context of the New Testament and

2. Encourage you to let that context influence how you think about and engage with our Jewish American neighbors.

So the first thing I want to point out is that I will likely say Messiah rather than Christ as we unpack this passage together. Messiah and Christ mean the same thing: anointed one. Messiah comes from a Hebrew root and Christ comes from a Greek root. I use Messiah to remind myself of the Jewishness of Jesus and his message.

God chose Abraham and thereby the Jewish people to be the conduit for the Savior of the world. “Why Abraham and the Jewish people” is another sermon for another time.

Jesus was born, lived, died, and resurrected as a Jewish man. Paul and the first apostles all lived and died as Jews. Next Sunday is the Feast of the Conversion of Paul. When we say he converted, we don’t mean he stopped being a Jew; he didn’t stop being a Pharisee. We mean he converted from his sinful life to a life of devotion to the Messiah of Israel, Jesus the LORD.

Paul the Pharisee, Apostle to the Gentiles

Paul’s being a Pharisee has become an important detail in my understanding of the Apostle to the Gentiles. Sometimes, we want to make the Pharisees the bad guys of the New Testament, certainly of the Gospels. They are among the ones who debate most angrily with Jesus. And yet, they are the ones who are closest in understanding Jesus’ message.

The Pharisees understood that the nations would come to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but this would happen at the end of the age.

The Prophets continually speak of the nations coming to submit to God’s rulership. Take the verse we use to open Morning Prayer in this Epiphany season:

From the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. (Mal 1:11)

That’s from Malachi, a Hebrew prophet. The Jewish scholars in Jesus’ and Paul’s day had an expectation of Gentiles being part of God’s kingdom, but in the next age, in the world to come. Yet, that theological reality was hard to see as the Romans were oppressing Israel.

Still, we see that curious Gentiles were welcomed in the synagogues and called God-fearers. These God-fearers were allowed to worship and learn, but the Gentile men could only be full members of the community if they were circumcised.

God-fearers were few. The Jewish expectation for most pagans worshipping their many gods was that the one God would gather them at the end of the age, judge them, and make them submit to his rulership.

Some Jews still believe this today, particularly Chabad Jews, a branch of Jewish Orthodoxy. Several Christmases ago, when I lived in Jerusalem, I stopped to listen to a street busker. I passed him all the time on my way to the Old City. This time it was Christmas Day. I had just left Christmas lunch at Christ Church Jerusalem. I was wearing a santa hat, quite light with the joy of the day.

The Jewish busker’s music caught me that afternoon, so I stopped to listen. After a while, I went to drop some money in the guitar case. He stopped playing so that he could grab a tract for me out of his pocket. The tract was on what I needed to do as a Gentile to be ready for the coming of Messiah. Yes! These Jews understand that God is for all of us. What we disagree on is the identity of the Messiah, whether the Messiah is divine, and whether he has come already.

So, Paul the Pharisee expected the nations to come to God. But later… much later.

Then Paul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus. He sees Jesus Messiah sitting at the right hand of the Ancient of Days, and Paul understands that the next age has begun! Messiah has come, God has come to earth! It is time to gather the nations to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

For the next 17 years or so, Paul ministered to both Jew and Gentile throughout the Roman world. He started in the synagogue, preaching to the people – both Jew and God-fearing Gentile – who already knew the Scriptures, who already had messianic expectation. He tells them that Messiah has come, that God has come down to earth to atone for our sins. Some believe. A lot don’t. Some react angrily, even violently. We see these same reactions to the Gospel today.

Grafting Gentiles into Israel

In his nearly 20 years of ministry, Paul had been discipling Jews and Gentiles. And he came to understand how Gentiles join Israel. The Pharisees who believe in Jesus, as we see in Acts 15, believe that Gentiles have to become Jews by circumcision. Paul, seeing that the end of the age has begun, says Gentiles are grafted into Israel, even joint heirs with the Messiah, without circumcision!

Eventually, the Jesus followers have to decide what to do with all the Gentiles putting their trust in Jesus. Most commentators say that Paul’s account in Galatians 2 is his version of the Council of Jerusalem recorded in Acts 15, while others think it is some other visit to Jerusalem.

Whenever this visit to Jerusalem is, Paul the Pharisee and Barnabas the Levite are traveling with an uncircumcised Greek, Titus. This must have been a scandal to some. The Pharisees and Levites would have grown up caring about ritual purity. Whether you were ritually pure affected worship and community. Traveling and eating with a Gentile would have made them unclean by some traditions. But Paul and Barnabas know that Titus has been made clean and part of the family of God by the faith of Jesus. Jesus’ death and resurrection makes it possible for Jew and Gentile to be equal before God, to be joined into one new man – one new humanity – in Messiah. This is what they go to argue in Jerusalem.

I’ve seen these One New Man teams in action in our time. Back in 2014 and 2015, when ISIS was still terrorizing the peoples of Kurdistan, Syria, and Iraq, I had the privilege of traveling to southeast Turkey and northern Iraq with two Israeli Jewish believers. We were a one-new-man team taking aid from the Jerusalem congregations to the churches of Turkey and Kurdistan. By God’s grace, we pioneered a corridor that enabled other Israel-based teams to minister to Iraqi and Syrian refugees. The team that went after us was comprised of an Israeli Jewish believer and a Palestinian Christian. Yes, they traveled together, the Palestinian acting as translator.

What a testimony they gave as they would meet people who asked, “How is it you two are friends? Don’t Israelis and Palestinians hate each other?” And they would answer, “We are brothers in Christ. We are friends and serve together at the same ministry.”

It echos the statement that Paul and Barnabas make in Jerusalem with Titus: This Greek is our brother through Yeshua Messiah. He belongs to the family of God because of Jesus’ work on the cross and nothing else.

And despite those voices that opposed allowing Gentiles into the Jesus community, James, the brother of Jesus, rules that Gentiles do not need to behave Jewishly to be accepted into the Jesus community. Peter and John also agree that Paul had been called by Jesus to preach the good news among the Gentile nations while Peter was to minister among Jewish populations.

They, in essence, shook on this agreement. That’s what they mean by the right-hand of fellowship. Not unlike today, taking someone’s right hand was a sign of welcome, relationship, and even partnership.

I didn’t know that this practice of shaking hands with new believers is preserved in some churches until I read Beth Moore’s memoir All My Knotted-Up Life. She remembers when she made her own profession of faith as a girl and shook the hand of every member of her Baptist church. ¹

Paul says the Jerusalem leaders gave him and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. Surely they took Titus’ hand too to communicate to him and everyone else that Gentiles are welcome in the family of God.

Paul will continue to unpack in Galatians the freedom of the Gospel that says that Gentiles don’t have to add Jewish practice to be full Christians.

How Christians should engage with Jews today

The question at the Jerusalem Council was ‘do Gentiles have to become Jewish to belong to the Jesus family?’ The decision was ‘no.’

Now, nearly 2,000 years later, there are more than 2.5 billion Christians ² and maybe 1 million of those are Jewish. ³ From nearly 16 million Jewish people, ⁴ maybe 6 percent know Jesus as Messiah and LORD. And the implicit question that arises is, “Do Jews need to stop being Jewish to follow Jesus?”

The answer is ‘no.’ Jews do not cease to be Jews when they believe in Jesus. We see this in the life of the disciples. They continue to worship at the Temple. Paul had Timothy circumcised because he had a Jewish mother. Titus was all Greek, so Paul didn’t see the need to circumcise him.

Paul, the one who had been so zealous for the oral traditions so as to persecute the Jesus followers, now lived in the freedom to lay down Jewish traditions to build relationships among Gentiles. He also felt the freedom to take Jewish traditions back up to build relationships among his Jewish countrymen, all for the sake of the Gospel (1 Cor 9).

The Epiphany season has, in the life of the church, been a time to focus on mission. On the Feast of Epiphany, we celebrate the coming of the Gentile magi to worship baby Jesus as LORD and king, signalling that the Good News of Messiah’s coming is not for Jews only but also for the nations.

Now I am here to remind us Gentiles that the Good News of Jesus Messiah is not just for us but also for our Jewish neighbors.

The history of Christian-Jewish interaction is fraught with animosity and violence, most of it coming from the Christian side. Many of our forefathers utterly failed in conveying the love and mercy of God to Jesus’ kinsman in the flesh.

We have an opportunity now to do better.

Antisemitism is at an all-time high. The most recent examples are quite fresh: the murder of 15 Jews celebrating Hanukkah on Bondi Beach in Australia and the arson attack on the Jackson, Mississippi synagogue just last week.

The Bondi gunmen seemed to be punishing Australian Jews for Israel's war with Hamas. No matter what you may think of how Israel wages war against its enemies, attacking Jews who live outside of Israel because of anger at Israel is antisemitism. Full stop.

In Mississippi, the suspected arsonist seems to have been raised in a Christian home. He graduated from a Catholic high school. ⁵ When questioned by police, he reportedly said he targeted the synagogue because it was Jewish, calling it a “synagogue of Satan.” ⁶ When he was read his rights, he replied, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”

The convicted murderer of the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh in 2018 also cited “synagogue of Satan” as a justification. Do you know that’s from the Bible? It’s from Revelation 2 and 3. It is read out of context by antisemites and used to justify their hate. Last summer, I even had a Christian in Tel Aviv quote it to me as justification to hate Jews. Really!

This is what happens when we forget that the New Testament is a Jewish text, that many of the conversations in the Gospels are between different Jewish groups, when we forget that Jesus has Jewish DNA for all eternity, when we forget to love our Jewish neighbor even when they do not believe in Jesus.

It is clear from Acts and Paul’s letters that Jesus commissioned him to preach the Gospel to the Greeks and Romans. Yet, Paul always started in the town synagogue. Always.

Why?

The good news of the Jewish Messiah “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Rom 1:16)
Paul says in Romans 9: “I am speaking the truth — as one who belongs to the Messiah, I do not lie; and also bearing witness is my conscience, governed by the Holy Spirit: my grief is so great, the pain in my heart so constant, that I could wish myself actually under God’s curse and separated from the Messiah, if it would help my brothers, my own flesh and blood, the people of Isra’el!”

Paul mourned that more Jews didn’t recognize the Messiah. Paul felt like he would have – if God had allowed – given up his own salvation so that more Jewish eyes would see Jesus as he had.

As antisemitism rises around us, we have two choices in how we engage our Jewish neighbors:

Be judgmental about their not seeing Jesus.
Be loving, treat them as Jesus’ family, even when they cannot see Jesus as we do.

A couple of years ago, I met a Jewish believer, Lee Spitzer, who was the head of the American Baptist Churches. He gave me a book he wrote – Sympathy, Solidarity, and Silence: Three European Baptist Responses to the Holocaust.

Those three reactions were not limited to Baptists. Christians around the world either had sympathy for the Jewish plight from afar, maybe offering prayers – and prayer is not be discounted – or Christians showed solidarity by working to save Jewish lives, or they were silent.

Let us not be silent as synagogues are burned and Jews attacked for being Jewish. To be silent is to be complicit.

Remember those who don't feel safe

Back to the last verse of our Galatians passage, Paul says that the Jerusalem leadership only asked one thing of him and his ministry team: “to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.”

At that time, the Jewish believers in Judea were suffering the brunt of persecution. The result for some was poverty. We see in Acts 6 that the community had a food distribution for widows.

Remembering the poor is a command that goes back to the Hebrew scriptures. It is one of the expectations of being in covenant with God. The Kingdom of Judah was exiled to Babylon in part because the leaders did not care for the poor – the widow, orphan, and foreigner – and went so far as to oppress and exploit them (Jer 7).

Lack of finances or lack of food are not the only forms of poverty. One can be in poverty of peace of mind or safety when persecuted and harassed. ⁷

Not long ago, I was invited to speak at a synagogue about my last trip to Israel. I shared some of the work of CMJ in the Holy Land while also explaining how I am encouraging Christians to nurture friendships with their Jewish neighbors.

At the end of my talk, the cantor came up and hugged me and said, “I feel a little less afraid and a little less alone.”

So I ask you to remember the Jewish American who is not sure if they should go to synagogue this Saturday because they feel unsafe. Remember the Jewish person harassed because they are wearing a Star of David or yarmulke. Remember the synagogue communities rebuilding after fires or fixing buildings after vandalism or installing new alarm systems and locks so they can be safe while worshipping.

There is a well-worn quote sometimes attributed to St. Francis: “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.”

We must preach the gospel of love in action to our Jewish neighbors before we ever use words. We must prove our love. I know there is a small Jewish community here in your town. Check on them. Listen to their stories, their anxieties, their joys. Be their friend, truly, without condition.

Only God knows what seeds are planted, what seeds are watered. Only God gives growth and brings forth fruit.

Let us pray.

O God, by the preaching of your apostle Paul you have caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we pray, that having his wonderful ministry in remembrance, we may show ourselves thankful to you by following his holy teaching and by loving our Jewish neighbors; through Jesus Messiah our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.

Footnotes

Moore, Beth. All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir (Tyndale Momentum, 2023) 55.
Zurlo, Gina. “World Christianity: It’s Annual Statistical Table Time!” Overseas Ministries Studies Center. Princeton Theological Seminary, January 27, 2025. https://omsc.ptsem.edu/world-christianity-its-annual-statistical-table-time/
Harvey, Richard. “Messianic Jewish Theology.” St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology. University of St Andrews, June 18, 2025. https://www.saet.ac.uk/Christianity/MessianicJewishTheology.
TOI Staff. “World’s Jewish Population Hits 15.8 Million, on Eve of Rosh Hashanah.” Times of Israel. Times of Israel, October 2, 2024. hhadttps://www.timesofisrael.com/worlds-jewish-population-hits-15-8-million-on-eve-of-rosh-hashanah/.
Ebrahimji, Alisha, and Caroll Alvarado. “A Baseball Player and Honor Student: What We Know about the Teen Who Confessed to Burning Mississippi’s Oldest Synagogue.” CNN. Cable News Network, January 14, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/13/us/stephen-pittman-mississippi-synagogue-fire-wwk.
Keene, Louis. “Synagogue Arson Suspect Posted Satirical Antisemitic Cartoon on Day of the Attack.” The Forward, January 14, 2026. https://forward.com/news/796632/stephen-spencer-pittman-mississippi-synagogue-fire-suspect.
Douglas Mangum and Derek R. Brown, Galatians, Lexham Research Commentaries (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Ga 2:1–21.

Yeshua's attributes of mercy

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 21:05:59 GMT

God shows his glory by declaring his merciful nature then by sending Jesus Messiah

This homily was give at Grace Anglican Church - Edgeworth, PA on the Feast of St. John in December 2025.

Exodus 33:18–23

Psalm 92

I John 1

John 1:1–18

I caught a glimpse of Your splendor

In the corner of my eye

The most beautiful thing I've ever seen

And it was like a flash of lightning

Reflected off the sky

And I know I'll never be the same

Show me Your Glory

Send down Your presence

I want to see Your face

Show me Your Glory

Majesty shines about You

I can't go on without You, Lord

That’s the band Third Day’s take on our Exodus passage.

This cry of Moses comes after a very dark incident. Moses was in the presence of God when the Israelites made the golden calf.

“You have committed a terrible sin!” Moses tells them. “Now I will go up to Adonai ; maybe I will be able to atone for your sin.”

When Moses went back to Adonai, he said, “Please! These people have committed a terrible sin: they have made themselves a god out of gold. Now, if you will just forgive their sin!” (Exod 32:30-32 CJB).

This act of intercession leads to a long conversation – a negotiation, a test of whether Moses understands what was important. At the end of it, Moses tells God, “If your presence doesn’t go with us, don’t make us go on from here. For how else is it to be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, other than by your going with us? That is what distinguishes us, me and your people, from all the other peoples on earth” (Exod 33:15-16).

It seems Moses does get it. It is not the journey or the destination that is important. What is important is that God is with them. ¹

“Set your mind at rest,” God says. “My presence will go with you.”

Then Moses blurts out, “I beg you to show me your glory!” Is Moses wanting assurances of God’s promise to go with them? Maybe. Is Moses wanting a higher religious experience? ² That’s an unfair simplification.

I think Moses is understanding that the main thing is not the freedom from slavery nor the defeat of one’s enemies. The main thing is knowing God. Moses has one of the most intimate relationships with God, yet he knows there is more to know. ³

“Show me your glory!”

God responds not with a visual glory fireworks show. Rather, God displays his glory in a declaration of his character:

5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “[YHVH, YHVH], a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin… (Exod 34:5-7 ESV)

From this text in Exodus 34, our Jewish neighbors unpack 13 attributes of God, all displaying an aspect of his mercy. These 13 attributes are recited after a daily confessional prayer and in penitential seasons. ⁴ They seem to serve as a sort of declaration of absolution.

The 13 attributes are that YHVH is

God, which by Jewish definition is “mighty in compassion to give all creatures according to their need”
merciful, so that humanity may not be distressed
“gracious when humanity is already in distress
“slow to anger (once, to the righteous)”
“slow to anger (repeated again for the wicked)”
full of kindness
full in truth
keeps kindness unto thousands
forgives iniquity
forgives transgression
forgives sin
pardons ⁵ or cleanses ⁶ the sinner.

In the Book of Common Prayer, the declaration of God’s glory is distilled in the Prayer of Humble Access to “you are the same Lord whose character is always to have mercy.”

“Show me your glory,” Moses pleads.

John says, “We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14).

Moses hears God’s declaration that He is full of “grace and truth.” John says he has seen – in the person of Jesus Messiah – that God is indeed full of grace and truth.

Not only has John seen and heard like Moses, John says he and the disciples “have touched with our hands” Eternal Life itself in the person of Jesus Messiah. The blood of this Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man, John reminds us, “cleanses us from all sin… If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:1-2, 7-9)

We all have our golden calf moments. We all come down from the highs of worship and crash back down into the valley of sin.

Take heart! Our God is merciful. He will be with us as we wander the wilderness that is this life. He has made a way to dwell with us and cleanse us from the sin that would otherwise keep him away.

He has sent down Jesus Messiah the righteous. Jesus is the atonement for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. He is Immanuel, God with us.

Hallelujah!

I'll let Third Day close us out as the rest of the song is a good prayer.

When I climb down the mountain

And get back to my life

I won't settle for ordinary things

I'm gonna follow You forever

And for all of my days

I won't rest 'til I see You again

Show me Your Glory

Send down Your presence

I want to see Your face

Show me Your Glory

Majesty shines about You

I can't go on without You, Lord

Footnotes

Allen Ross and John N. Oswalt, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Genesis, Exodus (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2008), 532.
Ross and Oswalt, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, 532.
Russell Resnik, Gateways to Torah: Joining the Ancient Conversation on the Weekly Portion (Baltimore, MD: Messianic Jewish Publishers, 2000), 94.
Schochet, Dovie. “What Are the 13 Attributes of Mercy?” Chabad.Org. Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center, n.d. https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/3609722/jewish/What-Are-the-13-Attributes-of-Mercy.htm.
Schochet, “What Are the 13 Attributes of Mercy?”
Eisenberg, Ronald L. “The 13 Attributes of Mercy.” My Jewish Learning. 70 Faces Media, July 5, 2018. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-13-attributes-of-mercy/.

Jewish Paul in Greece 2025 tour recap

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 21:20:56 GMT

Relive the tour through our videos then consider joining us on the next one!

In November 2025, Shoresh Study Tours and CMJ USA went where no Shoresh tour had gone before: Greece!

The Israel-Hamas War has all but suspended Israel's tourism industry. This has meant a few Tour with Purpose trips, one study tour that was cut short by the brief Israel-Iran war of June 2025, and just a trickle of guest at the CMJ Israel guest houses.

In 2024, I reached out to Scott Morgan, director of Shoresh Study Tours, and pitched a Greece tour that focused on the Jewishness of Paul and his Gospel message. It turns out I was the fourth person to suggest this to Scott. So we prayerfully moved forward to schedule and promote the tour.

With the tour guide and myself, we were 29 travelers! What a joy to have brothers and sisters in Messiah from Israel, the United Kingdom, and from across the United States.

Scroll down below the contact form to find the video updates that Scott and I were making from Greece as we traveled. You can also hear the sermon I preached between the Acropolis and Mars Hill (after which Rev. Philip Bottomley led us in communion).

We're already working on improving the tour for 2026 or 2027. Would you come to Greece with CMJ USA and Shoresh Study Tours?

Walk through Greece with us via our Reels

Eucharist between the Acropolis and Mars Hill in Athens

How to wait for the Second Coming

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 04:03:49 GMT

Jesus is coming back. We are called to share his good news and live good lives until he returns.

Sermon preached at Grace Anglican Church (Edgeworth, PA) on the first Sunday of Advent, Nov. 30, 2025.

First Sunday in Advent - Year A

Isaiah 2:1–5

Psalm 122

Romans 13:8–14

Matthew 24:29–44

L et’s start by saying the acclamation again.

S urely the Lord is coming soon.

Amen. Come Lord Jesus!

Advent may be my favorite liturgical season, not only because we can see Christmas in the distance but because it gives us permission to squint further to look for Jesus returning, to see the dawn of the next life glimmering far in the east.

E very season in the life and ministry of Jesus is important. Advent builds anticipation for the long-awaited birth of King Messiah. In Epiphany, Jesus’ life continues to unfold how Immanuel – God with us – is redeeming Israel and the nations. In Lent, we walk with Jesus to Jerusalem, reminded of why he has to die. Then we celebrate his bursting forth alive from the tomb. We watch him ascend to the Father to serve as our great high priest, and then we receive the Holy Spirit so we can live and move in Jesus’ supernatural power through the harvest season that is this life.

I n my heart, I try to live in Advent. When I graduated from high school, I was given a prophetic word, and it was tied to Isaiah 40:3, the verse with which we open morning prayer in this season: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

B ut even before I was given this word, as a child, I would peer into the sky looking for Jesus. Sometimes, in hopeful or darker moments, adult me looks for him now in the clouds.

O ur Bible passages today tell us what God’s kingdom on earth will look like, what to expect at Jesus’ return, and what we should be doing in the meantime.

What God’s kingdom on earth will look like

I n Isaiah 2, we see a verse that is well-known by many:

they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isa 2:4)

This globe is always filled with conflict. Now is no different. Modern Israel continues to skirmish with her neighbors. Russia continues to attack Ukraine. There is, right now, a genocide happening in Sudan. Hundreds of Christian students are still missing in Nigeria after being kidnapped by militant Muslims. Those stories are just the ones making the news.

S omewhere, there is always Cain killing Abel.

T he world wonders when we will turn our weapons into farming implements and not learn war anymore. They think we will evolve into better humans. For a vision of what that imaginary world looks like, watch some Star Trek, any iteration. Star Trek is a daydream of where some believe humanism will lead: an Earth free from war and united in space exploration.

H umanity is not getting better. Technology is advancing as we learn, but human behavior is only finding new ways to be selfish and self-serving. Just go on Instagram or TikTok to see the latest expression of personal truth, of being true to yourself with no regard for the Creator.

H umanity will settle into peace and harmony only when the worship of the Creator God rises above every other high place. Humanity will stop fighting itself when it turns its eyes from self up to the One who made us.

T hen, the nations will flow to God and finally submit to learning HIS ways. Then, and only then, will we cease to lift missiles, guns, knives, rocks, fists, and evil thoughts against one another.

T hen will all the nations run to God singing,

I was glad when they said unto me,

“We will go into the house of the Lord.” (Ps 122:1)

S o how do we get from our war-torn world to the reality of Isaiah’s vision?

O ur doorway is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, Messiah of Israel, Son of God.

L ike Adam and Eve, all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All of us. Me, Tara, all of you. We all think of ourselves first. We all can hate with a glare or an internal curse.

W e can’t save ourselves from ourselves. The image of God in which we are made is broken. So God has come down to us to re-form us into his image. God becomes human not just to show us how to be human, but to transform us into the humans God made us to be all along.

S o here we are in church, not only learning to be like Jesus but taking Jesus into ourselves through the spiritual food of bread and wine so he can make us like him. We eat this Passover meal together every week to remember his death and resurrection until he comes. Come, Lord Jesus!

P erhaps you are saying: “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of [Jesus’] coming and of the end of the age?” This is the question the disciples ask Jesus early in Matthew 24.

O ur Matthew 24 reading is quite dramatic, with the sun and moon going dark and the stars falling out of the sky.

T he words of Jesus we heard are just a portion of a longer teaching Jesus gives to his disciples on the Mount of Olives, and we need the big picture to make sense of it.

I n Matthew 23, Jesus gives a tough prophetic word against the Jewish leadership. He calls them blind guides and hypocrites. He says their house will be left desolate, and then Jesus prays a lament over the holy city:

3 7 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Two lines I want to bring out here:

“Your house is left to you desolate,” which we will touch on shortly.
“I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

You may recognize the “Blessed is he…” line from our Eucharistic liturgy. When we say or sing the Sanctus, we

Sing with the angels in Heaven, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ then
We quote Psalm 118 when we say ‘Hosanna!’ – Please save us – and ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.’

T o this day, this is how you say welcome in Hebrew. Baruch haba b’shem Adonai. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.

J esus tells the Jewish leadership they will not see him again until they welcome him. This passage is very important to my work at CMJ (Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People). We know Jesus will not return until the Jewish leadership welcomes him back.

I n Matthew 24, Jesus tells the disciples plainly that the temple will be destroyed – not one stone will be left upon another. That is what he meant when he said that the Jewish leadership’s house would be left desolate.

N ow the disciples have questions: “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (v. 3)

I wish we had an hour or two to go through this chapter. It is one that has caught my attention for a long time, even before I lived in Israel, but more so since.

J esus responds to the disciples’ inquiry by warning of false messiahs who lead people astray, wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes, “but the end is not yet… these are but the beginning of the birth pains.”

N ext comes persecution. Some will fall away from faith. There will be betrayal, hatred, and lawlessness.

13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

The wars and earthquakes, the false messiahs and apostasy are not the definitive signs of Jesus’ return. The most important sign is the proclamation of the good news of Jesus to the whole world, to all nations. When all have heard of Jesus’ death and resurrection, then the end will come.

What to expect at Jesus’ return

J esus promises an increase in persecution the closer he is to returning. So we should not be surprised that Christianity is scorned by many around us. There is true violent, deadly persecution in Sudan, Nigeria, China, Syria, and more right now.

T he scorn we sometimes face here in the United States is not persecution. Not yet. However, there will be a day when we will be persecuted. We must remember that increased persecution is a sign that Jesus is coming.

I mmediately after the deepest persecution, which Jesus calls tribulation here, the sun and moon and stars that we rely on for light will fail. This implies a deep darkness across the earth. [pause]

A nd into this darkness will dawn the unquenchable light of Jesus returning in glory!

T his icon we have hanging over the altar is one of my favorites. I have a copy at home. It is the best version of the Second Coming I have found as an icon.

Notice the clouds around Jesus and the saints. Clouds are a biblical symbol of divine presence. The chariot of God is often depicted as clouds in the Hebrew scriptures.

As Jesus is telling his followers of his second coming, he uses his favorite title for himself, the Son of Man. This is a call back to Daniel 7, when one like a Son of Man is enthroned next to the Ancient of Days and given rulership over all the nations of the world. In Daniel 7, the Son of Man is seen coming in the clouds.

The idea of a divine human is not a strictly New Testament idea. It appears in the New Testament because Judaism before Jesus was already meditating on Daniel’s vision, trying to understand it.

Jesus constantly uses ‘Son of Man’ to explain who he is. When Jesus is brought for trial before the high priest, they tell him,

67 “If you are the Messiah, tell us.” But [Jesus] said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe… 69 But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” (Luke 22)

Plainly, he tells them that he is not only the Messiah but the God-Man who sits next to the Father.

And this God-Man comes with clouds, the Son of Man comes from heaven with power and glory. The angels will blow the shofar and gather all the followers of the Messiah to him.

All ready, this is all so mysterious to us, and Jesus adds to the mystery.

36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

How is that? We will say shortly in the Nicene Creed that

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father…

Jesus says he and the Father are one, yet Jesus does not know the time of his return. Jesus doesn’t know!

And still we’ve had people setting dates! How can you worship Jesus and think you know something he has chosen not to know!

Here’s what we can know. Jesus tells us he will return at an hour we do not expect, so be ready. How?

What should we doing while we wait?

Our first job is sharing the good news of Jesus with all we meet. He said he will not come until all hear, all 8 billion and counting.

There’s a T-shirt I see offered for sale: Jesus is coming! Look busy!

No! It should say: Jesus coming! Keep busy! Keep proclaiming! Keep loving people into the Kingdom.

If you’re a statistics person and want to know how much further we have to go in reaching the world, JoshuaProject.net is keeping track. According to them, 44 percent of the population has not yet heard about Jesus and his saving power. That's 3.5 billion people.

There are 2.4 billion Christians in the world. If all of us told 2 people about Jesus, we’d get the job done! Some of us are called to go to foreign places to proclaim Jesus’ love and salvation. For most of us, our call is to share Jesus here at home, with your neighbor, with your coworker, with your friends and family.

The Great Commission is for all of us. And Jesus gave us a great incentive: we move closer to his return!

On top of sharing Jesus, we are to live well as his disciples. Paul give us a great guide for good Christian living in Romans 13.

Paul’s guidance is not about earning salvation. No. His instructions are for those already saved by Jesus. Jesus says to us that if we love him, we will keep his commandments. Living the Judaeo-Christian ethic is about worshiping God and witnessing to God’s goodness to those around us.

There are many, many books on how to live the Christian life. Yet, in seven verses, Paul gives us instruction for a lifetime.

He tells us to put on Christ. Yes, there is a deeper theological picture here. But in practical terms, in a modern idiom, we might say, Step into Jesus’s shoes or What would Jesus do?

Jesus would make no provision for his flesh. He wouldn’t gratify those selfish desires that push others away, like drunkenness, sexual self-gratification, quarreling to prove you’re right, jealousy.

Paul points to the 10 Commandments – which call us away from coveting, stealing, adultery, murder. He also implies the other side of the tablets: worshiping God alone, not trusting in false gods, keeping sabbath, honoring our parents.

To summarize in four words: Love God. Love people.

Again, this assignment is not about saving ourselves. Keeping the Greatest Commandment – Love God, Love People – is about waiting well for Jesus. It’s about testifying to the goodness and mercy of our God.

Jesus tells the disciples before his crucifixion that they will be known by their love for one another. How we love one another testifies to others of how God loves us!

Let us wake up from our spiritual slumber, ‘for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. Let us love God and our neighbor as we wait for Jesus to return.

Let us pray.

O God our King, by the resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ on the first day of the week, you conquered sin, put death to flight, and gave us the hope of everlasting life: Redeem all our days by this victory; forgive our sins, banish our fears, make us bold to praise you and to do your will; and steel us to wait for the consummation of your kingdom on the last great Day; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Nobodies like Paul among the idols

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 03:44:51 GMT

A sermon on Paul the Pharisee's ministry in Greece

This sermon was given in Athens between the Acropolis and Mars Hill as a finale to a 10-day Shoresh Study Tour looking at Jewish Paul's second missionary journey.

Acts 17:16-34

I n our reading today, Paul is disturbed by the idols in Athens. I also felt disturbed at Delphi, as we learned together about the long history of Apollo worship at the site. The more we heard and saw, the more the depth of the idolatry in ancient Greece began to sink in for me.

A nd Paul walks into that. As one of our guides said to us, Paul was a nobody. He is a Jewish man roaming the pagan world. Nobody thinks much of the tentmaker that sometime sets up his shop in the agora (marketplace) .

P aul is alone when he comes to Athens. He had to flee Berea when the antagonistic Jews of Thessalonica traveled a long way to stir up trouble. Some Bereans take Paul to Athens where he is to wait for Silas and Timothy.

B ut Paul is not a man who sits still. This message of the Messiah is burning within him, so he starts preaching, first to those audiences who are best prepared to hear: synagogue-going Jews and God-fearing Greeks. These are people who have encountered the Jewish scriptures. They know of the promises to Israel. They will have a Messianic expectation. Then he moves out into the market place.

T here, biblically illiterate Greeks begin to engage with Paul.

T he two philosopher groups that Acts mentions are the Epicureans and the Stoics. The views of these two groups capture where most unbelievers fall today.

T he Epicureans, generally, did not believe in a practical god. The universe existed by chance. So enjoying life was the goal. Some did this with abandon while some believed moderation helped you enjoy good things. If it feels good, do it, as long as you're not hurting someone else. Do this sound familiar?

“ Stoics were pantheists for whom “God” was merely a word standing for some vague spirit of reason in the universe.” At death, all souls were absorbed back into “god.” “All the major Eastern religions and certain seemingly Western offshoots have at bottom a similar theology, that there is no transcendent God who created and rules the universe independently of human beings and their imaginings.” (Stern, Acts 17:18)

P aul meets these Greek thinkers where they're at. He doesn't quote scripture to them. It would mean nothing. He speaks to them in the language of their philosophy, using it to point them to the God of Israel.

T hose who read NT Wright's Paul biography before the trip, you may remember that Wright believes that Paul's sermon on Mars Hill is not a lecture to the philosophy club but that Paul's been brought before a court to defend his theological arguments.

W right believes that Paul is on trial, not unlike what happened in Corinth before Gallio (Acts 18).

P aul, alone before leaders in Athens, perseveres in his mission to call the nations to acknowledge the God of Israel. He says, “In the past, God overlooked [ignorant idolatry]; but now he is commanding all people everywhere to turn to him from their sins.”

H ow can Paul say this to these pagans? Why does Paul believe this?

I do not believe that Sha'ul the Pharisee, persecutor of the church, would have said this before his Road to Damascus experience.

E ven today, Orthodox Judaism believes that the non-Jews will submit to the God of Israel, Creator God, but only in the last days.

W hen Paul hears Jesus speaking to him from heaven, he understands that the rumors of Jesus’ resurrection are true. He accepts that Jesus is the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Ancient of Days with dominion over all the kingdoms of the earth (Dan 7:14ff). If all that is true, Paul grasps that the last days have begun! The resurrection of the dead has begun in Jesus! It is time for the regathering of the nations scattered from the Tower of Babel.

S o Paul confidently – we might even say with chutzpah – tells a group of pagan Greeks, Athenian leaders that God is calling them to repentance from their idolatry.

T his is a bold word. And the Holy Spirit moves on the hearts of his remnant from among these Athenians: a High Council member Dionysius, a woman Damaris and others along with them.

H ere's what I want to leave with you from this reading and from our time retracing parts of Paul's second missionary journey.

W e are nobodies in a pagan world that either denies God exists or thinks he's some undefinable power.
We carry the good news that the resurrection of Jesus is the sign that the nations are invited to return to God the creator.
The story we carry is Jewish. It is our job to understand that and communicate it cross-culturally wherever we are. We take this Hebrew story and live it out in Western Pennsylvania, Hollywood, San Diego, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Texas, Britain, and back in Israel.
We speak it to the people around us, the people we know, the people we encounter. Very few of us may be called preach on a street corner. More likely, we will have quiet moments with friends, family, coworkers to share our personal testimonies. Some of you have shared your personal stories with me during this trip. Tell those stories. As Revelation says, we overcome this world by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
The work is slow, it ebbs and flows, but the word of God does not return void. Paul comes to Greece around AD 50. Not quite 2,000 years later, nearly 90 percent of Greece is Christianized. Yet, as we've toured, we’ve touched on how that number has gone up and down as different groups were in power. Persevere, hold fast even when you see Islam growing, secularism dominating. Our job is to live our faith faithfully, to persevere even when we think like Elijah that we are the only one who believes.

W e are nobodies who carry the good news of Yeshua Messiah to the nations. Let us tell our stories to those who will hear. Let us hold fast to Jesus, our faith, and each other even when darkness increases.

T hank you, Jesus, for the call to imitate Paul even as he imitated you.

L et us pray.

O God, by the preaching of your apostle Paul you have caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: We pray you to illumine the world with the radiance of your glory, that all nations may come and worship you; and that we may show ourselves thankful to you by following his holy teaching; through Yeshua the Messiah our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen .

Reach out to shoresh@cmj-israel.org or info@cmj-usa.org for more about Shoresh Study Tours in Israel, Greece, and more.

Is antisemitism normal in the U.S. now?

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 20:42:45 GMT

Jewish Media Review - Sept & Oct 2025

Praise God, all the living Israeli hostages are home and the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is tentatively holding as of publication. This requires continued prayer as Israel awaits the bodies of the dead hostages, and the people of Gaza return to their destroyed cities and towns.

This media review is a bit longer as we didn’t send out a review in September due to the New Wineskins Global Missions Conference . Also, some of the stories will reference some older news events and past holidays. I share them because the stories still have value.

U.S. Antisemitism

☹️ Antisemitism now a ‘normal’ part of life in the US, new survey finds (Times of Israel)

Joint study by ADL and Jewish Federations shows many Jewish Americans have clinical anxiety over rising antisemitism, and one-third are preparing for worst-case scenarios

�� 1 in 3 US Jews have taken action amid antisemitism many now see as ‘normal,’ analysis finds (JTA)

A new study by the ADL and Jewish Federations found that 14% of Jews have mapped out plans to flee the country.

�� My Jewish studies students aren’t talking about Israel or antisemitism. They told me why (JTA)

Tulane prof finds students are soul-weary. ‘When I’m in Jewish spaces, I prefer to focus on the positive things’

�� Why a historian thinks Jews are living through a ‘high tide’ of American antisemitism (JTA)

Pamela Nadell writes a history of Jew hatred, from colonial times to the aftermath of Oct. 7.

�� Seven years later, ‘stronger than hate’ must be more than words (Jewish Chronicle)

It must be a call to speak up, even when it might be unpopular, even when it is uncomfortable

��️ New Pittsburgh synagogue shooting film chronicles bravery of first responders (Jewish Chronicle)

Viewers learn details about the tactical decisions made by the first responders, and about their roads to physical and psychological healing.

�� Florida man charged with arson for setting Chabad classroom ablaze before Rosh Hashanah (Forward)

The suspect’s mother told police that he had ‘hatred’ toward Jewish people that had worsened in recent years

�� Syracuse students charged with hate crime after pork thrown into Jewish frat on Rosh Hashanah (JTA)

“We are heartbroken and outraged by this hateful crime committed against our fraternity,” the fraternity wrote.

�� Neo-Nazis raise money for Georgia man wearing Nazi uniform who allegedly assaulted UGA student (JTA)

The University of Georgia denounced the incident as “heinous antisemitic behavior.”

�� Why neo-Nazis marched in Indianapolis this weekend, and almost every weekend in the US (Forward)

Neo-Nazis with swastika flags have marched in Indiana, Ohio, outside a Michigan production of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ and at Disney World in Florida

�� Fighting Antisemitism by Reclaiming the American Jewish Story (Jewish Journal)

The Jewish story is so consequential precisely because it is inseparable from the American story. If Jews need America, America also needs the Jews.

Christian-Jewish Relations

�� ‘The church is asleep right now’: Ted Cruz calls on Christians to confront right-wing antisemitism (JTA)

A flurry of conservative voices are urging the right to police its own

�� NY exhibit underscores how medieval Christians both sang songs from Hebrew Bible and persecuted Jews (JNS)

“Here you sing these Psalms every day, yet on Good Friday you go out and you beat up your Jewish neighbors,” Roger Wieck, of the Morgan Library and Museum, told JNS. “I don’t have an answer for you.”

✝️ War strained the Israel-Vatican bond. Will the pope use the ceasefire to heal those wounds? (Forward)

In the first several months of his papacy, Pope Leo has worked to express empathy for both Palestinians and Israelis

At Vatican, Herzog urges faith leaders to press for Gaza hostages’ release (Jewish Chronicle)
"Israel longs for a day when the peoples of the Middle East, the children of Abraham, will live together in peace, cooperation and hope," Herzog told Pope Leo.
Hosting Herzog, pope calls for permanent Gaza ceasefire to be reached ‘with urgency’ (Times of Israel)
President urges pontiff to assist with efforts to free hostages, assures him of Israel’s commitment to protecting Christian communities

�� Honoring the non-Jews who stand with us (Jewish Chronicle)

“How fortunate are we to live in a world of non-Jewish friends. They are the first to speak out when atrocity is visited upon the Jewish people. They hold a special place in their hearts for Jews not as the precursors for their own messianic redemption but as an equal and legitimate expression of faith.”

�� Craving What Never Changes (Jewish Journal)

The fact that our holidays never change enables us to change. We study their timeless lessons to make timely changes in our lives. While they stay the same, we grow. While they stay old, we can renew ourselves.

Ed. Note: I didn’t start out as an Anglican. I grew up in a church that was suspicious of traditional churches and their liturgical prayers. When I began to study the Jewish roots of Christianity and began to engage with Jewish traditions, I was drawn to Jewish liturgy. Once I understood the Jewish roots of Christian liturgy and began to experience how its constancy fed my soul no matter the time or place, I began to trust it and lean into it. This article touched on some of my experience of finding solace from this topsy-turvy world in the yearly cycle of worship.

⚾ NYC synagogue hosts Catholic archbishop and Sandy Koufax jersey to mark 60-year milestones in American Jewish history (JTA)

Timothy Dolan participated in Yom Kippur services to mark the anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the landmark Catholic doctrine about the Jews.

Israel-Hamas War

�� We can feel brokenhearted for the suffering of the children of Isaac and of Ishmael. We must (JTA)

A rabbi rejects how expressions of compassion are regarded with suspicion in today’s conversations about Israel

�� A crucial Yom Kippur reading holds a scathing lesson on Gaza (Forward)

The book of Jonah insists we combat our instinct to withhold mercy

��️Beauty for Ashes film (FIRM)

This film is a new documentary about the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attacks in Israel. This one-hour film captures the devastation of that day while highlighting inspiring stories of faith, hope, and resilience. Through the voices of Jewish believers, Palestinian Christians, and IDF reservists, the documentary shows how communities came together to serve in relief and rebuilding efforts. In the midst of tragedy after the shocking attack from Gaza, viewers witness the Body of Messiah in Israel rising up to embody God’s love and redemption. As we remember October 7th, this film not only documents loss but also celebrates the beauty that emerged—stories of courage, unity, and redemption when it was needed most.

��️ October 7: Bearing Witness to the Massacre

Trailer to a film by the makers of Hope in the Holy Land

�� Jew vs. Jew rhetoric breaks hearts in a bitter internal debate about the Gaza war (JTA)

One side urges compassion for Gazans; the other says the security of Israelis trumps mercy.

�� Israeli former hostage Emily Damari speaks to 'Son of Hamas' Mosab Hassan Yousef about her captivity, meeting Hamas leader 'Izz a-Din al-Haddad (All Israel)

Politics

I have tried hard to steer away from political news, but the assassination of Charlie Kirk stirred a lot of anger, fear, and confusion. Some of us learned who Charlie Kirk was only after his death. Some grieve the loss of a political champion. Others lament that violence stuck out against a political foe.

I share these stories to give a peek into how our Jewish neighbors perceive their peeks into the Christian world, whether where some Christians carry themselves political or even how evangelical Christians mourn. CMJ USA does not endorse or necessarily agree with any of the opinions stated below.

⚰️ How Not to Respond to the Charlie Kirk Memorial Service (Jewish Journal)

Most Jews don’t understand what is taking shape in Christian America. They fear it, conflate its diverse voices and want to denounce it with great moral force, as if that will somehow make it all go away.

For more on the antisemitic dogwhistle some believe Tucker Carlson blew, see
Tucker Carlson tells story about murder of Jesus at Charlie Kirk’s memorial, igniting criticism (JTA)
For many listening, including right-wing Jews, the link between story and the unfounded conspiracy theory that Israel killed Kirk was clear.
Christian concerns about Tucker Carlson’s antisemitic tropes (All Israel)

Media and Art and Science

�� Mel Brooks: ‘Hitler was bad to every Jew in the world, but he was good to me’ (The Telegraph)

Ed. Note: There is power in comedy to heal as much as to speak truth.

My father says he regrets introducing my sister and me to Mel Brooks when we were pre-teens. I am grateful. Mel Brooks films may have been my first encounter with a Jewish perspective on world events.

The Producers , a movie about a play celebrating Hitler and Nazism, is a shocking achievement. A Jew dared to write a film mocking Nazism and Hitler 21 years after end of World War II. The world was still processing the full extent of the Holocaust, yet Mel Brooks came in with his brash humor. One may almost feel guilty laughing at the showstopper “Springtime for Hitler.”

In 2010, I met a young German Christian who had gone to Israel for an internship. She was maybe 21, yet she carried such guilt for the sins of her forefathers. We counseled her that it was good to acknowledge the sins of Germany but that she shouldn’t let it weigh her down as she had not committed those crimes. Yet I watched as she studiously took copious notes at Yad vShem, the Holocaust museum in Israel.

A few days later, seeing she was heavy after our museum visit, I asked her if she had ever seen The Producers or heard of Mel Brooks. She had not. Thank God for YouTube. I quickly pulled up a clip. She was taken aback at first, maybe even offended. I explained that this farce was written by an American Jew. His response to the Holocaust was to make Hitler small by laughing at him. She relaxed and let herself laugh. I believe Mel Brooks helped her balance her perspective.

�� Her Jewish grandfather’s shame inspired a prize-winning novel (JTA)

Sasha Vasilyuk's debut novel, “ Your Presence Is Mandatory ,” tells a story inspired by her father’s father, a Jewish soldier in the Red Army who was captured by the Nazis during World War II. Under the Soviets, being taken prisoner was treated not as a tragedy but as a betrayal. Because POWs bore the stigma of treason, her grandfather never spoke to the family about spending much of the war as a forced laborer. He also hid his Jewishness from his often antisemitic comrades and, for obvious reasons, from his German captors.

�� Famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright built only one synagogue. It’s now a growing congregation (Forward)

Designed to echo Sinai, Frank Lloyd Wright’s only synagogue now houses a flourishing community — defying demographic trends and architectural odds.

�� How a scene from Exodus was almost the Seal of the United States (Jewish Journal)

This long-forgotten footnote to American history is worth considering both for its historical import and its relevancy to the current moment.

�� Science confirms it: Sabbath is good for your brain (All Israel)

�� Following meteoric success — and some criticism — ‘Nobody Wants This’ evolves in Season 2

The romantic comedy follows the relationship between a hip but devout Reform rabbi, Noah (Adam Brody), and Joanne ( Kristin Bell), an agnostic woman who hosts a podcast about dating and sex.

Exce rpt: “When it first came out and I watched the first episode, I was so uncomfortable,” said Rabbi Elan Babchuck, the executive vice president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. “There’s a lot that I would want to change about it.” Eventually though, Babchuck went back and watched the entire season. Although his critiques remained, he ultimately had a change of heart. “I celebrate the show. I think representation matters across the board, even when it’s in flawed form,” he said.

�� How the phrase ‘It was promised to them 3,000 years ago’ became a ubiquitous meme (Forward)

The comment appears on every kind of Jewish content, but what does it mean?

Loving our Jewish neighbor like Ruth

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 17:57:49 GMT

Christians are the foreigners invited into the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Part of our call is to love and comfort the Sons of Jacob

This sermon was given at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Butler, PA on October 12, 2025, sixth day of Sukkot. The Anglican lectionary readings were from Proper 23 - Year C:

Ruth 1:1–19a

Psalm 113

II Timothy 2:1–15

Luke 17:11–19

“Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
“...but Ruth clung to [Naomi].”

Happy Sukkot. Happy Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles). Our Jewish neighbors are celebrating the Feast of the LORD declared by him in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16. This is the festival when Israel is commanded to build booths or huts to remember God’s presence and provision in the wilderness.

I mention the feast because it is the only Feast of the LORD in the Torah to which foreigners are explicitly invited (Deut 16:11). The prophet Zechariah later sees a vision of God ruling the world from Jerusalem, at which time the nations will be required to celebrate the Feast of Booths before him (Zech 14). It is a vision of all the nations submitting to God’s rule and reign, his love and provision.

I opened with snippets from today’s Gospel portion and Ruth. In both these readings, we see the foreigner interacting with an Israelite. Let us consider how we are Ruth, we are the healed Samaritan leper, so that we may be encouraged but also exhorted to love our neighbors well.

The foreigner comes back to worship

In Luke, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to do the work he was born to do: die as the atoning sacrifice for the whole world.

Along the way, Jesus must walk along borders or even cross them. Jesus and his band are going along the Samaria-Galilee border. As happens in a border area, you meet different types of people.

I grew up on the border with Mexico. That has generally been a friendly border area. I’m from El Paso, Texas, the largest border city in the United States. Many inhabitants in the area have family on both sides. Many people live in one country and work in the other. It’s generally a friendly crossing, at least it was when I was growing up, before 9/11.

The Samaria-Galilee border was not that friendly. Even today, that region is a tense border area as it is where Israeli Galilee and the Palestinian West Bank meet. “The conflict between the people of Samaria and the people of Israel was as sharp then as it is” now. ¹ One time when Jesus and his disciples passed that way, James and John wanted to call fire down on the Samaritans (Luke 9)!

In this tense environment, 10 men, probably in raggedy clothes and bandages, start coming toward Jesus, shouting. The disciples were probably jumpy.

But what these 10 shouting men want is healing. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” They are lepers, outcasts from society because of their illness. And Jesus, the one who came to save Jew and Gentile, heals them with a word.

14 … as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17 ESV)

Jesus calls the Samaritan a foreigner. Another way to translate this would be “outsider” or “alien,” somebody not Jewish, according to the context of the conversation. Samaritans descended from the northern tribes who had married foreigners displaced by the conquering Assyrians. They ultimately return to the God of Abraham and the Torah, but they become Torah-only people who do not recognize the Prophets, the Davidic kingship, nor the centrality of Jerusalem in worship. So Jews like Jesus – who did recognize the Prophets, David, and Jerusalem – saw the Samaritans as strangers and foreigners. The Samaritans were just like the Gentiles, in the Jewish mind. ² They were foreigners.

This same word foreigner is all over the Scriptures ³ mostly speaking of non-Israelites.

So, much like in the parable of the Good Samaritan, it is the stranger who stops to do the right thing. In the parable, the Good Samaritan stops to aid the wounded man, whereas the priest and the Levite would not! Here in this healing encounter on the border between Jewish Galilee and Samaria, it is the non-Jew who stops, acknowledges his healing, and goes back to worship God.

Friends, we are that Samaritan. Here we are, most or all non-Jews, as far as I know. And we’ve gathered on a Sunday morning to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to eat at the table of Jesus, the Messiah of Israel. We, the foreigners, are here to worship God and thank him for our spiritual healing!

In some way, as the service ends today, we will hear Jesus tell us, “Rise. Go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

“That was a short and sweet homily,” you might be saying. I could stop there and let us get on with it.

But the assigned readings won’t let us do that. We are compelled to look at the story of another stranger who chose to worship the God of Israel – Ruth. This complete foreigner – a woman from idol-worshiping Moab – challenges us with what loving the God of Jacob means for how we treat the children of Jacob among us today.

Let’s refresh ourselves on the story and context of Ruth.

The suspect enemy becomes a loyal Israelite

After the exodus, Joshua leads the second generation of Israelites into the Promised Land. They (mostly) conquer it and settle to live in the abundant Land of Milk and Honey.

But, as the book of Judges tells us, not long after Joshua died, the Israelites began to do what was right in their own eyes. The period of the judges was a brutal cycle of idolatry/sin, oppression and/or famine, crying to God, salvation, then return to idolatry/sin.

Famine was a marker of a people not right with God. The Land of Israel is on the edge of a great desert. When there’s rain, the desert blooms. When there’s no rain, nothing grows. God warns the Israelites in Deuteronomy that he is the provider of the rain and thereby the provider of their livestock and produce.

16 Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; 17 then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you. (Deut 11)

At the start of Ruth, there is famine in the Land, communicating that there is idolatry in Israel. ⁴ And Elimelech adds insult to injury by taking his family into Moab, a land of hostility and of idols.

Things do not go well. Elimelech dies. Naomi marries her sons off to foreign women, then the sons die. The text doesn’t tell us directly why they die. It’s not clear if the men’s deaths are a judgment.

What is clear is that we now have three widows. Widows at that time were among the most vulnerable people in society. Naomi is doubly vulnerable as a widow in a strange land.

After 10 years abroad, Naomi hears that “the Lord had visited his people and given them food.” If the famine was due to disobedience, the return of abundance signals that there has been repentance in the Land. She rightly discerns that it’s time to go back to Bethlehem.

She sees no place for her foreign daughters-in-law, so she releases them to stay in Moab and remarry. But Ruth is not having it. Ruth clings to Naomi. Ruth even vows her life to Naomi.

16 Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you. (Ruth 1)

Ruth gives up her Moabite identity: “Where you go I will go… Your people shall be my people.”
Ruth disavows her idolatry, “Your God will be my God.”
Ruth gives up her homeland for the Promised Land: “Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried.”

She is pledging herself to the God of Abraham. She is joining the people of Israel.

Ruth is going into the Land of Israel sight unseen. Yet she professes and shows “greater righteousness and faithfulness than the Israelites” who will soon surround her. ⁵

Who were the Moabites? They descended from one of the sons of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. During the exodus, the Moabites refused to give the Israelites food and water. They also hired Balaam to curse Israel. He ultimately tells the Moabites how to defeat the Israelites through seduction and idolatry, which they did! Therefore, all the Moabites were suspect.

Then we meet Ruth. She is faithful and loyal. She shows true friendship, which is what her name means. Rather than the Good Samaritan, she is the Good Moabite. Whoever heard of such a thing!

We ended our Ruth reading with Naomi and Ruth arriving in Bethlehem. Is this Naomi?” people ask each other. It’s been at least 10 years, but the women recognize her. “ In verses 20 and 21, Naomi answers them.

“Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?” (Ruth 1:20-21)

Naomi means pleasant but she isn’t somebody who’s going to pretend she’s OK. She is brutally honest about where she is emotionally and spiritually. God is against me and has taken everything from me. I am bitter, so call me Mara.

Naomi hasn’t heard of Job, it seems, and his worshipful lament: “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21)

Naomi is bereft. She is empty. She blames God. Naomi is angry at God.

Our Jewish neighbors as Naomi

This is how many Jewish people felt after the Holocaust. Here’s one quote from a Holocaust survivor. The young man had been forced to dig out dead Jews and burn the corpses to hide them from the coming Allies. The task fell on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement:

There were about two-thousand bodies that lit up the sky, which was now read and smokey from the fire… Today I did not look up and no one from my family was left to look up, either… It was exactly as the sages had told us: that the two thousand corpses will change into extreme spirituality and, as during the time of the Temple on Yom Kippur, no longer occupy any space. Who cared today if the skies opened to receive our prayers? Our nostrils were not filled with spices but with teh smoke of burning bodies… Today on Yom Kippur… nobody spoke of God or about penance. We made a statement to ourselves, even if no one cared. It was a very hard day, as if God, too wanted to break us. ⁶

A Jewish prisoner wrote on a concentration camp wall: “If there is a God, he will have to beg my forgiveness.” ⁷

It’s been 80 years since the Holocaust, and not all Jews are atheists. But our Jewish neighbors – religious or not – are asking questions as antisemitism rises to all-time highs.

One of the questions they are asking is, “Who are our friends?”

Christians must love like Ruth

At the beginning, I said that we are the Samaritan leper coming to thank Jesus for our healing. We are also Ruth, Gentiles who have said to Jesus, “Your God will be my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried” and raised back to life again.

Yes, we die with Messiah. We rise with Messiah.

Paul said in Romans 11 that we non-Jews were grafted into the olive tree that is the Jewish people (Rom 11:17ff) when we believed in Jesus. He warns us not be haughty about accepting Jesus when most of our Jewish neighbors don’t see or accept him.

In Ephesians 2, Paul says to us:

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Messiah Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh…12 remember that you were at that time separated from Messiah, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Messiah Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah …19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

Paul says commonwealth of Israel – we cannot read in the modern state of Israel here – but the people of Israel, the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to whom the Scriptures were given, to whom the promises of redemption were made.

Jesus invites us strangers in, not to replace the Jewish people, but to expand the commonwealth of Israel to cover the whole earth. Not all Jewish people know and accept Jesus as Messiah and Lord, but neither have all the nations heard the Gospel. Neither have we seen the New Jerusalem come down from heaven. Yes, Jesus rules and reigns at the right hand of the Father. But we have not seen the complete fulfillment. All you need to do is turn on the news and see the wars and rumors of wars to know the end is not yet. We are in an in-between phase.

So, how do we live? How do we non-Jewish followers of Jesus carry ourselves, as regards our Jewish neighbors. We live as Ruth, ever concerned about the Naomis living among us.

Less than a mile from this church is a synagogue. Do you know them? Have you asked them how they’re doing? Are you prepared to care for them if some terrible antisemitic thing happens in your town?

Nothing like that will happen here? Nobody knows where Butler, PA, is?

Nobody knew where Butler, PA is… until some angry kid took a shot at the President of the United States in your backyard.

In 2018, a man who had bought into a lie called the great replacement theory, posted to his racists online buddies, “Screw the optics. I’m going in” and walked into Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and killed 11 Jews worshiping God on a Sabbath morning. This man’s social media posts also used New Testament quotes taken out of context to justify his antisemitic hate. ⁸

A few months later, a young man walked into a synagogue near San Diego, California on Passover and killed one person before being subdued. ⁹ Another murderous attack, this time at a New Jersey kosher deli, happened a few months later.

Some Jewish commentators started to wonder out loud if the U.S. was safe for Jews anymore. ¹⁰

Since 2023, people angry with Israel over the war against Hamas in Gaza began to verbally attack American Jews. Then synagogues got vandalized. Then Jews got physically assaulted.

No matter what we may think of the modern state of Israel’s actions in Gaza, it is wrong to hold those perceived sins against our Jewish neighbors.

Two weeks ago, a man angry about the Israel-Hamas War attacked a synagogue in Manchester, England on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On what some call the holiest day in Judaism, a man decided to violently express his anger against Israel by running over Jews with his car and stabbing others.

Our Jewish neighbors here wonder when something like that will happen in the U.S. They wonder who their friends are.

They shouldn’t wonder. It should be us. We should be Ruth to their Naomi. In their fear, worry, maybe even anger and bitterness, we should stick close. We should serve them like Ruth served Naomi, out of love and kindness and gratitude.

Gratitude? For what? To paraphrase Paul in Romans 9, to the Jewish people “belong the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the [Scriptures] and the [liturgy] and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs—and from them, according to the flesh, the Messiah, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.”

We are here in church today because Jesus sent 12 Jewish guys, Paul the Pharisee, several Jewish women to go tell the world that salvation had come. And it was those Jewish disciples who gave us the Scriptures and taught us how to worship God. Above all, Jesus has Jewish DNA for all eternity.

Do we want to tell our Jewish neighbors about Jesus being the Messiah of Israel? Of course we do. But when they say no to Jesus, can we love them like Ruth? Better yet, can we love them like Jesus? Can we be Jesus to them?

I encourage you to get to know your Jewish neighbors. They are right there, down the road, wondering who their friends are.

Go say, “Hi.”

Let us pray.

Almighty and everlasting God, you established your covenant with Abraham and his seed: Hear the prayers of your Church, that the people through whom you brought blessing to the world may also receive the blessing of salvation. Teach us to love them like you love them. In the Name of Jesus the Messiah, our Lord. Amen.

Footnotes

David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary : A Companion Volume to the Jewish New Testament, electronic ed. (Clarksville: Jewish New Testament Publications, 1996), Lk 9:53.
This is no longer so. The Samaritan community has been recognized as a sect of Judaism since the 11th century, even though they only recongize the Torah (not the Writings or the Prophets) and continue to see Mount Gerazim in Samaria as the center of worship. Shulamit Sela, “The Head of the Rabbanite, Karaite and Samaritan Jews: On the History of a Title,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 57.2 (1994): 265-66.
Ἀλλογενής - foreign, of another race, stranger. It appears only once in the NT but 46 times in the Tanakh.
“Proper 23 – Year C,” Sermon Notes from the Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People,” CMJ Israel, October 2025. Archive at https://www.cmj-usa.orAbrahamg/sermon-notes/year-c
“Proper 23 – Year C,” CMJ Israel.
Leon Weliczker Wells, Shattered Faith: A Holocaust Legacy (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky,1995) as quoted in Lassley, Jennifer. “A Defective Covenant: Abandonment of Faith among Jewish Survivors of the Holocaust.” International Social Science Review, vol. 90, no. 2, 2015, pp. 1–17. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/intesociscierevi.90.2.03. Accessed 10 Oct. 2025.
This phrase was featured in an Italian documentary screened for tourists at the site of the Mauthausen
concentration camp near Linz, Austria. See Giuseppe Ronzoni, Youtube post, July 21, 2011, accessed March 16, 2014, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r50t7 148sA&feature=youtube&t=19m20s; "Archive of the Mauthausen Memorial," Mauthausen-Gusen Concentration Camp, accessed April 24, 2014, http://en.mauthausen-memorial.at/index_open.php as quoted in Lassley, “A Defective Covenant.”
Julien Bellaiche, Imagined Threats: Demographic Conspiracy Theories, Antisemitism, and the Legacy of the 2018 Pittsburgh Synagogue Attack, George Washington University Program on Extremism, 2023. https://extremism.gwu.edu/imagined-threats
“San Diego Synagogue Shooting: One Person Dead in Poway, California,” 27 April 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48081535.
See Horn, Dara. People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present. Norton paperback. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2022.

The wild olive in the sukkah

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 21:08:12 GMT

A midrash on Nehemiah 8:15 and Romans 11

This message was given at Shoresh David Messianic Congregation in Monroeville, PA on the occasion of Sukkot/Feast of Booths 2025.

C hag sukkot sameach, friends. Happy Feast of Booths.

Today we will take a look at Nehemiah 8. We’ll look over its context. Then we’re going to dive into a midrash on one verse. The verse may look inconsequential, but it has an odd phrase that shows up in only a few places. As you will see, it has proved hard to translate consistently. But, because of where it shows up in the Tanakh and because a related term comes up in the New Testament, I believe it has something to say to us today here in this place, to this mix of people.

Let’s set the scene.

Nehemiah and his faithful band have just finished rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem and the temple. It’s been 140 years since Babylon destroyed Solomon’s Temple, nearly 100 years since Cyrus allowed the rebuilding of the temple, 70 years since the Second Temple was finished and consecrated.

Now that the city and the temple have been fortified, Ezra the priest will teach Torah AND put it into practice.

At the start of the chapter, it’s Rosh Hashanah or the Day of Blasting, the first day of Tishei (or the seventh month). The people weep at hearing the Torah read, but Ezra and Nehemiah remind them it is a feast day. No weeping today. Go party with your people!

“Do not be grieved,” Ezra says, “for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

I love this verse. This is a breath prayer for me, something I say quietly – under my breath – to acknowledge a surge of joy or to ask for God’s strength. “The joy of the LORD is my strength.”

And so the people go celebrate, having learned some Torah.

The next day, they come to hear more Torah read and explained. And Ezra purposely goes to the instructions for Sukkot.

When we get to Nehemiah 8:13 , Tishrei 2 (second day of the seventh month). We know it’s the second day of the seventh month in the text. Most of us here know that Sukkot starts on the 15th of the seventh month. So 13 days left to Sukkot in our reading.

Ezra and the people need those 13 days to spread the word and to gather the materials needed to build booths or huts.

Ezra has specifically read the instructions that they are to live in a sukkah, a booth for seven days. So he must be reading from Leviticus. The mandate for the Feast of Booths is found in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, but each highlights different parts.

Leviticus 23 tells us to dwell in booths, and
Deuteronomy 16 tells us to observe the festival of Sukkot.
Numbers takes the better part of chapter 29 to detail every sacrifice made on the seven days plus the solemn assembly on the eighth day.

Similarly, the Scriptures show two times returned exiles celebrated Sukkot and highlight different aspects. In Ezra 3, we see the first wave of exiles rebuild the altar and offer the prescribed Sukkot offerings. Here in Nehemiah 8, the focus is on the third wave of exiles building booths/sukkot. It says that the children of Israel had not built booths since the days of Joshua! Yet we know from Ezra that the sacrifices for Sukkot had been offered a few years before. I think it’s safe to believe that those sacrifices had been made the whole time the first temple and tabernacle were up and running. So the part of the celebration (the best part in my opinion) had not been done for 1,000 years: building the festival huts.

Let’s bring our focus to verse 15.

So they proclaimed and circulated a proclamation in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the hills, and bring olive branches and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches and branches of other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.” (NASB)

On Bible Gateway, out of 58 English translations, 41 use “wild olive” or equivalent in that verse, nine say “pine,” three say “oil tree,” and the other five use some vague name there.

What's going on there?

The Hebrew says to bring zeit and etz-shemen, olive branches and oil tree branches. What is an oil tree? What is etz-shemen ?

The term shows up three places in Scripture: here in Nehemiah, in Isaiah 41, and in a description of Solomon’s Temple in 1 Kings 6.

The translations, even in Jewish sources, are all over the place.

In 1 Kings 6, Christian and Jewish translators agree it’s “olive wood.”
In Isaiah 41, it’s among the list of trees that God will plant in the desert to show the poor and needy that he is their provider. There, etz-shemen is rendered mainly as olive , but also pine and the literal oil tree .

Etz shemen shows up in Ben Sira 50, one of those extra inter-testamental books that Catholics and Anglicans read, and it shows up in the Talmud. The Ben Sira quote is significant because, like in Nehemiah 8, it shows up next to zeit , the Hebrew word for olive, and is translated as wild olive. Ben Sira lived less than 200 years before Jesus and Paul.

We know how words shift in meaning over time and place. So I find the Ben Sira quote valuable, as his usage of etz-shemesh as wild olive tree may be helpful as we consider a passage in the New Testament.

Where do we see wild olive in the New Testament? Romans 11. Why does Paul use this metaphor of two olive trees? Surely, Paul had read Ben Sira, and we know that Paul the Pharisee knew etz-shemen from Kings, Isaiah, and Nehemiah.

Let’s go to Romans 11 (CJB).

13 However, to those of you who are Gentiles I say this: since I myself am an emissary sent to the Gentiles, I make known the importance of my work 14 in the hope that somehow I may provoke some of my own people to jealousy and save some of them! 15 For if their casting Yeshua aside means reconciliation for the world, what will their accepting him mean? It will be life from the dead!

16 Now if the hallah offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole loaf. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you — a wild olive — were grafted in among them and have become equal sharers in the rich root of the olive tree, 18 then don’t boast as if you were better than the branches! However, if you do boast, remember that you are not supporting the root, the root is supporting you. 19 So you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 True, but so what? They were broken off because of their lack of trust. However, you keep your place only because of your trust. So don’t be arrogant; on the contrary, be terrified! 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he certainly won’t spare you! 22 So take a good look at God’s kindness and his severity: on the one hand, severity toward those who fell off; but, on the other hand, God’s kindness toward you — provided you maintain yourself in that kindness! Otherwise, you too will be cut off! 23 Moreover, the others, if they do not persist in their lack of trust, will be grafted in; because God is able to graft them back in. 24 For if you were cut out of what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree!

25 For, brothers, I want you to understand this truth which God formerly concealed but has now revealed, so that you won’t imagine you know more than you actually do. It is that stoniness, to a degree, has come upon Isra’el, until the Gentile world enters in its fullness…

That's a big chunk of Romans because we need to see the context.

I am speaking today to Messianic Jewish congregation here today, a mixed multitude of Jews and Gentiles. This passage is familiar to most of us. The passage is a word of warning to us Gentiles. But what we’ll focus on today is Paul’s choice of metaphor – two different types of olive tree joined together in God’s garden, Jew and Gentile made into one fruitful tree in God’s kingdom.

Where did this sprout from in Paul’s mind. Sure, the Holy Spirit brought it to him. The Holy Spirit brings things to our remembrance. So Paul’s dictating this letter to the Romans – a mixed congregation like this one, a microcosm of the global church. The Gentiles and the Jews want to worship Jesus just a little differently. There are arguments on whether to keep the feasts, whether to keep kosher, whether we keep this fast or if we can buy meat at that store in the market. That’s the message of Romans – the call to unity within the mixed multitude that is the church of Messiah.

Remember, I said this would be midrash. Midrash is a Jewish teaching style where we use holy imagination to fill in some gaps, to try to answer the questions the Scriptures raise. So I ask you to extend me some grace as I do some prayerful, Scripture-grounded imagining.

Nehemiah 8 speaks of cultivated and wild olives joined together to make the sukkah. Sukkot is a feast day that’s open to all.

In Deuteronomy 16, the LORD says

13 “You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress. 14 You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns. 15 For seven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

Sukkot is not only for the citizens of Israel, as Leviticus 23 says, but also for the servants, the foreigners, the orphans, and the widows. EVERYBODY is invited to the sukkah.

In the prophetic vision of Zechariah 14, all the nations of the earth will be invited to celebrate Sukkot in Jerusalem with God. He’ll expect them to be there.

For this reason, in a prophetic action, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem has hosted a Feast of Tabernacles gathering in Jerusalem since 1980. Jesus-followers from around the world gather to mark Sukkot with God in Jerusalem, as he will require in the age to come.

So maybe Paul thinks about Jews and Gentiles celebrating Sukkot together in the final fulfillment. He remembers that Nehemiah’s sukkah instructions have olive and wild olive together. Paul knows the last days have begun with the resurrection of Jesus Messiah, and he sees this picture of an old olive tree being pruned and refreshed with graftings from wild olive trees.

I believe most of what Paul teaches us is information he learned in his formation as a Pharisee, educated in Jerusalem and Greek-speaking Tarsus. He knows the Scriptures and the teachings of the sages before him. And all that information is spun around, rethought, reimagined, reanimated by his encounter with the Living God in the person of Yeshua Messiah.

The Pharisees believed in the resurrection. The Pharisees believed that the nations would come to God, but at the very end. Paul realizes when he is confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus that the resurrection has begun and that all the prophecies of the nations coming to the God of Israel have started to be fulfilled. That is why he takes up Jesus’ call to be the Apostle to the Nations!

Let’s circle back to Nehemiah 8 and tie everything together.

17 The entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in them. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was great rejoicing. (NASB)

“And there was great rejoicing.”

These returned exiles have rediscovered what is probably my favorite Levitical feast. The text says they hadn’t built booths since the days of Joshua, almost 1,000 years before. Sukkot certainly wasn’t celebrated while in Babylon. After the long, hot summer of exile, Sukkot has finally come.

Compare this with what C.S. Lewis writes about Narnia in the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe: “It’s always winter but never Christmas.” Narnia was under the spell of the White Witch, which sucked the world of its joy. Then Aslan came and broke the witch’s spell. Joy returned! Christmas returned!

So it was for Judah for a thousand years. It was always a hot toiling summer – Judah toiled under judges, bad kings, and ultimately exile – but it was never Sukkot. Judah hadn’t experienced – until Nehemiah 8 – the full joy of freedom and God’s provision that Sukkot celebrates.

Why does C.S. Lewis make it winter and never Christmas? First of all, because he was a Brit. But the metaphor of always winter and never Christmas points to how the White Witch was keeping the Narnians oppressed and depressed. It took Aslan – certainly a picture of the Lion of Judah – dying in Edmund's place to break the witch’s curse on the land.

Sukkot is a festival meant to remind Israel that God has been with them all along. God has been their covering and their provision. God has been their shade in the wilderness, the one who brings water from stones, the one who gives bread from heaven.

So the people of Judah and Israel, by not celebrating Sukkot, were forgetting Immanuel, the God who took them out of Egypt, the God who sustained them in the wilderness, the God who gave them the Promised Land.

And I know some of you are thinking of the Messianic theories that place Jesus’ birth at Sukkot.[1] If this is new to you, ask a Messianic friend. But, yes, the announcing angel equates Yeshua with Immanuel, God with us (Matt 1). John 1 calls Jesus the Word of God, who is God and who tabernacles with us. It’s a connection that we can see from this side of history but would not have been visible from Nehemiah’s side of history.

Theories about Jesus’ actual birthday aside, I am satisfied with the picture of Zechariah 14 and the invitation of Deuteronomy 16. All are invited to God’s tent. All the nations will enter into God’s tent when New Jerusalem comes down and sanctifies and joins earthly Jerusalem. On that day, it will be clear to all the world that God is truly with us, ruling, reigning, providing.

As Paul says, quoting Isaiah and sticking Jesus right at the center, at the name of Yeshua

every knee will bow —

in heaven, on earth and under the earth —

and every tongue will acknowledge

that Yeshua the Messiah is Adonai —

to the glory of God the Father. ( Phil 2:10-11 , Isa 45:23 )

We celebrate that today, praying for the day when all our family, friends, and neighbors accept the invitation to the Sukkah that is Jesus.

We’ve run this way and that in the Scriptures. We’ve been in the Torah and the Prophets and we’ve peeked into the New Testament. Let’s recap and glean some application.

We are celebrating an ancient festival today. Sukkot goes back to the Torah, established by God as one of the Feasts of the Lord (Lev 23). It is renewed post-exile (Ezra 3, Nehemiah 8). We see Jesus celebrate Sukkot (John 7). For all those reasons, we’re celebrating Sukkot today.

Sukkot is for everybody. Deuteronomy commands the people of Israel to include everybody in their community in Sukkot celebrations. We see that open invitation points to a future fulfillment when the LORD will expect all the nations of the earth to celebrate the Feast of Booths with him in Jerusalem, when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that the LORD is Messiah.

That means we should be inviting everyone into the sukkah, both the literal booth you put in your yard and the metaphorical sukkah that is the family of God. Think and pray about who you should invite to congregation next, who you should invite to your table to share a meal and fellowship and talk about the things of God.
The reunification of Jew and Gentile – separated from each other after the Tower of Babel – is all over the Scriptures, and we may be seeing a hint – a remez – of that grafting together in Nehemiah’s instructions for building a sukkah.

The sukkah is just another metaphor for the dwelling place God is building for himself. [2] Paul and Peter speak of Jews and Gentiles together in Jesus as living stones making up the house of God. The joining of living stones or the grafting of trees, God is making for himself a people – a kingdom of priests – out of Jew and Gentile.
Above all, see Immanuel – God with us – in the sukkah. God is with us in the wilderness. God is uniting the mixed multitude in the wilderness. God is making Jew and Gentile into one new humanity in the wilderness. Jesus is providing bread and wine for us abundantly in the wilderness. He is the bread of heaven. He is our refuge from the hot sun of this brutal world. He will take us out of this exile, and we will see him make all things right in the end.

Let us pray.

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us to dwell in the sukkah. Thank you for covering us under the shadow of your wing. Thank you for sending Yeshua to tabernacle with us. Thank you for bringing Jew and Gentile together in the Messiah. Give us the strength, courage, and gift of hospitality to invite others into your covering love, grace, and peace. Amen.

Footnotes

Thomas Lancaster, “Birth of Jesus at Sukkot,” First Fruits of Zion, 28 Sept 2023. https://ffoz.org/messiah/articles/birth-of-jesus-sukkot.
Cf. Eph 2:19 :22; 1 Peter 2:5

Why the Church should care about antisemitism

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 20:13:28 GMT

Jesus is Jewish. There are Jewish believers in the church. God loves the Jewish people

This talk was presented to the New Wineskins Mission Conference 2025 on the night focused on the persecuted church. CMJ USA thanks Jenny Noyes and the New Wineskins team for allowing us to explain how antisemitism is related to Jesus Messiah and the church. The manuscript below differs some from recorded presentation.

Shalom and good evening.

Antisemitism. What is antisemitism?

Antisemitism is “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.” ^[ ¹ ^] Some examples of antisemitic thoughts: Jews are greedy capitalists. Jews are ignorant socialists. Jews are murderous. Jews control the world. Gross lies about a people that number 15 million among 8 billion!

Antisemitic hatred may manifest in hateful words or destructive and violent actions, everything from using antisemitic names and stereotypes to vandalism, arson, assault, and murder.

Antisemitism has been growing for years. In 2024, here in the United States, 70 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes were against Jews. The FBI tells us that nearly one-fifth of all hate crimes in the U.S. are against Jews. ^[2]

The number of antisemitic attacks have gone from 942 nationwide in 2015 to nearly 9,400 in 2024. That’s almost a 900 percent jump in attacks on Jewish people in 10 years. ^[ ³ ^]

Why are we talking about Jewish people and antisemitism on the night to remember the persecuted church?

I’d like to introduce you to Yaron Lischinsky.

Yaron was born to a Jewish father and a German mother. He spent his earliest years in Germany then the family returned to Israel. There Yaron wrestled with what it meant to be a Jew who believes Jesus is the Messiah. Am I Christian? Am I Jewish? He thought deeply. He was intentional about deciding for himself and not just assuming his parents’ faith.

He was known at Christ Church Jerusalem, where his father had worked for a time. Yaron had gone to the pastor for counsel as he was discerning what to do with his life. He went on a retreat with a friend of mine who ministers to believers after their army service. Yaron took the retreat seriously. It wasn’t just a free trip for him. It was a time to listen to what the Spirit and those older in the faith had to say to him.

After the army and after college, Yaron decided that he could make a global impact for peace as a diplomat. While on assignment here in the United States, he met Sarah Miligrim, a Jewish young woman from Kansas City. Sarah also “was striving for peace,” according to her family. ^[4]

Both Yaron and Sarah served as diplomats in Washington, DC. They were, according to Christianity Today, attending church membership classes together in DC. ^[ ⁵ ^] It seems Sarah was starting to investigate Jesus’ messianic claims. Colleagues and family say Yaron was going to propose to Sarah soon.

Yaron and Sarah were gunned down outside the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21, 2025. They had just left an event discussing humanitarian diplomacy. They had been together working toward their common goal – making for peace in a war-torn world.

The murder suspect is facing hate crime charges, meaning that police believe Yaron and Sarah were targeted for being Jewish. ^[ ⁶ ^]

Why should the church care about antisemitism?

ONE: The church includes more Jewish believers, like Yaron, than you might think.

A recent Pew study showed that – in the U.S. – nearly 300,000 Americans raised Jewish believe that Jesus is the Messiah. That same study shows that there are 1.6 million Americans with one Jewish parent who believe in Jesus. ^[ ⁷ ^]

That’s nearly 2 million Americans of Jewish descent who believe in Jesus. Two million followers of Christ in our pews who are threatened by those who hate Jews. Antisemitism threatens members of the Body of Christ as much as it threatens our Jewish neighbors who do not yet know Yeshua.

TWO: Jesus is still Jewish.

Who’s watching The Chosen?

Faydra Shapiro, an orthodox Jewish woman involved with Jewish-Christian dialogue, called The Chosen’s portrayal “the most intensely Jewish Jesus and Gospels we've ever had” on screen. ^[ ⁸ ^]

Remembering that Jesus is Jewish is vital for us to see that antisemitism is a problem. Don’t say “Jesus was Jewish.” We are people of the resurrection. Always say, “Jesus IS Jewish!” The New Testament – a product of Second Temple Judaism written by Jewish hands – is clear that Jesus of Nazareth is Jewish.

Consider this:

The New Testament opens with a family tree proving Jesus’ Jewishness. The Gospel of Matthew details how Jesus descends from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Tribe of Judah, King David.
This means that Jesus – born of a Jewish virgin, Mary – has Jewish DNA for all eternity.
Just after the resurrection, Jesus encourages Thomas to touch his crucifixion wounds. In Revelation 5, John sees Jesus enthroned as a lamb slain.

If resurrected Jesus still bears the marks of his crucifixion, then he still bears the marks of his circumcision under the covenants of Abraham and Moses.

Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Ancient of Days, is Jewish for all eternity.

THREE: (Why should the church care about antisemitism?) God chose to communicate his love and redemption to the whole world through the Sons of Jacob – through the Jewish people.

As Paul says in Romans 11, our Jewish neighbors are still loved by God for the Patriarchs’ sake.

We are to imitate God in this love. “Be holy as I am holy,” God tells us. This means loving our Jewish neighbors, whether or not they can see Jesus yet.

The church must be concerned about antisemitism because

Jesus is Jewish,
there are Jews in the Body of Christ,
and God still loves the Jews for the sake of the Patriarchs.

I will finish with a meditation on a painting.

This is White Crucifixion by Marc Chagall. It depicts a Jewish village under attack. Chagall painted it in 1938 after Kristallnacht, a nationwide attack on Jews in Nazi Germany.

In the middle of this violent scene, Chagall placed Jesus, the crucified Messiah, ultimate Jewish martyr, suffering with his people.

This painting challenges me. Seeing the Suffering Servant hanging in the midst of violent antisemitism challenges me to step into the threat of antisemitism with my Jewish neighbors.

What can we as followers of Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Man, Son of God, do in the face of antisemitism?

ONE. Make Jewish friends. Those who have a Jewish acquaintance are more likely to understand the threat of antisemitism.

TWO. Nurture Jewish friendships.

Check on your Jewish neighbors.
Ask them how antisemitism is affecting them.
Listen to their stories of past and present antisemitism in their family histories.
Listen and feel their fear, anger, and uncertainty.
Ask them how you can support them in the face of such a threat. This includes the Jewish Christian at your church. Our Jewish neighbors need to experience love from us whether or not they can see Jesus.

THREE. Speak out against Jewish hate

Dare to step into the threat as a suffering servant.
Pay attention when someone blames a Jewish person for the Israel-Hamas War. Words that equate Jews outside Israel with the State of Israel or their army are dangerous and have led to the vandalizing and burning of synagogues worldwide. Here in the U.S. – in Boulder, Colorado – we even saw Jewish Americans set on fire by an assailant angry about the Israel-Hamas War.
Call out antisemitic language when you hear it or see it, especially if it’s coming from a brother or sister in Christ. We should be the last people to say hateful things about the people related to our Lord and Savior, Jesus of Nazareth.

So friends, pay attention to antisemitism.

Hatred of Jewish people affects us because we are people of the Jewish Messiah.

It affects us because the body of Messiah has always been Jew and Gentile together.

So please make a Jewish friend. Be intentional about nurturing Jewish friendships, both inside and outside the church. And call out antisemitic language when you hear or see it.

Antisemitism grieves the heart of God. And so it should grieve us as well.

Shalom.

Footnotes

[1] “Working definition of antisemitism”, International Holocaust Alliance. https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism

[2] Gilson, Grace. “Anti-Jewish Hate Crimes Reach Record High in the United States, According to FBI.” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 6 August 2025. https://www.jta.org/2025/08/06/united-states/anti-jewish-hate-crimes-reach-record-high-in-the-united-states-according-to-fbi.

[3] “Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2024,” Anti-Defemation League, April 2025. https://www.adl.org/resources/report/audit-antisemitic-incidents-2024

[4] Kaplan, Jonah, “Sarah Milgrim’s Family Says She Was ‘Striving for Peace’ and Urges End to Violence: ‘What Does It Accomplish?’ CBS News,” 4 June 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sarah-milgrim-family-dc-shooting-victim-cbs-mornings-interview

[5] Nelson, Jill. “Murdered Staffer Had Deep Ties to Messianic Community in Israel.” Christianity Today, 23 May 2025. https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/05/dc-museum-shooting-messianic-jewish-staffers/.

[6] “Man Accused of Killing Israeli Embassy Staffers Indicted on Federal Hate Crime Charges.” PBS News, 6 August 2025. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/man-accused-of-killing-israeli-embassy-staffers-indicted-on-federal-hate-crime-charges.

[7] See our blog article “There are more Jewish believers in Jesus than you think” for the data analysis from the 2020 Pew report on Jews in America. https://www.cmj-usa.org/there-are-more-jewish-believers-in-jesus-than-you-think

[8] Shaprio, Faydra, “Why this Jew is binge-watching The Chosen (and maybe you should too),” Times of Israel Blogs, 23 May 2023. https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/why-this-jew-is-binge-watching-the-chosen-and-maybe-you-should-too/

How to Love Your Jewish Neighbors Today

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 15:19:30 GMT

A video on the need to befriend and care for Jewish people in midst of antisemitism

Antisemitism is a Gospel issue. Antisemitic incidents skyrocketed after the pandemic and reached new heights in the midst of the Israel-Hamas War. Christians must see Jesus in the faces of his Jewish brethren amongst us. When we confront antisemitism and speak comfort to our Jewish neighbors, the Holy Spirit begins healing generational wounds caused by historic antisemitism in the church and prepares hearts to receive the good news that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel.

This talk was given at the New Wineskins Missions Conference 2025.

Rev. Cariño Casas is the Executive Director of CMJ USA. She is passionate to stir up the American church to build bridges with our Jewish neighbors, speak out against antisemitism, and proclaim Yeshua the Messiah to all nations. She has served with CMJ, in Israel and the U.S., since 2014.

CMJ USA Day of Giving - October 14

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:06:30 GMT

The LORD has continued to stretch us at CMJ USA in 2025. We're back on social media. We've launched Bridge Builders Essentials. The Emunah Course is nearly done.

We are moving the direction the Lord has called us. God wants us to build bridges with our Jewish neighbors, and we are filling up the toolbox for you. Gathering and preparing resources like Bridge Builders Essentials, Jewish/Christian Ministry Guide, and the Emunah Course has a financial cost.

As Director Emeritus Philip Bottomley reminds me, "The Lord pays for what he orders." But we also know that the Lord loves to use his saints to be conduits of his abundant provision.

We are grateful for those of you who are regular givers. Thank you! You are integral partners.

If you are not yet a financial partner, please prayerfully consider coming alongside us.

CMJ USA needs your help!

Pray for the work of CMJ USA
Tell others. Help us get the word out about our ministry and programs
Donate. Prayerfully consider supporting the work of CMJ USA. Together, we can help churches and individuals share the love of Jesus with both Jewish and non-Jewish people.

You don't have to wait until October 14. Join us now and help us proclaim Yeshua Messiah to the next Joseph Schereschewsky!

P.S. This year, the Feast of Bishop Schereschewsky is on the last day of Sukkot. One way to celebrate the Feasts of the Lord is to give an offering ( tzedekah ) . Consider celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles by making a gift to CMJ USA.

FBI: 70% of religious ‘hate crimes’ in US directed against Jews

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 18:47:44 GMT

Jewish Media Review - August 2025

The headlines this last month have been overwhelming. It has been hard to separate domestic antisemitism issues from anti-Israel sentiment. Indeed, the Anti-Defamation League reported recently that for the first time most antisemitic acts in the United States were related to anti-Israel and anti-Zionism positions.

Of course we will all have different opinions on the Israel-Hamas War, how its being waged, how it’s being reported. We all have freedom to speak out and advocate for our positions.

What is absolutely unacceptable is abusing, attacking, hurting Jewish Americans (any Jews outside of Israel) for the decisions by Israel’s government. That is blatant antisemitism.

This month’s headlines continue to show that Jewish Americans themselves are divided on questions of the war. Quickly peruse Israeli news outlets – like Times of Israel, Haaretz, and the Jerusalem Post – and see that Israelis are divided on if to rescue the remaining hostages, if to continue the war, how to send aid to Gazans (only the most extremists are against sending aid).

Please continue to pray for the end of the war, justice for the hostages and displaced Gazans, healing for the broken in both Israel and Gaza.

�� FBI: 70% of religion-based 'hate crimes' in the US in 2024 were directed against Jews (All Israel)

�� The podcasters making antisemitism Christian again (The Forward)

�� Americans’ support for Israel in Gaza plummets to record low, new Gallup poll finds (JTA)

Just 8% of Democrats now support Israel’s actions in Gaza, down from 24% a year ago.

�� As images from Gaza spread, US rabbis wrestle with war’s morality from the pulpit (JTA)

More than a thousand rabbis have signed a public letter demanding Israel stop “using starvation as a weapon of war”

For Jews who have supported Israel, famine in Gaza may be a breaking point (Jewish Chronicle)
The ‘troubled committed’ are facing a crisis — which means that Israel is, too
A new collection of Yiddish songs casts Israel as the ‘evildoer’ in Gaza (JTA)
“Lider mit Palestine” draws on Jewish music traditions to express solidarity with the Palestinians and opposition to the war

⁉️ NYT admits emaciated Gaza child used in famine article had 'pre-existing health problems' (All Israel)

Foreign Ministry says decision to use misleading image was done ‘without journalistic ethics’

��️ A rabbi walked into a convention of Lutherans — and lamented their ‘one-sided’ resolution on Israel (JTA)

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, drew a standing ovation with his call for unity

�� American Jewish Committee donates $25K to Gaza church damaged by Israeli strike (JTA)

The donation marks a rare gift from a mainstream U.S. Jewish group toward Gaza Palestinians while Israel is at war in the enclave

�� Citing ‘the Jewish imperative’ to act, UJA-Federation pledges $1M for Gaza aid (JTA)

The donation from New York’s Jewish federation will go to IsraAID, an Israeli disaster relief organization that operates abroad.

��‍�� How believers are responding to trauma in Israel (All Israel)

'The trauma …is an open lesion getting injured over and over again'

�� In first, Arab League nations condemn Oct 7, demand Hamas leave Gaza; also call for 2-state solution (All Israel)

Arab League, EU & 17 other nations call for Palestinian state in 1967 borders

Hamas: Palestinian state recognition ‘fruits of Oct. 7’ (JNS)

�� Anti-Israel activists show true colors by targeting teenage Jewish athletes (Jewish Chronicle)

It is antisemitism and it is unacceptable

�� Auschwitz ‘my 0% unemployment plan,’ GOP California gov hopeful says (JNS)

"Auschwitz is not a prop," the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum told Kyle Langford.

�� He grew up Christian. Now he’s sleeping in the synagogue that sparked his conversion (Forward)

In a small Ohio town, a shuttered sanctuary sparked one man’s conversion — and a mission to preserve America’s overlooked Jewish past

✡️ Disney fixed a Messianic necklace, but there’s still work to do on Jewish representation, says advocate (Forward)

A Jewish character on ‘Mickey Mouse Funhouse’ no longer wears a necklace with a Jesus fish

�� Roman Polanski’s Dreyfus Affair movie ‘An Officer and a Spy’ finally opens in the US (Jewish Chronicle)

Dreyfus doesn’t shine but the lessons of the affair do, write two scholars about the long-delayed movie.

Cry, a call to lament war, antisemitism, our sin

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 16:38:39 GMT

The Ninth of Av: A Day of Lamentation and Repentance

Editor's note: This sermon was preached on August 3, 2025, which coincided with the Ninth of Av on the Hebrew calendar. Tisha b'Av (in Hebrew) is a fast day mourning disunity, persecution, and the destruction of both temples. The text below is an edited version of the full transcript.

As most of you are aware, today is a fast day—a day of mourning. It’s the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, marked by lamentation, fasting, humility, and repentance. In the synagogue and at the Western Wall, the liturgical focus is on the Book of Lamentations.

Let’s pray.

Father in heaven, on this solemn day of remembrance and reflection, we commit ourselves to You. Teach us. May we learn from the Jewish people, from Your Word, and above all, may we be guided by Your Holy Spirit. May Jesus be glorified in our midst, and may His name be revered and honored—especially in this city. Amen.

It’s traditionally believed that both the First and Second Temples were destroyed on this same day—the ninth of Av—which typically falls in July or early August. The First Temple was destroyed because of idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed. Scripture is clear on that.

The Second Temple, however, fell because of “causeless hatred.” Deep divisions within the Jewish community weakened them from within. As Josephus recounts, in the lead-up to Rome’s siege in 70 CE, Jewish factions turned on each other inside Jerusalem. Civil war erupted. Food supplies were burned. Blood was shed. These internal fractures made the Romans’ conquest tragically easier.

So today is not only a day of remembrance—it is a day of repentance. Tradition teaches that the Temple remains unbuilt because repentance has not yet gone deep enough.

�� The Poetics of Grief

The Book of Lamentations, written after the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC, is composed of five poetic laments. These poems express grief, confusion, humiliation, and a piercing question: Why? The poet knows why judgment came—because of sin—but still dares to ask God for mercy.

Some scholars call Lamentations ancient survivor literature. It channels the emotional weight of those who lived through the Babylonian conquest, much like Holocaust narratives today.

Lamenting runs deep throughout Scripture:

Over 40% of the Psalms are laments.
Jeremiah and Job echo this theme.

People pour their hearts out before God—sometimes with anger, doubt, disappointment. Why is this happening? Where are You, Lord? Don’t forget me.

And Scripture responds: God is not distant. He is not a cold, cosmic force unmoved by our suffering. He is a Person, deeply engaged with the emotional lives of His people. Yet many of us have built an image of God that is passionless and detached.

�� Lament as an Invitation to Relationship

The depth of lament throughout Scripture is God’s invitation: “Come to Me. Speak your pain. Ask your questions.” He does not grow tired of our cries. Instead, He welcomes them—again and again.

Child psychology helps us understand this dynamic. There are two kinds of attachment: anxious and secure. Anxious attachment fears rejection, avoids vulnerability. But secure attachment trusts. It knows it can bring burdens, doubts, complaints—and still be received with love. God invites secure relationship.

Unlike human community, where constant venting may overwhelm others, God is never overloaded. His response is one of intimacy. Lament is not a nuisance—it’s a sign of closeness.

And it’s not only for ourselves. We must lament on behalf of others. For example:

Do we lament the state of the Church?
Or do we judge, preach against, and grow self-righteous?

When scandals break, are we broken? Or just critical?

Perhaps our posture should be one of sorrow—not detachment. It’s easy to say, “I’m spiritual but not religious; I don’t belong to a church, so this doesn’t concern me.”

But when the Church fails, the name of Jesus is dragged into the mud. We fail to sanctify His name.

Lamenting calls us to examine ourselves. Perhaps, as John read from Lamentations, it’s not just about others. Maybe we need repentance too.

We must lament for persecuted Christians:

In Nigeria, where families are torn apart by extremists.
In Kenya, facing religious violence.
In China, enduring surveillance and oppression.

And closer to home: after 600+ days of war, I hear voices. Some demonize Israel. Others defend. But I rarely hear lament.

Where is the brokenness? Where is the cry that asks, “Why is this happening?” Where is our empathy?

Maybe it’s fatigue. Maybe social media overload. Maybe we’ve grown numb. But lament helps us feel again.

When Prophecy Becomes a License for Apathy

Sometimes prophecy is our excuse. We think, “It’s inevitable. Why bother caring?”

Years ago at a prayer conference in England, a Christian journalist read Psalm 74 or 76, predicting invasion and suffering for Israel. He said, “This will happen soon.”

Soon after, the Second Intifada broke out. Suicide bombings scarred the nation. Some of us lost loved ones.

And yet, after the journalist’s compelling talk, people said, “Praise the Lord, prophecy is being fulfilled,” and then went to have tea. Talk turned to British weather.

That reaction haunts me. If we believe prophecy, shouldn’t we be on our knees in prayer? Where’s the urgency? The empathy?

Another reason people disengage? “They deserve it.” But even if there’s truth in that—those who suffer are still God’s creation. Still worthy of lament.

There’s a well-known Jewish story told during Passover—a kind of theological commentary. When Pharaoh’s army drowned pursuing Israel through the sea, the angels rejoiced. But God said, “Be silent. I had to do this. But they too are my creation.”

It’s not about facts—it’s about truth. Even our enemies are made in God’s image.

In recent months, maybe we’ve grown numb. That’s understandable. But where is our lament?

Why is this happening to Israel?
Why is this happening to Palestinians?
Is it necessary?

Lament doesn't ignore sin. The poet of Lamentations confesses wrongdoing—but still asks for mercy. We can do the same.

We should lament for ourselves, yes. But we must also lament for others. Pour out grief, heartbreak, and questions. And if we feel nothing, then let this be our prayer:

“Lord, break my heart for what breaks Yours.”

✝️ The Man of Sorrows Is With Us

What’s the answer to all of this?

Jesus.

Isaiah 53 says He is a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. We usually apply that to the cross. But Jesus lived among us. He suffered disappointment. He likely battled depression. Certainly, He wrestled with fear and doubt.

He took on flesh—and with it, our pain.

Scripture says He is with us.

In the chaos.
In the suffering.
In disaster.

He does not abandon His people.

Isaiah 63 reminds us of God’s mercy:

“I will tell of the kindness of the Lord... According to His compassion and many kindnesses, He became their Savior.”

And then it says:

“In all their distress, He too was distressed.”

Psalm 91 affirms it:

“In all their trouble, I will be with you.”

God is with us. He enters our pain.

So yes, lament. Yes, grieve. Yes, wrestle with doubt.

But do not forget: The Lord is present. He hears. He stays.

Amen.

Is supersessionism really a cause of antisemitism?

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 18:17:56 GMT

A view from South Africa

A summary of an academic paper titled “The Rejection of Supersessionism as an Important Component for South African Christian Opposition of Antisemitism.” Supersessionism is sometimes called replacement theology. Download the original paper.

Antisemitism is rising around the world. This paper gives us a view from South Africa. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of CMJ USA.

The terms “Jew” and “Israel” evoke different reactions from different people. These range from warm feelings to hostility to indifference. There are those given to certain conspiracy theories who believe that a Jewish global cabal are pulling all the economic and political strings, working to execute their new world order. Some of those theorists label this conspiracy as Zionism. Zionism is also opposed by those who believe it is a colonial occupation of the land formerly known as Palestine. Too often Zionism is mixed with antisemitic tropes and expressions of hate towards Jewish people. The actions of the State of Israel become pretexts by which Jewish property is defaced, and Jews are attacked and vilified. What causes antisemitism, and in what ways have Christians contributed to the growth of antisemitism? In many ways, the roots of Christian antisemitism lie in supersessionism, which is the belief that Israel’s status as God’s chosen nation has been transferred to the Church. As R Kendall Soulen demonstrates in his book “The God of Israel and Christian Theology”, there are three models of supersessionism.

The first model of supersessionism is economic supersessionism. This states that nation of Israel was once loved and chosen before Christ came but now that Christ has come, Israel has lost their elect status. The second model of supersessionism is punitive supersessionism. This argues that the Jews rejected Christ and therefore will always be under judgement. When those who hold to punitive supersessionism speak of Jews, many will charge them with killing Christ, and therefore, deicide. If you visit social media, you may well come across a response of certain Christians to pro-Israel and pro-Jewish posts defaming Jews with such incendiary terms. The third model of supersessionism is structural supersessionism. By this Soulen means that the New Testament is taken as replacing the Old Testament. The violent reaction of some Christians against pro-Israel and pro-Jewish statements highlights the complexity of the issue of antisemitism.

There are those who are critical of the State of Israel’s actions and oppose certain policies, but they do not necessarily believe that Israel should cease to exist as a state in the Middle East. Criticism against Donald Trump’s economic policies, or the terms of Joe Biden or Barack Obama does not mean that that such criticism advocates the annihilation of the United States of America. However, there are those who criticise Israel’s actions as a pretext for their opposition of Israel’s existence. When Israel sent their troops into Gaza, following the attack of the 7 October, Israel was denounced by many in international media. Such critics were responded to with the argument that Israel’s response was justified, due to the atrocities committed by Hamas and their capture of hostages. Yet these critics of Israel responded by stating that the real problem was Israel’s “occupation” of the land. When such critics are asked what part of the land Israel is occupying, it is telling when they define it as all the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. This kind of response reveals that the issue is not primarily what Israel does in Gaza. The biggest crime that Israel commits is her own refusal to commit political suicide and cease to exist.

But the most alarming issue for Christians who believe that Jews are still God’s chosen people is the rise of antisemitism in the world. Ordinary Jews, who are not Israeli citizens, are attacked and people brazenly voice antisemitic rhetoric against them. This is especially alarming considering the history of Christian antisemitism throughout the common era. One only has to read books like Edward Flannery’s “The Anguish of the Jew: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism” (Paulist Press) and Colin Barnes’ book “They Conspire Against Your People: The European Churches and the Holocaust” (Kings Divinity Press) to see how much antisemitism was perpetuated in the name of Jesus, which directly contributed to the Holocaust. Thus, when those who own the name of “Christian” express contempt for Jewish people, even under the pretext of antizionism, it highlights the danger of history repeating itself.

South Africa is a country that has had its own history of antisemitism and since October 7 ^, 2023, there was an increase in antisemitic incidents documented by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. How should Christians respond to such antisemitic tropes and why do so many Christians seem indifferent to the plight of Jewish people? This year (2025) I co-authored an article published in the South African Baptist Journal of Theology (vol. 34 Issue 1) entitled “The Rejection of Supersessionism as an Important Component for South African Christian Opposition of Antisemitism”. I wrote this article as a requirement for my master’s thesis with the Baptist Theological College of Southern Africa. My thesis was “Towards Demonstrating the Unity of Scripture: Israel as a Biblical Theological Theme Using a Synchronic Approach to the Present Majority Canon.” The whole thesis was an investigation into the various theologies of the Scriptural books and what they progressively revealed concerning the theme of Israel. The hermeneutic was a grammatical historical hermeneutic that covered all 66 books of the evangelical canon. Through a synthesis of the canonical witness, I advocated a view of Israel that fell between progressive covenantalism and progressive dispensationalism. Progressive covenantalism argues that the Church is the new Israel in distinction to the Israel of the Old Testament. Progressive dispensationalism, on the other hand, argues that Israel and the Church are distinct entities who together comprise the one people of God.

If the majority of Christians in Nazi Europe had believed in the ongoing elect status and future salvation of the Jewish people, as Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer argued, they would have more likely opposed Nazi policies against Jewish people. The Holocaust is the perfect test case because this context saw antisemitism as the pervasive culture, which was enacted in government policy. If people believed in punitive supersessionism they would not likely endanger their lives for the sake of Jews who are cursed by God and guilty of killing Christ.

I submitted that publishable article on the 20 September 2023, but at my supervisor’s, Prof. Piff Pereira, suggestion, I reworked the paper to address South African antisemitism since the Hamas’s horrific and barbaric attack on Israeli citizens on October 7.

I began by looking at “Present Antisemitism and the Emergence of Religious Antisemitism” noting some of the brutalities committed by Hamas and subsequent increase in antisemitic incidents.

Between 07-23 October 2023, there was a 388% increase in antisemitic incidents of ‘harassment, vandalism, and/or assault compared to that same period in 2022’ (Tanyos 2023). There was a 1000% increase in violent antisemitic and anti-Israel messaging on Telegram by extremists and white supremacists. Germany has seen a 240% increase in antisemitic incidents after the Hamas attack. France saw 588 incidents of antisemitism (Tanyos 2023). Antisemitic incidents in London, between 1st-18th October 2023, increased by 1350%, while anti-Muslim attacks increased by 140% (Dodd 2023) and, according to Houston (2023), online antisemitism increased by 200%.

The war between Israel and Hamas was conflated with antisemitism in South Africa so that there were attacks and antisemitic slurs against South African Jewish people, including damage to a war memorial in the Jewish section of a Pretoria cemetery and graffiti condemning Israel on the wall of a Jewish cemetery in Durban. Verbal and online threats against Jews also increased as well as physical incidents. Please see the paper to read the case of Mcebo Dlamini who used the biblical epithets “uncircumcised in heart” to describe Jewish people. This was in connection to his verbal support of Hitler’s stance against Jewish people. Such antisemitic rhetoric betrays his underlying foundation of supersessionism.

It is necessary to examine antisemitism in relation to Nazi Europe as a test case. Even if one may argue that most Protestants would not have supported the annihilation of the Jewish people, it is certainly true that the majority supported Nazi antisemitism based on their antiJudaism. One cannot say that supersessionism was the only factor that contributed to Protestant antisemitism but one cannot deny the influence of supersessionism on Protestant antisemitism.

The greater history of supersessionism is instructive as the theology bore terrible political fruit political fruit within historic Christendom. Laws were enacted against Jews to exact greater taxes, to employ punitive measures against those who converted to Judaism and to limit the growth of Judaism. Colin Barnes listed four stages to antisemitic policies within Christendom which are vilification (100-400 AD), boycotts and exclusion (400-1100 AD), deportations (1100-1500 AD) and ghettoization (1500- 1800 AD). These are the same steps taken by Nazi Germany before proceeding to genocide.

Christian opposition to the Holocaust in the name of Christianity came from certain Christian leaders, such as Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. They argued that the Jews were still beloved by God and that there was a future salvation of Israel. In contrast to Barth and Bonhoeffer, antisemitic Protestants had theological commitments and influences that contributed to their support of Hitler’s antisemitic policies. Some of these were the notion that the Old Testament was inferior to the New Testament, and the structural supersessionism which regarded the New Testament as having interpretive authority over the Old and not vice versa. Luther’s arguments against the Jews were used to bolster antisemitic sentiments, as well as supersessionism itself.

How is the Christian believer to understand Israel’s relationship to the Church? I argue that support for the Jewish people should be theological and derived from Scripture, not merely based on philosemitic sentiment. Supersessionism is to be rejected because it is unscriptural. Even if one may regard the church as “spiritual Israel” (as based on an exegesis of Gal. 6:16 and Rom. 9-11 ) there are restoration promises in Scripture that speak of a geo-political restoration for national Israel in the eschaton. Jewish ethnicity is also significant in the Church. Gentile believers are made partakers with Jewish believers in “their” spiritual blessings ( Rom. 15:27 ). Thus, Gentile inclusion into Jewish blessings should create a sense of indebtedness to Jewish believers in the hearts of Gentile believers. Though equal in salvation, there is still a recognition that Jews are natural branches in the Jewish olive tree and that Gentile believers are wild olives grafted into that Jewish olive tree ( Rom. 11:17-22 ).

In citing my master’s thesis, I propose a view that Israel exists as a triune entity. Jesus is the perfect Israel, ethnic Jews constitute national Israel, and the Church is spiritual Israel. Spiritual Israel is the believing remnant of the Jewish nation with believing Gentiles grafted in. The reason that this is not supersessionist is that a future geo-political restoration of national Israel’s fortunes will be fulfilled in the eschaton after Israel accepts Jesus as their Messiah. In the eschaton Israel will enter the same New Covenant that the Christian enjoys today. It is difficult to know if German Protestants would have opposed Nazi antisemitism if they adhered to this theology. Yet, certainly, a conviction of Israel’s continuing election and future restoration would have eliminated the supersessionist arguments used to defend Nazi antisemitism.

Salvador Ung Hayworth is a PhD candidate at University of Pretoria and holds a Master of Theology from Baptist Theological College of Southern Africa. He is serving full time as a pastor for Kokstad Family Evangelical Fellowship and as an adjunct lecturer with the Union Bible Institute, South Africa and is a lecturer for Kings Evangelical Divinity School , lecturing in subjects like “Supersessionism and Antisemitism” and “The Jewish-Christian Character of the Church”.

Banner/thumbnail image: Selection on the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1944, via Wikimedia Commons.

25% of Americans say attacks on Jews ‘understandable’

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 23:03:49 GMT

Jewish Media Review - July 2025

�� 1 in 4 Americans believe recent attacks on Jews were ‘understandable,’ ADL survey finds (JTA)

Even more believe attacks on American Jews will end if Israel stops its war in Gaza, according to the survey.

Excerpt: The survey of 1,000 American adults, taken on June 10, also found that some excused or endorsed the violence against Jews. About 24% of respondents said they believed the attacks were “understandable,” and the same percentage said they believed the attacks were staged to gain sympathy for Israel. …

About 15% of respondents said that the violence was “necessary” and 13% said it was “justified.”

Editor’s note: Attacking Jews for the perceived sins of the State of Israel is antisemitism. Period.

�� Boulder firebombing victim Karen Diamond, 82, dies of her injuries (JTA)

The suspect in the firebombing attack, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, will now face two counts of murder as a result of Diamond’s death.

�� For the Jewish community in central Texas, deadly flooding hits close to home (Forward)

One Jewish family sent three generations to Camp Mystic

The Jewish American community has a strong summer-camp tradition, so the tragedy in Texas has touched many of our Jewish neighbors deeply. In a story by the Jewish Telegraph , the interim CEO of Foundations for Jewish Camps said: “In the Jewish community, we know the power of camp. We know it as a sacred space where children find their voice, counselors discover their purpose, and lifelong friendships are formed under starry skies. We know it as a refuge where values are lived, joy is abundant, and community is built in song, sweat, and spirit. That’s why our hearts are broken alongside the camps in Texas who are grieving unimaginable loss after this week’s devastating flood.”

�� The Fourth of July and ‘Four Score’ (Jewish Journal)

This July Fourth, members of the Jewish faith can take particular pride in one of their rabbis likely inspiring America’s most beloved president’s famous phrase.

�� Lessons from America’s first Jews (Jewish Chronicle)

Perhaps the greatest legacy of America’s first Jews, however, was their faith in their power to effect change.

�� Instead of Shouting “America Hates Jews,” Let’s Shout Something Smarter (Jewish Journal)

It’s painful to admit, but every time we go on about the alarming spread of Jew-hatred, we unwittingly contribute to spreading the poison.

This op-ed resonates with the work of CMJ USA. We want more Christians to love their Jewish neighbors, to learn from them, to stand by them.

�� Interest in Alfred Dreyfus is surging. His antisemitic affair has vital lessons for Jews today (JTA)

American Jewish historians abroad in Paris say an exhibit there about the falsely accused Jewish army captain feels especially urgent.

⛪ What a synagogue, a church and a train car taught me about humanity (Jewish Chronicle)

And how to teach it

�� Why Jews bury books like they bury the dead (Forward)

Every year, a rabbi gathers with his congregation to bury torn prayer books and worn-out Torah scrolls. It’s a quiet ritual — but one that carries the full weight of Jewish reverence for the sacred

�� What a Jewish view of repentance reveals about Jimmy Swaggart’s tearful confession (Forward)

His televised ‘I have sinned’ speech became a cultural touchstone, but in Judaism, repentance isn’t a performance — it’s a process

Editor’s note: This article may be hard for some of us to read. It is a Jewish critique on a Christian historical moment. It’s worth reading, though, because the author points us back to the biblical concept of t’shuva . Repentance is a process of turning around and should continue way after confession.

Trump says he didn’t know antisemitic history of ‘Shylock’ when he criticized bankers using the term (JTA)

“We expect more from the President of the United States,” the ADL said in a statement.

Editor’s note: I include this headline because perhaps there are others who do not know about Shylock. For a discussion of Shylock and the Merchant of Venice as a whole, see “Commuting with Shylock,” chapter 11 of Dara Horn’s book People Love Dead Jews ( which I reviewed ). The chapter tells the story of the author listening to the Merchant of Venice with her 10-year-old son during their drives. Her son had insisted on listening to the play because the phrase “a pound of flesh” had caught his ear. He listened intently to the whole play, asking questions and showing his understanding and growing ill-ease. By the end of it, her son says, “I never want to hear that again.”

�� In a first for Conservative Judaism, synagogue allows clergy to participate in interfaith weddings (JTA)

The policy change at Adath Jeshurun Congregation, a large synagogue in suburban Minneapolis, goes against rules set by the Conservative movement.

�� As Mel Brooks turns 99, his wisdom matters more than ever (Forward)

And its greatest outlet might be ‘The 2000 Year Old Man’

Happy birthday, Mel! Praying for you. Thank you for all the laughs.

Encountering the hope of Isaiah 19 at the Nova massacre site

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 22:08:49 GMT

Iraqis visit Israel to bless and pray for her in their time of grief and war

On October 7, 2023, Hamas fighters broke through the border fence and made their way to various villages in the Gaza Envelope. [ 1 ] Along the way, they encountered an unexpected target of opportunity – the Nova Music Festival. [ 2 ] In the end, about 100 Hamas aggressors murdered 344 civilians and 34 security personnel and took 44 hostages.

The parking lot of the festival site has been converted into a memorial to the slain and I wanted to visit it this trip. My fomer boss, Rev. David Pileggi, offered to drive me on Thursday afternoon, May 29. 2025.

Thursday morning, Mike Kerem of Derech Avraham said that some Iraqi Christians had come from the United States and wanted to join us. They had recently been in Egypt and Iraqi Kurdistan, and Israel was their third stop on their “Isaiah 19 pilgrimage.” David agreed.

What Is the Isaiah 19 Highway?

In May 2009, I was in Jerusalem for the first time. A new friend invited me to Succat Hallel, a 24/7 house of prayer in the city. Most of the time, there was someone praying or worshipping in song. However, on Monday nights there was a teaching.

This particular Monday in May, the teaching was on Isaiah 19:23-25:

²³ In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

²⁴ In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, ²⁵ whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”

I had traveled to Israel because study in the Complete Jewish Bible and Jewish New Testament Commentary by David Stern had stoked in me a love for the Jewish people, the protagonists of the Scriptures.

Yet, at the end of Isaiah 19, God professes love and blessing over the greater Middle East. So the LORD began to expand my heart to love Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims and Jews, Egyptians and Turks, Iraqis, Syrians, and Lebanese.God chose Abraham to bless the rebellious nations at the Tower of Babel . Read more about Derech Avraham and the Isaiah 19 Highway.

Iraqis visit the Nova massacre memorial

The Gaza Envelope is about a 90-minute drive from Jerusalem. Our drive took us along the Gaza border. We could see the skyline of Gaza City. Was that a plume of smoke in the distance? Sky News later reported an airstrike in Gaza City that reportedly killed 11 people.

Not long after we got out of our cars at the Nova site near Re’im, we heard booms in the distance. Now they were closer. “That sounds like a tank,” David said. Nobody at the memorial site seemed concerned. They all trusted that all the firepower was Israeli, pointed away from us into Gaza.

One of the Iraqi women came up to me and confessed that the sound of war in the distance was touching her trauma. “I know war,” she said.

She explained that she had lived through the Iraq-Iran War (1980-1988) and the Persian Gulf War (1990-1991). She spoke of seeing death and destruction, and how she could feel that same pain in the Gaza Envelope.

So many beautiful faces

Blood covers blood

Our visitors from Iraq and the United States had the murder of Abel on their minds. More specifically, they were meditating on Hebrews 12:24 , how Jesus’ sprinkled blood “speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” They interpreted that while the spilled blood of Abel cried out for justice, the sprinkled blood of Jesus – the universal atoning sacrifice – spoke the better word of justice, healing, and comfort.

Our new Iraqi friends called us to pray and even to share in communion bread and wine in this place of devastation. I read the Mourner’s Kaddish. They read out God’s promise of Ezekiel 37 that the dry, dead bones of Israel will live.

⁴ …O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵ Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. … “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. … ¹³ And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. ¹⁴ And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

After we all partook of bread and wine, one of our visitors dripped the remaining wine out on to the dry dust of the Nova site – a prophetic action of the blood Jesus coming to join and cover the blood of those slain on October 7, 2023.

David then drove us to the junk yard where all the abandoned, shot up, and burned out cars from October 7 have been gathered. The junk yard, which exited before the Hamas invasion, has become a makeshift memorial site.

There, our new Iraqi-American friends prayed for David’s refreshment and strengthening as he continues to serve in wartime Israel. Then we parted ways.

The hope of the Isaiah 19 Highway

God loves the people of Israel. He has chosen them as his treasured possession ( Exod 19:5 ). Jerusalem is his resting place forever ( Ps 132:13-14 ). God also loves the nations, particularly those that surround Israel. He longs to see them reconciled. When one hurts, the whole region is inflamed.

In light of hundreds, even thousands of years of history, there is no reason that Palestinians, Iraqis, Egyptians, Jordanians, Lebanese, Syrians, and Turks would have any love for Israel and her people. Yet for years I have seen just that. I have seen people from enemy nations travel to Israel to bless the people, to pray for their peace and wholeness. They have done this because they follow Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish Messiah, the King of Israel, the King of Kings.

When you see war raging in the Middle East – anywhere in the world – know that God is working his miracles. He is reconciling enemies. He is healing hateful hearts. He is restoring all the nations to himself.

Peace will come to the Middle East and the world. I have seen the firstfruits , and they are very good.

Footnotes

The Gaza Envelope is the area of the State of Israel that surrounds the Gaza Strip. For a list of the communities affected by the October 7 attack, see Mohnblatt, Debbie. “Gaza Envelope Devastation Mapped.” The Media Line, 24 October 2023. https://themedialine.org/news/gaza-envelope-devastation-mapped/ .
Breiner, Josh. “Israeli Security Establishment: Hamas Likely Didn’t Have Advance Knowledge of Nova Festival,” Haaretz, 18 Nov 2023. http://archive.today/8kQ9P

David Pileggi on how the Israel-Hamas War revealed latent antisemitism

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 18:44:10 GMT

An interview with pastor of Christ Church Jerusalem

Back on June 2, 2025, Rev. David Pileggi, pastor of Christ Church Jerusalem, was interviewed by Kevin Kallsen of Anglican Unscripted.

David and Kevin discuss the Israel-Hamas War and the surge of antisemitism in the United States and around the world. While some of the discussion of the war may be dated (there seems to be a renewed hope for a ceasefire and the release of hostages), the discussion on how the war has revealed latent antisemitism continues to be relevant.

Below we share some excerpts from the interview. The transcript excerpts have been edited for clarity.

Kevin: I want to welcome David back to the program. Last time I had you on was October 2nd of last year. We were coming up on the anniversary of the October 7th attacks, that occurred in Israel by Hamas in 2023. It's time to get a quick update, because a lot has happened. We had some hostages released. There was a time of truce… the truce fell apart and the hostage negotiations had stopped. What has happened recently?

David: Well, basically, we're at an impasse. There was a truce or a ceasefire up until March the 2nd. And the Israeli government, decided to break that a ceasefire in order to try to achieve its ultimate war goal, which is the military defeat of Hamas. It has made secondary the release of the hostages. So the war has continued. The aim of the wars is to root out and destroy Hamas.

At the moment, Israel is trying to seek out and kill Hamas operatives, military operatives and those who work for the Hamas civilian administration. Unfortunately, many of these operatives are living in tents, with their family, in so-called safe zones. And, while a number of important or semi-important Palestinian operatives are being killed, also a lot of Palestinian civilians are being killed or being injured. The world has pushed back quite strongly against Israel. Up until March 2nd, Israel had quite a bit of quiet international support from Europe, the United States, and the Arab world.

Now it's getting a lot of public criticism during this phase of the war.

Probably 70% of the Israeli public, also wants the war to come to an end. And they want the hostages released. And, this present government thinks otherwise. So this is where this is where we stand at the moment.

There are negotiations going on between Israel and Hamas through the United States, but they certainly cannot see eye to eye. Israel wants a truce with the possibility of continuing the war. Hamas wants a truce with the war finally coming to an end and allowing the international community to rebuild Gaza.

So we're at a stalemate.

Kevin: Because in order to clear Gaza of Hamas and terrorist influencers, you have to go street by street, building by building and displace all the citizens to a different location.

David: That's correct. The question is whether it morally, ethically, politically and even militarily… is it worth the price to do this?

And there are some, military experts and obviously those, in power in the government who believe that destroying Hamas is absolutely the best policy, because once Hamas is destroyed militarily, they won't be able to reassemble, to come back to attack Israel again. And this might actually be the very best for the not only for Israel, but ultimately for the Palestinians.

There are those, on the other hand, including many in the military itself, who say that it's probably impossible to totally defeat Hamas, and it's better to bring the war to an end and to try to cripple Hamas through diplomatic means and with the aid and support of the international community. So, that's the debate raging in Israel.

It's made complicated by the fact that many Israelis believe that the prime minister is keeping the war going not only for military and strategic reasons, but also for personal political reasons, whether that's true or not.

There's a vocal but small lobby in Israel of parents who've lost sons and daughters in the war. They want to see the war come to some conclusion in which they can claim victory. They don't want their sons or daughters to have died in vain. At least that's what that's what they're saying.

So internally, it's quite complicated, as well as, internationally.

Antisemitism knock-on effect

Kevin: More and more here in America, we're having, antisemitic attacks, terror attacks. A governor's mansion [was set on fire]. We had two employees of the Israel consulate killed here in Washington, D.C. We had a firebombing attack at a pro-Israel rally in Colorado. And, you know, certainly this is not the first time we've had this on the shores here in America.

What happens in Israel is not isolated to Israel. It affects every nation because everybody wants to take a side.

David: Right. Absolutely. This is [war], of course, unleashed a wave of antisemitism. Naturally, I think all of us realize that that antisemitism, is latent just below the surface in churches and civic organizations, at political parties. And at certain times in history it, tends to explode.

It comes in waves. This wave has been quite vociferous and quite dangerous for the Jewish people internationally. With as much as we should have and could have expected antisemitism coming out of the the Gaza war, it has been quite shocking and bigger than I think anyone imagined.

It is a very serious development. Antisemitism, at least the way we're seeing expressed in many countries in the world including the U.S, doesn't just hurt the Jewish people. It eats away at the foundations of democratic life. It's especially dangerous for the church itself.

So for our own sake, I think it certainly needs to be dealt with firmly and in the most public manner possible.

Kevin: Now, it is my belief that it's not antisemitic to criticize the military strategy of Israel.

David: Absolutely. It is not antisemitic to criticize the state of Israel or the policies o the State of Israel.

It's another thing to say “From the river to the sea” because you're saying, Well, let's just, dismantle, destroy the State of Israel. What people are basically saying is that the Jews are not an ethnic group and therefore they have no right to a nation.

The history of antisemitism, Kevin, has been such that throughout much of at least recent history, medieval history, even going back to the time before Jesus, antisemitism was basically an unfair and almost a distorted critique of Judaism itself. Over the centuries, many criticized Judaism, tore Judaism apart because we didn't like this religious value or this aspect and called it a false religion and associated the Jews and their religion with the devil.

Now, that doesn't happen as much. What happens is, instead of attacking individual Jews, the object of hatred and antisemitism has become the whole State of Israel. So we not only delegitimize Judaism now, some are delegitimizing a state.

What's so critical about the way Jews understand themselves, and I think how the Bible understands the Jewish people is at one hand, they're a religion because God has given them a Torah, a book, a religious law, a covenant. And on the other hand, they're an ethnic group. The promise God makes to Abraham that continues throughout the Hebrew Bible is that the Jews are also given a land.

Having a land and a covenant makes them a people, an ethnic group, and it makes them a religious group. Antisemitism today is attacking both of those pillars.

Kevin: Therein lies the paradox. When ancient Israel fell, the Jews dispersed throughout Europe and other lands, they were told to go home, go back to Israel, go back to Jerusalem. They do. Then that’s not good enough.

David: A hundred years ago, antisemites wrote on wrote on the walls of European cities, “Jews to Palestine.” And today it's “Jews out of Palestine.” That's the paradox. That is the dilemma that we're facing.

On the murder of Yaron Lischinsky in Washington, D.C.

Psalm 87: Loving what God loves

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 16:04:22 GMT

A reflection and testimony after a month in wartime Israel

Preached at Church of the Savior - Ambridge, PA on June 29, 2025

Feast of St. Peter & St. Paul

Chesed vShalom. Grace and peace to you in the name of Yeshua the Messiah.

A little more than a week ago, I was listening to the siren song of Iranian ballistic missiles in Tel Aviv. Happily, the sound of the saints worshiping God and praying was louder and more compelling.

Today we celebrate the Feast of Peter and Paul, the two Jewish believers who helped the Jesus movement grow from a Jewish sect centered in Jerusalem to a global movement still alive today.

Did you all see the video of the Jesus-shaped cloud over Manila, Philippines ? It was filmed after Mass at their basilica. Why do Filipinos, whose ancestors worshipped spirits and created things, more than 5,000 miles from Jerusalem, think they saw the Jewish Messiah in the clouds? Because of the proclamation of Peter, Paul, and the other apostles. Because the apostles suffered and died for the truth that Jesus – Messiah and God – was crucified, dead, buried, and raised to life everlasting.

The Jesus movement has grown from 120 at Pentecost to 2.5 billion today, thanks in part to a fisherman and a Pharisee. Thanks in whole to the Holy Spirit.

Our readings today speak of God as the Good Shepherd of Israel, Jerusalem as God’s favorite spot on earth, Peter’s commissioning, and Paul passing the baton to Timothy.

All of these topics are compelling. I desired to write a rich sermon on one of these passages. But it became clear that I needed to share with you some testimonies of my time in Israel. We will reflect on the psalm along the way.

Psalm 87 opens

1 The LORD loves the foundation which he has laid upon the holy hills; *
the gates of Zion are dearer to him than all the dwellings of Jacob.
2 Very excellent things are spoken of you, *
O city of God.

Zion. It’s a word associated with Jerusalem since at least the time of David. Zion is used more than 150 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. ¹ Seventeen of the Psalms speak of Zion. ²

Because the writers of Hebrews and Revelation use Zion to point to the heavenly sphere, Christians often spiritualize the use of Jerusalem and Zion, particularly in the Psalms.

But for me, Zion has tangibility.

Psalm 102 says,

But you, Adonai, are enthroned forever;

your renown will endure through all generations.

You will arise and take pity on Tziyon,

for the time has come to have mercy on her;

the time determined has come.

For your servants love her very stones;

they take pity even on her dust.

I can say I love her stones and her dust. We know from Revelation 21 that New Jerusalem will come down from heaven. But to where? I believe New Jerusalem will descend on the same geographical place as historical Jerusalem –- and beyond as the New Jerusalem described in Revelation will take up the whole area that we call the Middle East. ³

I first went to Jerusalem in 2009, and I quickly fell in love with both the old and new city.

Psalm 132 (vv. 13–14) says, “For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place: ‘This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.’” I take the LORD at his word. He intends to dwell in Zion forever. I want to love what he loves. So I love Jerusalem.

This doesn’t mean the city is perfect. This doesn’t mean the people are perfect. It is the Holy City and the Holy Land because God called it that, not because the people are pious. The people are as unpious as the rest of us. They wrestle with the same things we do: hunger, lust, worry, greed, anxiety, pride. Jews, Christians, and Muslims, they are all human. And God loves them.

I traveled to Israel this May to visit CMJ colleagues, help where I could, and hopefully encourage those I met.

Encouragement looked like washing dishes the first few days so that others could rest or work on other tasks. My ministry in those early days was also listening to staff who are weary and stretched thin by war, lack, and overwork.

Then I was encouraged by testimonies from the Mercy Fund, the humanitarian aid arm of the Christ Church Jerusalem.

The Christ Church Jerusalem Mercy Fund

The Mercy Fund runs a legal aid desk in addition to offering financial, medical and food aid to Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Israel and the West Bank.

The legal aid desk now has eight lawyers. They are Jews and Arabs. Some are of Ethiopian descent. They are all followers of Jesus. They all are now counted as citizens of God’s Jerusalem, as Psalm 87 says.

The psalm mentions Philistia, that even Philistia will be considered as native to Jerusalem. Palestine, which was the name from the year 135 until 1948, of all of what we call Israel today, is a Latinized form of Philistia. The Arabs of the area have taken the name Palestinian. And here in this psalm, God says he will count these non-Israelites as natives of Jerusalem.

Madina ⁴ is a Christian Arab lawyer. She told me that the counselors on the legal aid desk are determined not only to win the case but to find and solve the root problem that created the case.

She told of a Palestinian woman from Bethlehem who would come to the Mercy Fund for help renewing her driver’s license. She was married to a Jerusalem Arab, so she was able to reside in Jerusalem with him and their children. During one of these renewal appointments, Madina noticed a bruise on the client’s shoulder. When she asked her about it, the client revealed that her marriage had been abusive for 22 years. She hadn’t left him because her husband would threaten that he would make sure she could never return to Jerusalem and see her children. So she had endured.

Madina explained to the Bethlehem woman that she could have Jerusalem residency based on her children, even if she divorced. She advised her to go to Bethlehem with her children while she worked out the residency. In the meantime, Israel began to offer permanent residency to Palestinians who had previously held temporary residency. The client would have to return to Jerusalem, though, to claim it. The woman was afraid to return to her abusive husband.

So the lawyer called the husband to explain the new opportunity and that his wife was coming home. But if he laid a hand on his wife, Madina would make sure the husband was arrested and imprisoned. He never struck his wife again. Madina secured permanent residency for the Bethlehem woman so she could stay in Jerusalem even if she divorced.

Amber ⁵ is an American-Israeli woman married to a Jewish man. She is a Mercy Fund staff volunteer who runs a mobile medical service in the West Bank. A question had been burning in her heart and mind: “What does love look like?” She was struck by Jesus’ instruction in Acts 1 to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. Judea and Samaria are known by much of the world as the West Bank today. She gets a lot of push back from Messianic Jews in Israel who are less inclined to minister among the Palestinians, especially in wartime. Amber reminds them that Jesus told us to love our enemies and challenges them with the question, “What are your plans to love your enemy? How will you love your enemy?”

Amber spoke of entering a Bedouin village and seeing a woman who was already trying to serve her community. So instead of going in with resources and eclipsing her work, Amber asked her, “How can we help you?” The Bedouin woman asked for help caring for the elderly in the village. Amber is now serving four villages and has expanded to offer dental care for children and adults.

Sara ⁶ is the Mercy Fund project manager for humanitarian aid. She first came to the Mercy Fund 15 years ago as a client. Born in Bethlehem in an Arab Christian family, she said she felt love and compassion for the Jewish people since she was maybe 7 years old. She would see in the news that a Jew had been hurt in an attack, and she felt compassion. Her family thought she was crazy.

Sara went to Christ Church Jerusalem to find help for her and her daughter. She loves that she found at Christ Church an outlet for that Jesus-like compassion she feels for those in need. She now gets to minister to Jews and Arabs in Israel and in the Palestinian Territories. She started by offering hot meals in Bethlehem, something she still does once a week.

Her ministry is focused on the elderly at this time. She estimates that 80 percent of Bethlehem residents rely on the tourism industry, which is all but non-existent in wartime. Many aid agencies and government programs are focusing on feeding and providing for families with children. The elderly also sometimes give what little they have to children and grandchildren. So Sara, like Amber, makes sure the elderly are also cared for.

I traveled with Sara and Mercy Fund director Na’amah to two schools to deliver tablets. Both schools, one near Gaza and the other near Lebanon, had been deeply affected by the war with Hamas and Hezbollah. Both were struggling with students who had behavioral issues and were behind scholastically due to the stresses of the war. One school served Jewish religious children, and the other had a mixture of children from northern Israel.

And here was Sara from Bethlehem, a Palestinian Arab, ministering mercy to these Jewish students in need.

At the school in the south, after the principal told us of how some teachers and students were struggling with PTSD, I asked her, “How are you?” After trying to keep a brave face for a few seconds, she allowed herself a moment of vulnerability and tears. She accepted our offer of prayer. And Sara reached out and hugged this Jewish woman. A Palestinian Christian was comforting an Orthodox Jewish Israeli.

In Ephesians, Paul speaks of the One New Man, Jew and Gentile unified in Christ. Here was the one new human – Arab Sara, Jewish Na’amah, Tex-Mex me – ministering the love of Messiah to a Jewish Orthodox woman.

Suffering with the suffering

Our two New Testament readings as well as the prayer of the day allude to Peter and Paul’s martyrdom. In our epistle reading, Paul tells Timothy that his race is ending and that he will be poured out as an offering unto God. Earlier in that letter, Paul tells Timothy to “share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” ( 2 Tim 2:3 ) and to “share in the suffering for the gospel by the power of God” ( 2 Tim 1:8 ).

As the director of the Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People here in the United States, one of my main exhortations to Christians in this season is to pay attention to the rising antisemitism and to find a way to step into the suffering of our Jewish neighbors. Jesus steps into our suffering to minister salvation to us. We are called to imitate our rabbi as we minister to those around us.

And that’s what the staff and volunteers of CMJ and Jews for Jesus and Chosen People Ministries and others did in Israel for 12 days. We suffered the missiles of Iran with the people of Israel. We got up out of bed and ran to the bomb shelter. We stopped in the middle of a meal and ran to the bomb shelter. We heard the boom-boom of air defense interceptors taking out missiles. And sometimes they were very close. And sometimes the window rattled that much louder. We’d see in the news which buildings were hit. How close to us would it be this time?

Why? Why stay and risk being bombed? So that Israeli down the street who has no bomb shelter of his own sees we are still with him night after night. So that couple walking their dog when the sirens rang found a safe place with us. So that two gay guys who were in Tel Aviv for the cancelled gay pride parade would find a bunch of Jewish Jesus followers singing and dancing in the bomb shelter while the sirens and booms rang outside. And the two gay guys sang and danced with us. May the Holy Spirit touch and transform their lives.

God loves the Jewish people. God loves the Palestinian people. God loves the nations. Not because we are good, but because he is good. We show that love when we abide and endure with the suffering.

My heart broke over and over again in October 2023 as I read the atrocities Hamas perpetrated in the villages along the Gaza border, heinous things I will not repeat here today. They are recorded in the newspapers, and if you look hard enough, you can find Hamas’ own Go-Pro videos documenting their crimes.

Then my heart broke again on Friday. During most of my time in Israel, there were reports that Israeli soldiers were shooting Gazans waiting in line for food. It was every day and the numbers didn’t make sense to me. Surely it was Hamas propaganda. Hamas’ word cannot be trusted.

But then a report in a news source I trust reported that the Israel Defense Forces was opening an investigation into war crimes by its own soldiers. ⁷ Other soldiers had blown the whistle and reported using live gunfire for crowd control.

My heart sank and broke anew.

And still, I would rather be among those broken people. They are broken and need Jesus.

Paul writes, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” ( Rom 5:8 ).

While the people of Israel are still sinners, I feel that strong call to be among them and model for them the suffering of their Messiah. While the Jewish people still cannot see Messiah and some even curse Jesus, we must love them because Jesus loves them as his very flesh.

Mourning at the Nova Festival Site

Back in Psalm 87, we read God say, “I will consider Egypt and Babylon among those who know me.” Modern Iraq is where ancient Babylon stood. I was surprised when some Iraqis showed up and walked a few miles with me.

When I arrived in Israel in May, the only fighting was in Gaza. That fighting was sparked by Hamas’ brutal invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023. One of the places on my heart to visit on this trip was the site of the Nova Music Festival. Indications are that Hamas had no idea that hundreds of Israelis were partying in the desert. The invaders were on their way to various villages in what is called the Gaza Envelope ⁸ when they encountered the rave, and it became a target of opportunity. ⁹ In the end, about 100 Hamas aggressors murdered 344 civilians and 34 security personnel and took 44 hostages.

The parking lot of the festival site has been converted into a memorial to the slain. My old boss, Rev. David Pileggi, offered to drive me on Thursday afternoon. Thursday morning, Mike Kerem, a CMJ colleague, said that some Iraqi Christians had come from the United States and wanted to join us. They had recently been in Egypt and Iraqi Kurdistan, and Israel was their third stop on their “Isaiah 19 pilgrimage.”

The end of Isaiah 19 looks a lot like Psalm 87. In a few verses, God surprisingly blesses Israel’s enemy neighbors. He calls Assyria his handiwork, Egypt his people and Israel his inheritance. It clearly looks into a future when long-time enemies unite in worship of the one true God. That promise of a Middle East united in peace under the banner of the God of Israel drives a lot of us doing ministry in the region, including these Christian Iraqis we met.

Not long after we got out of our cars at the Nova site, we heard booms in the distance. Now they were closer. “That sounds like a tank,” David said. Nobody at the memorial site seemed concerned. They all trusted that all the firepower was Israeli and pointed away from us into Gaza.

One of the Iraqi women came up to me and confessed that the sound of war in the distance was touching her trauma. “I know war,” she said. She explained that she had lived through the Iraq-Iran War in the 80s and the Persian Gulf War of the early 90s. She spoke of seeing death and destruction, and how she could feel that same pain here.

The memorial is made up of photographs of the 377 Israelis killed at Nova. It’s just beautiful face after beautiful face, all made in the image of God. They were there chasing pleasure, love, and friendship. Death found them instead.

The Iraqi visitors had the murder of Abel on their minds. More specifically, they were meditating on Hebrews 12:24 , how Jesus’ sprinkled blood “speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” They interpreted that while the spilled blood of Abel cried out for justice, the sprinkled blood of Jesus – the universal atoning sacrifice – spoke the better word of justice, healing, and comfort.

Our new Iraqi friends called us to pray and even to share in communion bread and wine in this place of devastation. I was unsure but they were determined. After we all partook of bread and wine, one of our visitors dripped the remaining wine out onto the dry dust of the Nova site – a prophetic action of the atoning blood of Jesus coming to join and cover the blood of those slain on October 7.

We at this church will soon partake of bread and wine together. This spiritual food is a place where we fellowship with Jesus in a deep intimate way that we really don’t understand. It is a meal that reminds us that he has suffered for us and he even suffers with us still.

He ever makes intercession from the throne. Intercession is an action triggered by compassion and even empathy. We know he came to earth and suffered the trials of being human. But what if he still feels our pain, our sorrow, our brokenness, and that’s why he prays for us.

He is with us. He knows our every heartache and physical ache.

He sits in the bomb shelter with Israelis. He stands in the exposed food line with Palestinians who wonder if they will be shot or bombed ¹⁰ next. He winces when Jews are killed for being Jews. He weeps when a suicide bomber murders two dozen Christians in Damascus ¹¹ or the Fulani massacre 200 Christians in Nigeria ¹² for proclaiming his name.

He invites us to the table to eat the bread and wine that transmit his healing to us. But he also bids us invite others to the table to find peace, healing, rest, and salvation.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus Messiah, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the Cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.

Footnotes

Philip J. King, “Jerusalem (Place),” in The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992) 751.
Zion Related Psalms: 20; 24:7–10; 46; 47; 48; 50; 68; 76; 84; 87; 93; 96; 97; 98; 99; 122; 149.
Rev. 21 describes city as 12,000 stadia cubed, approximately 1,400 miles cubed..
Name changed for security.
Name changed for security.
Name changed for security.
Jacob Magid, Emanuel Fabian, “IDF confirms probe into killings near Gaza aid site, denies troops ordered to shoot civilians.” Times of Israel. 27 June 2025. https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-confirms-probe-into-killings-near-gaza-aid-site-denies-troops-ordered-to-shoot-civilians/
The Gaza Envelope is the area of the State of Israel that surrounds the Gaza Strip. For a list of the communities affected by the October 7 attack, see Mohnblatt, Debbie. “Gaza Envelope Devastation Mapped.” The Media Line, 24 October 2023. https://themedialine.org/news/gaza-envelope-devastation-mapped/ .
Breiner, Josh. “Israeli Security Establishment: Hamas Likely Didn’t Have Advance Knowledge of Nova Festival,” Haaretz, 18 Nov 2023. http://archive.today/8kQ9P
Emanuel Fabian. “34 Gazans said killed in IDF strikes; army issues evacuation warning after rocket fire.” 28 June 2025. https://timesofisrael.com/34-gazans-said-killed-in-idf-strikes-army-issues-evacuation-warning-after-rocket-fire/
“Twenty killed in suicide bombing at Damascus church.”Reuters. 22 June 2025. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/blast-rocks-church-syrias-damascus-witnesses-say-2025-06-22/. “Syria: Suicide Bombing at Damascus Church Kills 25,” BBC.com 22 June 2025. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c307n9p43z9o.
“Over 200 Christian Farmers Killed Before, After Nigeria’s Democracy Day.” International Christian Concern, 16 June 2025. https://www.persecution.org/2025/06/16/over-200-christian-farmers-killed-before-after-nigerias-democracy-day/

Banner/thumbnail i mage is a triptych of screenshots from a video of Iranian missiles flying over Christ Church Jerusalem and the Tower of David in Old City Jerusalem in June 2025.

Pray. Pray. Pray for CMJ staff in the Holy Land

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 12:04:53 GMT

US Director reports from wartime Israel

TEL AVIV – I arrived in Israel on May 21 to lead a Tour with Purpose – a week of service projects meant to help and encourage the peoples of the Holy Land. A few days before the trip was to start, my one traveler informed me that her flights had been cancelled. Mine were not. So I continued to come visit CMJ Israel colleagues and friends and report back to you.

The first week I helped out at the Christ Church guest house, spent time listening to Mercy Fund testimonies, helped an Israeli friend in distress get home, traveled with the Mercy Fund to make two aid deliveries, and helped sort donated supplies at Israel Support Bridge. I will share some of those stories once I get back to Pittsburgh.

The second Mercy Fund trip took us to the Galilee, where a friend picked me up and took me to his family’s home in the Golan Heights. It was quite peaceful in the north. I visited Majdal Shams, the Druze community that lost 12 children to a Hezbollah rocket when it hit the town soccer field, and I looked down on Syria from Mount Bental. I finally visited the Banias, also known as the Hermon Stream Nature Reserve. The streams of snow melt here form the headwaters of the Jordan River and are the source of the Sea of Galilee. The park also has the remains of Caesarea Philippi, the district where Jesus asked his disciples who they believed he is ( Matt 16:13ff ).

I returned to Beit Immanuel in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening, June 12. There had been talk that Israel might attack Iran, but I wasn’t so sure. If it was happening, I was hoping it would kick off after my June 16 flights.

That night around 3 a.m., Israel’s Home Command woke up the whole country as the Israeli attacks on the Iranian military command and nuclear facilities began. They woke us up before Iran had any time to retaliate so that the population was ready for what was to come.

That first night, laying on the floor of the bomb shelter trying to rest between sirens, I could hear the birds singing. All day I hear the birds sing. They continue to rely on God’s presence, provision, and protection (cf. Ps 84:3 , Matt 6:26 ). So do I.

We have a youth group staying here at Beit Immanuel, and they have connections to some musical worship leaders in Israel.

One of those musicians who has popped in the evenings is Emanuel Roro .

Emanuel was interviewed by Israeli TV news about where he was spending his evenings:

Reporter: What did you do the past few days, were you here?

Emanuel: No, yesterday I was near a bomb shelter. I spent hours in the bomb shelter... we sang in the bomb shelter... In the end, some things are simply beyond our control. We trust God to do his job. 'He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.'

Emanuel’s word has been a great reminder for me. We’re in a position where we can do nothing but wait on the LORD and trust his sovereignty. We have been safe in our shelter, our building, our neighborhood, but others have suffered strikes. Let us pray for the injured and those grieving their dead.

At breakfast, we heard from one of Beit Immanuel’s long-time staffers who lived through the Gulf War (1990-1991). She said then Sadaam Hussein targeted Tel Aviv every night for months. Only at night. The days were peaceful but the nights were full of sirens and missile attacks.

No one is quite sure how long this exchange in 2025 will play out.

Your prayers are so important to all of us here right now. Please pray for all the CMJ staff and volunteers serving in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Prayer points provided by CMJ Israel

For ISRAEL

Prayer for Wisdom for Israel’s Leaders and Military: Ask that they be guided by justice, compassion, and strategic clarity in their decision-making. Pray also for unity within the leadership and for divine guidance in seeking pathways toward peace.
Prayer for Reconciliation and Long-Term Peace: Pray for breakthroughs in reconciliation efforts between Israelis and their neighbours, particularly Iran, that lasting peace may one day be achieved. Pray for international and regional actors working toward diplomacy, that they would be effective in facilitating dialogue and peacebuilding initiatives.
Prayer for Protection and Peace in the War Zones: Pray for the safety and protection of all those living in areas directly affected by the ongoing conflict. Ask God to protect civilians, soldiers, and emergency responders. Pray for supernatural peace to descend on regions of intense fighting and for the preservation of life amidst the violence.
Prayer for Economic and Financial Recovery: Pray for the economy of Israel and for the Palestinian people. The last two years have harmed the economy for everyone in the region and a counter-attack from Iran could further devastate the infrastructure and economy in the region.

For CMJ Israel

Prayer for CMJ’s Leadership and Staff: Lift up CMJ’s leadership and staff, both in Israel and around the world. Pray for wisdom, strength, and endurance as they navigate the challenges of ministry in a region facing conflict and instability. Ask that they be filled with the Spirit, encouraged in their faith, and united in their purpose.
Pray for the financial needs of CMJ. Pray that we would have the resources to be able to serve the Christians in the land who cannot take care of their own. Ask God to provide the necessary funds, open doors for new donors, and grant favor in all fundraising efforts.
Pray for protection over CMJ’s ministries and facilities, particularly in conflict zones.
Prayer for the Protection of CMJ’s Staff and Friends: Pray for the safety of staff and family members who have been called up to serve in the reserves; pray for courage and comfort for their families; and pray for the testimony of both those who serve and their families to be powerful.

For Israel's Neighbors

Prayer for the People of Iran: Pray for wisdom and restraint in the response of their leadership; pray for the church that has been growing in Iran, that they would be a light of God’s hope, peace, and love in the region.
Pray for the People of Gaza: War always harms those who are the most vulnerable, and so we ask that you pray for the many families who are in need and in constant fear; pray for the light of God to shine even in the darkness.

Prayer for the People of Syria: Pray for the Christians in the north. An estimated 1 million or more Christians have been displaced during the recent civil war and, of those who remain, many endure severe persecution—even death—under the new Syrian regime. We must not forget to pray for our brothers and sisters just because something new and scary occupies the news here.

As for me, pray that I can get return to Pittsburgh in God’s time. Pray that I can get back safely to continue the work of building bridges with our Jewish neighbors. They continue to hurt after a series of dangerous antisemitic attacks and need our friendship and comfort.

How you can help

As a result of the Israel-Iran War, I expect antisemitism to keep flaring in the United States. I will continue to call the church to love their Jewish neighbors well in this fraught time. Jeff, Ron, and I will continue to educate Christians on the Jewish context of the New Testament and how to respectfully engage with our Jewish neighbors.

Once the Middle East conflict settles down, there will be so much physical, emotional, and spiritual need in the Holy Land. CMJ Israel will continue to love on the peoples of the Holy Land through the Mercy Fund, our guest houses, and churches.

CMJ needs your help to combat antisemitism at home and care for the battered people of Israel -- both Jew and Arab. Consider making a gift toward both CMJ USA and CMJ Israel. Give to the work in both countries through the donate button below.

Thank you for praying. Thank you for giving.

Photo credit: YouTube screenshot from Channel 4 of Iron Dome interceptors rising from the Tel Aviv skyline.

Antisemitic hate turns violent in the U.S.

Sun, 15 Jun 2025 15:45:09 GMT

Jewish Media Review - June 2025

I had been in Israel maybe 24 hours when I learned of the murder of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, two Israel embassy staffers gunned down in Washington D.C. It’s disorienting to learn that two people representing the country you are visiting were killed in your home country’s capital. Also, I had been in Washington D.C. the week before.

Later that morning a Jewish American-Israeli colleague said to me, “I know him. I know the family. They are believers.” The Lischinsky family is well known among the Messianic Jewish community in Israel. Rev. David Pileggi said Yaron’s father used to worship at Christ Church Jerusalem and work in the coffee shop. Yaron had come to David for advice.

It is astounding how many remembrances have been written about Yaron, a previously unknown Israeli diplomat. He seemed to leave an impression on everyone he met.

Then on the morning of Shavuot, I awoke to reports that a man in Boulder, Colo., had firebombed a peaceful walk in support of hostages held by Hamas. Witnesses reported the man threw Molotov cocktails and used a makeshift flamethrower. One of the victims who caught fire is a Holocaust survivor. How horrendous! Wrong. Sad. Heartbreaking.

This month’s media review will be mostly headlines about the two U.S. attacks.

The first story is an analysis via the Times of Israel on how the violent attacks in D.C. and Boulder show that words like “globalize the intifada” and “by any means necessary” are eventually turned to action by their speakers.

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim knew that to represent Israel would have its risks. The peaceful walkers in Boulder, Colo., however, probably expected their demonstration remembering the hostages Hamas still holds to end peacefully like it did every week. Instead they were accosted by raging words and literal fire.

Words matter. As Jesus said, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” If the mouth keeps speaking evil, the hands will eventually do evil.

What are the action points for us as Christians?

PRAY.
Pray for our Jewish neighbors.
Pray for those who have allowed their anger at Israel to turn into hate for Jews in America and beyond.
Pray that the Israel-Hamas War would end.
LISTEN.
Call a Jewish friend and ask how these attacks have made them feel.
Make a new Jewish friend. Find out of if there are any prayer events or lectures on antisemitism and ask if you would be welcome to attend.
Ask the local synagogue if there are ways you can offer support.
SPEAK OUT.
Call out antisemitic speech. Discern the difference between acceptable political positions you may disagree with and antisemitic rhetoric that blurs the line between Jewish people and the modern State of Israel.
Any language that calls for the “end” of a people group is out of line and must be challenged.

�� With attacks in Washington and Colorado, the global intifada lands in America (Times of Israel)

Unlike antisemitic killings in Pittsburgh, New Jersey and elsewhere, these assaults appear to be an outgrowth of a protest movement where violence against Jews and Israelis has been normalized

�� The Boulder Attack Didn’t Come Out of Nowhere (The Atlantic)

When demonstrators wave the flags of terrorist organizations and publicly commemorate the martyrdom of terrorist leaders, they’re not throwing the bomb, but their message can light the fuse.

❓ What Does “Globalize the Intifada” Mean and How Can it Lead to Targeting Jews with Violence? (AJC)

⚠️ After attacks, US feds warn of ‘elevated threat’ to Israeli and Jewish communities (Times of Israel)

Following Washington shooting and Colorado firebombing, FBI and Department of Homeland Security warn of danger posed by violent extremists and foreign terror groups

Remembering Yaron Lischinsky

My initial thoughts on the murder of Yaron and Sarah and the Boulder firebombing (more on that below).

�� A Quiet Funeral in Israel for Victim of Washington Shooting (New York Times)

Yaron Lischinsky, 30, was buried on Sunday in the small town where his family lived.

�� ‘He was a mensch’: Slain Messianic Jew remembered as bridge-builder (Forward)

Yaron Lischinsky was killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington

�� For Messianic Jews in Jerusalem, Yaron Lischinsky’s murder was a personal loss (Times of Israel)

Marginalized in Israel, adherents of the controversial movement maintain the holiness of both the Bible and the Christian Gospel, placing an emphasis on the Jewish identity of Jesus

��‍�� My Friend Yaron (Foundation for Defense of Democracies)

Yaron Lischinsky was murdered in Washington, D.C., by an anti-Israel militant. I knew him. Let me tell you who he was.

�� Losing Yaron (Tablet)

He was my friend—principled, caring, and quietly brave. He and his girlfriend, Sarah, were killed for who they were, and what they stood for.

✡️ Murdered Staffer Had Deep Ties to Messianic Community in Israel (Christianity Today)

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim appear to be the latest victims of a global wave of antisemitic violence.

�� I Met Yaron Lischinsky the Day Before He Was Murdered (Tablet)

Thirty hours before his death, a quiet moment with a man who embodied Israel’s best

✝️ Slain Israeli diplomat Yarón Lischinsky was German Christian who fell in love with Jewish state (Israel HaYom)

Yarón Lischinsky, a German-born evangelical Christian who embraced Israel as his home, was killed alongside his fiancée in a terrorist attack in Washington, DC, on Wednesday. His unwavering Zionism and dedication to Israel's diplomatic service defined his life, cut short by a brutal act of violence.

Remembering Sarah Milgrim

��️ Murdered Israeli Embassy staffer remembered for ‘all she had done to further peace’ (Times of Israel)

‘If you’re really interested in doing something for Gaza… you could have asked’ Sarah Milgrim, says rabbi at Kansas City funeral, in remarks seemingly addressed at shooter who yelled ‘Free Palestine’

✡️ Sarah Milgrim was ‘very Jewishly involved’ in Chabad, Hillel, Birthright, Israel (Forward)

Before her death outside the Capital Jewish Museum, the 26-year-old was a ‘proud member of the Jewish community’

☀️ Jewish Community in Kansas City Mourns a ‘Radiant Link’ for Peace (New York Times)

At the funeral for Sarah Milgrim, who was killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington last week, the Israeli embassy aide was mourned as someone who wanted to help everyone.

Boulder firebombing of Jewish walkers

��Witnesses describe Boulder attack: 'Most horrific thing that I've ever seen'

�� Holocaust survivor among the Boulder attack victims (ABC News)

�� 'Suffering and scared': Boulder's Jewish community reels in aftermath of violent attack (Jerusalem Post)

"Violence against Jews is immoral and must end. Colorado must be a place where every Jew feels safe, supported, and free to live their authentic Jewish lives."

�� Colorado Attack That Injured 12 Was Planned for a Year, Officials Say (New York Times)

The F.B.I. said in a court filing that the suspect, an Egyptian citizen who had sought asylum in the U.S., brought more than a dozen incendiary devices to a march in support of hostages in Gaza.

��‍♂️‍➡️ Hundreds in Boulder walk in support of hostages week after fiery attack (Times of Israel)

Large crowd attends weekly event that normally draws a few dozen, as hostage relatives join annual festival to thank community for support following pro-Palestinian firebombing

Photo credit: Screen capture from YouTube of video by bhflyer5 via News9.

Pentecost: The Redemption of Babel

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 08:59:30 GMT

God mercifully, consistently steps in to break our sin cycle

Preached at Christ Church Jaffa in Israel on the Day of Pentecost 2025.

Genesis 11:1-9

Psalms 104:24-35

Acts 2:1-21

John 14:8-17

Come, Holy Spirit!

The Holy Spirit is come! Hallelujah!

On Pentecost Sunday. We celebrate the day God poured out his Holy Spirit on all flesh. It is the day when he writes Torah on our hearts, as promised in Jeremiah 31. It is the day God begins to knit Jew and Gentile into the one new humanity as foreshadowed by the story of Ruth and Boaz.

The day's Tanakh reading takes us back near the beginning, to the prologue in Genesis. Genesis 1-11 is the introduction to God’s telling of the human story in the 66 books we call the Bible.

In this introduction, God creates humanity to invite us into eternal fellowship with him. Humanity instead follows its pride. Humanity rejects being with God because it thinks it can be god.

The sin of pride has consequences. But God, who tells Moses his character is always to have mercy (Exod 34:6-7), steps into our sin cycle and offers us mercy.

Genesis 1-11 shows this cycle of human sin and consequence sprinkled with God’s mercy four times.

Don’t eat from the one tree, God tells Adam and Eve. The serpent stokes their pride and says they can be like God. Eve and Adam eat from the one tree and realize their nakedness before God. God kicks them out of the Garden home he made for them, but first, he covers their nakedness.
Cain murders his brother out of prideful envy. God sends Cain away from his presence, but with a merciful mark so that he will not be killed.
Humanity and “the earth [were] filled with violence.” God cleanses the whole planet with a flood, mercifully keeping safe Noah, his family, and the animals needed to repopulate the earth.

Our Genesis 11 reading gives us the fourth repetition of this sin-mercy cycle.

Noah’s descendants are told to fill the earth. But the 70 families (Gen 10) that come from Noah decide to stay in Mesopotamia, specifically in the Shinar plain. That would geographically be in modern day Iraq today.

4 …they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” (Gen 11:4)

The sin is not in the building. Neither does it say that they were trying to reach God. They do say two sinful things, though:

Let us make a name for ourselves
Lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth

The sins of Babel are pride and rebellion. Let’s define these two words.

Pride is thinking more of ourselves than we really are. It’s self-esteem that is unreasonable, excessive, out of order. It is self-exaltation that tramples on others. ¹
Rebellion is simply disobedience. It’s not doing what God told us to do or doing what God told us not to do.

Four times God tells his created humans to spread out and fill the earth.

Genesis 1:27: So God created man in his own image … male and female he created them. 28 … And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”
Genesis 8:16: Noah, “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you… 17 and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”
Genesis 9:1: And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”
Genesis 9:7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”

We see in Genesis 10 that Noah’s three sons have multiplied into 70 families. They have been fruitful and multiplied. So they got half the command right. The other half was “fill the earth.”

The rebellious response of these 70 families is “let us build… lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

Said another way [like a spoiled child]: We don’t want to fill the earth! Waaaaa! Let’s play with our blocks instead and show everybody how good we are with our building blocks. Waaa!

This is a classic rebellion move. How many times, as children, did we tell our parents, “No, I don’t want to do that, but I’ll do this instead.” “I don’t want to clean my room but let me show you how good I am at playing this video game.” Why do we think we can negotiate our obedience?

We are created beings. We did not make ourselves. We are made by God in the image of God. God made us with physical strength and mental strength. We are intelligent. God also gave us the ability to create, to build, to make. It feels to good to create. It may even feel good to destroy.

Go to the beach and watch a child (or an adult) build a sand castle. They may take care to build walls and towers. If they are good at packing sand, they may build higher. They look at it and call it good.

Then, they or maybe a trouble-making brother or sister may come and smash it. They stomp around breaking walls and knocking over towers. Maybe they even do an evil laugh: Mwhahaha.

For a moment, when we build, when we destroy, we may feel like gods. That is the bad pride, the pride that makes a name for ourselves and makes us forget that we are created beings that breathe only by the will of God.

The Bible, particularly the Proverbs, is full of warnings about pride:

Proverbs 11:2 – When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.
Proverbs 16:18 – Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 29:23 – One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.

God hates pride, but he loves his creation more.

Like in the previous sin-consequence-mercy cycles, God steps into the Tower of Babel situation. He judges their rebellion by confusing their languages so they can no longer cooperate in their rebellion. The mercy is that all these people finally obeyed God’s command to fill the earth as they moved in their language groups away from Babel. God is merciful even in his judgment as his judgment is often designed to call us to repentance and restoration.

After the Fall in Eden and after the Flood, God in his mercy also gave promises of hope:

After Adam and Eve rebelled, God promised that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent. (Gen 3:15)
After the Flood, God made a covenant with all creation that he would never again destroy the earth in a flood. (Gen 9:8-17)

Is there a promise after the Tower of Babel? Yes!

After God scatters the nations in chapter 11, he calls Abraham in chapter 12:

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 … in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

What families will God bless through Abraham? The 70 rebel families scattered from Babel.

So God steps into the rebellion at Babel, he mercifully confuses the languages so that the people will obey the command to fill the earth, and he promises to bless all the peoples of the earth through Abraham.

Shavout = Pentecost

Last week, those of us who follow the Hebrew calendar celebrated Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks. Greek-speaking Jews, like Josephus and Philo, called the festival Pentecost. Described as a harvest festival in Leviticus 23, it now celebrates the giving of the Torah, the life of King David, and the story of Ruth.

In Acts 2 we read, “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.” Before his ascension, Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for power from on high.

Did they just wait for 10 days, wondering when God would act? Or had they noticed that Jesus died on Passover and resurrected on the Feast of Firstfruits? God gave Torah on Shavuot. Might this power from on high also come on the next biblical holiday?

Perhaps somebody remembered the promise of Jeremiah 31:

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah 33 …I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.

At Sinai, God wrote his Torah on stone tablets. At Jesus’ last Passover seder, he said the cup represented the new covenant. So might God write Torah on the hearts of his people on Pentecost?

2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

How many of you have seen the old Cecil B. Demille movie The Ten Commandments? It still holds up pretty well 70 years later. When God speaks the 10 Commandments, the film depicts fingers of fire flying around the mountain and the camp before the finger of God engraves the commandment on the stone tablet. Where did they get that?

In Exodus, God speaks to Moses in the thunder (Exod 19:19). And it says that “the people saw the thunder” (Exod 20:18). Not the lightning but the thunder. The people saw the voice of God. The rabbis imagined this as fire, even saying that God’s voice went out in 70 languages so that all the peoples of the earth could receive God's instruction. ²

In Acts, the Jesus followers – men and women – also see the voice of God as tongues of fire and proclaim his praise so that nations will hear the Good News that Jesus the Son of David has died and resurrected to save the rebellious nations from their sin.

Jews and Gentile converts from around the Mediterranean heard the Gospel in their own language: “Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians.” (Acts 2:9-11)

According to today’s map, worshipers from these areas heard the disciples speaking in their own languages: Iran, Kurdistan, Iraq, Syria, Israel, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, deeper into Asia, Egypt, Libya, Italy, Greece, Saudi Arabia, maybe even Spain and further into North Africa.

It’s not the undoing of Babel. It’s the redemption of Babel. God confused the languages so that the rebels would obey his command to fill the earth. Now God empowers a group of Galilean Jews to speak the Good News of the Messiah to the scattered nations of the earth.

17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy…

18 even on my male servants and female servants

in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.

Prophesy what? That the blessing of the nations through Abraham has begun in earnest. That the only begotten Son of God has stepped into our sin-cycle to work for us mercy. The Seed of the Woman has crushed the serpent. The Lamb of God clothes our nakedness. He’s opened the way for us to return to the Garden where we can live and commune with God.

But we must leave our pride and rebellion behind.

In John 14, as Jesus is preparing his disciples for his death, he tells them

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

God has written his Torah on our hearts. We show our love for God by obeying his commandments. He commands us to lay down our pride and love our enemies. He invites us to pick up our cross and follow him, imitate him as a Suffering Servant.

Jesus had gentle words for the oppressed and harsh words for the oppressors. But his final word for those who turned him over and for those who killed him was, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Does the Father hear the Son’s intercession? The answer is YES. Jesus ever intercedes for all humanity before the Father. That intercession was happening even on the cross. “Father, forgive them.” Forgiveness is another action he calls us to imitate.

You from the nations. Hear the word of the LORD today:

Your rebellion is forgiven. The devil, the enemy of our souls, is defeated. Lay down your pride then come to the table to feast with your God.

Let us pray.

Avinu, Father, teach us to depend on you for all things – things physical, spiritual, emotional. Teach us to lay down our pride and our rebellion. Help us to imitate Jesus, who laid down his majesty to reconcile the nations to yourself. Let your Spirit go forth and renew our hearts and the face of the earth. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Footnotes

F. Duane Lindsey, “Pride,” in The Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, ed. Charles F. Pfeiffer, Howard F. Vos, and John Rea (Moody Press, 1975).
Shemot Exodus 5:9.

A Jew, a Christian, and a Muslim unite for the wrong reason

Tue, 13 May 2025 16:39:46 GMT

Jewish Media Review - May 2025

Scroll through the headlines to see my editorial comments throughout.

�� The Price: Vandalism escalates to homemade bombs (Tablet)

How a Muslim National Guardsman, a pastor’s daughter and a Shabbat-keeping Jew joined together in a fantasy of redeeming inner hurts and perceived global wrongs through symbolic violence against Pittsburgh’s Jewish community—and building bombs.

If you read one item from this list, read The Price.

After Chabad of Pittsburgh was defaced with “Jewish 4 Palestine” last summer, I spoke with a CMJ supporter who was sure it was a false-flag vandalism by some antisemite. I believed the words of the tag – Jews 4 Palestine – because I had been reading of the deep division among American Jews over Israel’s response to the October 7 massacre. There had been substantial protests of the the Israel-Hamas War by American Jews, including a sit-in by Jews protesting Israel at the Capitol .

This long article details an extreme case of a young Jewish woman looking for a way to stay Jewish while criticizing Israel. She ultimately finds allies in a young Muslim-American man who fantasizes about dying a martyr in Palestine and the daughter of a Presbyterian pastor who speaks out against Israel. The young Christian woman allegedly helped the Muslim-American prepare and test pipe bombs.

Please read this, pray, and befriend a young person. The journeys these young people take are long and complicated. They were all looking for belonging. They seem to find it in the anti-Israel encampments at the University of Pittsburgh.

In a sermon I preached recently, I commend Thomas for voicing his questions . Jesus never condemns him for asking questions, for needing to investigate. Jesus comes back for Thomas and encourages his questions. We must approach young people such as these three in similar ways. Yes, criminal behavior must have consequences. Questions should not.

�� Anti-Defamation League says anger at Israel is now the driving force behind antisemitism in the US (Associated Press)

�� ADL says antisemitic incidents rose over 80% on college campuses last year (JTA)

This is the fourth year in a row that antisemitic incidents have broken all previous annual records, the ADL reports.

��️ ‘Genocidal Josh’ and the dangerous normalization of antisemitic rhetoric (Jewish Chronicle)

The normalization of online hate can and has inspired antisemites to commit violent and deadly acts

�� Confronting antisemitism in Pennsylvania amid Easter and Passover (Rev. Bryan Jarrell)

The violence Jesus of Nazareth experienced on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and our own governor Josh Shapiro experienced on the first night of Passover, overlap to an uncomfortable degree.

��️ Ohio Applebee’s defaced with antisemitic graffiti reading ‘Jews work here’ (JTA)

The CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton called the vandalism “devastating.”

❤️‍�� What I learned about American Jews while collecting Judaica for LA fire victims (JTA)

Donations to a Judaica drive told an American tale of resilience and mutual aid, according to an organizer.

⚰️ 38% of American Jews believe in life after death, study finds (JTA)

About half of American Jews, and nearly two-thirds of Israeli Jews, said animals can have spirits.

�� El Salvador’s president, Trump’s new deportation partner, is a pro-Israel Palestinian (JTA)

Nayib Bukele also claims his wife has Sephardic Jewish heritage.

✉️ 1943 Albert Einstein Letter affirming that Christians stood up against Nazis (PBS)

“I have a letter that Albert Einstein wrote to my father in 1943. In 1940, my father read a Time magazine article that stated that Einstein was quoted as saying that the only social institution that stood up to Nazism was the Christian church. My father's a Presbyterian minister in a little Northern Michigan town called Harbor Springs.”

��Disagreement among Jewish Americans on Trump’s efforts to stop antisemitism

Trump isn’t exploiting antisemitism; he’s attacking its root cause (JNS)
The administration’s demands to elite universities go beyond the narrow question of antisemitism. If DEI and woke ideology are spared, then Jew-hatred will continue to thrive.

Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’ (JTA)
In an interview, Lipstadt warned against a “potential weaponizing” of antisemitism.

Over 500 rabbis sign letter rejecting Trump’s antisemitism agenda (JTA)
A similar rabbis’ letter published last week condemned the administration’s “immoral use of the law.”

Jewish students, alumni decry ‘weaponization of antisemitism’ across country (Forward)
Jewish community members at Harvard, Emerson College, Georgetown University and more have condemned the Trump administration’s actions

7️⃣7️⃣ Antisemites are still proving why we need Israel (JNS)

After 77 years and a global surge in hate in which the Jewish state is itself the focus, the justice of the Zionist cause remains a historical imperative.

Editor's Note: This was published May 1, which coincided with Iyar 5, the Hebrew calendar date of Israel Independence Day. On the Gregorian calendar, Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948.

�� Hamas Is Not Just a Terrorist Organization. It’s a gov’t with a standing army (Mosaic)

At the start of this war, the jihadist group had governing authority, territorial control, a functioning bureaucracy, and a trained army.

��️ A Pogrom Is Brewing in Canada (The FP)

The days of exclusionary signs at golf clubs have been replaced by open calls for jihad in Jewish neighborhoods. This will not end well.

�� Why I Don’t Use the Word ‘Antisemitism’ (Jewish Journal)

I try my best to use another term. It’s simple and far more direct: Jew-hater.

��‍�� Leo XIV, first American pope, studied under a leader in Jewish-Catholic relations (JTA)

Fr. John T. Pawlikowski describes his former student as “a very open-minded person.”

✡️ Is Pope Leo Jewish? Ask his distant cousins — like me (Forward)
Family trees show some relations I’m proud to have, and others I’d rather forget

✝️ How this Marc Chagall painting explains Pope Francis’ soul (Forward)

The late pope’s favorite painting was a reaction to the horrors of the Nazi regime

Editor's note: This painting has become very important in my life and work. It inspires me. Talya Zax at The Forward asks, "So how could Francis see any hope in the image?”

The writer tries to answer from Jorge Bergoglio’s “own experience of life in a society under siege” in Argentina. I’m sure the writer is right in some respect. But she misses what I believe Francis saw, what I see: Jesus of Nazareth, the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, dying with his own people, for his own people, as much as he died for the whole world.

We see Immanuel – God with us – enthroned in human suffering, come to walk each of us through own personal sufferings. The reason Francis and I see hope is that we know that Jesus not only dies with us but comes back to life, having defeated death. Jesus opens the door on the other side of death and says to us, “Your suffering and dying are not in vain. Follow me and I will show you that I have opened the door to the merciful presence of God.” Francis knows that most vividly now.

❓ Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes? (Forward)

The cardinals gathering to elect the next pope are all wearing familiar small hats

�� Lectionary Revision Proposals Address Anti-Jewish Bias (Living Church)

�� Finding faith in captivity: Another former Israeli hostage, Sasha Troufanov says he now believes in God (All Israel)

Several other released hostages have also recounted how they turned to God in a new way while in captivity.

�� Synagogue shooting survivors share how global support restored faith in humanity (Jewish Chronicle)

Each item sent after the shooting, no matter how simple, carried a powerful message: You are not alone.

��Is Gen Z Finding God — Or Just More Politics? (Compiled by the Jewish Journal)

More Gen Zers are turning to religion, but often through political lenses. Some see signs of a spiritual revival, others worry faith is being weaponized in America’s culture wars.

A Faith Born in the Pandemic, Christian Paz, Vox: Sometime around or after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, young Americans began to find, or at least retain, religious belief at higher rates than previous generations. The numbers tell this story quite cleanly. While the share of “nones” jumped by about 40 percent from 2008 to 2013, the rise began to slow between 2013 and 2018. Then, in 2020, it stagnated.

A Faith Found on TikTok , Hannah Evans, The Times: Emily Beaney is a typical member of Gen Z. Not just because she loves fashion and works as a social media influencer, but also because she is part of a growing number of twentysomethings who believe in God. Though you’d know that if you watched the “Get Ready with Me for Church” videos that she shares with her 57,000 TikTok followers.

A Trend in Flux , Ed Stetzer, USA Today: It’s too soon to announce a change to the direction of secularism, but as someone who has been an observer of Christian trends for decades, including a stint leading a Christian research organization, I’ve never seen anything like this.

�� Allegations of sexual misconduct against Michael Brown are valid, investigators conclude (Christian Post)

Elder Team Rejects Sexual Abuse Findings Against Michael Brown, Recommends Return to Ministry (Julie Roys)

‘Massive Breach of Trust’: Christian Leaders Ron Cantor, Joel Richardson Demand Retraction of Report Exonerating Michael Brown (Julie Roys)

Michael Brown claims Firefly investigation ‘more friendly’ to perspective of accusers (Christian Post)

Mercy Culture Church Celebrates Michael Brown as He Returns to Ministry (Julie Roys)

Dr Michael Brown has been accused of sexual misconduct. He should not return to ministry (Premier Christianity)

Editor’s note: I include these headlines with great sadness. Dr. Michael Brown has been an important Messianic voice for decades. We at CMJ have recommended his writings in the past, particularly those on antisemitism in the church. Let us pray for all involved in this investigation.

Jesus comes back for the skeptic

Thu, 01 May 2025 17:29:05 GMT

Thomas needed to see and touch Jesus, and Jesus is good with that

This sermon as given at Jonah's Call Anglican Church in Pittsburgh, PA, on the Second Sunday in Easter. If you would like to schedule CMJ USA Executive Director Cariño Casas or another CMJ speaker, please visit our Invite Us page.

Gospel reading: John 20:19–31

Hallelujah! He is risen!

He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

It’s been a week since the Resurrection, but our Gospel passage begins on Resurrection Sunday. The day is drawing to a close when Jesus appears in the locked room where the disciples were hiding from the Judeans.

From the other Gospels, we know Jesus had a very busy Sunday. He walks out of the tomb; he meets with Mary Magdalene; he walks to Emmaus and expounds the Hebrew Scriptures with two disciples. Those two disciples convince Jesus to stop and lodge with them because the sun is setting. When they sit down to eat and Jesus blesses the bread, they recognize him! Then Jesus vanishes! Where did he go?

These two disciples from Emmaus drop their matzah (it’s still the Feast of Unleavened Bread) and take off running back to Jerusalem. They literally run a 10K (or more). They get to the place and bang on the locked door and tell everyone “We’ve seen Jesus!”

But the two are not believed. The disciples in Jerusalem do not believe. Mary Magdalene told them she saw Jesus. Now, these two guys show up panting from a long run to tell everyone they saw Jesus in Emmaus. But they don’t believe.

Let’s imagine we’re in that room. Three days before, you saw your most trusted confidant – with whom you lived closely for three years, the one you hoped was fulfilling all the promises of God, all the promises made to Abraham, David, and the Prophets – three days before you saw him tortured and killed. You’re afraid, grieving, and confused. These reports that Jesus lives, even from other trusted friends, do not compute. The sun is setting. Another miserable day over.

Suddenly you hear a most familiar voice, “Shalom aleichem!” Peace be with you.

They’re still not sure. Are they seeing things? Is this a ghost?

No! Jesus shows them his wounds. In Luke, Jesus invites them not only to see but to “handle” him.

John deadpans: “Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.”

What an understatement! The disciples were overjoyed! They rejoiced! They celebrated!

Is anybody watching The Chosen , the TV show about the life of Jesus? They haven’t depicted this scene yet, but I can just see all the disciples mobbing Jesus, hugging him, grabbing him, a loud huddle of joy and tears, laughter and shouts of joy! Don't picture dignified Englishmen or Germans giving firm handshakes and maybe pats on the back. These are emotive Middle Easterners! They are shouting and dancing, laughing and crying.

___

Our very compact Gospel passage has a lot going on. Jesus says again, “Shalom aleichem.” He commissions them. He breathes on them to receive the Holy Spirit. He deputizes them to forgive sins. Then the text fast-forwards a week.

In the Eastern tradition, the Second Sunday of Easter is called “Thomas Sunday.” Perhaps better than Thomas Sunday, we could call this day Skeptics’ Sunday.

Thomas gets a lot of grief for not being with the others a week before and for not believing their report. He famously says to them: “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

We do not know a lot about Thomas. Only three of his comments are recorded, all of them by John. Thomas speaks up during Jesus’s farewell speech. He also pipes up when Jesus tells the disciples they are going to Bethany to see to “sleeping” Lazarus. Then he speaks aloud his skepticism the day of the Resurrection.

Let’s look at these briefly.

Everybody knows Thomas for his need to see and touch the resurrected Jesus. He is also known for his comment in John 11, Let us go die with him.

In that episode, Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was very sick.

6 So, when [Jesus] heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Judeans were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered … “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” … 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” ( John 11:6-16 )

How do we take Thomas’ comment: “Let us also go, that we may die with him”?

It seems no one is really sure how to read this. One ancient commentator reads it as sarcastic cowardice. ^[1] Others see audacious loyalty – Thomas IS ready to die – but his loyalty misses the point of who Jesus is. ^[2 ^] Another sees a pessimistic pragmatism that understood that the Judeans’ envy would be stoked if Jesus performed such a big miracle. ^[3]

Let’s look at Thomas’ other words for clues.

In Jesus’ farewell speech that starts in John 14, Jesus tells the disciples, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me…. I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” ( John 14:1-4 )

Thomas pipes up, probably saying what the others are thinking:

“Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” ( John 14:5-7 )

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

I have long wondered about this answer, this self-definition Jesus gives. What does Jesus mean? Who Jesus is talking to may give us some insights.

Thomas says: “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

Jesus says: I am the way.

In ancient Greece and in the Jewish rabbinic system – then and now – disciples imitate their teachers to learn. That’s why Paul says, “Imitate me as I imitate Messiah.” Rabbi Paul is following Rabbi Jesus.

“Pick up your cross and follow me” is a call to imitate Jesus in his suffering servanthood.

We imitate Jesus to be with him.
Jesus says: I am the truth.

Pontius Pilate famously asked Jesus, “What is truth?” Jesus said, “The reason I have been born, the reason I have come into the world, is to bear witness to the truth.” What truth? The truth of who God is, of God’s love for us.
Jesus says, I am the life.

This ties back to Thomas’ comment before the resurrection of Lazarus. “Let us go die with him.” Whether out of fear or loyalty, all Thomas could see was death.

Jesus – the one who created the universe – looks him in the eye and says, Don’t fear death because I am Life itself.

But Thomas can’t see it yet.

Post crucifixion, he boldly states where he’s at: “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

I commend Thomas. I see a man with the courage to be honest about his questions. He’s more honest about his doubts than the others are.

The other disciples did not believe Mary Magdalene nor the two brothers from Emmaus when they exclaimed they’d seen the resurrected Jesus. Most of the disciples, too, needed to handle Jesus and examine the wounds, to see him and touch him. Thomas is no different than the others.

In our Gospel reading, the others haven’t come all that far in their faith after their first encounter with the risen Jesus. Eight days later, the doors are still locked. They are still afraid. That fear won’t really be cured until Pentecost.

A week after the resurrection, Jesus visits the disciples in Jerusalem again, and again greets them, “Shalom, y’all!”

But Jesus has come for Thomas. He’s come to finish that conversation started in John 14, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…. If you know me, you know my Father also… and have seen him.” ^[4]

“Put your finger here,” Jesus tells Thomas, “and see my hands, and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

Thomas now makes the clearest, boldest declaration of Jesus’ divinity recorded in the Gospels: “My Lord and my God!”

When you live in a foreign country, you quickly learn the words for hello and goodbye and thank you, please, yes and no. For us Christians, if you start attending church in the local language, you can quickly pick up the words used in worship. Some of the first Hebrew vocabulary I learned in Israel were words of worship.

The Gospels are recorded in Greek, but Jesus and the disciples spoke Aramaic, or as some contend, closely related Hebrew. When I hear Thomas’ exclamation in Hebrew, his identification of Jesus as God is clear: “Adonai vElohai!”

Adonai is the reverential euphemism for the sacred name of God. Elohai, my God, shows up in Psalm 143 and 145. Thomas, a Jewish man, declares that Jesus of Nazareth is Adonai his God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

“Have you believed because you have seen me?” Jesus replies. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Sometimes we read this as a slight on Thomas for needing to see and touch Jesus for himself. But all the disciples needed that. The eleven, even Mary Magdalene who was told by an angel that Jesus was alive, needed to see him for themselves before they trusted.

Jesus isn’t slighting their need to see him. Rather, he is blessing us who sit here as believers two millennia later. I’ve taken much encouragement from this blessing. I have taken it for myself and thanked God for the blessing of faith, a faith that comes not by seeing him directly but by seeing his working through history and in my life, by knowing that he is with me, the whole of every day. Believer, I encourage you to see that Jesus is speaking about you in this blessing. Blessed are you who have not seen and believe and know him.

Thomas’ authenticity in verbalizing his doubt speaks into our age of skepticism. Too often in the church, we are afraid of questions. We do harm when we shut down the seeking skeptic.

When I worked as a newspaper photographer, I was assigned a story about Islam growing among the Hispanics of southern California. The young man I photographed had been raised in a Christian home in Mexico. He struggled with the concept of the Trinity and went to talk to his pastor. The pastor rebuffed him, told him to stop asking questions, and just believe. That shepherd lost a sheep that day, and the young man eventually forsook Jesus and turned to Islam.

When Jesus exhorts Thomas, “Do not disbelieve but believe,” he is standing before Thomas, inviting him to investigate.

If you have questions about Jesus, about the Bible, about the Resurrection, investigate. Jesus comes back for the doubter. Jesus comes near to the questioner. Jesus is ready to show himself to you, to exhort you to trust him. Ask and it shall be given to you.

You are not alone in your questioning. One famous former skeptic is the Christian apologist Lee Strobel. Strobel was an atheist who set out to disprove the Gospels using his skills as an investigative journalist. At the end of his research, he came to know the risen Messiah. His resulting book The Case for Christ was recently made into a film .

C.S. Lewis became an atheist when his mom died and later returned to faith. His wife, Joy Davidman, was an atheist Jew who eventually came to know Jesus as the Messiah of Israel. There is a list on Wikipedia of atheists-turned-Christians.

For those of us who have skeptics in our lives, how do we minister to them? Our “job is to get to know people, not objections. ” We are to love people, love them where they are. We are to show them Jesus as he is revealed to us in the Scriptures, in our everyday lives. We are to share our stories of how Jesus came to us in our need, our questions, our sin, and revealed himself to us.

Remember, we are merely messengers. We do not change anybody’s mind. We do not persuade anyone. That is the job of the Holy Spirit. Our charge is to manifest Jesus in this world, to be his healing hands. We carry Jesus within us, by the infilling of the Holy Spirit. When we walk into a room, we bring Jesus with us. We are all Christophers – Christ-bearers. The rest is up to him in how he meets our skeptic friends and satisfies their questions.

I ran across a blog post by a young man named David Reed titled “ How did a skeptic like me become a Christian? After 26 years of being a perfectly convinced atheist, I accidentally became a Christian last year. What on earth is going on?”

In the article, he “comes out” as a Christian and sketches his unlikely path. When he and his fiancée were engaged, they decided to do pre-marital counseling at a church despite being atheists. They found it useful and practical and were not pressured into converting. He writes, “I found the preparations, and the process of getting married to be a huge learning curve in how to love someone — and be loved — unconditionally. Christians call this grace: unearned love that cannot be repaid and that you do not deserve. Nothing could better describe the love we received from our friends and family in the weeks around our wedding. It is totally overwhelming to experience grace — and it left me searching for answers.”

After their honeymoon, he began looking into Christianity and learning more about Jesus. He watched the Alpha Course, he read C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. He asked God to show him. He writes:

There are plenty of reasonable arguments and evidence for God. But my heart did not need a proof on paper. I needed to know and witness God in my life. And there are two ways in which God responded to my need to be shown that he exists.

Firstly, through Jesus. The single most remarkable aspect of Jesus’s ministry is the one we most often take for granted. Unlike any other religious thinker that has ever lived, Jesus puts himself forward as evidence for the existence of God. If you know me, Jesus claims, you know the Father.

The more I read about Jesus, the more I have come to trust this wild and dangerous claim. His ministry is too precise to be the work of a madman, and too high in its moral calling to be the work of an impostor. The only alternative is to take him at his word. Once you do, the great mystery — God and our reason for being here — steps out from behind the curtain.

And secondly, I asked. One of the most extravagant — preposterous — claims Jesus makes about God is the absolute assurance of an answer to spiritual searching. Ask and it shall be given to you. Having found my fiercest defense against religion defeated by the evidence, I finally got on my knees and asked God, if he was real, to make himself known in my life.

He has.

As we gather to eat from Jesus’ table, confess not only your sins but your questions. Jesus is ready to meet you and satisfy your hunger and thirst for him. Amen.

Footnotes

Chrystostom in Joel C. Elowsky, ed., John 11–21, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 9.
Cyril of Alexandrai in Elowsky, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture , 9.
Origin in Elowsky, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture , 9. Cf. David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary : A Companion Volume to the Jewish New Testament , electronic ed. (Clarksville: Jewish New Testament Publications, 1996), Jn 11:16 .
Paraphrase of John 14:7

CMJ USA on Philly radio

Thu, 01 May 2025 16:22:30 GMT

Listen as Cariño & Jeff have a conversation with Pastor Brad Lacey

We recently met Pastor Brad Lacey at a conference of missionally minded Christians. Brad is the pastor of The First Baptist Church at Conshohocken, PA . That's in the great Philadelphia metro.

Brad also has a radio show called The Great Message on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, and he kindly invited CMJ USA to a conversation.

We had a wonderful introductory conversation about what CMJ USA is up to and how a Mexican-American from west Texas and a Jewish follower of Jesus from Cleveland came to work together.

Listen below.

We hope to have future conversations with Brad about how Christians can better love their Jewish neighbors.

We'd love to have similar conversations in your city. Do you know a Christian radio station or a Christian radio show looking for speakers and interview subjects? Let us know. Reach out to Jeff Roberts, Director of Partnerships, at jeff.roberts@cmj-usa.org .

Did The Chosen’s get it wrong in Season 5?

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 13:57:57 GMT

CMJ USA's Jeff Roberts responds to The Forward's review of Season 5

Editor’s note: The Forward recently posted a review of The Chosen by Mira Fox, a culture writer at The Forward. It is titled “ The only good Jews in this hit Christian TV show are the ones who follow Jesus : ‘The Chosen’ has long been obsessed with Jewish practice — but Jewish people don’t come off well in its retelling.” How Mira Fox (or a copy editor at the Forward) really feels is found in the headline you’ll see across the top of your browser window: “The Chosen: Last Supper is finally blaming the Jews.” This is quite a contrast from the positive review from an Orthodox Jewish woman as season 3 came out. But as Fox points out, the Gospel story gets tougher as the crucifixion approaches. Our own Jeff Roberts, who has seen the latest season, offers a rebuttal.

Mira Fox, in the Jewish publication the Forward, recently wrote a review of what she referred to as “the blockbuster TV show” The Chosen, The Last Supper. Although her review is largely favorable, Fox’s review is not unbiased. Her sympathies are clearly with the Pharisees. “There was a lot of pressure on the Pharisees”, she writes. “By the time Judas considers turning Jesus in, I was with him (Judas).” After reading Ms. Fox’s article, I feel compelled to take respectful issue with a number of points she makes in her review.

On the positive side, I am in agreement with her comment that: “There is no Christianity without the belief that Jesus fulfilled Jewish prophecy.” The reality is that Jesus did fulfill dozens (possibly hundreds) of Messianic prophecies found throughout the Jewish Scriptures such as Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, Zechariah 12:10 , Isaiah 9:6 (for to us a son is given who will be called Mighty God), and Micah 5:1 which prophesied the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

Fox writes she is concerned The Chosen could remind people that “Christian tradition has blamed Jews for Jesus death, leading to centuries of persecution and antisemitism.” It is a sad truth that some people who wrongly claimed to be Christians (but who did not practice what Jesus taught) were involved in terrible crimes against the Jewish people. This tragic history has been detailed in many books authored by Jews and Christians alike. In addition, many Christians and organizations are speaking out to educate Christians about this awful history and against the rising sin of antisemitism.

Jesus himself never advocated violence against his own people. He was a Jewish rabbi who lived his life as a Torah-observant Jew. In fact, as he pointed out in the New Covenant book of Matthew 15:24 , “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

Ms. Fox is likewise concerned that Jews are portrayed in a poor light in The Chosen and that there is a “truly gratuitous amount of discussion of Jewish greed, corruption, and lack of spirituality.” She writes, “by the time of the scene of Jesus flipping the merchants (money-changers) tables in the Temple (courts), Jews are firmly established as the villains.” I disagree.

First, the characteristics she ascribes to the Jewish leaders can apply to anyone in politics, power, or leadership (as seen every day in the news). Secondly, Jesus never denigrated the Jewish people either in the show The Chosen or the pages of the New Covenant scriptures. The story about turning over the corrupt money-changers tables is best understood by his righteous anger after seeing the buying and selling of animals at exorbitant prices and money changers charging exchange fees: “My house should be a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of thieves.”

Throughout his life on earth Jesus’ ire was focused on the Pharisees and others who talked a good game but lived their lives hypocritically. In regard to the Pharisees, Jesus said “you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.”

Overall, my biggest concern with Ms. Fox’s review is her broad-brush statement that “Jews, of course, reject the show’s fundamental message: that Jesus is the prophesied messiah.” This is not true. According to the Pew Research Center, 300,000 Americans raised as Jews reported they are Christians , and more than half of the 2.8 million Americans not considered Jews but who had one of more Jewish parents stated that they were Christians.

Although many of these people worship in churches, tens of thousands worship in the hundreds of Messianic synagogues in the United States, Israel, the Ukraine, and around the world. These include Orthodox Jews and even rabbis. All of this is consistent with what took place in the first century. As described in the New Covenant Book of Acts, the Scriptures state, “You see, brothers, how many thousands of Jews have believed (that Jesus is the Messiah), and all of them are zealous for the law.”

The Chosen is not perfect. It takes liberties by adding characters and creating backstories. But on the whole, I believe The Chosen accurately portrays the Jewishness of Jesus. As a long-time Jewish follower of Jesus, I believe with all my heart that he is the Messiah… to the Jew first and also to the Gentiles. But don’t believe me or Mira Fox. Watch The Chosen on Amazon or some other streaming service and then decide for yourself.

Jeff Roberts serves at the Director Partnerships & Fundraising. He's been a follower of Jesus for nearly 40 years. Read how he fell in love with the Messiah . You can reach Jeff at jeff.roberts@cmj-usa.org .

‘I’m scared about antisemitism, but my friends just want to talk about the war’

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 13:54:17 GMT

Jewish Media Review - April 2025

The Israel-Hamas War continues, and so does antisemitism. Continue to reach out to Jewish neighbors to see how they are managing the tension of celebrating Passover while lamenting the hostages, the war and perhaps feeling anxiety about antisemitism.

If you are interested in how Jewish media is covering the deportation of pro-Palestinians protestors, scroll down to the bottom of the review.

�� I’m scared about antisemitism, but my friends just want to talk about the war (Forward)

Bintel advises a student who is struggling to discuss her fears with friends who keep bringing the conversation back to politics

�� Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investi gators say (Forward)

Suspect Cody Balmer told investigators he was ‘harboring hatred’ toward the Jewish governor, they say. Arson took place night after Shapiro hosted Passover seder.

Editor’s note: This story is very fresh and the motive remains unclear. I heard an interview on NPR saying that the timing of the attack – just hours after the governor hosted a Passover seder – gives the Jewish community pause, especially when there are other antisemitic attacks against politicians, like the two below. But others say to slow down and don't assume antisemitism .

�� Pennsylvania Jewish groups condemn ‘genocide’ slogan on Gisele Fetterman’s ch arity (JTA)

The sheet, draped over the Free Store in the town of Braddock, reads “Genocide John, Genocide Gisele, Blood on your hands.”

�� Maine man arrested for threatening posts against Jews, politic ians (Jewish Chronicle)

An FBI investigation found numerous posts across social media that “contained threats to Jews, political figures, the Supreme Court and others."

�� Comedian Mike Glazer Stands Up to an Antisemitic H eckler (Jewish Journal)

The comedian has received his fair share of support from fans and friends; however, antisemites have also targeted him.

�� How Coke’s Passover recipe sparked an antisemitic conspiracy theory (Forward)

Soda giant uses cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup for Jewish holiday

�� 101-year-old WWII veteran recalls US Army’s seder night, weeks before liberating Dachau (Times of Israel)

Hilbert Margol still regularly speaks about the atrocities he saw firsthand at the notorious Nazi concentration camp as a young US soldier: ‘We didn’t understand what we were seeing’

��‍�� He went viral for defacing ‘Kidnapped’ hostage posters. Now, he’s attending a rabbi’s Passover seder (JTA)

Though unlikely circumstances brought Rabbi Sarah Reines and Kurush Mistry together, a “deep friendship” has formed.

�� Anti-Christian incidents in Israel rising: Spitting on clergy, damage to church properties (Christian Post)

Editor’s note: I asked our CMJ Israel colleagues about these reports. Rev. David Pileggi said “This is a problem in Jerusalem and Jerusalem only. The police – after a few years – now take the problem very seriously. Some of what keeps the problem from being resolved is the lack of reporting by Christian clergy.” He also passed along the article below of how Israeli volunteers walked the Palm Sunday procession route this year to report agitators.

�� On Palm Sunday, Israeli volunteers escort Christian processions to report racist incidents (Times of Israel)

Volunteers from the Religious Freedom Data Center accompany Armenian, Latin, clerics to and from Church of Holy Sepulchre during their annual holy week ritual

�� To rob the dead: How the Palestinian cause seeks to steal the Shoah (Jewish Chronicle)

We must state this plainly: The Holocaust was global.

�� Most Americans don’t want the US to conquer Gaza, Pew survey finds (JTA)

The only U.S. religious group to demonstrate confidence in Netanyahu is white evangelical Protestants, according to the survey.

�� Muslim prayer room at NYU vandalized with name of Jewish fraternity (JTA)

The letters AEPI were scrawled on a vulgar image.

�� In UK and Australia, lawmakers are trying to curb protests outside of synagogues (JTA)

“I have listened to your calls for change,” the U.K. home secretary told a Jewish group’s gala on Wednesday.

⏳ Dara Horn’s gonzo, time-traveling children’s Passover book wants people to love living Jews (Jewish Chronicle)

Horn has launched a nonprofit, Mosaic Persuasion, to advance her vision.

✡️ The new Jewish diaspora: How nearly one million Israelis are reshaping global Jewish communities (All Israel)

��️ Why Jews were like everyone else — only more so — during slavery and the Civil War (Forward)

Richard Kreitner’s ‘Fear No Pharoah’ takes an unflinching look at how Jews reckoned with America’s founding sin

⬅️ Who Are the People Leaving Their Childhood Religion? (compiled by Jewish Journal)

A new Pew study highlights the rising trend of people leaving their childhood religions.

Christianity and Buddhism Show Biggest Losses (Pew) In many countries around the world, a fifth or more of all adults have left the religious group in which they were raised. Christianity and Buddhism have experienced especially large losses from this “religious switching,” while rising numbers of adults have no religious affiliation, according to Pew Research Center surveys of nearly 80,000 people in 36 countries.
American Jews Leave the Faith at High Rates (Grace Gilson, Jerusalem Post) Almost one in four US adults raised Jewish do not identify as religiously Jewish anymore, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center… Among Americans raised Jewish, 17% now describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated. An additional 2% now identify as Christian while 1% now identify as Muslim. An additional 4% identify with another religion or didn’t answer.
Israeli Jews Tend to Stay Put (JNS) Between 20% and 30% of adults no longer affiliate with the religion which they grew up in many Western countries, including 28% of Americans. But fewer than 1% of adults who were raised as Israeli Jews no longer identify as such, per a new Pew Research Center report on “religious switching.”

✝️ US Christians more pro-Israel, less antisemitic than UK Christians; study examines reasons why (Christian Post)

⛪ Christian Zionism hasn’t always been a conservative evangelical creed – churches’ views of Israel have evolved over decades (The Conversation)

��On student deportations in efforts to combat campus antisemitism

Editor’s note: I find myself in a quandary. Our country, our churches, our families are so politically divided. All actions by the current presidential administration are watched and talked about. Among them are the recent deportations of pro-Palestinian activists, deportations done in the name of fighting antisemitism on college campuses.

Sharing or not share selected headlines, and certainly any comments by me for or against the deportations, will be thought by some to reveal my personal opinions about the current administration.

CMJ USA’s mission is to equip individuals and local congregations to

Fight antisemitism
Understand and value the Jewish roots of the Christian faith
Have authentic conversations with Jewish neighbors about our common and differing beliefs
Encourage and support the Body of Messiah in Israel.

This blog is part of our equipping you. The news items shared in this blog are meant to inform readers of what our Jewish neighbors are saying about different current events. I do not share these items to persuade to any side. The Jewish Media Review is meant to broaden your horizons and consider the point of view of our neighbors outside (and inside) the church.

Trump Is Targeting International Students Over Pro-Palestinian Protests. But Is It Legal? (The Marshall Project)
After the administration revoked 300 students’ visas, the courts will have to decide if the Constitution protects the free speech of noncitizens.
Trump’s Fight Against Antisemitism Has Become Fraught for Many Jews (NY Times)
American Jews have watched with both alarm and enthusiasm as strong-arm tactics, including arrests of activists, have been deployed in their name.
ADL’s Greenblatt calling out ‘disturbing pattern’ in Trump’s deportation campaign (Jewish Insider)
In an interview with JI, the Anti-Defamation League CEO says the protection of Jewish students ‘shouldn't require us to shred the norms that we use to protect other people’
Media ignore Mahmoud Khalil’s violations of U.S. immigration laws, promote free speech hoax (JNS) Guests in the United States, on visas or green cards, are not citizens and not entitled to citizenship rights.
Hillel CEO says he shares ‘concerns’ over campus deportations, calls for due process (JTA)
Adam Lehman worried that Trump’s campus crackdown could unfairly affect Jewish students and fuel antisemitism.
The Great Free Speech Pretenders (Jewish Journal)
It’s easy to defend a hater whose hateful views against Israel don't bother you one bit. But what about a hater whose views you absolutely abhor?
Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy (Forward)
Former Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt supports parts of the Trump administration’s visa crackdown, but says it must be done ‘thoughtfully’ and with due process

There are more Jewish believers in Jesus than you think

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 20:40:18 GMT

Nearly 2 million Americans with Jewish background, according to Pew

After a church conference in Virginia last month, I stopped at a grocery store to pick up some wine for Sabbath. I struck up a conversation with the cashier. I asked him how I could pray for him, and he said, "I pray. I'm a Muslim."

As we talked, he revealed he was from Eritrea and had studied Islam at university. He had read the Hebrew Bible and New Testament and bragged to me that he had talked Christians out of their faith.

So I asked him a question.

"I understand when Islam says Muhammad is The Prophet, you mean the Prophet like Moses ( Deut 18:15ff ). Is that correct?" "Yes," he replied.

"The Gospel writers, particularly Matthew, show that Jesus is the the Prophet like Moses, "I continued. "That is what Christianity believes."

"Which verse?" he asked defiantly, ready to refute me.

"Not one verse," I said, "but the whole book of Matthew shows Jesus as the Prophet like Moses."

"No. Jesus is a prophet but not The Prophet," the cashier replied. "And, besides, Jews have not believed in Jesus."

"There are Jews who believe in Jesus," I told him. "Not all of them, but their are Jews who believe in Jesus as Messiah." He didn't believe me.

I encouraged him to read Matthew with fresh eyes. We blessed each other and parted with a handshake.

There are indeed Jewish believers in Jesus, more than we may believe.

In 2020, Pew Research released their report on Jewish Americans . In it, they found that there are 5.8 million Jewish adults in the United States and another 2.8 million Americans who have Jewish background (one Jewish parent but weren't raised Jewish).

Of the nearly 6 million Jewish adults, 27 percent were raised Jewish but now consider themselves something else. Of those, 19 percent say they are Christians. That's nearly 300,000 Jewish believers in Jesus.

Of the 2.8 million Americans who have Jewish background (but were not considered Jewish in the report), 52 percent are Christian, 4 percent are Messianic Jews, and 1 percent consider themselves both Jewish and Christian. That totals 1.6 million Jewish-background Americans who believe in Jesus.

That's nearly 2 million followers of Jesus who have Jewish DNA, just in the United States.

So next time some one tells you, "Jews don't believe in Jesus," let them know that at least 1.9 million people disagree.

Invite us to speak on the history of Jewish believers in Jesus!

On Lent, Israel, loopholes, & the Pope

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 20:12:53 GMT

Jewish Media review - March 2025

There may be some unexpected words in the headline of this Jewish Media Review. There are some compelling reads of Jews engaging with Christian holidays and figures. Scroll down to see.

I’ve been compiling the Jewish Media Review for more than a year now. It is meant to give you a glimpse at what our Jewish neighbors are discussing at different media sites. We must never look at Jewish people (or any people group) as a monolith.

I've tried to show that there are many perspectives on the Israel-Hamas War and rising antisemitism in the United States. The Jewish Media Review is also meant to bring out news items – especially of antisemitic incidents – that don’t always make it into mainstream media. I hope that insight into various perspectives will give you points of conversation with your Jewish neighbors or colleagues as well as points for prayer as we all navigate our tumultuous world.

A lot of the discussion on Jewish media in the past two or three weeks has been squarely in the political space: commentary on how the new federal administration is handling different issues, such as antisemitism, US-Israel relations, immigration, free speech, and more. That is beyond the scope of this review. If you want to know, I encourage you add some Jewish news sites to your news sources: The Forward, Jewish Journal, Jewish News Syndicate, Jewish Telegraph Agency, the Times of Israel. Compare and contrast how they cover a particular news item.

✝️ This Lent I will turn atheism to ashes (Giles Coren)

After growing up a godless Jew, and then appreciating that I don’t not believe, I now feel at home with Anglicanism

Excerpt: “I’ll still be a Jew, in the way that a black man would still be black. I’ll still use Yiddish words where English ones won’t do and say “his mother was Jewish, you know” whenever Harrison Ford comes on screen. But I’ll be a Christian one.”

��️ It’s our Jewish responsibility to see the full picture when it comes to Israel. We’re failing (Forward)

The Jewish state is profoundly flawed, and extraordinary. Why can’t we perceive both those truths?

✡️ What does it mean that Judaism is a religion of loopholes? (Forward)

For Elana Stein Hain, practices like the eruv and the selling of chametz can create a new sort of religious consciousness

�� Feldstein: The solution for long-term peace in Gaza is Jesus (All Israel)

Editor's note: Orthodox Jewish Israel Jonathan Feldstein restates that what the people of Gaza need is a transformed heart and Jesus can do that. The salt to this pronouncement is that he said in February 2024 that “This is not a task for the Jewish people. Our covenant is unique.” There are hints of dual covenant theology here, that Jews can access the Father through Moses alone and Jesus is for Gentiles. Still, Feldstein sees that the Gospel of Jesus changes hearts and has the power to turn enemies into friends. Might Jesus say to Feldstein, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” ( Mark 12:34 )"?

�� Fighting Antisemitism by Loving America (Jewish Journal)

Being lovers of this great nation as a people that continues to give back is a powerful truth-- one that can isolate Jew haters while also maximizing our supporters.

Excerpt: “It’s not what we say that counts, it’s what people take away.

"For all we know, when we teach people that Jew-hatred is so ancient and pervasive, some may wonder if being hated is what makes Jews special. Indeed, our intense efforts to expose Jew-hatred may have unwittingly rebranded and reduced the Jewish people to merely a target– worthy only of hate.

"This isn’t just grossly inaccurate, it ignores the crucial truth that most Americans are especially fond of Jews. According to the latest Pew research, more Americans hold favorable views of Jews than any other religious group. When did that truth ever make it into an activist campaign?”

Editor’s note: The author is right that antisemitism education may focus too much on the hate side instead of speaking of existing love for Jews or communicating that Jews are patriotic Americans that contribute richly to our society. However, the Jews of Germany were patriotic Germans who contributed richly to early 20 ^th century society. That didn’t stop antisemites like Hitler from devaluing Jewish contributions and demonizing all Jewish people. Deep seated antisemitism is not logical and has spiritual dimensions. In those cases, education is not enough. Spiritual transformation, the type Jonathan Feldstein mentions above, through Jesus Messiah is needed.

�� How the Pope and my rabbi father changed my life and healed my heart (Forward)

30 years ago, Rabbi A. James Rudin took his daughter Jen on a fateful trip to the Vatican

�� A Jewish Moment Without Parallel (Commentary)

Thoughts by a New York City rabbi

Excerpt: “Perhaps the most striking feature of Netanyahu’s trip to Washington is that it featured a meeting with major evangelical leaders, but not with Jewish ones, reflecting the fact that it is millions of non-Jewish Americans who make up the heart of the America-Israel alliance. And this, in turn, reveals a fact about our moment that has no parallel in the biblical past: For the first time since the emergence of Abraham’s covenant nation, there are, numerically, more Gentiles who care about the well-being of the Jewish people than there are Jewish people on this earth. We live, one might say, in unprecedented times.”

“The Bible … predicts that radically new moments in the Jewish future are yet to come. We seem to be, in some respect, in such a time. Thus Jewish statesmen and leaders, in Israel and the Diaspora, will need, increasingly, to turn not to the tales of Greece and Rome, but to the Bible in order to search for instruction—to not only its description of past events, but also its vision for the Jewish future. This vision was presented thousands of years ago, but it seems increasingly relevant today. And this surely means that, especially in this trying period, we may hope for more surprises and wonders yet to come.”

�� Cosmic wonder: Reclaiming science’s place in Jewish life (JNS)

Just as modern telescopes reveal the hidden structure of nebulae and star clusters, understanding the physics behind twilight reveals God’s meticulous design of the everyday world.

�� Most American Jews do not support anti-Zionism, new poll reveals (Jewish Chronicle)

According to the poll, 91% of respondents are concerned that social media amplifies the opinions of fringe movements, making them seem more widespread than they actually are.

�� Since Oct. 7, this university has quietly opened its doors to Jewish students leaving uncomfortable campuses (JTA)

An under-the-radar program for mid-year transfers appeals to Jewish students looking for friendlier pastures.

❓ Why are Jewish influencers suddenly talking about Meir Kahane? (Forward)

A controversial Instagram video has exposed a wedge among social media personalities who support Israel

��The Fathers Live (Matisyahu & Remedy)

“Jewish rappers Matisyahu and Remedy collaborated on a new song about combating antisemitism. Watch the music video” (via the Forward)

✍�� Wanted for being Jewish (Pittsburgh Chronicle)

Since Oct. 7 I have learned what unites the far-left progressive community. It’s called antisemitism

Excerpt: “On the night of Oct. 6 I went to bed viewed as a left-leaning writer. I awoke Oct. 7 seen as a right-wing conservative no longer welcomed by many of the people I knew. My crime? I wrote for a Jewish paper telling the stories of our community. I also detailed the antisemitism, anti-Zionism, anti-Israel and anti-American protests and rallies happening on college campuses, in meeting halls and on street corners. I refused to cower as groups of radicalized youth, hiding beneath masks, called for the destruction of Israel and the forced removal of Jews from Israel —after all, what else is “From the river to the sea” but a call for ethnic cleansing? I was no longer an ally. I was no longer part of a marginalized community, perhaps the oldest marginalized community in the world. I was now an oppressor.”

�� One-Third of US Jewish College Students Feel Faculty Promote Antisemitism, Hostile Learning Environment (Algemeiner)

��️ I liked the AI Jews-against-Kanye video — and we should all be terrified of it (Jewish Chronicle)

If AI could create a video that supports the Jews, it could just as easily create videos that defame the Jews

The Gospel according to Isaiah

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 15:00:40 GMT

Isaiah 61 is the job description of the Anointed One and his followers

Preached at St. Luke’s Anglican - Georgetown, PA for the 7th Sunday of Epiphany

Isaiah 61:1-4

Psalm 96

Romans 10:9-17

John 20:19-31

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

because the Lord has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor;

he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor…

I hope this passage from Isaiah is familiar to you. It is the mission statement of Jesus of Nazareth. Not long after Jesus ceremonially bathed in the Jordan River – his cousin John looking on – Jesus went to Nazareth for a sabbath at home with mom (at least as it was depicted in The Chosen ).

On Saturday morning, Jesus was invited not only to read from the Scriptures but to offer an interpretation. He takes the scroll of Isaiah and reads these words: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me….”

When Jesus was baptized, the Spirit of God descended like a dove. And God the Father spoke from heaven, affirming Jesus’ divine sonship.

When Jesus got up to read these words from Isaiah – “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me…” then said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” he referenced his Holy Spirit baptism and he set the outline of his ministry:

give hope to the poor,
heal the brokenhearted,
free prisoners,
call back the exiles,
proclaim God’s favor and justice to an oppressed people.

Before we look at Jesus’ ministry and what that means for us, we’re going to look closer at these opening verses of Isaiah 61, their original context, and what Isaiah’s word choices as well as some translation choices – under the direction of the Holy Spirit – communicate to us.

Who is Isaiah writing to?

Much of the book of Isaiah is a prophetic warning to a wayward people. The Kingdom of Judah was devolving into idolatry and social injustice.

In chapter 1, God opens with “your sins are like scarlet… red like crimson” because Israel had not ceased doing evil nor sought justice for the orphan and the widow. The leaders loved bribes and hung out with thieves. Later, God indicted them for fasting from food but oppressing their workers, thereby negating their act of worship ( Isa 58:3 ).

The consequences of sin are on their way to the Kingdom of Judah: exile ( Isaiah 5:13 ) and destruction (10:22).

Yet, when God announces the wages of sin to Israel (and to us), he also announces consolation. The latter chapters of Isaiah are largely words of comfort:

Exile will end
The Land will be restored
God himself will be King and rule justly

God ruling Israel was the promise at Sinai. Israel, in accepting the Torah, accepts God as their king. But then Israel demanded a human king like their neighbors (1 Sam 8). They got their kings, and most were corrupt and led the nation into idolatry, violence, social injustice, and eventually exile.

Isaiah 61 is part of the prophetic consolation and speaks of when God is visibly King. ¹ The vision of Isaiah 61 looks past the return from Babylonian exile, past the return of Jews to the Holy Land from the 1880s, past the foundation of the modern state of Israel in 1948. It speaks of a world to come, the messianic age where even wolves and lambs sit together in peace ( Isa 11:6 , 65:26 ) the lion with a fatted calf “and a little child shall lead them.”

The ancient places of Israel and Jerusalem will be rebuilt, the poor will be cared for, the brokenhearted will be comforted, and the prisoner will be freed.

This is a hope that the Jewish people still hold on to. In Jerusalem, there is a hopeful sculpture overlooking the Old City walls. It is based on Isaiah 2:4 : “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Except in this sculpture, it is guns and bombs converted into farm implements. The verse is inscribed on the sculpture in Hebrew and Arabic. There it still stands now, amid another Israel-Palestinian war. The sculpture continues looking forward to the day that God’s rule and reign are manifest and all the nations are under his loving authority.

Back to Isaiah 61:1 .

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

because the Lord has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor;

The two words I’d like us to meditate on are ‘anointed’ and ‘bring good news.’

Anointed

The Hebrew word for anoint is the root of the title Messiah. In ancient Israel, prophets, kings, and priests were anointed, physically anointed with oil, a picture of God’s Holy Spirit spiritually equipping the person for their role. So the prophet, king, or priest were messiahs, with a little m, because they were anointed ones.

The concept of a final Messiah, capital M, begins to develop maybe 200 years before Jesus is born. The line of David hadn’t been restored. Other sovereigns – both foreign and Israelite – had risen to rule the people of Israel, but all of those lines ended in oppression and corruption. So the expectation for prophetic promises of a king of the line of David are deferred to the End Times. Jewish interpreters start to hope for the final Son of David who will set the whole world right. They start to expect a sinless, maybe divine figure. ²

So when Jesus gets up at this hometown synagogue and reads Isaiah 61, he is announcing, I am the Anointed One of the LORD. I am the capital M Messiah.

What has he been anointed for? “To bring good news to the poor.” The poor that are oppressed by corrupt leadership, the poor that toil to feed their families, the poor in spirit who are brokenhearted, physically ill, imprisoned. This is for whom the Messiah is sent first.

Sometime 200 years before Jesus was born, the Jewish leadership had the Hebrew Scriptures translated into Greek, including the Scroll of Isaiah. Please bear with me as I read a version of Isaiah 61:1 based on the Greek translation:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has christened me to evangelize the poor… ³

What is the point?

First, I want to remind you that Messiah is the same as Christ. They both mean Anointed One, but from different language roots. When we say Christ, we say Messiah in another way.

Second, see how “preach good news” has become “evangelize.”

Bring good news

We think of evangel and evangelize as Christian words. They are not exclusively Christian words. In fact, we get these words from Jewish translations of the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament.

Evangelize has become a bad word in some circles because of how it's been abused. To evangelize is just to proclaim good news. There is no sense of coercion in it. Sadly, church history records that some Christians did coerce Jews and other subjected peoples into the church. That is wrong. The job of the Christian is to proclaim Jesus and love like he loves.

In Romans 10:9-17 , Paul quotes four passages from the Hebrew Scriptures, ⁴ three from Isaiah. The one that concerns us is “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” ( Isa 52:7 ).

Again, the word that the Jewish Greek translators chose for preach good news is evangelize .

Roughly, we could translate Isaiah 52:7 as how beautiful are the feet of one who brings the evangel of peace, as the one who brings the evangel of good things ⁵ or how beautiful are the feet of the evangelist of peace, the evangelist of good things.

Who is the evangelist of peace?

Just before, in Isaiah 52:6 , it is the LORD speaking: “My people shall know my name. Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here I am.”

It is God speaking good news to the captives of Israel. And he says, “Here I am.” This is the God who is present! He is Immanuel, God with us! And it is God who is the evangelist of peace.

And his message, his gospel of peace is not just for Israel! In Psalm 96, which we read today, the nations are called, too:

1 O sing unto the Lᴏʀᴅ a new song; *

sing unto the Lᴏʀᴅ, all the whole earth.

2 Sing unto the Lᴏʀᴅ and praise his Name; *

tell of his salvation from day to day.

3 Declare his honor to the nations, *

and his wonders to all peoples.

7 Ascribe unto the Lᴏʀᴅ, O you families of the peoples, *

ascribe unto the Lᴏʀᴅ worship and power.

8 Ascribe unto the Lᴏʀᴅ the honor due unto his Name; *

bring offerings and come into his courts.

10 Tell it out among the nations, “The Lᴏʀᴅ is King; *

it is he who has made the world so firm that it cannot be moved; he shall judge the peoples righteously.”

(New Coverdale version, Book of Common Prayer 2019)

In Genesis 12, God called Abraham for the sake of the nations. God tells Abraham “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Which families? The peoples who rebelled at the Tower of Babel.

There are other examples throughout the Hebrew Scriptures of the good news of the God of Israel proclaimed to the nations. There are hopeful promises made to Egypt and Assyria, even to Gaza.

There’s an amazing promise in Zechariah 9 concerning Gaza. God is proclaiming judgment on the nations around Israel.

5 Ashkelon shall see [God’s judgment], and be afraid; Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish; Ekron also, because its hopes are confounded…. I will cut off the pride of Philistia. 7 I will take away its blood from its mouth, and its abominations from between its teeth; it too shall be a remnant for our God; it shall be like a clan in Judah…

This passage lists the Philistine cities. You will recognize that some of those cities still exist in and around the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian people live. And God says, through Zechariah, that the peoples living in the area we call today the Gaza Strip will be redeemed as a remnant. God will cut off their pride but they’ll be folded into God’s people, not by domination but by God’s mercy. And we know that God’s mercy comes through Jesus the Messiah.

When God judges the nations in the prophets, especially Ezekiel, it is so that they will know the name of the LORD. Not a vengeful way like you might see in a shoot-em-up film. God lets Israel and all the nations of the earth suffer the consequences of their sin so that they will cry out to him for mercy. God’s character is always to have mercy. As Paul reminds us, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

How does God do that? Through Jesus’ ministry plan:

Proclaim the good news of the LORD to the poor
Bind up the brokenhearted
Proclaim liberty to exiles and displaced persons
Open the prison to those who are bound
Proclaim the LORD’s justice, mercy, and favor.

After Jesus announces in Nazareth that he is the Anointed One, he does just what the verse says. He says that the Kingdom of God is coming. He heals blind men and paralytics. He even raises the dead.

After his death and resurrection, Jesus shares his anointing and his commission with his followers. In our Gospel portion, we read:

19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week… 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus sends his disciples. But first, he gives them the Holy Spirit. He anoints them with the power of God.

What do the disciples do? We see in Acts that they preach the good news, and they heal the lame, they cast out demons. They announce to the nations – to Israel and all the world – that God has come among us to heal us, to forgive us of our sins, to bring justice to the oppressed and mercy to the oppressor who will humble himself and receive God’s loving offer.

As a result of their efforts, many people from the nations know the name of the LORD and have called on it, and we have been saved. Praise God!

We have been baptized into the Christian family. We are christened, we are anointed. That’s what christened means. When we say we are Christians, we say we belong to the Anointed One of the LORD and that we also are anointed ones.

The Anointed One anoints his disciples

The Anointed One anoints us! For what?

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon us,

because the Lord has anointed us

to bring good news to the poor;

to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor…

The LORD saves us to have relationship with us. The LORD anoints us so that we will tell others the good news.

It doesn’t matter how small your church is. It does not matter how old you are. All of you have neighbors who have not yet engaged with the Good News of God’s Salvation in a meaningful way.

Yes, giving to professional ministers is important. I thank you for your support of CMJ USA.

But you, too, are called to proclaim the Good News of Jesus, to pray for the healing of your neighbors, to encourage the foreigner living next door, to comfort those who mourn, to minister to the imprisoned.

The Spirit of the LORD is upon you.

Let us learn from Jesus how to take up this calling and invite others into the family of God.

Footnotes

Adin Steinsaltz, " Isaiah 61:1-63:6 , Preface 45,” Steinsaltz Introductions to Tanakh, The Steinsaltz Tanakh-English (2015, KorenPub via Sefaria.org).
Mark L. Strauss, “Messiah,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary, ed. John D. Barry et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016). See also The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ by Jewish scholar Daniel Boyarin, who shows that some first-century Jews were expecting a divine Anointed One.
Πνεῦμα κυρίου ἐπʼ ἐμέ, οὗ εἵνεκεν ἔχρισέν με, εὐαγγελίσασθαι πτωχοῖς ἀπέσταλκέν με
Septuaginta: With Morphology, electronic ed. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1979), Is 61:1 .
“Everyone who believes in him [the LORD] will not be put to shame.” ( Isa 28:16 )
“Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” ( Joel 2:32 )
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” ( Isa 52:7 )
“Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” ( Is 53:1 )
Author’s modifcation of Rick Brannan, Ken M. Penner et al., The Lexham English Septuagint, Second Edition. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2020), Is 52:7 .

Bonhoeffer film director on faith and film

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 17:08:58 GMT

Interview: Todd Komarnicki and Daniel Boot of CMJ UK

CMJ UK's Daniel Boot speaks with director Todd Komarnicki about his new film, his journey of faith, and the enduring legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Daniel Boot: Todd, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. I really appreciate it. I’m just a humble plumber in my past life and only recently started working for CMJ, so interviewing Hollywood directors isn’t exactly my usual gig.

Todd Komarnicki: Well, I’ll say this—one thing they tell you in America to never DIY is plumbing. So I have massive respect for plumbers!

Daniel: That’s good to know—thank you! Are you in the US now or the UK?

Todd: I’m in Ireland. We had the Irish premiere last night in Limerick, and the London premiere last week. I finally go home on Friday. I’m so grateful. Anytime I get a chance to talk about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his story and how important it is today, I’m happy to do it.

Faith and Foundations

Daniel: I understand you’re a Christian. Could you tell me a little about your own journey to faith?

Todd: I was raised in a home where Jesus was the center of my parents’ life. I thought I understood it, but when I left home, I realized I didn’t have the deep connection of faith I thought I did. Halfway through my freshman year at university, my faith pretty much vanished. I spent two years in the wilderness, looking everywhere but back to God.

But the God I had rejected never rejected me. When I finally turned toward Him, He embraced me like the father in the story of the prodigal son. In my early 20s, I accepted Jesus. It’s been a beautiful, ever-deepening ride since then.

Daniel: That reminds me of a line from the film: “I made my choice 12 years ago, long before I knew what it would mean.” That really struck me.

Todd: Yes, it gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by. The love story between God and mankind—and then the personal love story between Jesus and each of us—is the most beautiful thing. As Scripture says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

From Clint Eastwood to Bonhoeffer

Daniel: You’ve worked with Clint Eastwood on Sully . Were you starstruck?

Todd: The first time we spoke on the phone, I was a wreck. I’d been told, “The boss will call you sometime today.” When he finally did, I tried not to go fanboy—but I failed. I started gushing about Unforgiven . He graciously interrupted me and told me a story about a letter he has framed in his office. It was from a script reader who said Unforgiven was a terrible script and no one should make it. He keeps it to remind himself never to let others talk him out of what he loves.

Daniel: That’s a powerful lesson.

Todd: Especially in this internet age, where criticism can drown out encouragement. We need to listen to the right voices—Scripture, community, God—not the noise.

Becoming a Director

Daniel: How did you get into directing?

Todd: I made a small digital film in my early 30s for $27,000—and met my wife, Jane, through it. Later, I directed a WWII film called Resistance, but it was a tough experience due to financial issues. I didn’t direct again for a long time.

After working with Clint on Sully , people started offering me directing jobs again. I was hired to write Bonhoeffer , and then they asked me to direct it. I said no for a year. But one Friday night, the producers said they’d start looking for other directors on Monday. That weekend, my wife said, “We’re relocating to Europe. You’re directing Bonhoeffer.” So I said yes.

Favorite Scenes and Spiritual Moments

Daniel: What’s your favorite scene in the film?

Todd: Two come to mind. First, the sermon at Kaiser Wilhelm Church. We had 250 extras, and during rehearsal, Jonas Dassler (who plays Bonhoeffer) gave a full performance. When we called “cut,” the extras broke into spontaneous applause. It was a Holy Spirit moment.

Second, the communion scene at the end. We shot it as a 13-minute continuous take. When we finished, the actors embraced—not for the scene, but because of what they’d experienced. It reminded me of the power of sharing communion with the body of Christ.

Faith, Courage, and Moral Dilemmas

Daniel: One of the film’s big challenges is the moral dilemma of when, if ever, it’s right to kill. Bonhoeffer was a pacifist, yet he joined a plot to assassinate Hitler.

Todd: Millions of soldiers have fought and died while believing in Jesus. But Bonhoeffer was a civilian. It’s a different kind of moral weight. This film isn’t a call to violence—it’s a call to love. But it does ask: how do we discern God’s call in dark times?

What the Film Hopes to Inspire

Daniel: What do you want people to take away from Bonhoeffer?

Todd: That Bonhoeffer was just like us. He wasn’t a superhero. He wrestled with his faith, but he always returned to God. He’s a man from the Garden of Gethsemane—like Jesus, he said, “Not my will, but Yours.”

Also, I want this film to encourage people. Not just cheer them up, but give them courage. That’s what encouragement really means.

Honoring Jewish Roots

Daniel: CMJ has long worked to present Jesus as Messiah to the Jewish people. In the film, there’s a line about removing the Jewish roots from the church. What are your thoughts?

Todd: It’s crazy that there’s any antisemitism among Christians. There is no Christianity without Judaism. We’re brothers. We should be arm-in-arm. God chose to come to us through a child born in the Middle East. We need humility and a deep connection to our Jewish roots.

Daniel: Todd, thank you so much for your time and for this powerful film. I think it will bless many people—Christian and otherwise.

Film trailer

Israel Tour with Purpose: An opportunity to leave the sidelines

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 15:51:59 GMT

Two South Carolinians travel to the Holy Land in the midst of the war to speak comfort and mercy to those they meet

When Tour with Purpose appeared on CMJ USA’s website, my wife and I connected, thanks to our CMJ-Shoresh Holy Land study tour led by Dr. Theresa Newell in March-April, 2023. After the horrific Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, we had monitored and prayed over events in Israel and the proliferation of antisemitism in the US and the world. We learned CMJ Israel was using their guest houses as safe havens for evacuees and that many staff and family members were being called to military service. CMJ delivered food and supported displaced and needy families and implemented the Tour with Purpose program to bring small groups of volunteers to Israel to help. This program offered us a wonderful opportunity to leave the sidelines.

After numerous WhatsApp conversations with CMJ staffer, and now good friend, Laura Applebaum, and two flight cancellations by US airlines, we arrived in Tel Aviv via El Al on November 14. We walked through Ben Gurion airport, greeted by pictures of the many children, women, and men murdered, tortured, raped, and/or kidnapped by Hamas. During our stay we encountered these pictures, and many yellow ribbons, posted throughout Israel’s cities and countryside, a constant reminder of the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Greeted by Laura, we traveled to Christ Church Guest House in Jerusalem and met Denise Mortlock from South Africa, the fourth member of our team.

We share some experiences below, along with a few photos. Not once did we feel unsafe during our time in Israel. Western mainstream media’s exaggeration of the situation in Israel harms their economy by discouraging tourism. There were tourists from Asia, Africa, and other countries, in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, albeit with smaller crowds, and we encountered numerous Israeli children walking and playing in the streets and plazas.

��‍♂️‍➡️Ready to get off the sidelines? Next Tour with Purpose is May 21-28, 2025 Learn more. Then come with us! ✈️

Friday evening, we, along with Christian tourists from Thailand and other volunteers staying at Christ Church, participated in a Shabbat dinner held in the guest house dining room. Roddey Harel, our knowledgeable Jerusalem guide, spoke, and a special guest, an IDF Captain, answered questions about his tours in Gaza and Lebanon. Saturday, with volunteer options restricted on Shabbat, Roddey led us on a walking tour in old Jerusalem to see some extraordinary archeological excavations of ancient biblical sites.

Sunday, CMJ Israel’s deputy director, Scott Morgan, drove our foursome to Moshav Ein HaBesor , located some 3 miles from the Gaza border. Similar to a kibbutz, moshav members privately own property and voluntarily work together as a business community. Kibbutz assets and property are jointly owned by its members who live and work in a more socialist economy. At the farm’s facility we packed lettuce for market alongside several Thai workers who have returned to Israel’s “salad trail” after some 30,000 left when the war started. Miraculously, Ein HaBesor residents were able to close their entrance gate at the last moment, preventing Hamas’ assault. Only two members of the community were wounded.

Later we visited the Nova Music Festival Massacre site. There are no words to express the grief of this place, now a memorial, where over 364 innocent concert attendees were murdered, raped, and kidnapped by Hamas.

��‍♂️‍➡️Ready to get off the sidelines? Next Tour with Purpose is May 21-28, 2025 Learn more. Then come with us! ✈️

Monday, we moved to CMJ’s Beit Immanuel Guest House in Tel Aviv. We worked at Soldier’s House, located in a Tel Aviv parking garage. Volunteers distribute donations of household provisions, hygiene products, and supplies from all over the world to evacuated families, soldiers, and others in need. We folded bath linens and packed boxes for distribution. We also had our only experience of what the Israeli people have lived with for many years. At 8:40 p.m. an alarm sounded giving everyone 90 seconds to get to the basement shelter. Fortunately, Israel has several defense systems and the missile, fired from Lebanon, was intercepted and destroyed.

After Tuesday morning’s devotion session, led by the guest house staff, we assisted with cleaning and replenishing guest rooms. Afterwards we walked through Tel Aviv to nearby Jaffa.

Wednesday, our final day, we served meals in the Lasova Soup Kitchen. Open from 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. daily, one hot, nutritious, kosher meal a day is provided to 250+ disadvantaged people who cannot afford basic necessities. Diners are asked to pay one Israeli shekel (27 cents). If funds aren’t on hand, there’s no charge. Food is donated by farmers, businesses, restaurants, and event halls. Additional donated food is offered to anyone desiring to take something with them. On our day, freshly baked bread, grapefruit, trays of frozen slaw or beets were handed out. Donated clothing was also available on a table in the entrance hall.

Meeting and working with Israeli citizens and volunteers from many countries and having opportunities to serve in God’s Holy Land and observe first-hand the resilience of His people to adapt and thrive in spite of the trauma of war, testifies to our God’s power and love. Scott, Laura, Denise, Roddey, and our many new Israeli friends, blessed us more than we could ever have imagined. Thanks to CMJ Israel for providing a wonderful, Spirit filled experience.

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!” – Psalm 122:6 (ESV)

Bill and Bonnie Anderson, both retired, are strong supporters of Israel and the ministry of CMJ. They live on beautiful Wadmalaw Island near Charleston, South Carolina, and worship at St. John’s Parish Church, Anglican, on John's Island.

��‍♂️‍➡️Ready to get off the sidelines and go on your own Tour with Purpose? Learn more. Then come with us! ✈️

God's Calendar, a video series

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 01:37:17 GMT

God's visual aids to teach us about himself and his plan of redemption

I'd like to invite us all to think more deeply about what the Feasts of the Lord tell us about the character of God, particularly what they tell us about our own walk as Believers in Yeshua and even why this series is set forth right in the middle of Leviticus.

I've heard CMJ UK director Aaron Eime say that Leviticus is his favorite book. I can begin to see more and more how that could be. Leviticus sits right in the middle of the Torah, the middle book of the five books and Leviticus 18 is near the middle of the book. Think about why these feasts are in the middle of this book about holiness?

Here’s a quote: “Holiness is not an in intrinsic human quality. God is the Holy One of Israel, not because he is attached to Israel but, because he attached Israel to himself.”

The key to Israel's status as a holy nation is her willingness to keep God's laws. Yahweh is her God, thus relationship and faithfulness unite to create Holiness. That's an important statement because we are looking at the Leviticus holiness code and the feasts are right there within it.

We need a lot of visual aids. God is so humble to provide the feasts as visual aids so we can learn more about him. He is so careful to care for us. The feats are only a handful of many kinds of visual aids that God gives his children.

It wasn't until after the horrible heresy of the of the golden calf in Exodus 32 that God gave instructions for a tabernacle to be erected so that the people had something to look at during worship. There were other visual aids, even Aaron's rod, Moses' rod, the lambs that were slain. All of those things are visuals for us supplied by God in his mercy and humility.

We have a list of eight feasts to take us through the year:

Shabbat (Sabbath)
Passover (Pesach)
Feast of Matzah (Unleavened Bread)
Feast of Firstfruits
Feast of Weeks (Shavuot, Pentecost)
Feast of Trumpets (also known as Rosh Hashana)
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement, which ends with breaking the fast)
Feast of Booths (Tabernacles, Sukkot)

They’re also prophetic as they point not only to Yeshua himself but to our walk of salvation through the seasons of our lives.

The Jewish Calendar and Sabbath

The Spring Fea sts: Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Shavuot

The Autumn Feasts: Trumpets, Yom Kippur, Sukkot

Our Jewish neighbors feel less safe, have changed behaviors due to rising antisemitism

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 00:52:13 GMT

Jewish Media Review - February 2025

Polling has confirmed what I’ve been seeing in more than a year’s worth of news stories. Our Jewish neighbors don’t feel as safe as before and rising antisemitism is changing the way some Jews go about their day.

Christian, please read the first two news stories and maybe the contents of “The State of Antisemitism in America 2024” report. Then remember that Jesus is Jewish.

In Matthew 25:31-26 , Jesus judges the righteous and unrighteous based on how they treated “my brothers.” Many American Jews, Jesus’ brothers and sisters in the flesh, are worried and afraid. Let us comfort them and stand by them and so minister blessing to Jesus himself.

Call your Jewish friends and ask them how antisemitism is affecting them. Pastors, reach out to your local rabbi and ask if their synagogue has experienced any hostility or how congregational disagreements over the Israel-Hamas War have affected their pastoral duties. Ask them what you can do to help in this season.

�� Survey: A third of US Jews have experienced antisemitism, 3/4 feel less safe (Times of Israel)

Perceptions about the threat of anti-Jewish hate have gotten worse in almost every category compared to 2023, the American Jewish Committee finds

�� 56% of American Jews changed behavior in the past year over antisemitism fears, survey finds (JTA)
�� Read the AJC report

�� NY Times downplays Israeli post-Oct. 7 losses, Hamas role in war, data study says (Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle)

Research by Yale professor says newspaper minimizes Palestinian violence following Hamas attack on Israel, leaving readers with ‘distorted’ view of the conflict

�� Where was God in the Holocaust? A NY poet and activist asks the question in a book of ‘psalms’ (JTA)

The son of survivors challenges the comforting messages of Judaism’s best-known collection of verse

�� Holocaust knowledge gaps widen among young adults, study reveals (JNS)

Nearly half of American respondents—48%—could not name a single concentration camp or ghetto established during World War II

⚔️ One nation under God: The American rabbis split from their flocks by politics (The Jewish Chronicle)

Religious leaders have felt themselves growing apart from their congregants as ‘toxic polarization’ swells in the US

✡️ An installation in Pennsylvania marks a milestone in the journey of Orthodox women rabbinic leaders (JTA)

Rabbanit Leah Sarna, the first senior rabbinic leader of her Orthodox synagogue, creates another crack in a persistent glass ceiling.

��Why Do Anti-Zionists Target Israeli Restaurants? (Complied by Jewish Journal)

Miriam , an Israeli restaurant in Brooklyn, was vandalized with the words “genocide cuisine.” Here are three takes on the sinister motives of this crime:

An Expression of Antisemitism, Seth Mandel, Commentary: Israel is the name of a geographic location; if you are upset about Israelis eating or making a particular kind of food it is because you actually object to Jews eating or making that food.
An Act of Projection, Matthew Schultz, Jewish Journal: Those most eager to erase Jewish history are those who have been most profoundly shaped by it. Hence those whose mosque sits on the site of an ancient Jewish Temple accuse the Jews of being foreign colonizers with no historical connection to the land. Those whose sacred book is filled with stories and ideas taken directly from the Hebrew Bible accuse the Jews of stealing their falafel.
An Attempt to Demoralize, Refael Hasid, Forward: As the owner and chef of the beloved Brooklyn Israeli restaurant Miriam… I choose to focus on the outpouring of support we receive from the community.

�� How a road trip tracking the Jewish American dream led to North Dakota (Times of Israel)

Imagine absolutely nowhere, multiply it by 100, add cows, and endless wheat fields. It was the motherlode and my kids asked all the right questions

For more on the Jews that ventured west in search of freedom to be Jews, check out the documentary Jews of the Wild West . I recently saw it on PBS . I learned much, including how some of the Jews of my home town of El Paso arrived there.

�� Church kicks out priest who mimicked Elon Musk’s Nazi-like salute (Forward)

Father Calvin Robinson borrowed Musk’s hand gesture and phrasing, to cheers from the audience

Editor’s note: Calvin Robinson has been a controversial figure since before he was ordained. He is an opinionated ultra-conservative who uses controversy as a platform much like Elon Musk. Musk gave a stiff-armed salute the day of President Trump’s inauguration, surely to provoke his critics. Robinson deliberately mimicking Musk, especially while in his priestly cassock, was foolish and hurtful to our Jewish neighbors. Shame on those at the National Pro-Life Summit who applauded Robinson’s gesture.

❓ Conversion post-Oct. 7: Quest for answers in sea of questions (Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle)

'What’s a Jew? Who is a Jew? I didn’t really have a good answer. So after Oct. 7, I needed to figure some of that out'

��‍♀️ Don’t tell me about war (Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle)

I refuse to listen to opinions about Israel from people who have never lived through a missile attack or attended the funeral of a child bludgeoned by an axe in their community

�� My Jewish family was forced out of our homeland. We must not let Gazans suffer the same fate (JTA)

You don’t counter the fantasy of erasing Israel by proposing the same for Gaza, writes an Israeli influencer whose family was forced to leave Iraq and Tunisia

Excerpt: “Indeed, the loudest voices in the “Free Palestine” movement aren’t calling for a two-state solution. They’re not talking about peace. They want Israel gone. They want Jewish sovereignty erased. They don’t see Oct. 7 as an atrocity — they see it as a model.

“But you don’t fight anti-Zionist eliminationism with eliminationist rhetoric of your own. You don’t counter the fantasy of erasing Israel by proposing the same for Gaza.

“That’s not strength. That’s surrender — to the idea that this is a zero-sum war where one side must be erased for the other to survive.”

✍�� How I became a vulgarizer — and why you should become one too (Forward)

For an author of graphic narratives, vulgarizing is the point, not a criticism

Excerpt: “History podcasts, Hamilton, Ken Burns documentaries, “Vulgarizers one and all. More fundamentally, these are examples of people talking to people about people — seducing them, storytelling them, vulgarizing them into the dangerous, scary, unpredictable act of thinking for themselves. Not by giving answers, but by helping readers ask better questions as a prelude to thinking for themselves.”

A lesson here for us on how we tell the biblical story of Israel and Jesus. We must become better storytellers.

�� Book Takes on the Story of a Catholic Mistaken for a Jew at a Nazi Labor Camp (Jewish Journal)

Chris Bensinger’s novel “The Sooner You Forget” follows the story of a young Catholic man who, while serving in the United States Army, ends up in a Nazi labor camp

�� How Yiddish inspired the Philadelphia Eagles’ winning play in Super Bowl 2025 (Forward)

The Jewish legacy of the ‘tush push’

�� Iranian ex-commander - now believer in Jesus - addresses members of Knesset: 'I’m here, standing with Israel' (All Israel)

God's Passover for the Nations

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 00:50:09 GMT

Pharaoh asks Moses to bless him and Egypt. God answers his prayer in Yeshua

Preached at New Jerusalem House of Prayer

Parashat Bo

Torah: Exodus 10:1-13:16 - focus on Exodus 12:29-42
Prophets: Jeremiah 46:13-28
Gospel: John 19:31-37
Psalm 77

I will remind myself of Yah’s doings;

yes, I will remember your wonders of old.

I will meditate on your work

and think about what you have done. (Psalm 77)

Parashat Bo recounts the first Passover, when God freed hundreds of thousands of Israelite slaves from the oppression of Egypt.

We remember God's great victory every year during the Passover Seder. And when you are a regular reader of the Psalms and of the Prophets, you see how the Exodus story is recounted over and over throughout. Passover is the template by which God's acts of salvation are executed in the history of Israel and even the history of all of us here today.

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus remembered with his disciples the great salvation story of Passover and began to reveal how it all pointed to God's ultimate act of salvation for the whole world. Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, would soon die so that God's wrath would pass over all of us sinners.

Rather than retelling the Hagaddah this morning, let's look at the losers, Pharaoh and Egypt. We know Passover is about freedom for Israel but it is also about judging Egypt's idolatry. That is made clear by the 10 plagues during which God shows the gods of Egypt to be powerless and any prayers to those false gods to be in vain.

Is there any hope for the idolaters? Is there any hope for the rebellious who kick against God's power and kingship?

Let us see.

In Exodus 12:29-42, God executes the final plague against Egypt, the death of the firstborn. This was to judge three idols connected to procreation and birth and a living firstborn bull that represented the bull god Apis. Firstborn everything died: livestock, family pets, servants, fathers, mothers, children.

When we celebrate the Passover Seder, we do so joyfully, triumphantly. We sing songs about the plagues and cheer God’s salvation.

But stop and imagine for a bit. You're an Israelite who gets the all-clear to leave Egypt. It's nighttime but the full moon is bright. You're carrying everything you own. When you go outside, all you hear is screams and wailing. The Egyptians are howling in horror and grief as they find their loved ones dead. The sound must have been horrendous. You're free but what you hear is souls in agony – wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Pharaoh's house is struck too, for “there wasn’t a single house without someone dead in it.” His heir is dead.

After resisting Moses nine times, finally Pharaoh is broken.

31[Pharaoh] summons Moshe and Aharon by night and says, “Up and leave my people, both you and the people of Isra’el; and go, serve Adonai as you said. 32 Take both your flocks and your herds, as you said; and get out of here! But bless me, too. ”

Pharaoh finally gives God and Moses what they asked for. He releases all the Israelites and all their flocks. We see in another place that the Egyptians gave the Israelites gold, silver, clothing, whatever they asked for. Anything to get them to leave. “And thus they plundered Egypt.”

But notice what Pharaoh says at the end: “But bless me, too!”

Pharaoh is broken enough to ask for God’s blessing and mercy. Yes, he’ll change his mind again and chase after the Israelites to the Red Sea, where he’ll face his final defeat. But Moses has recorded Pharaohs request for a blessing. It’s here so let’s take it seriously. “Bless me, too!”

If you remember the Exodus story, Moses told Pharaoh that the Israelites needed to go worship God in the wilderness. Jewish commentator Ibn Ezra says Pharaoh is asking Moses to pray for him when they worship God. Nachmanadies (the Rambam) says “Pharaoh wants them to bless him and his kingdom.” [1]

Does God bless the kingdom of Egypt?

Let’s go to our Haftarah portion in Jeremiah 46. It’s centuries later. Israel made it to the Land after the Exodus. They’ve had judges, prophets, and kings. They’ve had external and civil wars. They’ve worshiped the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Moses but they’ve also worshiped false gods.

Most of Jeremiah is God warning Israel that judgment for their idolatry and injustice is coming. But God also judges Israel’s neighbors. God is concerned with the sins of the all nations. The whole reason God called Abraham is to bless the nations that rebelled at the Tower of Babel. God is regathering not only scattered Israel but also the scattered nations.

God is concerned about the nations even as he is concerned about Israel.

We see God calling out Egypt in Jeremiah 46.

25 Adonai-Tzva’ot , the God of Isra’el, says: “I will punish Amon from No, Pharaoh, and Egypt with her gods and kings — that is, Pharaoh and those who trust in him; 26 I will hand them over to those who seek their lives, to N’vukhadretzar king of Bavel and to his servants. But afterwards, Egypt will be inhabited, as in the past,” says Adonai . (CJB)

In Jeremiah’s time, just as Judah is going into Babylonian captivity, God is again punishing Egypt, this time using Nebuchadnezzar.

Adonai specifically calls out the chief god Amon-Re, the creator sun god of Egypt, “the king of gods.” God promises that No, that is Thebes, and its temple to Amon-Re will become a wasteland.

Egypt and her kings continued to worship idols, and the one true God wants Egypt and all the nations to know his name.

Like in Exodus, there is hope of mercy in the midst of judgment. God says Egypt will be inhabited as in the past. Egypt’s exile and destruction are temporary.

There is another place where God judges Egypt harshly and offers words of hope. Isaiah 19.

Here’s a quick summary of Isaiah 19:

God says he’s on his way to Egypt to save Israel again, this time from an ill-advise alliance. Egypt’s idols tremble. Society starts to break down into civil war. People move from their regular religious devotion to seeking mediums and spiritists. A dictator steps into the disarray and harshly restores order.

Then drought. Famine. Unemployment. Economic collapse.

The dictator builds a cabinet of fools. God has confused their advice, and the leader makes bad decisions.

The people of Egypt are depressed and despairing. They are in fear and panic.

“17 Just mentioning the land of Y’hudah to the Egyptians will throw them into panic; they will be afraid because of what Adonai - Tzva’ot has planned for them.”

But then the word of the LORD shifts. God stops talking about calamity and speaks of restoring Egypt. Listen to the second half of Isaiah 19.

19 On that day there will be an altar to Adonai in the middle of the land of Egypt, as well as a standing-stone for Adonai at its border. 20 It will be a sign and witness to Adonai - Tzva’ot in the land of Egypt; so that when they cry out to Adonai for help because of the oppressors, he will send them a savior to defend and rescue them.

21 Adonai will make himself known to Egypt;
on that day, the Egyptians will know Adonai .
They will worship him with sacrifices and offerings,
they will make vows to Adonai and keep them.
22 Yet Adonai will strike Egypt, both striking and healing,
so they will return to Adonai.
He will listen to their prayers,
and he will heal them.

When God judges, it’s not arbitrary and it’s without malice. God is righteous. Sin and evil cannot survive in his presence. But God’s character is to always have mercy. That’s how he defines himself to Moses: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but who will by no means clear the guilty” (Exod 34:6-7).

That’s God’s character universally. God is not just merciful and gracious to Israel but also to the nations. He loves. He forgives. He punishes, yes, but to prompt repentance and restoration.

God strikes Egypt to heal them of their idolatry. And we see the Egyptians setting up an altar to the God of Israel and crying out to him for help. They echo Pharaohs plea to Moses, “Bless me too!”

And God will answer Egypt’s cries. “He will send them a savior to defend and rescue them… Adonai will make himself known to Egypt; on that day, the Egyptians will know Adonai … He will listen to their prayers, and he will heal them.”

Wow! It is wow that God has said there is a day when Egypt will submit to his kingship. On that day God will heal them and have relationship with them.

What is even more surprising about Isaiah 19 is how it ends. God has been talking to Egypt this whole time. Then the lens widens and God suddenly has the whole Middle East in view.

23 On that day there will be a highway
from Egypt to Ashur (Assyria).
Ashur will come to Egypt and Egypt to Ashur,
and Egypt will worship with Ashur.
24 On that day Isra’el will be a third partner
with Egypt and Ashur, a blessing here on earth;
25 for Adonai - Tzva’ot has blessed him:
“Blessed be Egypt my people,
Ashur the work of my hands
and Isra’el my heritage.” (CJB)

We know who Egypt is. We know who Israel is. Who is Ashur (Assyria)? At its height, the Assyrian Empire covered the nations we know now as Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, even parts of Iran and Saudi Arabia. It’s all the nations that surround Israel and are usually in conflict with her.

On the day that Egypt repents, God says there will be a highway, a network of travel, connecting nations that have mostly been in conflict for thousands of years.

In 2009, I went to Israel for the first time because God told me he had a job for me there. One of the first places the Lord sent me was a 24/7 house of prayer. They had a teaching once a week, on Monday nights, and that’s the night that I walked in for the first time.

And the teaching was on God’s amazing promise at the end of Isaiah 19. It has stuck with me.

I went to Israel because the LORD had been nurturing in me a love of the Jewish people as I got to know more and more of Jesus’ Jewishness. And God called it good and then said, See how I love ALL the peoples of the Middle East.

There are many Jesus followers who have been inspired by this Isaiah 19 promise, especially in the Middle East. I know of former Muslims who partner with Messianic Jews to minister the love and mercy of Jesus through out the Middle East. I’ve heard amazing testimonies of Jesus showing up in dreams and visions to Muslims in Mecca. I’ve seen Jordanians who grew up hating Israel lovingly embrace and pray for Israeli believers. This is God’s Middle East peace plan!

Back when ISIS was tearing across the Middle East, the house of prayer sent a team to minister in the refugee camps in Turkey and northern Iraq. The team was composed of an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian Arab. They were a ‘One New Man’ team. The refugees were in disbelief: How are an Israeli Jew and Palestinian friends?! That question became an open door to talk about Jesus and how he reconciles the nations.

And isn’t that what Paul is doing in the New Testament? He’s building ministry teams of Jews and Greeks working together. He speaks of Gentiles grafted into Israel. He says Gentiles become children of Abraham through faith in Jesus, the ultimate Son of Promise.

That Son of Promise, Yeshua the Messiah is our shalom. He has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility… God’s purpose has been to create in himself one new humanity – One New Man – out of the two, thus making peace and in his one body to reconcile all nations to God through the cross, by which he put to death our hostility (Eph 2:14-16).

God through the cross has put to death the hate between Jew and Arab, between black and white, between men and women, insert two warring peoples here.

See how God has answered Pharaohs prayer request to bless Egypt! God calls Egypt “my people.” Then he calls the peoples of the greater Middle East “my handiwork.” And Israel remains his inheritance.

God loves the Sons of Jacob. God loves the sons of Ishmael. God loves Jew and Arab, Asian and European, African, and Latin American. When a church body represents these groups, it is a microcosm, a firstfruits expression of God’s redemption of humanity, a redemption that is still playing out.

We started our readings today by retelling part of the first Passover. Our Gospel passage takes us to the Ultimate Passover.

John tells us it was Preparation Day for the next day was a special Sabbath. The seventh day is the weekly Sabbath, but the Feasts of the LORD are also Sabbaths. Dead men on crosses on the way into Jerusalem will be unseemly and could defile Passover worshipers. The Judeans – the Pharisees and Sadducees – want the dead removed but they’re not dead yet. So the Judeans ask the Romans to break the legs of the crucified so they can’t stand themselves up to breathe.

But when they get to Jesus, he is already dead. The Romans break the legs of the two thieves but not of Jesus. And John remembers what Exodus 12 says about the Passover lamb: “Not one of his bones will be broken.”

See Jesus crucified and

behold the Lamb of God who causes God’s righteous judgment to pass over us.
Behold the Messiah who reconciles us rebellious nations to God.
Behold the Jesus the Lord who tears down the wall that separates Jews and Gentiles, Yeshua who reconciles warring peoples and teaches us to love one another as he has loved us.

Jesus commanded us that we celebrate that mini Passover Seder every time we gather to remember him and the great salvation that he has won for us. When we take bread and wine together, believer,

Let us remind ourselves of Yah's doings;

yes, let us remember his wonders of old.

Let us meditate on his work

and think about what our great God has done.

Footnote

Michael Carasik, ed., Exodus: Introduction and Commentary, trans. Michael Carasik, First edition., The Commentators’ Bible (Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society, 2005), 88.

Stories of Jewish Christians in the Holocaust

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 20:10:57 GMT

Three lectures by researcher Kelvin Crombie for Holocaust Remembrance Day

In October 2023, just after the horrific October 7 invasion of Israel by Hamas, Kelvin Crombie visited PIttsburgh and Akron to share about his yearslong research project.

Kelvin has been working to document the fate of Jewish believers in Jesus (Hebrew Christians/Messianic Jews) who suffered during World War II. Up until now it has not been widely known that many thousands of such Jews died at the hands of Nazi Germany and their allies.

Very little hard evidence, figures, and stories have ever been assembled about these victims, and their tragedy largely remains an untold chapter in the history of the Holocaust. Kelvin has been

collecting testimonies,
compiling names of victims, and
analysing how Jewish Christians were rounded up and murdered across Europe.

Below are three lectures Kelvin came in October 2023. While there is overlap in the lectures, they all have unique information from Kelvin's studies.

7 Phases of the Holocaust

In this video, Kelvin explains how the Holocaust comes about. The 7 phases are Kelvin's tool for understanding the sequence of events and how the Nazis evolved their anti-Jewish policies toward Jewish extermination.

Stories of Jewish Christians during World War II

In this lecture, Kelvin tells how he came to be fascinated by the Holocaust. He begins by giving a flyover view of God's promises to Abraham and his descendants and how Satan has persecuted the Sons of Jacob. Then he shares stories of Jewish followers of Jesus during World War II.

The Controve rsy of Jewish Christians in the Holocaust

In this third lecture, Kelvin shares more stories of different Jewish followers of Jesus in the Holocaust including those who were interred in France as part of the Madagascar Plan to deport Jews from Europe.

Believers or Heretics? | Thoughts on the ceasefire

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 22:13:16 GMT

Jewish Media Review - Janua ry 2025

�� The Shock of Faith: It’s Nothing Like I Thought It Would Be (David Brooks/New York Times)

“Today, I feel more Jewish than ever, but as I once told some friends, I can’t unread Matthew. For me, the Beatitudes are the part of the Bible where the celestial grandeur most dazzlingly shines through. So these days I’m enchanted by both Judaism and Christianity. I assent to the whole shebang. My Jewish friends, who have been universally generous and forbearing, point out that when you believe in both the Old and New Testaments, you’ve crossed over to Team Christian, which is a fair point.”

Editor’s note: I’m sorry to send you to a link with a paywall. Take a trial subscription if you can. It is an important read. Or you can read a summary by a Kentucky pastor.

�� What David Brooks and Bob Dylan teach Jews about heresy (JTA)

Jewish celebrities who find solace in the New Testament ignite Jewish fears about assimilation and antisemitism.

A Jewish response to Jews coming to faith in Jesus. Do people ‘convert’ only because they want to fit in or not stick out?

�� At a ‘Havdalah for the Hostages,’ New Yorkers feel cautious optimism about ceasefire deal (JTA)

Jewish New Yorkers have been gathering on Saturday evenings at the Marlene Meyerson JCC since the Israel-Hamas War began. But this weekend, the mood was different.

⛓️‍��What Are the Takeaways from the Prisoner Exchange? (Compiled by Jewish Journal)

The Israel-Hamas ceasefire began on Sunday with the exchange of 90 Palestinian prisoners for 3 Israeli hostages. The deal sparks debate about its moral implications and impact on victims’ families.

An Embarrassing Equation, David Suissa, Jewish Journal: “…by treating human lives with the cold calculus of economics, both sides fall into a moral trap. Israel insults Palestinians by showing how one Israeli life is worth numerous Palestinian lives, while Palestinians are forced to swallow the humiliation of that immoral equation.”
An Unbearable Price, Sherri Mandell, Times of Israel: “Terror victims know that the danger of releasing Palestinian killers is not theoretical but real. The hostages need to be released, and most of us are not naïve about the price. We know that we cannot bear for our people to be hostages in Gaza, but we also know that the price we have to pay is unbearable…”
A Bad Message, Alex Traiman, JNS: “That Israel would negotiate with terrorists represents a failure to alter the paradigm of hostage taking. Giving back 1,700 Palestinian prisoners to get back fewer than three dozen hostages will teach terrorists across the Middle East, and the world over, that taking hostages is a strategy that works.”

�� Jewish and Israeli Americans Face Discrimination in the Job Market (ADL)

⚠️ 46% of Adults Worldwide Hold Significant Antisemitic Beliefs, ADL Poll Finds (ADL)

�� Canaries in the coal mine: The rise of workplace bias against Jews (JNS)

It is morally wrong and against the law.

�� Jews were targeted by the majority of hate crimes in NYC last year, NYPD says (JTA)

Data compiled by the department showed that there were 345 anti-Jewish hate crimes across the city in 2024, nearly 54% of the 641 total hate crimes tallied.

��️ My friend is making antisemitic comments. What should I say? PS: I’m not Jewish (Forward)

Bintel says call her out, draw your boundaries and walk away if necessary

�� My grandmother fled Hitler in 1938. She’d be skeptical of panic over antisemitism today (Forward)

Yes, antisemitism is on the rise — but that doesn’t always mean what we might think

☝�� Everyone has a plan to fight antisemitism. Few have studied what actually works (JTA)

A behavioral social scientist at the Anti-Defamation League is partnering with universities on an ambitious research agenda.

�� Knowing Humanity: Exodus and today’s antisemitism (Hebrew College)

Excerpt: The new king who knew Josef neither by deed nor by reputation had no way of understanding that it was because of Josef’s skill and foresight that famine didn’t wipe out the entire known world. To this new king, Josef’s Israelite descendents were a nuisance, a growing minority, a foreign presence. To this new king, they were immigrants, outsiders.

The fifteenth-century Rabbi Avraham Saba, known as the Tzror haMor, interprets the new king with disdain for the Egyptian citizenry. His view was that the Egyptians wanted nothing to do with any king who might have favored Josef. Therefore they purposely disrupted the typical hereditary transfer of power and installed a new king, one who was purposely chosen because he knew not Josef.

��‍�� Jewish Food Influencers Grapple With Politics in the Kitchen (Tablet)

Since Oct. 7, popular chefs and online culinary personalities have leaned into their Jewishness, even as they’ve faced a backlash from some followers

�� I accuse: An open letter to Pope Francis (JNS)

Through a vast digital pulpit, the Catholic Church has become a global megaphone for those who weaponize antisemitism under the guise of supporting the oppressed.

✡️ Finding Faith After a Cancer Diagnosis (Tablet)

I stopped talking to God during my pregnancy when I found out I had multiple myeloma. The Book of Job helped renew my connection.

�� ‘I can’t picture myself without going to the temple’: LA teens mourn their synagogue’s destruction (JTA)

The Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, which burned in the Eaton Fire, was a second home for Jewish teens in the California city.

�� Celebrating Shabbat in Los Angeles: Amid the fires, a still, small voice (JTA

The rabbi of a congregation displaced by fire describes carving out a holy day amid trauma and anxiety.

��What Does It Mean to Be a “Chosen People”? (Completed by Jewish Journal)

Explore three unique perspectives on the concept of Jewish chosenness, one of Judaism’s most profound and debated ideas.

Chosen to Bless the World , Shlomo Vile, JNS: “The Jews’ chosenness is not an entitlement to special privilege; it’s an obligation to bestow blessing. As God told our forefather, Abraham: “Through your descendants, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” The Jews are the people committed to bringing blessings to humankind.”
Chosen for a Reason, Jeremy England, Tablet Magazine: Most American Jews start to shvitz when hearing their chosenness declared aloud. Acknowledging exceptionalism complicates the American brand of Judaism that focuses solely on the most abstracted themes of Passover… The only problem is that the actual demand made to Pharaoh was “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.”
Chosen Along with Other Peoples , Rabbi Dr. Samuel Lebens, Aish: “A second, and surprising aspect of chosenness in the Bible is that it isn’t exclusive… I’m talking about the passage in Isaiah, in which God declares, “Blessed be My people Egypt, My handiwork Assyria, and My inheritance Israel.” Is it shocking to see God talk about other people as his own? It shouldn’t be.”

�� Alamo Drafthouse employees petition to scrap screenings of 1972 Munich film ‘September 5’ (Forward)

The petition calls the film ‘Zionist propaganda’

✈️ 35,000 Jews have immigrated to Israel since last year's Hamas Oct 7 terror attack (All Israel)

“Since the start of the war, there has been a 300% increase in aliyah applications from France, a 150% jump from Canada, a 100% rise from the United States and a 40% increase from the United Kingdom,” the Jewish News Syndicate reported last February.

�� The Growing Rift between Holocaust Scholars over Israel/Palestine (Journal of Genocide Research)

��How Has the Definition of Genocide Been Distorted? (complied Jewish Journal)

The word “genocide” was coined by a Jewish lawyer to describe the horrors of the Holocaust. Now the word is being retooled to smear the Jewish state.

Uncritical Observations , Verena Buser, Jewish Journal: “The opinions by Holocaust and genocide scholars are misleading as they are taken as facts and they lack source criticism, for example with regard to Palestinian deaths in Gaza, provided by the Hamas-led Health ministry, which are uncritically spread by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).”
Diluted Meanings, Aviya Kushner, Forward: “I am concerned that the growing use of the word “genocide” to describe war may dilute the term’s meaning, and weaken its direct connection to the Holocaust.”
Cynical Intentions , Staff, AJC: “Of course, the implied hypocrisy that the survivors of genocide are now committing one of their own makes for a powerful talking point in the war of words surrounding the conflict between Israel and Gaza. But it’s simply not true.”

Why did God call Abraham?

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 19:45:54 GMT

To bless that nations that rebelled at Babel and draw them back to Himself

Editor's Note: This sermon was given at Tikvah Yisrael Messianic Congregation in Cleveland, Ohio. The manuscript below was the basis for the sermon in the video above.

I love lectionaries. That's the fancy church word for the Parasha haShavua. Lectionaries tell you what to read when.

When you're a preacher, whether visiting or in your home congregation, looking at 66 books of the Bible and wondering what to preach is intimidating. The lectionary, the parasha, narrows down the options. Every time, I delight at how the Holy Spirit speaks through the calendar of readings.

The Torah portions are often a couple of chapters long. What caught my attention this year in Chayei Sarah ( Genesis 23:1-25:18 ) is the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah. That resonated with the Haftarah of 1 Kings 1:1-31 , where David affirms Solomon as the royal heir. Those pair well with Jesus' geneology in Matthew 1. So that's what we'll consider today: the family of Yeshua, seed of the woman sent to reconcile the families of the earth to God and to each other.

My pastor in Jerusalem says, “My job is not to teach you something new but to remind you of what you already know.” That's what I intend to do today. I want us to remember and meditate on the thread of redemption that runs from the Garden, through Abraham and David and on to Yeshua Ben David, Ben Abraham. It is good news meant to be proclaimed to all the nations, to the Jew first then to the nations.

Seed of the woman

In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve. And they rebel when they eat from the one forbidden tree after being seduced by the evil serpent. In the cool of the day, God questions the three rebels. He’s looking for confessions. Then he passes judgment.

It is God’s declaration to the serpent that is important to us today.

14 The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,

cursed are you above all cattle,

and above all wild animals;

upon your belly you shall go,

and dust you shall eat

all the days of your life.

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your seed and her seed;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.” (Gen 3)

As God judges the snake, God makes his first proclamation of mercy to sinful humanity. Adam and Eve had believed the lies of the serpent and fallen into rebellion. They ate what they were told not to eat.

But instead of destroying them, as justice required, God showed not just restraint but mercy and grace.

Mercy in not executing them.
Grace by promising that the Seed of the Woman would punish the serpent.

This promise of the Seed of the Women, the Child of the Woman who will vindicate humanity even while being wounded – even killed by the poisonous snake – is foundational for the redemption story the Bible tells.

In Messianic circles – I have long counted myself a Messianic Gentile, so I'm speaking to me here too – we often start with the call of Abram and the blessings of Abram:

I will make you a great nation;
I will bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you;
I will give you a land.

Yes! But we have to understand why God called Abram/Abraham. We need to also ask, How does the call of Abraham fit with the very first promise of redemption, that the Child of Woman will crush the serpent's head even as the snake crushes this hero's heel.

OK, we're looking for a hero but not like Bonnie Tyler is holding out for a hero.

Torah portion Chayei Sarah tells us the story of Isaac marrying Rebekah. Why do we care?

Because Isaac is the son of promise. He is proof of God’s promise to Abraham to make him a great nation. But why does God call Abraham?

What does it matter that God called Abraham?

The call of Abraham is all about Genesis 10 and 11.

After the flood, the Sons of Noah multiplied into 70 families. Seventy represents all of humanity, all the people groups of the earth.

And these 70 families got together and said, “Let us make a name for ourselves.”

Not “let us reach heaven.” Not “let us praise God.” No, they thought of their own pride and there was also a touch of rebellion, “Let us make a name for ourselves” so we won’t be dispersed over all the earth ( Gen 11:4 ).

God had told Adam and Eve and Noah’s family to fill the whole earth, and the 70 nations descended from Noah did not want to. Adam and Eve do what they are told not to do. The 70 nations don’t do what they are told to do.

God sees the Tower of Babel, the pride, the rebellion, and calls it not good. All humanity is united in a rebellious acts. Yet, God responds with mercy and grace. Rather than wiping the nations, he instead confusing the languages so they will stop their rebellious project and populate the earth.

Still, there is an implied question at the end of chapter 11. If you stopped reading at chapter 11, one wonders, “Is God through with the nations?"

As people who love Israel and the Jewish people, we probably know well Romans 9-11. Paul is in anguish in Romans 9 that so many of his fellow Jews cannot see Jesus. He provokes the believers in Romans 10 to go preach. Then he asks in Romans 11, “Has God rejected his people?! Heaven forbid!"

In Genesis 11 we see the mirror of Romans 11. The nations have teamed up to defy God, and God confuses them and scatters them. And the implied question is “Is God through with the nations?” Has God rejected all 70 nations that makeup humanity? We could even ask, Is God through with humanity? Adam and Eve rebelled. Noah and his sons did no better. Their children were also rebellious at Babel. Now what?

In mercy, God scattered the nations instead of crushing them. In grace, God calls Abram.

Let’s hear Genesis 12:1-3 :

Now Adonai said to Avram, “Get yourself out of your country, away from your kinsmen and away from your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, I will bless you, and I will make your name great; and you are to be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, but I will curse anyone who curses you; and by you all the families of the earth will be blessed .”

What families? The 70 families of Genesis 10. The 70 families who rebelled at Babel.

God’s grace is he calls Abraham to bless the rebels from the Tower of Babel.

God has Abraham bind Isaac, for the families of the earth
God unites Isaac and Rebecca, for the families of the earth.
God wrestles with Jacob, for the families of the earth.

Jacob says in Genesis 49, that Judah will rule until Shilo comes. Who is Shilo? I’d venture to say that he is the promised Child of the Woman who will crush the snake.

Genesis ends and we don’t hear about Judah again, really, until 1 Samuel, when God tells Samuel to anoint a ruddy shepherd boy named David.

In our Haftarah reading, David is old and the wrong son is setting himself up to be king. What does it matter?

It mattered to David because God promised David, “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” ( 2 Sam 7:16 ). David knew that Solomon was the next generation in the move toward redemption, toward the Son that even David would call Lord (Ps 110, Matt 21:41-46 ).

From David to Malachi (or Chronicles, depending on your book order), the nations continue to rebel. They worship idols and persecute the Sons of Abraham. Why? Because the serpent does not want the Son of the Woman to come.

Then Matthew opens…

This is the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah, son of David, son of Avraham
Avraham was the father of Yitz’chak,
Yitz’chak was the father of Ya‘akov,
Ya‘akov was the father of Y’hudah and his brothers…

Matthew goes on to tell us of a woman – Miriam – who had known no man. She’s never had sex, yet she will have a son, “and you are to name him Yeshua [which means Adonai saves], because he will save his people from their sins.”

Behold the hero all creation has been waiting for!

Here is the Son of the Woman, Yeshua, the one who dies punishing that old Snake, the Father of Lies and the enemy of our souls.

Behold Jesus, Suffering Servant who sacrifices himself for the sins of the whole world!

Yeshua is the Son of Abraham who blesses the nations, those rebellious nations who still say, “Let’s make a name for ourselves” with skyscrapers, nuclear bombs, and overflowing bank accounts.

This is why Paul says the good news of Yeshua the Crucified Messiah is “God’s powerful means of bringing salvation to everyone who keeps on trusting, to the Jew especially, but equally to the Gentile. For in it is revealed how God makes people righteous in his sight” ( Rom 1:16-17 )

What do we do with this good news?

We proclaim it! We tell our friends and family. We tell our co-workers and that guy we always see at the gym.

We need to tell our Jewish neighbors, too. I know you know. Remember, I’m here to remind you what you already know.

The nations are still rebelling, now worshiping money and power but still persecuting Abraham’s family.

October 7 revealed the antisemitism in the nations and in the hearts of mankind. Why do the nations hate the Sons of Jacob? Because they believe the Serpent’s lies. And the Serpent hates the Sons of Jacob because they brought forth the Messiah, the Son of the Woman who will cast him in the Lake of Fire in the end.

So, those of you who are Jewish followers of the Messiah, be bold in your identity as brothers and sisters of Jesus, the one who blesses the nations.

And those of you who are not Jews, comfort and encourage the Jews around you, especially those who don’t yet know Jesus.

If you’re not sure how to start the conversation, CMJ is here to help.

Go! Go tell the nations, go tell the Sons of Abraham that the Messiah has come and he will complete justice and peace in this world.

Let us pray.

Almighty and everlasting God, you established your covenant with Abraham and his seed: Hear the prayers of your congregation, that the people through whom you brought blessing to the world may also receive the blessing of salvation, through Yeshua Messiah our Lord.

And, Merciful God, creator of all the peoples of the earth and lover of souls: Have compassion on all who do not know you as you are revealed in your Son Yeshua the Messiah; let your Gospel be preached with grace and power to those who have not heard it; turn the hearts of those who resist it; and bring home to your fold those who have gone astray; that there may be one flock under one Shepherd, Yeshua Messiah Adonienu. Amen

Yeshua in our joy and sorrow (Jeremiah 31)

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 19:35:02 GMT

Feast of the Holy Innocents - the Slaughter at Bethlehem

Jeremiah 31:15-17
Psalm 124
Revelation 21:1-7
Matthew 2:13-18

Editor's note: This sermon was giving at Grace Anglican Church in Edgeworth, PA, on December 28, 2024.

Merry Christmas! Or is it?

Here we are in the “most wonderful time of the year” but we’re reading about the death of children. Not just death, but violent, gory murder.

Why are we contemplating death when we’ve just celebrated the incarnation of Resurrection Life itself?

Life is a mixture of joy and sorrow. While the Western Christian world celebrated Christmas, Russia attacked Ukraine, a passenger plane from Azerbaijan crashed, Israel fended off missiles from Yemen, displaced Gaza families tried to stay warm.

My aunt Gloria died on Christmas Eve this year. My sister Cris died the second week of Christmas 13 years ago.

For many families, the holidays are a mixture of joy and sorrow.

Still, Jesus sits at the right hand of the Ancient of Days. He came down and became flesh to live among us to live our sorrow and open the door to everlasting joy.

Joy and sorrow.

Our readings today also point to promise and fulfillment.

When Adam and Eve rebelled in the garden, God promised a redeemer. He promised a champion who would crush the lying Serpent. We eventually learn that the Snake Crusher will be from the family of Abraham. We hear that he will be like Moses, the Lawgiver ( Deut 18:15 ). Then we learn he’ll be from the family of King David (2 Sam 7). He will conquer the Liar. He’ll die to ransom the nations ( Isa 52:13ff ).

Hundreds of years pass. Where is this promised champion?

Three men from Persia appear in Jerusalem and say they know. They know that the King of the Jews has been born.

The ruling king – Herod – is so insecure in his authority that he has his own sons killed. Now some outsiders from far, far away have come to tell him a new king has been born?!

Herod cannot stand it! He has murder in his heart. But God knows.

God makes sure baby Jesus as well as the Wise Men get away.

Mary and Joseph escape with Jesus and find refuge among the Egyptians – like Abraham, Jacob, and Moses for them.

But the people of Bethlehem get no warning. Herod sends his henchmen to murder all the boys under two.

Matthew uses a quote from Jeremiah to convey the sense of pain and sorrow felt by the people of Bethlehem.

A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more. ( Mat 2:18 )

Why this passage? Why does Matthew say it has been fulfilled? Is it just because it is a mother in the vicinity of Bethlehem weeping for lost children in the Hebrew Scriptures?

When the Gospel writers quote from the Hebrew Scriptures, they are referencing more than the words they quote. In Jewish teaching style, they are pointing to the greater context of the quoted verses.

This quote of Rachel weeping for her children is from Jeremiah 31, a chapter that Jesus will later reference at his last Passover Seder.

So let’s unpack what is promised in Jeremiah 31 and see what Jesus is fulfilling.

When the Gospel writers quote from the Hebrew Scriptures, they are referencing more than the words they quote. In Jewish teaching style, they are pointing to the greater context of the quoted verse.

Jeremiah was a prophet 600 years before Jesus was born. In Jeremiah’s time, the Assyrian Empire controlled the Middle East. They’d already conquered and scattered the people of northern Israel. The southern kingdom of Judah was intact but subservient to the Assyrians.

Judah had the temple, but they were worshiping false gods. To make things worse, they were oppressing the vulnerable: the poor, the widows, the orphans, the immigrants. Injustice and idolatry sadden and anger God.

The first half of the book of Jeremiah warns Judah to repent before the consequences of their crimes fall upon them. If they don’t repent, there will be a war that will result in Judah’s exile. The temple will be destroyed, and the people of Judah will be scattered just like their neighbors to the north 150 years before.

When God warns, he always calls us to confess, to turn back. He also always gives assurances of restoration and redemption. In Jeremiah, the middle chapters, Jeremiah 30-33, are called the Book of Comfort. These three chapters are filled God’s promise of his restoring love, a love that gathers the lost, mends their wounds, heals their sinful hearts.

Jeremiah 31 is pretty great. It promises dancing and merrymaking. It promises a rebuilt country, a multitude of children, and good priests satisfied with God.

Then we get these sad few verses of Rachel crying for her children.

A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more. (Jer 31:15)

Jeremiah is speaking these words to a sinful people who have not yet experienced the exile caused by their sin. Later, these words will be read by the exiles in Babylon, far from home living among foreigners. And perhaps the happy words of comfort will be jarring in light of exile.

I remember getting in trouble as a kid. I’d get scolded. Maybe I even got spanked. Then dad would hug me and tell me he loved me. It was so dissonant. I was still sitting in the sorrow and pain of my sin. I’d cry right through the hug and the words of love. I felt like I wasn’t ready to hear the words of love.

Judah and Israel are not ready to hear God’s words of love. But God persists in his words of comfort:

Thus says the Lord:
“Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears,
for there is a reward for your work,
declares the Lord,
and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
There is hope for your future,
declares the Lord,
and your children shall come back to their own country. (Jer 31:16-17)

What work? That’s unclear. There are lots of opinions on what the LORD means by work. Is it penitence? Is it the work of repentance? Maybe. We cannot earn forgiveness. It is God who changes our stony, cold hearts into beating, feeling hearts of flesh. We do have to lean into God’s work of mercy and do our part of accepting God’s redemption.

Maybe Rachel’s work is mourning. Jesus tells us, ‘Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.’ Mourning is work, I can tell you after spending a year mourning the death of my best friend.

Why is Rachel the personification of mourning here? Rachel is called “our mother” in Judaism. There’s a street in Jerusalem named after her: Rachel Immanu, Rachel our mother. ¹

Rachel was the second wife but true love of Jacob the Patriarch. Rachel was childless for years while her sister Leah had many children. God does hear Rachel’s prayers and she eventually gives birth to Joseph and Benjamin but dies in childbirth.

Rachel becomes a symbol of the sacrificial mother and her tomb a place of pilgrimage for the childless.

As I mentioned earlier, Jeremiah 31 is full of promises of restoration and redemption. One of the promises that God makes is that the divided kingdom of Israel – northern Israel and southern Judah – would reconcile and be reunited as in King David’s day.

Rachel’s two sons represent the two divided kingdoms: Joseph’s sons settled in idolatrous northern kingdom and Benjamin’s sons joined Judah in the south. So Rachel mourns for the exile of both halves of divided Israel.

Rachel refuses to be comforted because these children are no more.

But God insists on comforting. Not all is lost, as Rachel must feel. The exiles will return. God will restore the people and the land. The two kingdoms will be reunited. ‘Your children shall come back to their own country.’

Let’s lay the joy and sorrow of Jeremiah on the Christmas story.

After thousands of years of waiting, the Son of Abraham, Son of David is born. The Seed of the Woman promised in Genesis 3, the champion who will crush the Liar is finally born! Billions of angels literally light up the night sky to praise God the night Jesus is born. There are shepherds running to and fro to tell the good news. Some magi traveled 1,000 miles to bring gifts and worship the Son of God.

Then tragedy! The King of Israel must flee. He must leave his own country and be exiled. Not only that, an unstable tyrant has shed innocent blood.

Yes, the mothers of Bethlehem are mourning their dead. And perhaps billions of angels are wondering what happened that the Son of God, the King of Israel is now in Egypt.

And God tells the angels,

Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears,
I will call my son out of Egypt.
There is hope for the future,
The child shall come back to his own country.

Jesus does make it back to Judea and to Galilee. He grows up in Nazareth. He learns his adopted father’s trade. He is hidden from the suspicious eyes in Jerusalem for 30 years until it’s time to announce his mission.

What is his mission? Fulfill the rest of Jeremiah 31.

A little further down from God telling Rachel not to weep, God gives another promise:

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. ( Jer 31:31-34 )

As God is about to send Judah into exile, he promises that he will regather both scattered Israel and Judah. He’ll make a new covenant with all 12 tribes. At Sinai, God wrote his law on stone tablets. In the New Covenant, he’ll write his Torah on people’s hearts and forgive all their sins.

Fast forward from Jeremiah to Jesus, now grown and three years into his ministry. He’s been declaring the coming of the Kingdom of God. He’s identified himself as the long-awaited Son of David, the Messiah. He is the Seed of the Woman come to crush the Serpent.

He gathers his followers for one more Passover meal, remembering how God freed Israel from Egyptian slavery. The Passover meal is a remembrance of God’s faithfulness.

In the middle of the meal, Jesus takes a cup of wine and says, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” ( Luke 22:20 ). They have all just recalled God’s faithfulness as told in Exodus. But now Jesus is calling out God’s faithfulness to the promises made in Jeremiah.

Jesus proclaims that the New Covenant promised to Israel and Judah in Jeremiah 31 has been instituted. Sins are forgiven. God sends the Holy Spirit to teach our hearts his ways. We need only accept his free gift of mercy and pledge our loyalty to his Son, Jesus, who now reigns in heaven at the right hand of the Father and who will rule and reign in Jerusalem in the age to come.

And don’t think this is just for Israel. Jeremiah also sees us – the nations – caught up in God’s redemption. When Jerusalem shall be called the throne of God, “all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart” ( Jer 3:17 ). When Israel returns to the God of their Fathers and his Messiah, “then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory” ( Jer 4:2 ).

So rejoice! Jesus has stepped into our sorrow to give us joy. Jesus has suffered exile so that we can be gathered into God’s presence. He has mourned so that he can comfort us. He has crushed the Serpent so that we can return to the Garden of Eden. He has died so we can live.

Come to the table and drink the cup of the New Covenant. Jesus knows your sorrow and he knows your joy.

I will close with the words of an old Rich Mullins song that captures the spirit of today’s feast and of Jeremiah’s prophetic words.

Joseph took his wife and her child
And they went to Africa
To escape the rage of a deadly King
There along the banks of the Nile
Jesus listened to the song
That the captive children used to sing

They were singin'
My deliverer is comin', my deliverer is standin' by
My deliverer is comin', my deliverer is standin' by

Through a dry and thirsty land
Water from the Kenyon heights
Pours itself out of lake Sangra's broken heart
There in the Sahara winds
Jesus heard the whole world cry
For the healin' that would flow from His own scars

The world was singin'
My deliverer is comin', my deliverer is standin' by
My deliverer is comin', my deliverer is standin' by

He will never break His promise
He has written it upon the sky ²

Footnotes

There is a midrash that Rachel, learning her father’s plan to go back on his word and give Leah as wife to Jacob, gave her sister a password Jacob and Rachel had so he would accept Leah on the wedding night. In that scenario, then Rachel facilitates the marriage to Leah and so can be said to be mother to all 12 tribes. Lamentations Rabbah, Petihta , 24.2, 3. See also Naftali Silberberg, “Rachel's Amazing Secret,” Chabad.org. https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/459520/jewish/Rachels-Amazing-Secret.htm
Richard W Mullins & Mitchell Lade Mcvicker, “My Deliverer,” The Jesus Record (Sony/Word, 1998)

Sermon: Messiah will return to regather Israel & the nations

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 15:58:59 GMT

God, in the Scriptures, makes redemptive promises not just to Jerusalem but to the nations of the war-torn Middle East

Third Sunday of Advent – Church of the Savior, Ambridge, PA

Zephaniah 3:14-20
Psalms 85
Philippians 4:4-9
Luke 3:7-20

We’re already at the third Sunday of Advent. Christmas is nearly upon us!

Advent is my favorite liturgical season. Yes, we have the joy of Christmas. In the Spring we have the relief and joy of Resurrection Sunday.

So why is Advent my favorite? The season of Advent does double duty. Yes, it prepares us for Christmas, prepares our hearts to once again receive the newborn king and restart our journey toward Jerusalem, Calvary, and the empty tomb.

But Advent is my favorite because we also get to talk about Jesus coming back! We get to talk about our reward, finally seeing him face to face and dwelling with him forever.

Three weeks ago we left the green season of Ordinary Time for Advent. The long green season, the extended summer from Pentecost to Christ the King Sunday represents liturgically the time we actually live in. We live in the long season of waiting after Pentecost.

The Kingdom of God is here already, confirmed by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Those of us who trust in Jesus have the Holy Spirit. We are therefore portals of the Kingdom of Heaven. We call Heaven down to earth when we pray for people’s healing, deliverance, and salvation.

But let us not forget that the Holy Spirit is the down payment, the guarantee (2 Cor 1:22, 5:5; Eph 1:14), of all the other promises God has made to his people in all of the Bible, like Jesus’ promises of eternal life but also the promises of the Prophets, like the one we find in Zephaniah.

The Holy Spirit reminds us that the Kingdom of God is here already among us as we gather in Jesus’ name. Let us remember that the Kingdom of God is also not yet. We are still waiting for Jesus to come back. We are still waiting for the justice and mercy worked on the cross to play out across our war-torn planet. Creation – polluted and abused – still groans for the return of its Creator and its restoration to what it was before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.

In my experience, Anglicans don’t talk a lot about the return of Jesus. We try to focus on imitating Jesus, taking his words seriously and making sure his words transform our hearts and minds. All good. We’re all broken humans being remade into the image of Christ.

But here, in these four weeks of Advent, we should relish thinking and talking about Jesus’ return as much as we think and talk about what we want for Christmas.

That’s why I love Advent. Because the season prompts us to talk about Jesus’ coming, both his birth and his triumphant return.

As most of you know, I work for the Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People. I came today to give the Mission Moment update, which I will later.

Talking about the return of Jesus is an important part of our testimony to our Jewish neighbors and to all who don’t yet accept Jesus as Lord and Messiah.

Several Christmases ago, when I was in Jerusalem, I had a most interesting conversation with an Orthodox Jew. It was Christmas Day. I’d just left church after Christmas lunch. I was wearing a Santa hat.

As I walked home, I passed a familiar street busker dressed, as he always was, in the traditional Orthodox dress of his sect– black pants and coat, white shirt, black hat. He was often in the outdoor mall singing and playing his guitar. His song caught me this day, so I stopped to listen. After a song or two, I went to drop some shekels into his guitar case. He stopped playing to give me a tract.

“No, thank you,” I said to him in Hebrew, “Yeshua is the Messiah.” He rolled his eyes, put the tract back in his pocket and spoke to me in perfect American English.

“We know all about that guy. He’s not the one.”

“What about the signs he worked?”

“I can do any of them,” he said to me. “Ask me and I’ll do one right now.”

“Can you go up to the Temple Mount now and claim the throne of David?” I asked him.

He looked at me a moment. “He said he was coming back! Where is he?!”

“I am waiting for him,” I replied. “And I know you Jews have been waiting for Messiah twice as long as us Christians. Let’s wait for him together.”

He rolled his eyes again and went back to playing his guitar.

But you know what, our Jewish neighbors – the ones that believe in God – are waiting for Messiah to come. They are waiting for God himself to come and fulfill all his promises.

Zephaniah 3 has one of those wonderful promises concerning the Jewish people:

20 At that time I will bring you in,
at the time when I gather you together;
for I will make you renowned and praised
among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes
before your eyes,” says the Lord.

Right now Israel as a nation is hated by so many. The Jewish people are hated, as evidenced by the skyrocketing antisemitic acts in Europe and the United States. Zephaniah proclaims the God’s promise that the Jewish people will one day be renowned and praised.

We Christians focus on Jesus having fulfilled Isaiah 53, the promise of the righteous Israelite that dies for the sins of Israel and the nations. Let’s not forget other promises in the Prophets that have God himself coming down to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem to judge and convert the nations and regather the scattered people of God and restore peace and righteousness in Jerusalem and beyond.

First, why are reading from Zephaniah 3 today, the 3rd Sunday in Advent? The calendar of readings are meant to tell us something about Jesus.

In Luke, we see John the Baptist preparing the Jews of his day for the coming of the Messiah. John is certainly expecting a Messiah that will cleanse Israel of its sin and its sinners with fire. He warns the religious leaders to not count on their Jewish genealogy to give them a pass. He warns everyday people to love their neighbors and not take advantage of vulnerable people.

John says he is not the Messiah and that the Messiah will come with the Holy Spirit and will separate the repentant from the sinners. That’s why John is teaching people how to repent. The tax collectors, the soldiers, and the religious leaders were oppressing the people. John is warning them to stop.

The Zephaniah reading resonates with John’s message. See in Zephaniah 3:19 that God says when he comes, he will deal with the oppressors.

We here believe that Jesus is the God of Israel made flesh. He is God with Us, Immanuel. So then, Zephaniah is about Jesus.

What does Zephaniah tell us about Jesus?

This passage we read in Zephaniah 3 is the last and best part of the little book. God is talking and he’s calling Israel to rejoice. He’s done disciplining them. God is living among them and rejoicing and singing over his people. Yes, God sings! He sings over his people like a mother sings over her child.

God is talking to Israel in this passage, to the Jewish people.

Is God singing over us Christians? Yes! Be encouraged. God rejoices over you and quiets you with his love. We can definitely take these promises to ourselves because we have pledged allegiance to the Messiah of Israel. When decide to follow Jesus, we are grafted into Israel, we are made naturalized citizens of the Commonwealth of Israel (Rom 11, Eph 2). The promises of God are for us.

The promises of God are still valid for our Jewish neighbor, too.

How is that if they do not believe in Jesus? Because, if the Kingdom of God coming in Jesus is here now but also not yet, then not all is yet fulfilled here on earth. We’re in this in-between time of God’s Kingdom expanding. So there is space for our Jewish neighbor’s expectation that God will fulfill his promises to Israel.

We know they will be fulfilled in Jesus Messiah. We must proclaim this until he comes.

Yes, Jesus died for our sins. Jesus died so that God can dwell with humanity. That’s what God promised Israel all along. From Adam through Malachi – God has been promising Israel that he will live with them forever. He will fulfill the promises made to Abraham and David and the promises proclaimed by the Prophets.

We who follow Jesus have him now through the Holy Spirit. There will be a day when the whole world will have him in person, ruling and reigning from Jerusalem. If we love him, we will rejoice at his coming. Those that reject him will dread his coming.

When people find out I’m with the Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People or that I lived in Israel for several years, they immediately ask me about Israel-Palestine conflict. Some expect me – as a teacher of our Jewish roots – to care more about Israel’s right to their ancient homeland. Others want me – as a good Christian – to care more about Palestinian suffering.

The greater context of Zephaniah helps us to care about both Israelis and Palestinians because we will see that God cares about all the nations – Israel, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon and all the rest.

Who was Zephaniah and why did he write this prophecy?

Zephaniah seems to be from the royal family of Judah, a distant cousin of King Josiah and a descendant of King Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a righteous king, but his heirs Manasseh and Amon were idolatrous and corrupt. Government officials decided Amon had to go, so they assassinated him and put his 8-year-old son Josiah on the throne, controlled by a regent until he was an adult.

When are we going to see Game of Biblical Thrones on HBO?

Josiah is famous for taking down the idols and restoring the reading of Torah once he comes of age.

Zephaniah probably writes while Josiah is still a boy. Perhaps Josiah institutes his reforms because he hears Zephaniah’s call to repentance and promise of God’s love.

The book of Zephaniah is just three chapters long.

In Chapter 1, Zephaniah calls out the wealthy for their idolatry, violence, fraud, syncretism, and even agnostism.

…8 “I will punish the officials and the king’s sons and all who array themselves in foreign attire. 9 On that day I will punish …those who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud. … 12 I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.’ 13 Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste…”

In Chapter 2 and 3, we see more warnings for Jerusalem as well as for the nations around Israel: Canaan, Ammon, Moab, Assyria and more.

Geographically, those nations are the same places affected by war right now. Gaza is ancient Canaan, the land of Philistines; Assyria covered in part what is now Iraq and Syria; Jordan covers what was Moab and Ammon.

In Zephaniah’s time, he heard of an army invading from the north. He saw that invasion as God’s judgment.

What do we make of the ongoing fighting throughout the Middle East today? The fall of Damascus a week ago was shocking, as shocking as the assassination of the Hezbollah leader earlier this year. Jordan is bracing for the ripple effect from Islamists taking Syria. Turkey is agitating against the Kurds in northern Syria and western Iraq.

Is God judging Israel and the nations around her?

I am no prophet. What I can say with certainty is that God is always calling us and all the nations to repentance. Since the Tower of Babel, God has been calling the rebellious nations to repent and return to him.

Zephaniah, in chapter 2, issues a call to repentance and announces there is a door to mercy for Israel and for their neighbors.

First, the call goes to Israel:

2:1 Gather together, yes, gather, shameless nation, before the decree takes effect —before the day passes away like chaff— before there comes upon you the burning anger of the LORD, before there comes upon you the day of the anger of the LORD. 3 Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD.

“Perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD.” Interestingly, that’s what Zephaniah means, Hidden by God.

God goes on to declare judgment over Israel’s neighbors: Canaan, Moab, Ammon, Assyria. But then he says that these enemy nations will call upon the LORD and serve him.

3:9 “For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the LORD and serve him with one accord.

Do you hear that? “I will change the speech of the peoples.” I hear echoes of the Tower of Babel and of Pentecost. At Babel, God changes the speech of the peoples because they are in rebellion. At Pentecost, all the foreigners in Jerusalem hear Jesus’ disciples praising God in their own language.

From Acts 2:

7 Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.

The regions mentioned here are today called, Iran, Kurdistan, Iraq, Turkey, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia, among others. Those were some of the first peoples to hear of the glory of Jesus on Pentecost.

The end of Isaiah 19 speaks of a time when all the nations of the Middle East – including Israel – will worship God together.

There’s an amazing promise in Zechariah 9 concerning Gaza. God is proclaiming judgment on the nations around Israel.

This passage lists the Philistine cities. You will recognize that some of those cities still exist in and around the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian people live.

Where did the name Palestine come from? It is a Latinized way to say Philistia. The Philistines do not exist anymore, but the Arab peoples of the Holy Land have taken this name – Palestine – upon themselves. And God says, through Zechariah, that the peoples living in the area we call today the Gaza Strip will be redeemed as a remnant. God will cut off their pride but they’ll be folded into God’s people, not by domination but by God’s mercy. And we know that God’s mercy comes through Jesus the Messiah.

Even some Jews who won’t accept Jesus’ Messiahship acknowledge that he changes hearts.

Back in January, a headline caught my attention: Gaza needs Jesus, says Orthodox Jew. The piece was written by Jonathan Feldstein, a devout Jew who feels called to fellowship and collaborate with Christians.

Feldstein wrote, “Despite being an Orthodox Jew, I am praying for Gazans to get a little Jesus in 2024. … The only chance I see for real peace is that Gazans become real Christians.” Feldstein may not believe Jesus is for him, but he knows that Jesus transforms hearts, that Jesus changes enemies into loving family.

The whole world needs Jesus! And God is determined to regather to himself the nations he scattered at Babel. That’s why God called Abraham, to bless the nations that rebelled at the Tower of Babel. Jesus, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham is the one who is in the process of regathering Israel and the nations.

We, the followers of Jesus, know he will do it! So let us proclaim the good news to the nations! Let us rejoice and exult with all our hearts!

For the Lord has taken away the judgments against us;
The King of Israel, Jesus the Lord, is in our midst;
let us never again fear evil.
For the Lord our God is in our midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he is rejoicing over us with gladness;
he is quieting us by his love;
he is exulting over us with loud singing.

And He will come back to establish peace on earth, as he said.

Maranatha! Come Lord Yeshua! Amen.

Jews defend Jesus’ Jewishness after Vatican places Palestinian symbol in nativity scene

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 15:58:53 GMT

Jewish Media Review - December 2024

“It’s December, and you know what that means—it’s time for people online to start claiming that Jesus was Palestinian,” wrote the Jewish Journal after the Vatican displayed a nativity scene that added a keffiyeh (Arab head scarf) in the manger. Tying Jesus to the Palestinian cause in this way has been seen in Palestinian-controlled Bethlehem in the past. That Vatican officials employed it in Rome raised the ire of Jews and other Christians. I encourage you to read what Jewish writers say are the implications of visually stripping Jesus’ Jewishness away.

Jesus was born in the Judean town of Bethlehem, a descendant of King David. Nearly all the persons in the Gospel narratives are Israelites (whether Judeans, Samaritans, Essenes, etc.) who are living, working, and arguing in the shadow of the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem.

Before we cast stones at our Roman Catholic siblings and others , Google ‘Jesus wearing US flag.’ The images that come up are as inappropriate as Jesus in a keffiyeh. We all want to see Jesus for our people group in some way. And he is! Jesus loves the nations. He is calling them to himself. Jesus also has Jewish DNA for all eternity. Something to contemplate.

Antisemites continue to act aggressively against Jews and those they perceive as Jews, stirring anxiety for our Jewish neighbors. My hope is that by reading these stories you will step into your Jewish neighbors' shoes for a moment and thus grow in compassion for them, whether you agree with their views or not. Our Jewish neighbors need words and deeds of comfort from the Christians around them.

Jewish perspective on Christians and more

��Is It Antisemitic to Claim Jesus Was a Palestinian? (Complied by Jewish Journal)

It’s December, and you know what that means—it’s time for people online to start claiming that Jesus was Palestinian.

Engaging in Pure Hypocrisy , Matthew Schultz, Dispatches from the Promised Land: The movement that claims that Jesus was a Palestinian. And becomes enraged when they hear that an Israeli Jewish woman will be playing Mary in a movie. And paints keffiyehs on images of Anne Frank… Is the same movement that freaks out when Jews eat hummus, alleging cultural appropriation and erasure.
Resuscitating the Charge of Deicide , Jeffrey K. Salkin, Forward: Swaddling Jesus in a keffiyeh also “resurrects” the charge that the Jews killed Jesus. How so? There is a simple, sinister syllogism at work in the symbolism of baby Jesus in a keffiyeh. The Israelis, i.e., the Jews, are killing Palestinians. Baby Jesus is dressed as a Palestinian. The ancient antisemitic slur of deicide, that the Jews killed God, re-emerges as the genocide charge — that the Jewish State has deliberately planned to destroy the Palestinian people.
Erasing Jesus' Jewish Identity, Paula Fredriksen, Washington Post: Jesus was not “Palestinian.” Nor was he a “Palestinian Jew.” This is so for a simple reason: There was no political entity called “Palestine” in his lifetime. If Jesus was born in Bethlehem, he was born in Judaea as a Jew. He certainly died as one, under Rome’s heavy hand — the political condition that led to the two Jewish revolts.

��Is the Pope Trying to Send a Message to Jews? (Complied by Jewish Journal)

Between dedicating a nativity scene in which Jesus is wrapped in a keffiyeh and calling for Israel to be investigated for genocide, Pope Francis is making concerning moves.

Double Standards , Charles Jacobs & Uzay Bulut, Jewish Journal: Christians face persecution, discrimination, forced conversion and even mass murder for their faith in many parts of the Muslim world, yet Pope Francis’ in his new book calls for an investigation to see if the Jews are committing a “genocide” against Muslims in Gaza.
Disturbing Statements , Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal: There is something disturbing about a pope accusing Jews—the victims of genocide themselves—of genocide while they are fighting for survival on several fronts against enemies aiming to destroy them.
Dark Subtext , Rabbi Avi Shafran, Forward: Amid the anguished commemorations of the events of last Oct. 7, Pope Francis issued a letter to Catholics in the Middle East. It lamented the “the fuse of hatred” lit a year ago and urged his followers in the region to “defeat our one true enemy: the spirit of evil that foments war, because it is ’murderous from the beginning,’ and ‘a liar and the father of lies.’” Most people would perceive those words as anodyne, even praiseworthy. But anyone familiar with the New Testament book of John knows these are words that for centuries have demonized Jews…

�� Vatican removes Palestinian keffiyeh Nativity scene amid backlash (Christian Post)

�� Shabbat for Protestants (Tablet)

As part of a growing trend among American churches, an evangelical congregation in Dallas weaves elements of Jewish ritual and liturgy into its Christian service

�� Allergic to ‘God-talk’? The former head of a rabbinical seminary wants a word (JTA)

Arnold Eisen, former chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, writes a book facing the “questions of what I actually believe.”

This is a must read. It will give you a glimpse at how many Jews think differently about God and prayer than Christians. There are also some insightful gems about living faith out that are instructive to Christians. The one that flew out to me: “… we’re not here to prove anything. We’re here to testify.” Amen.

�� ‘Lost a brother’: Chabad community vows to press on with outreach after emissary’s killing (JTA)

In Crown Heights, Brooklyn, home of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s world headquarters, community members expressed shock, grief and determination following the murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan in Abu Dhabi.

A peek into the missionary arm of Chabad: “The emissaries are part of the vision laid out by the movement’s late leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who died in 1994. Taking on a mission of reaching every Jew in the world, he began sending rabbis abroad even before he officially assumed leadership of Chabad in 1950, starting with Morocco. Today, there are more than 5,000 emissaries stationed around the world, including in remote locations, countries with few Jews and even war zones. In addition to running Chabad synagogues, they operate schools, youth outreach efforts, restaurants and, in the case of Kogan, kosher grocery stores.”

��A Wicked Chanukah (Six13)

The latest entry in the annual tradition of a Hanukkah-themed music parody. These are always fun to watch because they tell the story of the Maccabees in a creative way. They often comment on what is on Jews' minds that year. This one references the Israel-Gaza War and rising antisemitism.

�� 'Wicked': A midrash on 'The Wizard of Oz' (RNS)

Not surprisingly, many midrashim — these imagined Torah backstories — are about women.

What is midrash? It is a teaching tool in Judaism that reads between the lines in the biblical narrative. Not sure what that looks like? See this great comparison with Wicked and how it takes the same characters and set of circumstances as the Wizard of Oz but tells the story from a different perspective.

�� Black AND Jewish: Who I Was Meant to Be (Tablet)

I cannot put one part of myself aside, even if other people believe I should be ‘just Jewish’ right now

�� ‘I was triggered’: Some Jews are struggling as they encounter keffiyehs in their daily lives (JTA)

The town of Chapel Hill, The Weather Channel and a Brooklyn co-op have recently become embroiled in discourse over the traditional Palestinian headscarf that has been adopted by protesters on the left.

�� A new ‘Merchant of Venice’ production challenges anti-Jewish tropes by doubling down on them (JTA)

A “contemporary, spirited” version of Shakespeare’s play opens off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company.

✡️ BYU QB Jake Retzlaff is the new face of Manischewitz (JTA)

�� Texas A&M’s Sam Salz cherishes his first taste of college football — and the opportunity to inspire fellow Orthodox Jews (JTA)

Salz, the 5-foot-6 Orthodox wide receiver, said it’s “incredibly meaningful to me that I can at least get a chance to inspire a generation of Jewish kids.”

Antisemitism in the US

�� StopAntisemitism report finds 43% of students wouldn’t recommend their school to fellow Jews (JNS)

Although this year has been “less catastrophic” than the last on campus, “we continue to see extraordinary ugliness around the country,” Kenneth Marcus, of the Brandeis Center, told JNS.

�� Rising parents concern: Is this school safe for my Jewish child? (JTA)

�� That time an antisemite came after me (Times of Israel)

The thing is, I'm not Jewish. But as I cased him for a knife or gun, I realized how little that matters

�� Jewish group Installs Emergency Alert Systems in 22 Pittsburgh Jewish Organizations (Jewish Federation)

Think about how most public buildings, schools, bigger churches have red-box fire alarms to pull in case of emergency. The Jewish community in Pittsburgh is sufficiently concerned about the risk of antisemitic violence that it has installed blue-box police alarms in 22 places at the cost of $3 million.

Synagogues lock their doors during shabbat services. Some require non-members to preregister and submit an government ID to know who they are letting into their midst. The Jewish Federation has run 425 training and drills to prepare for a violent incident.

When’s the last time your church even had a fire drill, let alone an active shooter drill?

Read this press release and digest that some of our Jewish neighbors are worried and maybe afraid in the midst of the rising antisemitism. Call a Jewish friend or the local rabbi and see how they’re doing. Ask how you learn, help, and be a friend at this time.

�� Swastikas spray-painted outside entrance to Temple Israel synagogue in Minneapolis (Star Tribune)

Officials condemned the hateful imagery and said security camera footage at the synagogue was still being reviewed.

�� Vandals graffiti San Francisco Hillel with slogan evoking ancient battle between Muslims and Jews (JTA)

The building was spray-painting with the word, “Khaybar,” which refers to battles between Muhammed and local Jewish tribes on the Arabian Peninsula at the dawn of Islam.

�� Swastikas, slurs graffitied on home of Jewish family in North Carolina (JNS)

"It's crazy because you just don't think that people do these kinds of things anymore," one of the residents said.

�� Official report finds Jew-hatred nearly doubled in Texas from 2022 to 2023 (JNS)

“The State of Texas has made clear that antisemitism, whether disguised as a political protest or blatant hate, is unacceptable in any form,” a state commissioner stated.

⚖️ It is now illegal in New York to forcibly remove someone’s kippah (JTA)

“The legislation comes amid a surge in antisemitism in New York City since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. And an August report by Tom DiNapoli, the state comptroller, found that antisemitic hate crimes had increased by 89% from 2018 to 2023 across the state.”

Israel-Gaza War

�� Amnesty International’s genocide report is profoundly flawed — and everyone who cares about Israel should read it (Forward)

Amnesty’s record on Israel warrants skepticism. But there’s still much we can learn from the group

�� Why I resigned as chairman of Amnesty Israel (Forward)

Israeli human rights groups can’t advocate for Palestinians without Palestinians.

⚠️ Number of civilians killed in Gaza ‘inflated to vilify Israel,’ says report (Telegraph)

Researchers accuse Gaza ministry of health of overstating casualty data

❓Have Gaza Fatalities Been Inflated? (Complied by Jewish Journal)

A British think tank report claims Gaza’s war death toll includes thousands of natural deaths and inflated figures for women and children. What’s behind the data? More at Times of Israel .

The Findings , Editorial Board, Jerusalem Post: The HJS report accuses the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry of inflating its figures by including natural deaths, combatant deaths, and even fatalities predating the war.
The Takeaway , Seth Mandel, Commentary: …once you drop the natural deaths, approximate the numbers of those killed by Hamas or other Palestinian groups, and adjust the demographic numbers to fit the actual family reports, you end up with about as many militants killed as civilians. In an urban environment with the Hamas soldiers stationed among civilians, this means Israel’s civilian-combatant ratio is not just low but unheard of.
The Upshot, Andrew Fox, Substack: But here’s the beauty of the report: it’s only Hamas’ figures we have used. Try and discredit the report, and you’re discrediting Hamas’ figures either way.

�� My classmate won’t shut up about Israel and is spreading antisemitic conspiracies. What do I do? (Forward)

Bintel Brief helps a college student figure out how to handle a troublesome classmate

�� Israel vs. Palestine in Manga (Tablet)

The conflict in the Middle East is playing out in the world’s most popular form of graphic art

�� Bill Clinton: Young Americans shocked to learn Arafat turned down Palestinian state (Time s of Israel)

If ‘you walk away from once in a lifetime peace opportunities, you can’t complain 25 years later when the doors aren’t all still open,’ says former US president

��️ A new film spotlights how the Israel-Hamas war played out in poster battles on NYC streets (JTA)

“Kidnapped by Hamas” posters spread throughout New York in the weeks after Oct. 7 and, just as quickly, pro-Palestinian activists tore them down. The documentary “Torn” explores why.

Banner/thumbnail photo by Michael Plutchok via Wikimedia Commons

What is a pogrom?

Tue, 19 Nov 2024 14:49:05 GMT

While others argue whether the Amsterdam attack fits a specific definition, Christians need to acknowledge that our Jewish neighbors are unsettled and need words and deeds of comfort

On November 7, Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam were attacked as they left the Ajax football stadium. Videos show hooded and masked assailants beating and kicking people. There are also videos and reports that Israelis were hit with scooters and pulled out of taxis.[1]

That it happened two days before the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night that German mobs attacked Jewish communities and burned down synagogues, alarmed Jews around the world. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the 86 ^th anniversary of Kristallnacht had been “marked on the streets of Amsterdam.” Israel quickly sent evacuation flights so that Israelis could return home as soon as possible.

If you read Jewish and Israeli media, you may have seen the riot called a “pogrom.” What is a pogrom?

Pogrom is originally a Russian word meaning “devastation” or to “wreck havoc.” Merriam-Webster defines it as “an organized massacre of helpless people; specifically: such a massacre of Jews.”

“Historically, the term refers to violent attacks by local non-Jewish populations on Jews in the Russian Empire and in other countries,” according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia . “The first such incident to be labeled a pogrom is believed to be anti-Jewish rioting in Odessa in 1821. As a descriptive term, ‘pogrom’ came into common usage with extensive anti-Jewish riots that swept the southern and western provinces of the Russian Empire in 1881–1884, following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II.”[2]

Pogrom in Kiev, 1881 (Wikimedia Commons)

My first real understanding of a pogrom came unexpectedly while at a Jerusalem café. I was there to have quiet time with the Lord. A mom and her daughter, maybe 10, sat down behind me. I couldn’t help but overhear their conversation.

The reason this mom had taken her daughter out for breakfast was to tell where why they were Americans. I heard this Jewish mom say that the family was originally from Russia but they left when their village was attacked by Russian Christians.

Jewish-Christian writer Abram Poljak describes a pogrom he experienced as a boy:

One evening my parents took me to a cellar where there were some other Jews. The door was barricaded, but through a hole I could see the street. I saw the flashes and heard the cracking of revolvers … crashes, cries …

I still hear my mother saying, “A stone has been thrown.”

Pogroms in Russia used to be organized in the following way. After a service in a church, a procession marched through the streets of the town. At its head an image of Christ was carried. When approaching the Jewish quarter, a stone was suddenly flung against the image and then the shout was raised, “The Jews have done it!” The people in the procession, who until then had sung hymns of the love and grace of Christ, rushed into the houses and shops of the Jews and began to kill and loot. In the back streets carts were waiting, on which the plundered Jewish goods were laden.[3]

Kristallnacht was certainly a pogrom. The October 7 attack by Hamas can rightly be called a pogrom, certainly according to the Merriam-Webster definition.

There has been a debate on whether it is fair to call the Amsterdam riot a pogrom. A sample of articles and essays on the question:

Was the Attack in Amsterdam a Pogrom? (complied by Jewish Journal)
A violent, coordinated attack on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam has shaken the Jewish world, with some drawing comparisons to the horrors of pogroms and Kristallnacht. Is this the right historical comparison?
A Haunting Reprisal, Kathleen Hayes, Jewish Journal: The oh-so-tolerant, liberal Dutch hosted a pogrom, and one of the most horrifying aspects of it is its predictability… The Holocaust was a long time ago, is the prevailing message. Jews no longer deserve sympathy or protection.
A Key Difference, Jodi Rudoren, Forward: There are crucial differences between what erupted on Amsterdam’s streets last night and the Night of Broken Glass that shattered Germany and Austria 86 years ago, chiefly the existence and strength of the Jewish state of Israel.
A New Kind of Pogrom , Smadar Perry, YNET: Dutch police published photos of the detainees – all, without exception, from Arab countries. This is what a pogrom looks like. This is the new antisemitism.
The Pogrom in Amsterdam: Three Questions Every Jew Needs to Ask (Aish)
Amsterdam mayor walks back ‘pogrom’ label for assaults (JNS)
Femke Halsema used the term but now says it has become too politically loaded.
Debunking the Amsterdam “Pogrom” (FPIF)
The far right is fanning the flames of conflict.

The real concern is not what to call the attack in Amsterdam. What is important for us to process is that that those who hate Israel and Jews feel emboldened to speak out their hatred and even act out violently.

Here in the United States, a group of masked men marched through Columbus, Ohio carrying swastika flags. This is brazen and meant to intimidate. Read about other recent antisemitic incidents in this month’s Jewish Media Review.

The rise in antisemitic incidents speak to deeper problems in our society.

Documentary producer Raphael Shore, in the film Tragic Awakening: A New Look at the Oldest Hatred, considers whether antisemitism stems from desperate people looking for someone to blame for society’s problems.

“Antisemitism always denotes a society in deep trouble,” Shore says. “And it happens when groups feel that their world is spinning out of control. And when the society becomes unhealthy, antisemitism is something that people reach for.”[4]

The film goes on to challenge the scapegoat theory. However, that rising antisemitism is related to the unrest and divisions in our society is worth contemplating and, more importantly, praying about.

And after we pray, we who follow Yeshua the Messiah must speak mercy and peace to the nations, especially to the Jewish people. It is through them that God sends morality and ultimately the Messiah ( Rom 9:4-5 ). And it is through the Messiah that God will heal the nations.

If you learn of an antisemitic incident in your area, call it out. Also, check on your Jewish neighbors, and let them know you stand with them against hate. Why? Because Jesus loves his DNA siblings.

Footnotes

There are reports that the antisemitic attack was in response to anti-Arab chanting by the Maccabi football fans. Racist chants are a problem in international soccer, including in Israel .
The Russian attacks on Jewish communities instigated the first wave of Jewish immigration to the Holy Land, called the First Aliyah.
Poljak, Abram. Bram: The Life and Wisdom of Messianic Jewish Pioneer Abram Poljak in his Own Words. (Marshfield, MO: Vine of David), 12-13.
Suissa, David. “‘ They Hate Us Because We’re Good’: A New Film Reframes the World’s Oldest Hatred. ” Jewish Journal, 18 November 2024.

Banner photo credit: Screen capture from Today (NBC) via YouTube

Are you paying attention? Antisemites continue to feel emboldened

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 19:29:42 GMT

Jewish Media Review - November 2024

In the days before and after the presidential elections, antisemites attacked Jewish businesses and Jewish people. In Los Angeles to Washington D.C., Jewish businesses had their windows broken just before the anniversary of Kristallnacht (Nov. 9-10, 1938, when antisemitic mobs in German destroyed Jewish businesses and synagogues). A Jewish man had his face slashed in New York. This was all before the attack on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam.

But it’s not all bad news. Brigham Young University has welcomed their Jewish quarterback. A church in Denver continues to visibly stand with Israel and the synagogues around them. A Jewish family bought bomb shelters for Arab Israelis. More Arabs are speaking on behalf of Israel in social media.

My hope is that by reading these stories you will step into your Jewish neighbors' shoes for a moment and thus grow in compassion for them, whether you agree with their views or not.

��️ “They Hate us Because We’re Good”: A New Film Reframes the World’s Oldest Hatred (Jewish Journal)

“Tragic Awakening” advances an idea we may have heard before, but it does so in a fresh and provocative way that makes it uniquely relevant to our times.

‼️ NY Jewish man requires 18 stitches after being slashed in face in ‘vicious’ antisemitic hate crime (JPost)

The attacker, wearing a mask, shouted “F*** you guys” at the victim before slashing him with a blade.

❗ Masked attackers assault two Jewish students outside DePaul University of Chicago (JPost)

One victim was struck in the face and body and the other victim was pushed to the ground. Both students declined medical attention.

❗ DC kosher restaurant has windows smashed on eve of Kristallnacht anniversary (Times of Israel)

Char Bar suffered similar incident in 2020; senior Newsweek editor says every Jew in political circles has been to restaurant, incident ‘disgusting and horrific’

❗ Jewish man with Star of David cap kicked out of Oakland cafe (JNS)

The owner repeatedly asked the patron if he was a Zionist, causing the man's 5-year-old son to cry.

�� Shattered Glass Can’t Break Our Jewish Spirit (Jewish Journal)

In the early morning of November 5, someone smashed the storefront glass at Jewish businesses throughout Pico-Robertson.

❗ Hacked billboards display 'antisemitic' messages in Chicago suburb (Fox 32 Chicago)

‼️ Neo-Nazis marchers shout slurs, carry swastika flags in Columbus, Ohio (CNN)

A group of neo-Nazis marched through a Columbus, Ohio neighborhood, waving flags featuring swastikas and shouting racist and anti-Semitic slurs. Local and state officials denounced the show of hate.

�� Chicago Police announces hate crime, terror charges against gunman accused of shooting Orthodox Jew (JNS)

"We did not secure these charges because of public pressure or because of media attention," said Larry Snelling, superintendent of the Chicago Police.

�� Police arrest two in connection with antisemitic graffiti (Jewish Chronicle)

“Thank God that they were able to find and arrest the perpetrators"

�� These Brooklyn high schoolers retraced a Holocaust survivor’s experience during Kristallnacht — without ever leaving the classroom (JTA)

A new virtual reality project from the Claims Conference aims to provide first-hand encounters spotlighting a “pivotal” moment in the Holocaust

��️ ‘October H8te’ documentary aims to understand US college alignment with Hamas (Jewish Chronicle)

Wendy Sachs’ film explores how campus social justice movements ended up backing a terrorist organization, and how Jewish students dealt with the accompanying antisemitism

Is an Attack on Hillel an Attack on Jewish Students? (complied by the Jewish Journal)

Anti-Zionist protesters on American campuses are increasingly targeting Hillels. Does this amount to an attack on Jewish campus life itself?

A Safe Place. Mayim Bialik, The Atlantic: Hillel teaches that we should not be afraid to be Jewish. We can be proud to be American. And we deserve the rights and privileges awarded to every minority on campus: a safe place to gather, to pray, to learn, and to fight for what is right.
A Chilling Chant. Edward Halperin, Jerusalem Post: What is both chilling and foolish is the call for “No more Hillel.” Innumerable American college students have gone to Hillels on their campus to pray at the campus synagogue, attend Passover Seders, or have a kosher meal. Calling prayer services or eating kosher food a conspiratorial “fundamentally Zionist network” is nonsensical.
A Fair Target, Aaron D.A. Shakow, The Harvard Crimson: I’m writing to ask that Harvard Hillel — the institution you oversee — stop claiming to represent the Jewish community on campus. Hillel’s longstanding hostility to dissent despite our community’s persistent disagreements on Israel, Palestine, Zionism, and campus free speech means that it is unable to serve as an honest broker.

⚖️ US families of Oct. 7 victims seek justice in latest lawsuit against Iran (JNS)

The plaintiffs have obtained original documents demonstrating Tehran’s involvement in helping Hamas prepare the deadly attack.

�� Anglican church featured in Denver news for display of solidarity with their Jewish neighbors (FOX31 Denver)

��‍�� Jewish family donates 12 bomb shelters to Arab communities in Israel’s north (All Israel)

Since war began in the north on Oct. 8, 2023, 34 Israeli civilians have been killed by rocket attacks, 19 from Arab sector

�� Arab Advocates for Israel Speak Out on Social Media (Tablet)

While their numbers remain small, a dam may have broken for others with similar feelings

✝️ Pope Francis owes Jews an apology (Forward)

His Oct. 7 comments revived an antisemitic New Testament slander

Editor’s note: This rabbi knows the New Testament enough to question Pope Francis’ allusion to John 8:44 , a verse that has been “weaponized against Jews.”

Be sure you read Pope Francis’ letter so you can see the quote in context. Also read John 8, as its context is what is informing the rabbi’s reading of Francis’ letter.

�� Silent dancing on Simchat Torah? A joyous Jewish holiday is remade for a mournful anniversary (JTA)

Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel took place on the only Jewish holiday with “joy” in its name.

✍�� Israel as the Jesus Among Nations (Tablet)

How G.K. Chesterton and Jacques Maritain led the Catholic Church to reject the myth of Jewish wandering and recognize the Jewish state

A long piece giving an overview of the Roman Catholic church’s relationship with Zionism and the modern State of Israel. Worth the time.

�� A Year of Reading Torah (Tablet)

Thousands of people signed up for our Simchat Torah Challenge, embarking on a yearlong journey of studying the parsha—the weekly Torah portion. Here’s why some of them are taking part, and what they hope to find.

✝️ OPINION: A new era for evangelicals and Israel, a bridge to progressives? (JNS)

As younger evangelicals distance themselves from rigid partisanship, there’s a notable change in how they approach politics and faith.

An interesting Jewish take on American Evangelicals

�� ‘Humans of Judaism’ tells the Jewish story, from the shtetl to Sandy Koufax to Hasidic rapper Nissim Black (Forward)

The founder of the viral page calls the book a ‘family photo album’

�� BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff brings touchdowns and Jewish teachings to predominantly Mormon school (Associated Press)

�� Indie rocker Rafael Cohen grapples with his Latin American Jewish identity (JTA)

With his solo project, Las Palabras, Mexico-born Cohen mulls his connection to Judaism on his new album, “Fe.”

�� Pop Goes the Flood (Tablet)

From Bruce Springsteen to Sting, musicians have found inspiration in the story of Noah

Thumbnail and banner photo credit: Screen capture from CNN video report.

Israel, in the face of sorrow and loss

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 23:17:01 GMT

CMJ Israel reports on a year of wartime ministry

This is the first of five wartime articles we're posting on behalf of our friends at CMJ Israel.

Isr ael in the face of sorrow and loss
Wartime Israel through the eyes of Mercy
Israel Tour with Purpose
The Isaiah 19 Highway is on fire
Bystanders yet again?

October 7 marked the anniversary of a terrible evil committed in the name of god. Its consequences still bring deep sorrow, and ongoing hostility threatens to increase that pain. At CMJ in Israel, our mission is to bring hope, love, and the light of God to all those affected by this continuing conflict.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lord challenged us through His word to reconsider CMJ’s purpose and work in Israel. The answer was clear: we were called to build and strengthen communities of disciples across the nation. As a team, we worked hard to define and then begin developing these communities, aiming to equip them to bless those around them. The outbreak of terror and war only reinforced our commitment to this mission, deepening our conviction of bringing hope and light to those in need.

Here share some moments that have shaped the path ahead for us:

A young wife among us endured sleepless nights as her husband fought from house to house, securing the way for other soldiers.
An Arab mother, discipled through our Arabic broadcast, fled Gaza with her surviving children after the conflict took the lives of others.
Responding to Jewish friends who ask why they are being hated and blamed for evils they did not start.
Answering Arab friends who ask why their innocent loved ones must suffer.

These questions have no easy answers. It seems likely that many more months of conflict and heartache lie ahead. To be clear, we at CMJ will need your dedicated intercessory prayers—for strength, for "peace not as this world gives," for unrelenting compassion for a steady, loving witness, and for worship and gratitude even in the face of sorrow and loss.

Only the Lord is sufficient for this task, and His power is released through prayer. Please pay close attention to the prayer letters we send, so that together we can cooperate with the Lord in bringing good out of this sorrow. Already, we have felt the strengthening effects of your prayers and continue to draw hope from them.

Rev. Cn. Daryl Fenton is the director of CMJ Israel. He previously was the director of CMJ USA.

Israel Tour with Purpose

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 23:02:45 GMT

It's about building relationships, especially in wartime

It has been a whirlwind year of missions, and we’ve been fortunate enough to travel from Idaho to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and back to Jerusalem with CMJ.

We have been to Israel a few times, and each trip changes us in ways we never expect. People often talk about falling in love with the land of Israel —and that’s true, you do. But when you come on one of these service trips, you fall in love with the people. That’s the real heart of it. And that’s why we keep going back.

This year alone, we’ve done four service tours. The first one was before the war in August 2023, and the rest followed in March, April, and most recently in September. Each trip has been different, but the purpose remains the same: meeting needs, connecting with people, and being a tangible presence of support for those going through tough times.

One of our most impactful trips was in March, right after the war had started. The people were in shock, and the need for trauma counseling was urgent.

People like Henry, who runs the Rex Shop, or Samira, who owns the liquor store across from Roots, have become part of our extended family. Every time we go back, we stop in, have a Turkish coffee, and catch up on life. These moments remind us that our work isn’t just about service— it’s about being there for people, over and over again, so they know they aren’t forgotten.

When people go on tours to Israel, they fall in love with the land. But when they go on service tours, they fall in love with the people. It’s true. And that’s why we keep coming back.

It’s why people like Mary Ruth, who joined us for the first time in April, came back in September. She was so moved by the connections she made during that first trip that she canceled a pilgrimage tour and convinced her husband to join us in December on the next service tour instead.

We’re planning two more trips next year, and we’re excited to see what God will do. We’ve already started reaching out to Scott and Laura at Shoresh Study Tours to plan how we can make the most impact. The work we’ve done so far has only scratched the surface, and there’s so much more we can do.

Every trip, every connection, reminds us of why we do this. It’s about more than just showing up—it’s about standing with people, letting them know they’re not alone, and sharing in their joys and struggles. Whether we’re cleaning homes, sharing a cup of coffee, or offering a word of encouragement, we’re there to serve.

As we look back on this year, we’re filled with gratitude for the ways God has moved through CMJ and these service tours. We can’t wait to see what He has in store next. Thank you for standing with us, for praying with us, and for being part of this incredible journey.

Myron and Carol Goodwin serve at Grace Chapel in Nashville, TN.

The Isaiah 19 Highway on fire

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 22:41:29 GMT

God's rede mption, reconciliation often comes out of judgment

An interview with Michael Kerem, a CMJ ministry partner who runs Derech Avraham , a relational network of Middle Eastern nationals and internationals working in various spheres of ministry with a Kingdom vision of the Middle East that is best outlined in Isaiah’s vision of a highway in Isaiah 19.

The idea for the ministry began in 2012 when the rector of Christ Church, David Pileggi, observed that the world's myopic vision of the Middle East was affecting the church. Instead of becoming obsessed with the problems of the Arab-Israel conflict, the church needed to have a bigger perspective of all that God was doing in the Middle East.

There was no better place to host such a ministry than CMJ, which historically had mission stations across the Middle East. With the help of a friend in Beirut, Michael and David have been running the network for over ten years, hosting practical initiatives, while holding prayer and fellowship gatherings every other year at Christ Church Jerusalem.

CMJ: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me. A lot of what’s been happening this year is destruction, chaos, and death—there’s just so much bad news. CMJ has spent years talking about reconciliation, and I’m wondering how this current situation fits into that vision. What does this vision look like when the Isaiah 19 highway is being traveled by F-35s instead of disciples? How can we pray into this moment?

Michael Kerem: That’s a good question. First of all, most of the redemptive promises we see in the Bible actually come out of judgment. They don’t usually come from peaceful times. In the natural, it feels like we’re further away from seeing the fulfillment of Isaiah 19 or Jeremiah 49, or any of those prophecies, but it’s actually during difficult times that a

breakthrough happens.

If you look back at history, after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, for example, that’s when we saw a wave of Israeli believers coming to faith! There was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit during that time. So, while we think it’s the kindness of God that leads people to repentance—and it is—that kindness often comes through judgment. It’s a challenging concept, but history supports it.

CMJ: That’s interesting. Is this conflict affecting the Church in the Muslim world in a similar way?

Kerem: Absolutely. Every time we see a rise in Islamic extremism or jihadism, we also see a corresponding exodus from Islam. People become disillusioned with their faith, and it opens the door for them to start seeking something more. It’s often the first step in their journey towards faith in God. I’ve noticed this pattern for the last 30 years—whenever there’s a wave of radical jihadism, it damages the faith of many Muslims, and they become more open to exploring other options. They start searching for a God who is different from the one they thought they knew.

CMJ: That makes sense. So, in terms of reconciliation, how are believers communicating during these times? Is there more connection happening, even across enemy lines?

Kerem: Yes, and that’s been one of the most remarkable things. This is the age of the internet, and it allows for communication even in the middle of conflict. I’ve seen believers from the Arab world sending messages saying, “Don’t stop until the job is finished.” They don’t want the terrorist elements in their countries either.

I’ve also received a lot of messages from believers in Lebanon. It’s incredible. Despite the trauma their kids are experiencing, they’re seeing massive openness among both Sunnis and Shiites. This has been an opportunity for the Christian community in Lebanon to reach out to the Shiite population, especially as they flee into Christian areas. But it’s complicated—there’s a lot of suspicion because of past conflicts, but there’s also desperation.

CMJ: So, even in the middle of destruction, there’s still room for connection and outreach.

Kerem: Exactly. One of our partners in Lebanon, for example, is working daily to distribute food to these displaced people, many of whom have lost everything. At the same time—and the reality is harsh—Israel has to defend itself, and sometimes that means firing into areas where terrorist groups are hiding among civilians. It’s hard for Westerners to understand how someone can shoot rockets from their garage and then hide the launcher, but that’s the reality on the ground.

CMJ: It sounds like a really difficult balancing act, especially for believers caught in the middle.

Kerem: It is. I had someone once say to me, “The Isaiah 19 highway is on fire right now.” And while that’s true in a sense, it’s also the context in which God’s promises are fulfilled. You could say, the highway is often forged by fire. We can’t afford to be discouraged by what we see on the news. This is the time to pray more, to step out more, to love more— even our enemies. That’s what we’re called to do as believers.

CMJ: That’s a powerful message, but it’s not easy. As a Jewish believer, how does that play into your experience in this region? Especially now, when it feels like everything is focused on protecting Israel?

Kerem: It’s not easy. The Messianic community, understandably, has become very focused on Israel and the immediate threats we face. But as believers, we have to maintain a regional perspective. We can’t just focus on our nation—we have to care about the entire region because God’s promises involve more than just Israel. They encompass all the surrounding nations. When we pray for our enemies, it changes our perspective. We stop seeing them just as enemies and start seeing them as people—people who are loved by God, just like we are. That shift is crucial, especially in times like these.

When you pray for your enemies, a few things happen. First, you start to see them from God’s perspective, as people He loves.

Second, you just might find yourself becoming part of the answer to your own prayers. Sometimes, praying for your enemies leads you to cross boundaries—cultural, relational, or even geographical—to reach out in love.

But it’s not easy. It often exposes attitudes in your own community. When a Jewish believer (serving as chaplain at the English Hospital in Nazareth) said that we should pray for everyone in Gaza, it stirred up lots of emotion. People don’t naturally want to pray for their enemies. But that’s what makes the gospel so powerful—it calls us to do what is not natural. To love in this way is supernatural.

The thumbnail/banner image is an AI-generated illustration.

Bystanders yet again?

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 21:34:42 GMT

How will Christians respond to the rising antisemitism?

In the midst of the current crisis engulfing Israel, we find ourselves inundated with a relentless stream of information—images, opinions, and social media updates—and it’s essential to recognize that what we are witnessing is not just a regional conflict, but a deadly spiritual war being waged globally.

The current Gaza/Lebanon conflict has brought to the fore the age-old sin of antisemitism. Right now, we are seeing deeply disturbing expressions of this hatred as the Jewish people endure the most significant suffering since the Holocaust. (In the U.S. alone, a country that has no significant history of antisemitism, there has been a 200% increase of antisemitic incidents since Oct 7, 2023.) How can it be that in the face of such horrific atrocities, this vile form of hatred is on the rise?

Perhaps the answer lies in the nature of antisemitism itself. It is not merely an ancient human prejudice or a hostility rooted in a specific event. It is something born in a complex interchange between the demonic and human rebellion against God. This is why antisemitism has persisted across time, geography, and culture, and defies any logical explanation.

While most people would not claim to condone antisemitism, we can easily become confused and immobilized (even cynical) with so much “information” wielded by a powerful and pervasive bias that holds Israel to a double standard and the Jewish people responsible for any number of grievances.

It is very easy to recognize antisemitism in the past. We often look back at the 1930s and moralize about those who failed to speak out against the rising tide of hatred. But it is not so easy to see it in our own present culture. Autocracies, such as Iran, Russia, North Korea, Venezuela (and others) in their attempts to destabilize the West are working overtime to flood social media, on both the left and the right, with fake news, disinformation, and conspiracy theories about Israel and the Jewish people. Taken together with the anti-Israel bias often found in Western media outlets it becomes difficult to know what is true and who to believe.

It is not enough to disapprove in private or among like-minded friends. We are tempted to remain silent to avoid uncomfortable situations with our families, churches, schools, workplaces, and especially on social media.

We are in a crisis. The question is: do we recognize the nature of this spiritual conflict, and more importantly, will we stand on the truth of God’s Word, pray for direction and act as the Lord would guide? Will we speak out, be courageous and encourage others to resist the spirit of our age and popular opinion? Or will we also become bystanders, confused and fearful of being unpopular or cancelled in this latest wave of Jew-hatred. This moment calls upon us to stand in solidarity with our Jewish neighbors, offering practical support and cooperation so they are assured that this time we are with them in their distress.

Rev. David PIleggi is the rector of Christ Church Jerusalem.

Wartime Israel through the eyes of Mercy

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 21:14:57 GMT

A report from CMJ Israel in wartime

VICTIMS OF TERROR

From the moment we awoke to the devastation of October 7th, every new statistic that we heard had an injured person in the hospital, a devastated family—people who were physically, psychologically, and even spiritually harmed. Our Mercy Fund worked on both the personal and bureaucratic level to assist these men and women. And, while personal visits to hospitals and loving care is incredibly important, it is also important to help them long-term financially while they are recovering as many of them will never be able to return to the life they once had.

A Jewish woman from the south lost her husband, a police officer, in battle against the terrorists. She and her children are suffering from the trauma of this experience and she has to make many decisions about the future while trying to process it all. Our Peles lawyers are helping her with all the legal paperwork she needs to submit in order to receive government benefits. We are also helping with counseling and other support. Peles is the legal aid arm of the Mercy Fund.

MERCY BEYOND BORDERS

Israel and the Palestinian Territories have an extremely complicated relationship. By law, Israelis are not allowed to go to certain places in the Palestinian Territories and Palestinians from the West Bank require a visa to work in Israel. After the war started, many Palestinians did not have their work visas renewed as Israel was worried about terror attacks from within as well as from without. The Israeli government just did not have the time or the resources to go through every applicant and issue a visa for those who just wanted to provide for their families. The Mercy Fund has been trying to assist where we are able with those most in need after their visas were denied.

We are continuing our support for many Palestinian families in Bethlehem and other cities in the West Bank. One family we serve is struggling because, under the wartime situation, the father can't go to his job in Israel while the mother is battling with cancer. This family also has two children with special needs and the house they live in is in very poor condition. We are assisting them with various things, including food assistance and providing money to help renovate their home to serve the needs of the children better.

Another Palestinian family we are trying to help consists of a wife who is the sole breadwinner as the husband is very sick. She also is prevented from going to her job, cleaning houses in Jerusalem, so she is not receiving income and is very worried about the future. We are helping her with food assistance, household supplies, as well as with school supplies for her children.

SERVING CHILDREN

Many families in an array of communities are financially hard-pressed in this season. In an effort to lighten the load, the Mercy Fund partnered with another organization to distribute backpacks and school supplies to children of all ages in low-income families. Among those who received the backpacks were Eritrean refugees in Tel Aviv, Arab Christian families in Bethlehem, members of the Domari community in Jerusalem, and children in Messianic congregations in Ashkelon. With so many other financial burdens due to inflation and the continuing war, parents were especially grateful for the assistance in equipping their kids with backpacks and other back-to-school supplies.

Our partnership with G*, a dedicated Jewish educator, grows, as she works diligently alongside different schools to implement a new educational program that is designed to enhance literacy skills and communication methods for children. The program is widely used in Finland and has proved very beneficial for children affected by trauma, as the communication-focus provides them with tools to better express themselves in the aftermath of the events of October 7th.

Thanks to the generosity of our donors, G* was able to provide kits for 30 additional classrooms in the South of Israel. In sync with this initiative, The Mercy Fund was also able to facilitate the donation of 160 tablets to children participating in her programs, providing tools that not only enrich their learning experience but do so in an interactive way. The tablets are being distributed across three schools: two of which are in the South. The third school is in the North of the country, where evacuated children are continuing their education despite being away from home for many months due to the conflict on the Northern border.

Teachers and students alike expressed gratitude, noting how these tablets have not only enhanced learning but also offered a glimmer of hope during uncertain times. At The Mercy Fund we are intent on introducing this program in the West Bank, where educational challenges are prevalent and schools are under-equipped. We aim to start with a pilot program at one school, demonstrating the program's value in order to inspire other schools to follow suit, starting with training to equip those who will teach the program. The journey is long, but the potential ripple effects of this initiative could transform many educational outcomes for many children and even help lift up the region as a whole.

The low-income schools in the South continue to suffer from the repercussions of the war. The children are hard hit, as their parents struggle and can’t make ends meet. The schools are providing these children with the necessities: clothing, hygiene products, hot meals, and school supplies. But the teachers still see that this is barely scratching the surface of the trauma and grief. In one school, four of their young students have a parent who has committed suicide since the war began. These children keep coming to school because they have nothing else, and nowhere else to go.

It was these schools which received a gift of musical instruments through the Mercy Fund, thanks to the generosity of our partners.

One of the teachers called the Mercy Fund director at the end of the first day they introduced the musical instruments. She told of one of the children, whose parent committed suicide: “Each morning he arrives, crying and clinging to his teacher. Today, when we put an instrument in his hands, he changed. This is what he has, this is his.”

From the first hour, the teachers saw the shift in their students. They laughed. They made music. They had fun. Their music was something for living, for the future, that the war could not take from them. One teacher wrote, at the end of the day: “I have to share with you my excitement arising from the joy of the children in the colorfulness of the yard with the wonderful and empowering musical equipment!”

This is what your partnership has made possible. Children traumatized by war, trying to exist in its shadow, now have the means to not just survive, but they have hope to thrive. That is the prayer of the Mercy Fund: that through the music, they will begin to live again.

Na’amah Smith serves as the Mercy Fund Coordinator at Christ Church Jerusalem.

The seismic effect of October 7 on the Jewish world

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 20:52:30 GMT

Jewish Media Review - October 2024

The mainstream news will tell you how the Israel-Hamas war and now Israel-Hezbollah war are going, maybe blow for blow. If that’s all you’re reading or watching, your understanding will stay quite shallow. Hamas’ attack on October 7 triggered a political earthquake, and Jews across the world are now trying to navigate the tsunami of antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Judaism sweeping around the world as well as how a Diaspora Jew relates with the attack on the ancient homeland.

This month’s offerings are especially poignant as they also include thoughts on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, holidays that focus on judgment and forgiveness.

My hope is that by reading these stories you will step into your Jewish neighbors' shoes for a moment and thus grow in compassion for them, whether you agree with their views or not.

Contemplating October 7

�� The end of the post-Holocaust era (Times of Israel)

October 7 shattered Israelis' faith that the state would protect them and shook American Jewry's sense of full social acceptance – but there is a way forward

�� The Year American Jews Woke Up (NY Times)

Excerpt : At some point, an awakening of sorts occurred. Perhaps not for every American Jew, but for many. I’ve called them the Oct. 8 Jews — those who woke up a day after our greatest tragedy since the Holocaust to see how little empathy there was for us in many of the spaces and communities and institutions we thought we comfortably inhabited. It was an awakening that often came with a deeper set of realizations.

One realization: American Jews should not expect reciprocity. Nor should we expect much understanding: In an era that stresses sensitivity to every microaggression against nearly any minority, macroaggressions against Jews who happen to believe that Israel has a right to exist are not only permitted but demanded.

A second: “Zionist” has become just another word for Jew. Anti-Zionists deny this strenuously... But when the wished-for dire consequences of anti-Zionism fall directly on the heads of millions of Jews and when the people the anti-Zionists seek to silence, exclude and shame are almost all Jewish and when the charges they make against Zionists invariably echo the hoariest antisemitic stereotypes — greed, deceit, limitless bloodlust — then the distinctions between anti-Zionist and antisemite blur to the point of invisibility.

And a third: This isn’t going to end anytime soon.

It won’t end because anti-Zionism has a self-righteous fervor that will attract followers and inspire militancy. It won’t end because politics in America are moving toward forms of illiberalism — conspiracy thinking and nativism on the right, a Manichaean view on the left that the world is neatly divided between the oppressors and the oppressed — that are congenial to classic antisemitism. And it won’t end because most Jews will not forsake what it means to be Jewish so that we may be more acceptable to those who despise us.

❓ Oct. 7: One year later — How has American Jewish life changed? (Forward)

‼️ How Oct. 7 changed everything (JTA)

An ongoing series about how Hamas’ attack on Israel has triggered an earthquake across the Jewish world.

�� Jewish mourning rituals are not enough for Oct. 7, because our loss is ongoing (Forward)

On this communal yahrtzeit, we must find a path forward even as we remember the pain

✈️ I made aliyah right before Oct. 7. Here’s why I stayed (Forward)

To be truly Israeli means to live with danger every day. Taking on that burden is a privilege

�� A Muslim Israeli who was close with Hersh Goldberg-Polin is mourning his friend and seeking change (Forward)

‘This is the time to unite, Arabs and Jews,’ said Yanal Jabarin

On the High Holy Days (Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot)

�� In a sacred time on the Jewish calendar, Israeli clerics ponder theology of Oct. 7 attack (Religion News)

'The challenge,' said one rabbi, 'has been the attempt to understand why God did this to us, or where was God on Oct. 7?'

�� I used to cringe at Rosh Hashanah ‘blessings’ cursing our enemies. Not this year. (JTA)

The symbolic foods of the High Holidays have taken on new meaning after Oct. 7, writes a religious studies scholar.

�� Happy birthday, humanity. We have work to do (Times of Israel)

Every day, I wrestle with how to reconcile my desire to trust, love, and believe in people with the reality I saw on October 7

The author is one of my favorite Israeli writers documenting her life in Jerusalem. Christian, you will not agree with her view of God, who she says is all-good but not all-powerful. She believes God could not have stopped October 7. I share this so you can catch a glimpse at how some Jewish hearts wrestle with the problem of evil and how they find hope despite our collective brokenness. I share it not so we’ll judge but so we can attempt to understand. We know that Jesus is God come down to suffer with us. God IS all-good and all-powerful. God chose to use his power to relate to our brokenness, pain, and even death and so save us from ourselves and open the door to resurrection life.

�� For Yom Kippur, I don’t know how to pray (Times of Israel)

How can I when so many righteous people were not saved, when 97 cannot breathe, and when we are all plagued by memories and fears?

Please read this searingly honest modern psalm. Sometimes Christians take our eternal hope and twist it into a blind optimism that causes us to lie to ourselves and each other about how we’re doing. This Jewish writer is honest about her anger at God in the wake of October 7.

�� In this Jewish season of forgiveness, I’m asking for permission (JTA)

A rabbi’s prayer for when the world is too sad, hard, confusing or chaotic.

An honest meditation on ritual and pain that may be especially meaning for to those Christians who worship with traditional liturgies (which the church inherited from the synagogue).

Excerpt: I have come to realize this is what I want this year: Permission.

I want permission to cry. I want permission to feel utterly and completely devastated without finding any silver lining. I want permission to feel scared.

I want permission to worry about my friends and colleagues in Israel. And to worry about the Israelis I don’t know.

…

I want permission to feel scared for us in America too — to feel scared as a Jew and scared as a woman. I want permission to feel scared for all vulnerable Americans even when we have nothing in common and will never meet.

…

I want permission to pray for the destruction of the enemy. And I want permission to not pray for the destruction of the enemy. I want permission to weep for the death and suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, to express empathy with their mothers and not feel I have to apologize for it. And I want permission to not always empathize with Palestinian suffering, because sometimes it is just too hard and too complicated to hold all that pain.

��‍⚖️ This Yom Kippur, Hold Everyone Accountable (Jewish Journal)

For the past 12 months, we’ve watched as the world subjected Jews to double standards, hypocrisy, bigotry and outright violence. Where is the repentance from the global community? Where are the apologies we are owed for the pain and disrespect we’ve endured at their hands? When is their moment to atone for their sins?

�� My non-Jewish husband doesn’t fast for Yom Kippur. We spend the day in shul together anyway (Forward)

Jews are heading into a new year. But our non-Jewish family members are heading into a new season with us, too.

Jewish thought, antisemitism, and other news

�� World’s Jewish population hits 15.8 million, on eve of Rosh Hashanah (Times of Israel)

Jewish Agency says 7.3 million Jews reside in Israel, 6.3 million in US; number of Jews worldwide has increased by 100,000 over the last year

‼️ FBI data indicates anti-Jewish 'hate crimes' increased by 63% in 2023 (All Israel)

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) noted that, despite Jews constituting only 2% of the U.S. population, these anti-Jewish hate crimes “comprised 15% of all hate crimes and 68% of all reported religion-based hate crimes in 2023, which is consistent with patterns from prior years.” Anti-Muslim hate crimes similarly increased by 49%, but the numbers are significantly lower, with 236 incidents reported.

��‍�� US professors are fueling antisemitic violence against Jewish students – study (Jerusalem Post)

A report from the AMCHA Initiative links increased antisemitic violence to the US campuses to Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP), showing FJP-led protests correlate with threats, attacks.

✡️ 50 Most Influential Jews (Jerusalem Post)

While the list has many Israelis, it’s worth looking over to see who in the U.S. is seen as a Jewish leader or influencer.

✝️ 10 Most Influential pro-Israel Christians (Jerusalem Post)

Note that this list is compiled by an Israel-based, right-leaning publication. There is a Zionist Christian they included on another list – 25 Young ViZIONaries – Mosab Hassan Yousef , also known as the Son of Hamas and the Green Prince. Yousef is a former Muslim, son of a Hamas founder, and follower of Jesus. His memoir Son of Hamas is required reading.

�� A Jewish prophet of the 1980s would be horrified to see that we didn’t heed his warnings (Forward)

Neil Postman’s 1984 ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’ anticipated our image-saturated, post-literate world

�� An anti-Zionist Jew wants to know: ‘Am I even Jewish anymore?’ (Forward)

Bintel says disagreeing with other Jews is the most Jewish thing you can do

�� A Different Spin on Shabbat (Tablet)

Surfing. Breath work. Music. A growing number of programs, events, and clubs think beyond Friday night dinner and Saturday morning services.

�� Is Self-Care Selfish? (Inherit)

I realized I may not have known what self-care truly entailed. So, I launched into a deep dive to explore it for myself.

Excerpt : Loving others well requires that we first love ourselves well.

Yeshua, in true Jewish fashion, loved to debate. A teacher of the Law heard him in a lively discussion with the Sadducees and asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Yeshua answered first with the familiar words of the “V’ahavtah,” charging us to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:4–5). He then quoted God’s words to Moses: “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

He made it clear that loving our neighbors in the same way we love ourselves is inextricably related to loving God Himself (Mark 12:29–31). This completely reshaped how I viewed taking care of myself holistically, and I knew I had to start implementing the right practices to love myself the way God commands us to.

�� From snout to tail, a 3,000-year history of Jews and the pig (JTA)

A professor of religious studies explores how the pig became the ultimate Jewish taboo — and an inadvertent marker of Jewish identity .

Video: Mourn with those who mourn

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:37:46 GMT

Christian, we love our neighbor by being visibly present, empathetic

VIDEO: Listening to all the peoples of the Holy Land

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 16:33:23 GMT

Israel reports by Bishop Julian Dobbs, CMJ USA board member, and Rev. David Pileggi, rector of Christ Church Jerusalem

In the first week of October, ACNA Archbishop Steve Wood dispatched Bishop Julian Dobbs , Chair of the Global Mission and International Relations Task Force, to visit Israel. Bishop Julian also serves on the board of CMJ USA.

Bishop Julian met with Jewish communities throughout Israel, Palestinian Christians in the West Bank, and families of those directly affected by the October 7, 2023 massacre. Hear him recount his experience to Kevin Kallsen of Anglican Unscripted in the video below.

Bishop Julian call us to three actions in support of the suffering in the Middle East:

Pray for all the peoples of the Holy Land.
Be informed. Remember it is a personal tragedy before it is a political situation.
Stand against antisemitism. There is no place in the church or the world for antisemitism.
Remind others that there are still 100 hostages in Gaza.

A few days before, Kevin Kallsen also interviewed Rev. David Pileggi, the rector of Christ Church Jerusalem. Christ Church Jerusalem, founded my CMJ, is the oldest Protestant Christian community in the Middle East. In this interview, David gives his analysis of the on going Middle East conflict.

October 7th: A Response Rooted in Prayer & Love

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 20:19:29 GMT

An update and prayer via our Israel colleagues

The text of the prayer in the video can be found at the end of this post.

As we enter the “High Holy Days” of the Jewish year, seeking mercy from God is the only appropriate response to the horrors that occurred on Simchat Torah, October 7 and the entirety of this past year.

The “High Holy Days” begins with the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) which is followed by Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Both are days of self-examination and repentance. In a place where human sin and demonic wickedness is evident, the blast of the shofar announces the holiday to awaken the complacent soul and confuse the devil. And so the people cry out in ancient prayer to the living God to manifest His kingship and take control of human affairs as they repent and bow before Him.

But God desires, and even commands, joy after repentance. This occurs during the week-long Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). The final day of rejoicing is Simchat Torah, remembering when God offered life to His people at Mount Sinai and the giving of the Torah. It was this day on which death visited so many and perpetuated more death in the following year.

The biblical calendar was given to the people of Israel to foster a perpetual, annual remembrance of God’s redemption, His faithfulness, and His loving actions toward His chosen people. The feasts and festivals of the Lord serve as a memory aid for every Jewish generation. And every Jewish generation needs to see the faithfulness of God as they suffer the wrath of Satan in his war against God and His people.

The festivals of the Hebrew Bible were given to Israel. But we, as Christians, must also value repentance, the joy of reconciliation, and the fight against Satan. We, as Christians, are not required to celebrate these feast, but we do get to see God’s redemption and join with Israel in repentance and the joy of reconciliation during these specific times God Himself set aside to remember His redemption.

It is deeply tragic and surely demonic that the horrific events of October 7 unfolded on Simchat Torah—a day meant to celebrate the joy of receiving God’s Word, the Torah, at Sinai. Simchat Torah is a festival of rejoicing, where the Jewish people dance with their sacred texts, a moment of communal unity and spiritual elation. Yet, on this day of commanded joy, violence and devastation struck, turning a celebration of divine revelation into a time of profound mourning. The juxtaposition of such darkness with a day devoted to light reminds us of the stark contrasts in human experience—where joy and sorrow often collide in the brokenness of our world.

The Church owes an ongoing debt to the Jewish people and our prayers for the peace of Jerusalem (Ps. 122) and for the entire Middle East are one important way we can express our gratitude for the Gospel. That debt should also be repaid with love; for if God loves the Jewish people (Rom.11) so should we. And love includes being a witness of the Good News and sharing our faith when appropriate.

As the one-year anniversary of the October 7th massacre approaches, we invite you to pray with us using the following collect written after an official ACNA visit from Bishop Julian Dobbs (also a CMJ USA board member). Bishop Dobbs was hosted by CMJ Israel during his trip of solidarity and learning. The collect was composed in a spirit of love and gratitude toward the Jewish people, not to make a political statement or disregard the suffering of other groups in the Holy Land. We are also mindful of the Palestinian Church and their needs. Our prayers and efforts toward reconciliation are guided by God’s promise that one day “Israel, along with Egypt and Assyria, will worship together and be a blessing on the earth” (Isaiah 19:23-24).

In that spirit, we invite you to join us in prayer:

“God of all comfort and hope, who in Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, proclaimed good news to the poor, bound up the broken-hearted, and set the captives free: We remember before You this day all who are affected by the violence of October 7, and we ask You to heal the wounded, comfort those who mourn, and bring justice and peace to the land of Israel. Look with mercy upon the peoples of the Middle East, that, in Your great compassion, the light of Christ may shine in the darkness and bring hope to every nation. As Simeon rejoiced to see Your salvation, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Your people Israel, so we pray that Jesus, the Messiah, would be known as the true hope for all the earth. May Your Kingdom come, and may Your peace reign in every heart, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”

WATCH: United Voices Against Antisemitism

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 23:15:00 GMT

Join us on October 15 via Zoom for this national event

National and international Christian and Jewish voices of influence will share their insights into the roots of this pervasive hatred, its global impact, and the strategies we must employ to fight back.

Panelists and moderator include:

Dr. Dominick Hernandez: Director of Talbot en Español and Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Talbot School of Theology, with a PhD in Hebrew Bible from Bar-Ilan University.
Rev. Gerald McDermott : Esteemed author and editor of 23 books, with expertise in Anglicanism, history, and world religions.
Sharon Buenos: Global Director of Zikaron BaSalon, and recipient of the Simon Wiesenthal Award for her work in combating antisemitism and Holocaust education.
Noa Reuveni: Israeli activist whose best friend, Ziv Berman, was taken hostage with his twin brother Gali on October 7. Noa serves in the Israel Defense Forces reserves while also advocating for the hostages. She runs “Zer Tikva,” which has raised over 2 million USD for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Alee Abraham: Leader and organizer of Cleveland Run For Their Lives, which advocates for the release of the hostages still being held in Gaza.
Opening welcome: Tom Hare: Executive Director of Harvest Net Ministries in Cleveland
Moderator: Maria Baer: Co-host of the Breakpoint This Week podcast, with published work in Christianity Today Magazine, The Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and more.

This is a rare opportunity for Jews and Christians to speak plainly to one another, to understand and discover the deeper causes of antisemitism, and to unite in our efforts to stand against it. Come to listen, learn, and engage with those who share a commitment to combating hatred and supporting the Jewish people and building a future where Israel will live in peace with all nations.

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent.” Isaiah 62:1

This event is made possible by the united efforts of organizations, initiatives, and individuals who are determined to fight for a world free of antisemitism.

Can we watch and pray with Jesus one more hour?

Sat, 14 Sep 2024 14:52:55 GMT

Jewish Media Review - September 2024

The dominant story for me this month was the murder of six hostages by Hamas. The story of Hersh Goldberg-Polin particularly stabbed me and others because of the tenacious, relentless political intercession by his mother Rachel. Our hearts break for this mother and father who did everything in their power to save their son from the terrorists who kidnapped him on October 7, 2023.

Below are my thoughts the week after the hostages were murdered.

Hersh and his parents are representative of the more than 250 hostages and their families who have suffered since Hamas’ brazen and unprecedented attack. Many more suffer – Israeli and Palestinian, Jew and Arab – in the Holy Land and here in our neighborhoods. Let us continue to mourn with those who mourn.

I will admit that I have war fatigue. I am tired. I am weary of the news, of the uncertainty, of the death. Yet, I’m just reading about it. I’m not living in a country at war like our CMJ Israel colleagues.

Like the disciples at Gethsemane, I am tempted to sleep as someone suffers anguish nearby ( Matt 26:36-44 ). Jesus, ever interceding for humanity before the Father ( Heb 7:24-25 ), is calling us to pray with him. Yes, the night is dark and our minds and hearts are tired. Let us not give in to the temptation to ignore, to forget, to not care. Let us tarry with Jesus for another hour and pray for Israel, Palestine, American Jews, and even for the antisemites.

These headlines are presented as a snapshot of what our Jewish neighbors are thinking and feeling and to provide data as you pray about these issues. CMJ USA does not necessarily agree with the opinions expressed in these articles. We've included a few articles about antisemitism outside the US as a reminder that this is a global problem.

�� Rachel is weeping for her child: In a grieving Jewish mother, we see our Jewish matriarch (Forward)

Today’s parallels with ancient Jewish trauma are overwhelming — and even the Bible falls short, a rabbi writes

��️ Our Hersh (Tablet)

My own son shares a name with the American hostage killed by Hamas this week—a named steeped in meaning and Jewish history

Excerpt: “Hersh is a Yiddish name meaning deer; the Hebrew equivalent is Tzvi. Deer are fast, powerful animals. They can run as fast as 40 miles per hour. They shed their antlers and grow new ones each year. They’re known to be swift, and a symbol for spiritual renewal.”

�� Thanks to his mother, we are all sitting shiva for Hersh Goldberg-Polin (Forward)

For 330 days, Hersh became a brother, son and friend to us through the tireless advocacy of Rachel Goldberg-Polin

��‍�� The Palestinian ‘Traitor’ Risking Everything to Speak Out (The Free Press)

He condemned the Hamas massacre. Now, his life is in danger. ‘I’m scared as hell. But this is how change happens.’

The center of his story, the reason he spoke out, is heartbreakingly beautiful. He read the Holocaust testimony of Viktor Frankel and it inspired him to dream beyond his Palestinian village. His studies took him South Korea from where he saw the beautiful hope that is the nation of Israel.

�� Should I have lied to the antisemite who attacked me? (Times of Israel)

He didn't know I was Jewish – but even under threat I couldn't pretend not to be

�� Hamas, Hezbollah flags flown at NYC anti-Israel march (JNS)

The White House condemned "any individual associating with the repugnant terrorist organization Hamas."

�� Separating anti-Zionists from antisemites on campus (Foward)

A new study found little overlap between students hostile toward Israel and those hostile to Jews, though the lead researcher says that’s only part of the story

Excerpt: “Maybe we have to be a little less focused on calling out antisemitism and work harder to actually educate people about who Jews are.”

�� Campus Anxiety (Jewish Journal)

In the wake of last year’s onslaught against Jewish college students, multiple groups across the country are mobilizing to make sure the students get more support this year.

�� For Jewish students at McGill like me, our return to campus is filled with dread (Forward)

The Canadian university is home to regular pro-Palestinian protests, often with virulent antisemitic rhetoric

�� How universities have changed their policies on protest because of the war in Gaza (Forward)

Students returning to campuses will find bans on tents, rules regarding masks and training around antisemitism

�� For the 900th time, an antisemitic attack is an attack on all of France (Forward)

Exceprt: On a Saturday morning, a young Algerian male exploded a small bomb outside the synagogue in La Grande Motte, a resort and retirement town on the Mediterranean coast. The explosion torched two cars parked just outside the synagogue, but failed to reach the building, where services were scheduled to start in 30 minutes. A few hours later, the acting prime minister Gabriel Attal had arrived at the scene. Surrounded by public officials wearing the tricolored sash of the French Republic, Attal forcefully announced that “an attack on a French Jew is an attack on all French.”

✈️ Unprecedented surge in aliyah: 29,000 Jews immigrate to Israel amid Gaza war and global antisemitism (All Israel)

�� New York Jewish man charged with hate crimes against Muslim neighbor (JNS)

Police say Izak Kadosh burgled Ahmed Chebira’s apartment, vandalized his property and tried to kill him.

Sad to see such hate. The suspect’s family name is Kadosh, Hebrew for Holy. His actions are anything but.

✡️ American Jews are winning – big time (Jewish Chronicle)

Jewish infrastructure in life continues to grow.

Excerpt: “American Jews are adjusting to a new reality, seeing who our true friends and allies are, fighting back and rethinking the direction of our investments. We are here to stay and will not tolerate discrimination or bigotry.”

�� SA Chief Rabbi denounces Welby and Francis for abandoning the Bible (Arutz7)

The Anglican Archbishop and the Pope are silent in the face of jihadi threat engulfing Europe, indifferent to the murder of Christians in Africa and hostile to Israel’s attempts to battle the forces of terrorism, claims South Africa's Chief Rabbi Goldstein in hard-hitting address.

I learned of this story through Anglican Ink , though it originated with Arutz7, a right-leaning Israeli news site. I share it because it gives another view of Christianity through Jewish eyes. I asked CMJ South Africa director Rev. Peter Houston about this video. He responded:

"Chief Rabbi is spot on with his main argument. Palestine is not mentioned in any scriptures, either Tanakh or New Testament. Palestine has never been a separate kingdom or nation. So, Church leaders are anachronistic in their pronouncements or worse. Some Church leaders believe that modern Jews are not related to Biblical Jews, thus undermining their Jewish claim to being the indigenous peoples of Israel. This is an antisemitic myth and conspiracy.

"Some of the chief rabbi's political applications to Western civilization are a bit simplistic, and I think it is far more complicated, even morally. For instance, Christian Europe gave us the Holocaust.

"This oversimplification applies to the chief rabbi's judgment of the Archbishop of Canterbury's motivation, too. The Archbishop made that statement on Palestinian human rights because he was responding to the ongoing detention-without-trial of a young Anglican Palestinian woman by Israel. So he was standing up, defending Christians - the very thing the chief rabbi says the Archbishop doesn't do. The real problem is that the Archbishop of Canterbury is not also defending Jews!"

Rev. Houston has also called out South African church leaders for their antisemitic exceptionalism .

�� ‘God is dramatically answering Evangelical prayers for Israel’s safety’ (All Israel)

Joel Rosenberg tells Moody Radio why Christians should keep praying for the Jewish nation

�� 7 Things About Hagar That Nobody Talks About (Inherit)

She was a complex woman who now represents a complex history. And it’s one that uniquely interests the author, a Jewish-Arab woman contending with her dual identities

�� Three decades without their luminaries, Chabad and Modern Orthodoxy handle power vacuums differently (JNS)

“Chabad has embraced their Rebbe-less ecosystem,” while Modern Orthodoxy sought a successor to the Rav, according to Gratz College president Zev Eleff.

This story leaves out a very consequential detail that would explain the different relationships the two movements have with their respective leaders. Many in the Chabad movement believe that Rebbe Schneerson is the soon-to-be resurrected Messiah. Modern Orthodoxy had no such belief in Zev Eleff. There is an element of faith that keeps Chabad moving in the direction Schneerson initiated because many expect him to return. In that Chabad’s messianism parallels Christianity/Messianic Judaism's expectant hope of a returning Messiah.

�� Why Did This Jewish Director Accuse Israel of Genocide? (compiled by Jewish Journal)

Winning an award at the prestigious Venice Film Festival, Jewish director Sarah Friedland used the opportunity to accuse Israel of “75 years of occupation” and “genocide.”

Throwing Fellow Jews Under the Bus , Ben-Dror Yemini, YNET:
Never, but never, have we heard a Muslim or Arab winner take the stage and condemn the jihad that kills Arabs. We’ve never heard an Arab woman take the stage and condemn the oppression of women in the Muslim world. But always, almost without exception, it will be a Jewish winner who condemns the Jewish state.

A Symptom of Jewish-American Privilege , David Christopher Kaufman, Jerusalem Post:
It’s easy to find fault with house Jews like Friedland – to cast them aside as horrific and dishonorable. And they are. But in many ways, they’re not to blame. American Jews have had a spectacularly stellar ride within the New World with little to prepare them for the avalanches of antisemitism that have swept the nation – and the world – since October 7.

A Clear Case of Jewish Self-Hatred , Arsen Ostrovsky, X:
I hate using the phrase ‘self-hating Jew’, but have no issue doing so here, as Jewish director Sarah Friedland (@motionxpictures) received an award at #VeniceFilmFestival and then proceeded to spout lies against Israel and essentially call for genocide of the Jewish state.

CMJ joins United Voices Against Antisemitism

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 14:52:41 GMT

Antisemitism has been called the “oldest hatred” in the world. It would be wonderful to say that antisemitism and hatred of the Jewish people are a thing of the past. Regrettably, this is not the case. Not only did Israel suffer a brutal, unprovoked attack on October 7, 2023, but antisemitism is exploding in America and around the world. In the wake of the Oct. 7 attack, antisemitic incidents are up 350 percent in America, 720 percent in South Africa, 818 percent in the Netherlands, 961 percent in Brazil, and more than 1000 percent in France, according to presenters at United Voices Against Antisemitism.

The Anti-Defamation League reports there has been a “tsunami of hate against Jewish communities around the world.” The Jewish organization Hillel reports that more than 1,800 antisemitic incidents occurred on college and university campuses in the first 8 months after October 7. Today, many Jewish students feel they need to hide their Jewish identity to remain safe. Clearly, the Jewish people need friends and supporters now more than ever.

The Holocaust Survivors’ Declaration was created and read at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in 2002. It reads in part, “Antisemitism is a danger not only to Jews but to the community of nations. In Jewish tradition, the command to remember is absolute. But this obligation does not end with cognitive acts of memory – it must be connected to action.”

United Voices Against Antisemitism

CMJ USA warmly received at other events

In addition to the United Voices event, CMJ USA has also appeared at other national conferences including the Anglican Church of North America Provincial Assembly and the Messiah Conference, the largest gathering of Messianic Jews in the world. At each conference, CMJ was warmly received and attendees expressed strong interest in the CMJ programs and services which follow.

New CMJ USA Resources for Clergy, Churches, and Individuals

Bridge Builders. This program will help churches establish and deepen relationships with their local Jewish community. CMJ can help churches and small groups delve deeper into the Jewishness of Jesus and the Gospel, explore the Jewish-American experience, help address antisemitism, learn how to make congregations more welcoming to Jewish seekers and believers, and more. Bridge Builders Essentials, a video course, will be available late 2024. Bridge Builders Foundations is scheduled for release in late 2025.

How to Talk with Jewish People about Jesus. Many Christians love Israel and the Jewish people. Though they may pray for their Jewish neighbors, co-workers, acquaintances, and friends, they typically don’t talk to them about the Lord because they may be afraid, uncomfortable, or don’t know what to say. CMJ’s free resource How to Talk with Jewish People about Jesus can help. It’s packed with suggestions and discussion starters to make it easier and more productive to speak with Jewish people about Jesus.

Coaching on Engaging Jewish People. CMJ USA can provide in-person or Zoom teaching and training for churches, church leaders, and outreach teams about how to effectively engage Jewish people.
The Aleph Dinner and Discussion Program. Congregations and home groups are invited to host Aleph, our multi-week dinner and discussion outreach program that lets attendees discuss questions about God, faith, the Messiah, the Holocaust, and more in a safe, nonjudgemental environment. Aleph is reminiscent of the Alpha program used by thousands of churches. Although any adult can attend Aleph, the program has been specially designed to engage with Jewish questions. Available late 2024.

The Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This “History Channel” type educational article is an ideal outreach tool to give to a Jewish person. It features the miraculous story of how the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, how they supernaturally tie into the creation of Israel, what the Scrolls tell us about the Messiah, Isaiah 53, and more.
CMJ Speaking Engagements for Churches. Topics can be customized and may include teaching on Jewish roots, addressing antisemitism, the pre-history of modern Israel, how to sensitively and effectively communicate with Jewish people about Jesus, effective practices to reach Jewish and non-Jewish people, ideas to grow church attendance, and more. We also offer Messianic Jewish worship concerts in select geographic areas.
For more information on any of these resources, email jeff.roberts@cmj-usa.org .

CMJ USA needs your help!

Pray for the work of CMJ USA
Tell others. Help us get the word out about our ministry and programs
Share this information with church leaders, friends, and people you know who love Israel and the Jewish people
Donate. Prayerfully consider supporting the work of CMJ USA. Together, we can help churches and individuals share the love of Jesus with both Jewish and non-Jewish people. You can make a one-time or ongoing tax-deductible contribution in any amount by going to cmj-usa.org/donate

Thank you for your prayers and support. We invite you to partner with CMJ USA in the work the Lord is doing through our ministry.

Jeff Roberts, Director of Fundraising & Partnerships, joined CMJ USA in 2023 after forming several faith-based companies and helping clients like IBM, Oracle, and Motorola generate sales. Jeff is half of the Messianic group Voice of the Shepherd.

There's something about Mary

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 15:20:24 GMT

Jesus' mother is the first example of faithful discipleship even when it hurts

This sermon was preached at Grace Anglican Church in Edgeworth, Pennsylvania for the Feast of Mary the Mother of Jesus as celebrated on the Christian calendar.

Earlier we prayed, “O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son…”

As today’s collect (assigned prayer) implies, we gather to commemorate the death of Mary the Mother of Jesus, Mary the Mother of God, the Theotokos, Godbearer.

Fourth-century Church Father “Athanasius declared that it was necessary to keep a ‘commemoration’ of Mary in order to remember her faithfulness and relationship to Jesus.” ^[1] Why in the middle of August? We can thank the Armenian Church. “Beginning around AD 450 in Jerusalem, the feast was celebrated on August 15 as the Memory of the Theotokos.” ^[2]

In today’s Galatians reading, we hear:

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

“Born of woman” is the phrase that caught me here. “God sent forth his Son, born of a woman.”

Why born of a woman? Why did God come down to us in this way? And why Mary?

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created humanity, they were called Adam and Eve, or if you translate their names, they were called Human and Mother of all Living ( Gen 3:20 ).

Human and Mother could eat anything they liked from the Garden, except that one tree. Then Temptation came as a serpent and said, “Did God really say not to eat from this tree?” So Mother and Human ate, and sin and shame entered God’s beautiful creation.

When God came to judge the living and the liars, he had words of rebuke but also of hopeful promise:

14 The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this…
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”

That’s a bit unexpected. God references Mother’s or woman’s offspring, not Adam’s offspring. Literally, God says, “I will put enmity…between your seed and her seed” and this Seed of the Woman shall bruise the head of the serpent and the serpent shall bruise the Seed’s heel.

So, at the very beginning, God reveals to humanity that some hero, some champion will come from woman to defeat the Tempter, the enemy of humanity’s soul.

All through the Hebrew Scriptures, God continues to add to the promise of this hero who will save the damsel and all creation from our distress:

In Genesis 12, he promises Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. ( Gen 12:1-3 , 17:5-8 )
In Genesis 49, he promises that Judah will rule over the Sons of Jacob ( Gen 49:8-12 )
In 2 Samuel 7, he promises David that his seed will rule from his throne forever ( 2 Sam 7:16 , cf Ps 110)
In Daniel 7, he reveals that a Divine Human will rule all the nations from heaven ( Dan 7:13-14 )
In Isaiah 52 & 53, he promises that a Suffering Servant will atone for the sins of Israel and all the nations ( Isa 52:13-53:12 )

This champion who washes, blesses, and rules the nations is the Seed of the Woman.

King David was promised a kingly heir. Kings are anointed for service with oil. Anointed One in Hebrew is mashiach , from which we get Messiah. Anointed One in Greek is christos , from which we get Christ. So the great awaited champion promised in the Garden of Eden, promised to Israel and the nations is Christ, is Messiah.

The Seed of the Woman then is Messiah, the ruler of Israel and the nations.

In ancient times, when messianic expectation was strongest among the Israelites, every young woman’s hope was that she would have the great honor to give birth to the Messiah.

I wonder if Miriam of Nazareth prayed for this great honor. I wonder if this desire was there in her heart. When she worshiped and prayed, did she sometimes say, “Father, is it not time for the Messiah to come? Here I am, Adonai. I am ready to help birth your salvation for Israel.”

Suddenly, God’s answer appears with the Archangel Gabriel:

Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!... Do not be afraid, Miriam, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Yeshua. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. ( Luke 1:28-33 )

Gabriel said three things that, if Mary knew her Bible, would have jumped out at her:

Yeshua will be called the Son of the Most High, echoing Psalm 2
The Lord God will give Yeshua the throne of his Father David, as promised in 2 Samuel 7
Yeshua will reign over the House of Jacob forever, from Genesis 49
His Kingdom will have no end, Daniel 7

Mary also knows basic biology. She is merely betrothed, not married. She knows women don't have seed. She also doesn’t assume the conception will come from Joseph: “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God."

And Mary says yes. Mary says ‘yes’ to God's unexpected plan and worships him:

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. ( Luke 1:46-49 )

How could the champion of Israel and the nations be the Seed of the Woman? God answers the question with the virgin birth that we celebrate every Christmas.

We honor Mary because she gives us the example of how to say “yes” to God even when we don’t really have an idea of the cost and the pain that come with the joy and the glory.

If you have not been watching The Chosen, I recommend it. Season 4 ended just before the triumphal entry we commemorate on Palm Sunday. They're at the point where the male disciples are struggling to process Jesus’ hints of his death while the women – including his mother Mary – are resonating with Jesus’ growing sorrow.

Throughout the series, Mary his mother has been the only one that really understands where Jesus is headed. In that, she serves as Jesus’ closest disciple. In one scene, after spending the day healing the masses in Syrian territory, Jesus stumbles exhausted back into camp. The disciples are at the fire pit arguing about something, and only Mary notices her son. As she helps him prepare for bed, she takes a wet cloth and wipes blood from his hands and his brow. It is not yet his blood, but he is already suffering with the broken and she stays close by to serve him.

Moment referenced starts at 2:46 in video above.

It is Mary and the disciple John who dare to stand close enough to the cross to hear dying Jesus speak. She is with him from beginning to end. From conception to death, Mary clings to Jesus.

This is why we remember Mary. She said yes and she stayed close when it hurt. She held Jesus’ dead body knowing that God promised that Jesus would sit on David’s throne forever, he would sit at the right hand of the Father forever. Even at his death, Mary said ‘Yes, I believe!’

Mary is the first and great disciple of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. She leaves an incredible example of faithfulness for us to follow.

Let us say YES to God. Let us persevere in faith when all God’s promises look impossible. Let us continue to proclaim Messiah’s kingdom until he returns to judge the quick and the dead.

Let us pray.

O God, the King of saints, we praise and glorify your holy Name for all your servants who have finished their course in your faith and fear: for the blessed Virgin Mary; for the holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs; and for all your other righteous servants, known to us and unknown; and we pray that, encouraged by their examples, and strengthened by their fellowship, we also may be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Footnotes

[1] Athanasius, Letter to Epictetus 4; Letter to Maximus the Philosopher 3 as quoted in J. Jordan Henderson, “Assumption of the Virgin,” The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

[2] “Although this date eventually came to be associated with Mary’s Dormition/Assumption, it was originally dedicated to Mary in general. Ray proposes that August 15 is consistent with the Armenian lectionary’s ‘narrative framework,’ which is similar to the Book of Jubilees and its focus on Isaac. In this framework, Pentecost and the birth of Isaac are celebrated on May 15, nine months after Isaac’s conception on August 15 (compare the Isaac/Jesus typology in Gal 4:21–31 ). Hence, Bradshaw and Johnson say Jesus’ beginnings “have clear Pentecost connotations, quite possibly stemming from an early Jerusalem Christian adaptation of this ancient Qumran-/Jubilees/ calendrical and narrative tradition” (Bradshaw and Johnson, Origins of Feasts, 208). Beginning around AD 450 in Jerusalem, the feast was celebrated on August 15 as the Memory of the Theotokos.” J. Jordan Henderson, “Assumption of the Virgin,” The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

Thumbnail/banner photo is a screen capture from The Chosen TV series and is used because The Chosen's portrayal of Mother Mary is referenced in the sermon.

God's Middle East peace plan foretold

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 20:54:25 GMT

Isaiah 19 gives us a glimpse into a united Middle East where Jews, Arabs, Persians, and more worship the God of Israel together

Isaiah 19 ministry network in the present day. Graphic via Derech Avraham

On October 7, 2023, the world changed. Hamas invaded Israel and did violence to the Zionist idea that Jews would be safe in their ancient homeland from deadly strains of antisemitism. The invasion and Israel’s military response to 1,200 murdered and 250 kidnapped then uncovered the antisemitism that had been lying mostly hidden in the nations. The antisemitic incidents shot up in the U.S. and around the world before the death toll in Gaza had grown into the tens of thousands.

Because we are the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people, some of the uninitiated assume we have picked Israel’s side politically and perhaps think that we ignore Palestinian suffering. If you are familiar with the work of the Mercy Fund , then you know we actively minister to all the peoples of the Holy Land – Jews, Christians, Muslims, Roma, Israelis, Palestinians, Ethiopians, Arabs, Arameans, and whoever else needs it.

Yes, CMJ’s history is intertwined with the restoration of Israel as a self-ruling nation-state. I personally believe that the return of Jews to ancient Judea and Samaria since the 1880s is prophecy being fulfilled before our eyes, the regathering of exiled Israel from the four corners of the earth (e.g. Psalm 147:2 ; Isa 11:12 , 43:5 , 54:7 ; Jer 29:14 ). About half of the world’s Jews now live in Israel. That was theologically and politically inconceivable to most 100 years ago.

However, since CMJ’s earliest days in the Holy Land, we’ve learned that when you minister to the Jewish people, other peoples also experience and accept the love of Jesus.

In the midst of the Israel-Hamas War, some may ask where we stand, what side we’re on. Officially, “ CMJ recognizes the great complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute but believes that the power of God is infinitely greater than this complexity and that we should pray for his sovereign purposes to prevail.” Also, “CMJ affirms that God is a God of compassion. We should show that compassion to all innocent sufferers, whether Israeli or Palestinian.” These excerpts from a statement written 20 years ago in the midst of the Second Intifada apply now as much as then.

Where is God?

Where is God in all this death and destruction? That is the question we always have when we suffer. Even Jesus, in his distress from the cross, cries, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” ( Ps 22:1 ) The same cry was heard coming from the gas chambers of the Holocaust.

God is not surprised by our wars and our malice toward each other. He was not surprised by Adam and Eve’s treason in the garden. He was not surprised by the idolatry of the nations. He is not surprised by the long-standing Middle East conflict. In fact, he has already spoken of its solution through the prophet Isaiah.

How God broadened my heart

The next week, a new friend I made at a congregation invited me to a teaching at a 24/7 house of prayer. The passage was Isaiah 19:23-25:

²³ In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

²⁴ In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, ²⁵ whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”

Map of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Graphic by Nigyou via Wikimedia Commons (cc)

Egypt and Assyria are recurring antagonists in the Hebrew Scriptures. Yet in this passage, they are partnered in worship with Israel, “a blessing in the midst of the earth”! When people hear “Middle East,” many will think of conflict rather than blessing. Yet the God of Israel blesses not only Israel but also Israel’s long-standing enemies.

God has not forgotten Israel and the Jewish people. His promises to them are still in play (Rom 11). But neither has God forgotten Egypt and all those nations in the territory of what was ancient Assyria – the Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and even Saudi Arabia.

It was an Isaiah 19 gathering that God used to introduce me to the work of CMJ, firmly couching my call to the Jewish people within his vision for a Middle East united under the banner of the Messiah. CMJ does not minister to the Jewish people to the exclusion of other peoples. The gospel is for the Jew first then for the Gentile (Rom 1:16).

In the years since I first heard about the Isaiah 19 Highway, I have seen Jewish and Arab disciples of Jesus from warring nations embrace in brotherhood and worship God together. I have heard unforgettable testimonies of how Jesus has appeared to Muslims in Mecca, how a former sniper for the PLO now worships with Israeli Messianic Jews, how a new Jordanian believer read the Scriptures and then wanted to bless Israelis. I’ve seen Israelis cross into Iraq with offerings from Jerusalem for the churches in Kurdistan. All of this was in the context of serving with CMJ.

When Abraham heeded God’s call from Ur of the Chaldees to the land of Canaan, Abraham traveled through many of these lands. God promised him that his seed would be a blessing to all the nations of the earth (Gen 12:1-13, 17:1-8). That Seed is Yeshua the Messiah, the Seed of the Woman (Gen 3:15), the Son of David (2 Sam 7), the Son of God (Ps 2), the Son of Man (Dan 7:13-15).

“If you choose, you lose. In conflicts like this, if you choose a side you will lose the person you rejected. It is never God’s heart to reject any of his children.”

I recently received an update from Derech Avraham , the Isaiah 19 network CMJ is connected to. In it, a Jordanian Christian wrote about the Israel-Hamas War, “If you choose, you lose. In conflicts like this, if you choose a side you will lose the person you rejected. It is never God’s heart to reject any of his children. As believers, we should stand for those on both sides because that is truly God’s heart for his children. We should represent the heart of the Father to be reconciled with one another and with him and be in oneness as a body of Christ. This is the Kingdom of God, truly learning to love your enemies and bring the Jews and Gentiles together as one.”

The warring descendants of Abraham will unite. God has spoken it already. They will be a blessing rather than a burden to the nations of the world. It will happen when they all call on the name of the Lord and are saved.

¹⁴ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵ And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Rom 10:14-15)

Let us go, proclaim, witness, and make disciples of the nations, in the name of Abba, Yeshua, and the Ruach haKodesh.

To contribute to CMJ’s work on the Isaiah 19 Highway and in the U.S., consider giving to the following CMJ ministries through our donate page :

CMJ USA General Fund
Israel War Relief
The Mercy Fund
Derech Avraham (Isaiah 19 network)
Christ Church Jerusalem
Christ Church Jaffa

Jewish horns? The history behind the antisemitic trope

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 20:54:22 GMT

Jewish Medi a Review - August 2024

As of this writing, Hamas and Israel are still fighting as Iran and Hezbollah continue to threaten to punish Israel for the assassination of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. So Jewish Americans are bracing for more protests on campus and other acts of violence. A young Jewish man was stabbed by a man yelling “Free Palestine” in New York. Synagogues continue to be vandalized, including in Pittsburgh where CMJ USA is headquartered.

In the midst of all these threats, our Jewish neighbors are navigating the political tensions in our country, including the resurgence of antisemitic tropes.

Christian, how will we respond? How will we speak comfort to our Jewish neighbors ?

�� Are Jewish horns having a comeback? The history behind the antisemitic stereotype (Forward)

Recent depictions of pro-Israel politicians and university presidents are on the horns of a new dilemma

✊�� Are neo-Nazi terms really the only way to criticize U.S. support for Israel? (Forward)

A debate over the term ‘zog,’ or ‘Zionist Occupied Government,’ is surging online

�� Tisha B’av is a holiday about grief. Can it still be meaningful after Oct. 7? (Forward)

For the first time in my life, I fear our communal grief has grown too great to bear

�� In first Tisha B’Av after Oct. 7, Jewish writers, musicians, and lay leaders compose new liturgy and traditions to mourn a fresh tragedy (Forward)

New liturgy and rituals connect the traditional meaning of the Ninth of Av and current anguish

✡️ Ahead of school year, US Jews skeptical campuses can prevent repeat of hostilities (Times of Israel)

Many Jewish students say they feel targeted by anti-Israel activists who’ve created a poisonous atmosphere. But with some schools negotiating with protesters, where is the deterrence?

✝️ Prominent US Christian universities condemn antisemitism and vow to keep Jewish students safe (All Israel)

Two top U.S. Christian universities – Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU) and Colorado Christian University (CCU) – issued statements condemning antisemitism on U.S. campuses and pledged to keep their Jewish students safe in light of the dramatic rise in antisemitism following the Hamas Oct. 7 attack on Israel

➕ Christian students prep for renewed anti-Israel activity on US campuses (JNS)

Some 250 participants from the U.S. and South Africa learn how to advocate for the Jewish state and show solidarity with Jewish classmates.

�� Major Jewish groups want ‘Zionist’ to be a protected class on campus (Forward)

Hillel International, the American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League released guidelines calling on schools to ban discrimination against Jewish students for supporting Israel

�� US Olympic gold medalist Amit Elor confronts antisemitism after historic victory (Jerusalem Post)

Following her historic gold medal win, US wrestler Amit Elor speaks out against antisemitism, sharing her personal struggle and triumph in the face of hate.

�� Young Jewish man stabbed in NYC by attacker yelling ‘Free Palestine’ (Times of Israel)

Victim taken to hospital, community members chase down assailant and hold him until police arrive and make arrest

�� Hollywood Synagogue Vandalized for Second Time in Past Few Weeks (Jewish Journal)

One family has already quit Melrose Avenue synagogue because of the vandalism

‘The Simon Wiesenthal Center posted on X, “The targeting of synagogues across the US has become an almost daily occurrence. Will authorities hold these perpetrators accountable for these hate crimes?”’

�� Pro-Palestinian vandals are painting red inverted triangles on their targets. What does it mean? (Forward)

Hamas militants have used the symbol. Who else has adopted it?

�� Jews are tired of being used as a political football (Forward)

The left and the right exploit Jews and their safety as an electoral weapon

�� A Jewish bagel shop in Detroit closes after staff walk out on new ‘Zionist’ owner (Jewish Chronicle)

Philip Kafka, a developer who has earned praise and derision for his redevelopment projects, took over the Detroit Institute of Bagels from its original Jewish owner. An example of how some Americans hold perceived ‘Zionist’ or ‘pro-Israel’ stances against their Jewish neighbors

�� Holy boredom (Times of Israel)

Shabbat replaces our regularly scheduled programs with mandated downtime, which provides recuperative rest, even when we fumble for something to do

�� Wikipedia’s Jewish Problem (Tablet)

The site seems to be intentionally trafficking in disinformation related to Jews, Israel, and Zionism

�� Is God An Antisemite? (Jewish Journal)

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, author of Kosher Jesus, says he has no idea what God is up to with the global resurgence of antisemitism

7️⃣ The Jewish People’s Guide to Oct. 7 and its Aftermath (Jewish Journal)

A condensed version of a guidebook articulating answers to basic, pressing questions – while hoping to trigger debates about the ongoing dilemmas facing Israel, the Jewish people and America

�� Beyond the Punchline: Rethinking Jewish Representation (Inherit)

Self-deprecation has long been a standard defense mechanism for us

�� In Jish, Israel, an indigenous Christian minority defiantly stays in Hezbollah’s crosshairs (Times of Israel)

Instead of fleeing the Galilee, hundreds of Zionist Arameans are digging in as they brace for a major escalation

�� Netanyahu and anti-Netanyahu protests both warn: ‘Hamas is coming’ (Forward)

A Hamas attack may be unlikely; growing American antisemitism, on the other hand, is easy to see.

��️ On Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress

If only Netanyahu governed Israel as effectively as he speaks about it (Times of Israel)
The prime minister delivered a masterful address to a largely enthralled Congress, hailing our nation and scorning its critics. But his public diplomacy skills were never in doubt
Bibi’s Brilliant Speech Showed the Limits of the Strongest Words (Jewish Journal)
His speech in Congress overflowed with extraordinary rhetoric. But at the end, all I wanted to know was: How close are we to a security alliance with Saudi Arabia to help Israel combat the biggest and most urgent threat to its existence?
Netanayahu’s bragging speech was an affront to a vulnerable Israel (Times of Israel)
As the mother and grandmother of Oct. 7 victims, I need to know the PM has a plan and a vision based on serious attention to the facts

Speaking comfort to our Jewish neighbors

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 17:30:13 GMT

Responding to the latest vandalism in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood

Editor's note: CMJ USA is headquartered in the Pittsburgh metro and all CMJ USA clergy are within the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Earlier this week, anti-Israel protestors vandalized the Jewish Federation and Chabad of Squirrel Hill. This is the latest act of vandalism to hit Pittsburgh's Jewish community.

No matter what you think or feel about the Israel-Hamas War, targeting American Jews an ocean and a sea away is WRONG.

We are all frustrated and grieved by the ongoing war and the death toll. All of us, including our Jewish neighbors. The difference is our Jewish neighbors have the added burden of fear as they -- more and more -- are the targets of Israel's critics.

In the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle , Rabbi Henoch Rosenfeld quoted a text he received from a congregant: "Rabbi, what's next? Is it going to be Kristallnacht?" Kristallnacht in 1938 was an organized attack against Jewish communities and synagogues in Nazi Germany. This shows the fear some Jewish people feel at this time.

Mayor Ed Gainey and several city council members released a statement that says,

“Targeting Pittsburgh’s Jewish residents – damaging property with the intent to make people feel unsafe in their neighborhoods and places of work and worship – is a deplorable act of antisemitism and political violence.

“To those who would claim this vandalism is a legitimate form of protest, make no mistake: These actions have zero impact on the situation in Israel. They do nothing to bring Israeli hostages home, to ease the suffering of Palestinians, or to halt further escalation of that growing global conflict. No one can claim to support peace and then commit acts that are intended to harass, frighten, and ostracize an entire community.”

Christian, as followers of Jesus Messiah, the light to the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel, we must show comfort to our Jewish neighbors. This is the time to call up your Jewish friends and ask them how they doing. Pastor, this is the time to call the Rabbi down the street and say you're praying for their community. Many of our Jewish neighbors are unsure who is safe in this political climate. We, the imitators of Christ, must speak up. For the sake of Jesus and his brothers in the flesh, we must prove to be good neighbors.

If you're unsure of how to start the conversation with your Jewish neighbors, reach out to us at CMJ USA, and we'll help you. Here's a starter guide.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for the peace of Gaza, Beirut and all the lands walked by our Father Abraham and his descendants. Shalom.

Building, meeting, growing

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 22:11:58 GMT

CMJ USA staff have had a month full of making new friends and advancing on various Bridge Building tools

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Psalm 127:1

We’re halfway through the year. It’s been busy and exciting as God grows CMJ USA, as we see shoots bursting forth from the ground we’ve been tending for a year or so.

First, THANK YOU, friends, for your generous giving. Not only have you been giving to the Israel War Relief Fund and the Mercy Fund, but you’ve also been giving to the domestic work of CMJ USA. This has enabled us to visit more churches and conferences. We continue to remind followers of Jesus to see how our Jewish neighbors are faring as the Israel-Hamas War has uncovered latent antisemitism among us. We’ve also been encouraging Christians to speak against anti-Jewish sentiment as well as challenge them to contemplate how the Jewishness of Jesus should affect our faith walk today.

The past month of travel has taken us to meet more new friends from around the continent.

At the end of June, Director Emeritus Philip Bottomley and I attended the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) Assembly. We were joined there by CMJ Israel Director Daryl and Sandy Fenton. We were able to reconnect with many Anglican friends. The LORD afforded us an unexpected opportunity when I was asked to serve as the Gospel-reading deacon at the opening Eucharist. The passage was CMJ-appropriate – the birth of John the Baptist in Luke 1:57-80 , which says in part:

⁶⁸ “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
⁶⁹ and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
⁷⁰ as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
⁷¹ that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;
⁷² to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
⁷³ the oath that he swore to our father Abraham…

God still remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus is the horn of Israel's salvation!

I was asked to read the Gospel in English and Spanish, as the ACNA represents Anglican churches in the United States, Canada, and Mexico (which just elected their first woman and Jew as president). Hearing the Gospel in Spanish seemed to have caught many people’s attention, and they would mention it when they met me at the CMJ USA table or in the dining hall or walking to the next session.

Our patron, Archbishop Foley Beach, has finished his two terms as the leader of the ACNA and now takes a well-earned sabbatical. We are excited that the newly elected Archbishop Steve Wood is passionate about proclaiming the good news of Jesus Messiah to the 130 million unchurched Americans. We look forward to seeing how the ACNA will continue to partner with CMJ USA in the coming years.

Directly after the ACNA Assembly, Jeff Roberts (Fundraising and Partnerships) and Ron First (Central Texas Coordinator) joined me for the Messiah Conference, organized by the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America. This annual conference is the largest gathering of Messianic Jews in the United States and possibly the world.

Our aim was to reintroduce CMJ to the Messianic community. We displayed a copy of the History of Messianic Judaism exhibit created by the Christ Church Jerusalem Heritage Centre, and that drew people to our table.

There were 1,300 people in attendance and we’re sure we talked to the majority of them about the history of CMJ , Shoresh Study Tours , Tours with Purpose , and our soon-coming Bridge Builders program . We handed out nearly 500 flyers, and more than 100 people signed up for our newsletter. Some even gave us donations.

That we are older than Chosen People Ministries or Jews for Jesus caught people’s attention, and they were excited for the outreach tools we plan to launch in late Fall:

Bridge Builders Essentials – a video course prepping your congregation to sensitively reach out to your Jewish neighbor.
A soon-to-be-announced dinner-discussion program – a 10-week program that creates a safe place for Jewish seekers and others to ask hard questions.
Ground Breakers Prayer Groups – Monthly prayer guides for interceding congregations. Ground Breakers will have the option to access Bridge Builder course materials as they become available.
Bridge Builders Foundations – a study course that takes congregations deeper into the Jewishness of Jesus and the New Testament, the history of antisemitism, and sensitively connecting with our Jewish neighbors. Tentatively 2026.
The Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls – available now by emailing editor@cmj-usa.org .

Please pray for us as we take some time off this month. Pray that the LORD would refresh our bodies, minds, and spirits. Pray also for my trip to Israel in August. I will be leading a Tour with Purpose – a service trip to encourage Israelis and CMJ Israel staff through the ministry of helps and presence.

Is God calling you to help Jews and Arabs in the Holy Land as they navigate the complexities and pains of the Israel-Hamas War? If so, prayerfully consider joining or organizing a Shoresh Tour with Purpose. See this page more info or email shoresh@cmj-israel.org .

‘The Time to Stay Silent Was Over’

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 17:51:02 GMT

Jewish Media Review - July 2024

You may have noticed that since October 7, we’ve been posting comments from celebrities, like Mayim Bialik, Jerry Seinfeld, Amy Schumer and now Ben Stiller, below. I believe that these fellow Americans are giving us insight to what some of our Jewish neighbors – regular citizens like you and me – are thinking and feeling. We don’t have to agree with them. They do not represent all Jewish Americans. Yet, we should listen so we can begin to grasp the anger, fear, dismay, worry, and heartbreak many of our Jewish neighbors are feeling in this post-October 7 world.

�� ‘The Time to Stay Silent Was Over’ (Tablet)

“On Oct. 7, I was giving my partner a tour of Washington, D.C., as I was doing a fellowship there. In one sudden moment, I started receiving a stream of messages from my friends at Hillel that Israel had been attacked. I was not very alarmed at first, as I knew Israel consistently received missiles from the Gaza Strip. I had no idea about the magnitude of the attack until I heard the news that several kibbutzes, including Kfar Aza, had been razed to the ground. I was devastated. I thought other people would be torn into pieces, like I was.

"To my confused horror, the next day there were people in front of the White House beating drums while holding signs that said, “Our resistance is not terrorism.” The following weeks of my life were some of the darkest, most dystopian weeks I have ever lived through.”

�� Blood Libels, Then and Now (Jewish Journal)

Medieval antisemites believed awful things about Jews, and that gave them license to do awful things to Jews

The 20th of Sivan was once a fast day that commemorated the first violent blood libel. “In 1144, 12-year-old William of Norwich was found murdered. In 1149, a Knight named Simon, on trial for murdering Eleazar, a wealthy Jew whom he owes money, claimed in his defense that Eleazar and the Jewish community had murdered William as an act of ritual murder. The defense won the case.

“A local monk, Thomas of Monmouth then published a book about the supposed “murder” of William of Norwich. He made the claim that Jews engage in the ritual murder of Christian children in order to return to Israel.”

�� Ben Stiller: Why I Can’t Stay Silent About the Suffering in Israel and Gaza (Time)

✡️ Oct. 7 is ‘deeply personal,’ says American actor Michael Rapaport (JNS)

The comedian has emerged as a leading voice for Israel in Hollywood at a time when many of his Jewish colleagues in the film industry have remained silent or politically neutral.

�� Holocaust museums condemn wave of hate against Jewish organizations (JNS)

“Hate crimes against American Jews have tripled since Hamas’ unprovoked terrorist attack,” the establishments state jointly.

⛺ Jewish Camps Prepare for a Different Kind of Summer (Tablet)

In the aftermath of Oct. 7 and the war in Gaza, campers and staffers alike will be addressing Israel and antisemitism in new ways

�� Vandals painted a red triangle on the home of a Jewish museum director. What does it mean? (Forward)

Hamas militants have used the symbol to mark targets. Who else has adopted it?

�� They Criticized the Entebbe Rescue, Too (Jewish Journal)

The Soviet and Chinese governments denounced what they called “the Zionist aggression.” United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim charged that Israel had committed a “serious violation of the sovereignty” of Uganda.

�� 7 ways Gen-Z will have to grapple with Zionism – if they care at all (Times of Israel)

How can American Jewry combat the anti-Israel movement without educating toward an intellectually honest, democratic Zionism?

✡️ With a new leader and revamped strategy, it’s a second coming for Jews for Jesus (JTA)

�� Former peace activist kidnapped by Hamas: ‘I don’t believe in peace’ (JNS)

Ada Sagi once learned Arabic to make friends with nearby Palestinians and taught others the language as a way to promote peace with Gaza.

�� Spiritual Affliction: The Left's Growing Anti-Semitism Problem (Kineti L'Tziyon)

�� Noa Argamani’s and Anne Frank’s Secret Annexes (Jewish Journal)

Like Anne, Noa was secreted away in an apartment while a war raged outside, unsure if she would ever again be allowed to walk free.

�� 12 Tough Questions and Simple Answers About Israel (Jewish Journal)

I hope that all of you will use my answers as springboards for more formal and informal discussions clarifying where you agree – and where you disagree – with me, with Israel, with others.

�� Jewish gravestones vandalized at 2 Cincinnati cemeteries (Cincinnati.com)

An act of vandalism left 176 gravestones damaged in two West Side cemeteries.

"The destruction includes tombstones dating back to the late 1800s, many of which have been knocked over, with some cracked in half. Most of the gravestones have been pushed face down," the release states.

�� The messy truth behind a viral video showing violence around anti-Israel protest at an LA synagogue (Forward)

A lesson in media literacy for the age of WhatsApp and Instagram

Is Anti-Israel Rhetoric Becoming More Extreme? (compiled by Jewish Journal)

Protestors outside an exhibit in memory of the victims of the Nova party chanted “Long Live October 7th,” prompting Joe Biden to call out this kind of escalating anti-Zionist rhetoric.

Not About Israel
Rafael Medoff, Jewish Journal: “It’s antisemitic even if the protesters aren’t saying the words “We are against Jewish people” (which is how Rep. Ilhan Omar has defined antisemitism). It’s antisemitic even if demonstrators are not calling for the murder of every Jew in the world.”
Not Very Subtle
Matthew Schultz, Dispatches from the Promised Land: “They didn’t use cutesy rhyming riddles like “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” They skipped the vague but threatening slogans like “by any means necessary.”

It’s clear now. To whatever extent there is a non-antisemitic pro-Palestine protest movement, it has been completely hijacked by those who hate Jews and want us dead.
Not Getting Attention
Rich Lowry, Boston Herald: “…there’s not the same sense of national crisis as there’d be if white supremacists were showing up all over the country and agitating against Jews and vandalizing property. Can you imagine the headlines and nightly news reports? Nor is there the same overwhelming media drumbeat condemning anyone associated with the protesters or their worldview.”

How Is Israeli Society Holding Up After Nine Months? (compiled by Jewish Journal)

Feeling Rudderless
David Suissa, Jewish Journal: “…this is the grim reality of today’s Israel: an extraordinary population led by less than ordinary men.”
Feeling Responsibility
Amichai Attali, YNET: “The mutual responsibility for which Israelis are known – which have reached new heights since October 7– is unmatched anywhere else. “
Feeling Unified
Leo Dee, Jerusalem Post: “The Jewish people are more unified today than any other nation in the world, primarily because of the Torah and our system of Jewish education.

Thumbnail photo by Luke B via Flickr (cc) is illustrative of the antisemitic rhetoric at many rallies protesting the Israel-Gaza War.

Who cares if Jesus resurrected?

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 17:26:16 GMT

New video series on the historical evidence for Jesus

We love to keep our eyes on The Torah Guide , a YouTube channel creating content arguing for Jesus' messiahship.

Aaron Dranoff , the founder of The Torah Guide, has started a series called Evidence for Jesus. We enjoyed episode 1, Was Jesus a Real Person? Below we share episode 2, Was Jesus a False Prophet?

Be sure to visit The Torah Guide channel and subscribe to keep up with the rest of the series.

Video: Our rest honors God

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 17:01:56 GMT

A word about Sabbath

We wrote on Sabbath not long ago, but we can never be reminded too much to take Sabbath -- especially us workaholic Americans driven by our Protestant work ethic.

As some of our staff prepare to take summer vacation, we were blessed by a video by Bishop Alex Cameron of the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh, where all CMJ USA Anglican clergy currently reside.

The theme of rest shows up in the Scriptures from the very beginning, as God himself takes rest after creating the universe in Genesis 1. Two important aspects of taking sabbath rest:

Rest honors God. Our stopping our work is an opportunity to trust in the providence and gracious goodness of God.
Rest is good for us. Weekly rest and occasional vacation time restores us and gives us opportunity to find peace and provision in God.

A prayer for Sabbath:

Almighty God, who after the creation of the world rested from

all your works and sanctified a day of rest for all your creatures:
Grant that we, putting away all earthly anxieties, may be duly
prepared for the service of your sanctuary, and that our rest here
upon earth may be a preparation for the eternal rest promised to
your people in heaven; through Yeshua Messiah our Lord. Amen.

Israel: ‘It’s a nightmare that has become routine’

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 17:13:32 GMT

CMJ USA director gives first -person update about wartime Israel

In mid-May, I flew to Israel to join one of Shoresh Study Tours’ Tours with Purpose, a program that allows Christians in the nations to spend a week in Israel doing service projects.

Everything seems normal when you land at Ben Gurion Airport. Israelis are quite resilient and, during 76 years of violently contested nationhood, have mastered calmly carrying on. As you approach passport control, though, you are reminded of October 7 by the hostage posters lining the hallway.

Having been an on-site staff at Christ Church Jerusalem from 2014 to 2016, I was eager to see how my colleagues and friends are. They are all physically well but tired and overstretched. All of CMJ staff is doing two, three, four jobs. All three CMJ guest houses are short of volunteers. The Heritage Centre Museum is closed because there are almost no tourists (I did see some tours groups from Brazil and India.)

I spoke to three local Christian vendors. They all spoke of struggles and grief over the war. All also spoke of their hope in Jesus to get them through, which in turn encouraged me. They all pray the war will end and the tourists will return.

I stopped in one shop to get an ordination gift for a friend. John was not letting me out of his shop until I bought something. John, an Arab Catholic, is very grieved by the war. First his family is suffering financially because the shop is their source of income. Second, he said most of the vendors are behind on their taxes because there is hardly any business. They don’t expect grace from the government like over the pandemic because, of course, there’s a war to pay for.

Joseph in the Armenian Quarter affirmed that the vendors are behind on the their taxes, but he expressed joy and hope in Jesus. He is grateful that he and his family are healthy and well.

Zak is grateful that his family is well. His shop is doing decently with online sales. He reports that the number of Christians in Gaza has dwindled to 600 hundreds as many have left and some have died. News reports say that there were about 1,000 Christians in Gaza before the war , so Zak’s report rings true.[i]

Art pieces displayed in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv

One of the most striking conversations was with Orna, an Israeli Jew at Hostages Square in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. When she learned I was traveling with a group doing service projects, she asked, “Does anyone want to volunteer in Gaza. They need help too.” However, very quickly, her expression of compassion for her Gazan neighbors turned became an explanation of the betrayal she and many Israelis feel as a result of the October 7 invasion by Hamas. She said that many in the communities that were attack had been helping Gazans by giving them rides to Israeli hospitals or hiring them as gardeners and maintenance workers on the kibbutzim. These Israelis had been practically working towards peace and reconciliation but they were killed anyway. Orna spoke of how the first wave of invaders with Hamas commandos, followed by Hamas soldiers. Then came the Gazan civilians who looted and vandalized , and stole dead corpses .

Here was an Israeli Jew whose first question to me was one revealing her compassion but she was at the same time wrestling with the treachery of October 7.

One Israeli mother in Tel Aviv expressed relief that their daughter hadn’t gone to the Super Nova concert like she wanted and worried that her son would soon be drafted into the army.

The night of the Iran attack , when the Islamic republic launched more than 300 drones and missiles, was different for so many. Some obediently waited in bomb shelters. Others in Galilee mentioned sitting on the deck and watching Iron Dome intercept projectiles over the Sea of Galilee. Two friends mentioned how frightened they were that night, especially when thought they heard drones outside their windows. One friend slept through the whole thing.

Back on our Tour with Purpose, the group from Fremantle, Australia, sorted produce for distribution, handed out food bundles to the Domari people in Jerusalem, and helped tidy the grounds and gardens around Beit Bracha. While there, we met two soldiers taking advantage of a weekend break. They were believers in Jesus who were newly wed and assigned to different military units. They were grateful for the respite offered by CMJ Israel.

Listen to testimonials from two Australians who participated on a Tour with Purpose: Jeremy and Ethan .

Members of New Life Church from Fremantle, Australia, at Beit Bracha in Migdal, Israel

The nightmare of the Israel-Hamas War will end. When it does, there will be even more work to do. There will still be needy people to provide for. There will be tourists to house and teach about the Jewish context of the New Testament. There will be many broken souls who will need a listening ear, a warm embrace, and the hope that Jesus offers.

The followers of Jesus in the Land also need our prayers. One Jewish believer told me that the pain of October 7 is too raw to begin to contemplating loving their enemies and praying “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” While they wrestle that out with Jesus, we in the nations need to stand in the gap and intercede for all the peoples of the Land.

Footnotes

[i] “The Christian population in the Gaza Strip was around 5,000 in 2005 when Israel unilaterally withdrew from 21 [then] Israeli communities. Since then, it has rapidly declined, while the Muslim population has grown. A report by the University of Notre Dame cited 3,000 Christians living in Gaza in 2007 and only 1,300 in 2021 – mostly Greek Orthodox.” “ Since Start of Israel-Hamas War, 3% of Gaza’s Christians Dead .” The Jerusalem Post - Christian World, 17 February 2024.

'People are relying on hashtags over history books'

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 18:19:06 GMT

Jewish Media Review - June 2024

The headline to this month’s Jewish Media Review comes from UK journalist Hadley Freeman. Too many people – particularly teens and 20 somethings – are reacting to social media posts that appeal to emotion without historical context. Educating ourselves and the next generation is crucial to diffusing the violent rhetoric surrounding the Israel-Hamas War. We recommend starting with The foundational reasons for the conflict in Israel by Kelvin Crombie.

As followers of Jesus the Suffering Servant, we need to have compassion on both Israelis and Gazans suffering in this war. We need to suffer with them even as we speak truth about Israel’s rights to exist and defend herself as well as the truth of Hamas’ antisemitic goal to wipe Israel from the map.

�� ‘It’s a new phase in Jewish history’ (JNS)

Reform Judaism event considers the future of American Judaism in a post-October 7 world

�� How the phrase ‘Bring them home’ became a Rorschach test for Israeli and American Jews (Times of Israel)

While for Sabras the movement to free the hostages is critical of the Netanyahu government’s wartime policies, many Jews abroad view it as unconditional solidarity with Israel

�� White House denounces ‘repugnant’ pro-Hamas rhetoric at DC protest against Israel (Times of Israel)

‘Where is the outrage?’ fumes ADL chief after demonstration outside White House that included calls to kill Zionists — ‘aka the overwhelming majority of American Jews’

�� Oct. 7 survivor Eilat Tibi came to New York to share her story — and experienced antisemitism for the first time (The Forward)

‘I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe people could choose peace’

�� ‘Abhorrent’: NY officials deplore ‘antisemitic’ attacks on homes of Jewish Brooklyn Museum leaders (The Forward)

The day before, Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams denounced a protest against a Manhattan exhibit on the Nova Music Festival, which was attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7.

✊�� Are Gaza Protests Happening Mostly at Elite Colleges? Yes. (Washington Monthly)

��‍�� As a young Zionist, I used to think anti-Zionist Jews hated being Jewish. Then I lived with them (The Forward)

Living in a Jewish dormitory at Columbia University taught me the value of dialogue with those I disagree with

�� Retiring early due to antisemitism, a professor paints a dire picture of US academia (Times of Israel)

Barbara J. Risman felt that the atmosphere among University of Illinois faculty after October 7 was too much for her to bear as a Jew. Her colleagues secretly tell her she’s right

��‍��‍�� Queens College has been a model of Muslim-Jewish cooperation. Can it stay that way after Oct. 7? (The Forward)

A student body that is 1/3rd Jewish and 1/6th Muslim struggles for harmony amid war

�� For Jewish teens critical of Israel, the generation gap is sometimes with their peers (JTA)

Excerpt: “Throughout history, young people are often at the forefront of movements for social justice,” she said. “Many refuse to accept the world as it is and instead imagine the world as it could be — a place of safety and freedom for all human beings.” In part this perspective comes from their age, according to Dov Waxman, the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Professor of Israel Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Young American Jews, born decades after Israel’s founding, have no nostalgic memory of Israel’s early years and no experience of the emotional highs and lows of the Six-Day War,” Waxman wrote in a paper about the Jewish generation gap on Israel .

�� All the Darkness They Cannot See: The Tunnel Vision That Drives Faculty Antisemitism (Jewish Journal)

All these faculty members can see are Israeli offenses, only Israeli offenses, out of their context, which they see as aggressions and describe using such inflammatory language as “apartheid” and “Jewish supremacy.”

�� After Oct. 7, UK journalist Hadley Freeman believes ‘the progressive left hates Jews’ (Times of Israel)

The New York-born writer comes out with a new essay on the antisemitism emerging after the Hamas atrocities in Israel, and how it’s rooted in a hypocritical and myopic ideology

��‍♀️ The rush to think the worst of Israel… again (Times of Israel)

The world's ongoing eagerness to decry Israel's handling of the war - before the facts are in and despite previous proof to the contrary - is maddening

�� Seinfeld is Crying (Jewish Journal)

If the King of comedy is crying, we should all be bawling our eyes out.

�� How Arab intellectuals are failing their publics (Times of Israel)

Neglecting the conflict's complexity and the suffering experienced on both sides is a form of laziness – even cowardice

�� France would like to believe that an antisemitic arson attack was an aberration — history says otherwise (The Forward)

A recent incident presents some eerie parallels to the First Crusade

�� It’s time for American Jews to recognize a Palestinian state (The Forward)

Recognition won’t ‘reward violence’ — instead, it will help ensure a strong future for the Jewish people

��️ Seven Tactics Wikipedia Editors Used to Spread Anti-Israel Bias Since Oct. 7 (Jewish Journal)

Examining Wikipedia content and how the site operates matters — it is the world’s go-to site for information.

❓ What Is and Is Not Genocide (Jewish Journal)

What is going on in Gaza right now is not genocide, an easy, grievance-laden word to fall back on when facts are inconvenient.

Excerpt: “Drawn by a rising Zionism and a link to their own ancient story, desperate to evade two millennia of murderous attacks by both secular and religious forces, when they began migrating to Ottoman Palestine in the early 1880s, Jews already living there made up about 5% of the population. How those journeys, which were not colonialism but an attempt to save their own lives evolved over generations to the circumstances of today requires much more information that can be presented in an Op-Ed. However, it is very much worth noting that in 1948, when the Jews accepted the United Nations offer of partition and the Arabs rejected it, there were 1.4 million Palestinians living in Mandate Palestine and 650,000 Jews. Today, there are 2.1 million Israeli Arab citizens. (Palestinians if you wish, and they represent, by the way, 30% of the current graduating med school classes in Israel.) There are 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza, and 5.5 million in the West Bank. That’s 9.9 million Palestinians. There are 7.2 million Jews living in Israel.

“What is happening in Gaza is a war, and war can be hard for people to wrap their heads around, particularly young people who’ve never even vicariously experienced such a thing in their lifetimes. If, in fact, there were a genocidal plan, by any factual metric it’s the biggest failure of such an enterprise in recorded history.”

�� Unable to enter Israel since Oct. 7, Palestinians in Wadi Fukin have been left without a livelihood (The Forward)

Faced with the West Bank’s worst economic crisis in generations, Palestinians describe how ‘everything is stopped’

✈️ Yes, there’s a war. But I felt safe while in Israel (Jewish Chronicle)

The conflict does not represent what a resilient and vibrant country Israel is.

��‍�� Backlash against campus extremists brings Christians and Jews together (JNS)

“We have a problem with the younger generation. We haven’t passed along the connection we have with Israel,” leading U.S. evangelical broadcaster says.

�� ‘I felt my bones crack’: Terror attack survivor helps Oct. 7 victims cope (JNS)

Tal Hartuv (formerly known as Kay Wilson) tells the harrowing tale of how she survived, what she learned and how she is using her experiences to help document and heal survivors of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.

Kay Wilson used to be a guide for Shoresh Study Tours and was hiking to CMJ UK staffer Kristine Luken when they were attacked. Kristine died.

�� ‘Pray that the Lord will watch over us’ - Messianic soldier talks about fighting in Gaza (All Israel)

Messianic Jews serving in the IDF: A legacy of service and dedication

�� Live by the Law or Die on the Cross (Tablet)

Israel must stop pretending it is a nation like any other

Editor's commentary: This essay explaining that Israel is not bound by the ethic the world demands of them resonates with a conversation I had not long after October 7. A friend asked me to dinner to talk about the war. She wanted to know why Israel had to fight back so hard by invading Gaza. Why don’t they just be the bigger person and take Hamas’ aggression and negotiate for their 250 hostages? Isn’t that the “evolved” thing to do here? This echoes some of what we have heard from the nations criticizing Israel’s offensive. The nations, in part, are speaking from a humanistic point of view that if we are mature, evolved humans we can sort this out without violence. And yet, this humanistic position develops from Christianized Europe and the Americas. The concept of “turn the other cheek” is a Christian one. Yes, it was said by the Jewish Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth, but it develops over the next 2,000 years as part of the Christian ethic. Turning the other cheek is a micro picture of Jesus dying for the sin of the world.

The world wants Israel to abide by a Christian ethic that the nations themselves will not abide by. How can the nations demand that Israel turn the other cheek when they do not know Jesus, the one who died for them. If turning the other cheek and dying to self is hard (sometimes feels impossible) for those of us who know Jesus, how can we dare expect those who don’t know Jesus to live by his Sermon on the Mount? They do not have the Suffering Servant as an example. So why does the world keep holding them to that standard?

We Christians don’t have the right to tell Israel how to defend themselves. We have the obligation to pray for the peace of Jerusalem ( Ps 122:6 ), that God would have mercy on all those suffering, and that God would open the eyes of both Israelis and Gazans to the reconciling and healing love of Jesus.

�� Is There a Solution for the Problem of Campus Antisemitism? (complied by the Jewish Journal)

Since October 7th, campuses have become increasingly hostile to Jewish students and Jewish life. Is there any way to reverse this trend?

Fight Back By Excelling at School
David Suissa, Jewish Journal: “There’s an additional way to fight back against the forces of hate: through the chutzpah of success.”

Change the National Narrative
Samuel J. Abrams, Jewish Journal: “On the macro level, we must change the national narrative and engage in real political action and coalition building. On the micro level, we must support our students therapeutically and legally, letting them know they have a community off campus and that they are welcome and safe.

Find New Schools to Attend
Cherryl Smith, Israel Hayom: “…the ideology that considers both Israel and America as evil, and that allows for antisemitism and anti-Americanism to be normalized is a systemic problem, one that is not going away. There are other schools available for students besides the highly rated and highly problematic ones. And for Jewish students, there are a number of Jewish schools. And there is Israel.”

⚙️ What Makes Anti-Zionist Jews Tick? (complied by the Jewish Journal)

Here are three takes on the psychology of Jewish anti-Zionists:

Opposition Based on Trends
Karen Lehrman Bloch, Jewish Journal: “Conforming to trends — ideological or sartorial — is everything to you, even if those trends could eventually kill you and your family.”

Opposition Based on Theology
Staff, Israel Hayom: “To understand the Neturei Karta’s ideology, we must delve into the historical and theological context of the relationship between Judaism and Zionism. While the early Zionist leaders were mostly secular and focused on the practical realities of building a state, many devout Jews wrestled with the theological issues surrounding the establishment of a modern Jewish state.”

Opposition Based on Misinformation
Yisrael Medad, Jerusalem Post: “In keffiyeh-clad unison, they exclaim various pro-Palestine propaganda terms that pervert historical truth. They are “progressive” yet regressively twist terms on their heads. “Genocide”, “Apartheid”, “Settler-Colonialism” and “West Bank” all are applied with no justification to Israel and Zionism.”

Thumbnail/banner photo by Can Pac Swire via Flickr (cc)

Trinity: Belonging & calling in the family of God

Thu, 30 May 2024 18:50:28 GMT

Thoughts on the Trinity in Scripture and God's call on the disciples of Yeshua

Preached from Romans 8:12-17 on Trinity Sunday at Jonah’s Call Anglican Church, Pittsburgh, PA

Most of the church calendar commemorates an event in the life of Jesus the Messiah or of those disciples who have gone before us. But today, we stop to contemplate a theological reality that we see in the Scriptures but that is notoriously hard to talk about.

Not long ago, I had a long Uber ride with a Muslim driver. We had a thought-provoking conversation about faith. He asked really insightful questions. When we’re about a quarter mile from my destination, he asked me to explain the Trinity. I laughed and said, “I cannot do it in the time we have left together.”

Here’s what I might have told him:

We see in the Scriptures the one God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in three persons. We see these three persons in our Romans passage today:

Verse 14, Spirit of God
Verse 15, Father God
Verse 17, Christ/Messiah

We also see them at Jesus’ baptism. As Jesus was immersed in the Jordan River, the Spirit of God descended like a dove and the voice of the Father boomed from heaven, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:13-17).

Seeing multiple persons in the Godhead isn’t a New Testament phenomenon. Christianity doesn’t come up with a new way of seeing God. We are building on what Judaism was already starting to perceive during and after the Babylonian Exile.

In Daniel 7, the prophet has a vision of the throne room in Heaven. And there’s a shock for him and Jewish readers since. There are two thrones. On one sits the Ancient of Days and the other is for “one like a Son of Man.”

Is that a human Daniel sees on the second throne? Is he God? How do we reconcile two powers in heaven with the creed from Deuteronomy 6 that Jews still profess to this day: “Hear, oh Israel, the LORD is your God. The LORD is one.”

Those questions have provoked much debate in the Jewish community for more than 2,000 years.

Still, because of Daniel 7 and subsequent Jewish writings, some Jews in the first century did expect a divine Messiah.[i] This is why the Jewish authors of the New Testament can write about Jesus’ preexistence (John 1:1-3ff), divinity and his equality with God the Father (Phil 2:6-11).

The first people to recognize Jesus’ messiahship and divinity are Jews. In Acts 2 and Acts 4, we see 8,000 Jewish people come to faith in Jesus as Messiah and Lord.

The mechanics of the Trinity – how one God can be three persons – is not something I will tackle today. Instead, let’s look at what this one God in three persons offers us and what he calls us to.

Last week we marked Pentecost – or Shavuot – the Jewish holiday on which God fulfills his promise through the Hebrew prophet Joel to pour out his Holy Spirit on all humanity. Because Jesus lived, died, was raised from the dead, and ascended into heaven, we now have the Holy Spirit breathing new life into us.

Throughout the book of Romans, Paul has been explaining how we are all sinners who cannot enter into the presence of God. We know we are sinners because each of us battle our selfish natures every day. We battle to not hate, to not lie or covet. We battle to think of others before ourselves.

But to those of us who have put our hope in Jesus, Paul tells us to not identify with that old selfish nature but with the Holy Spirit now poured into us. We are selfish and egotistical, but God instead sees humble Jesus and considers us good, righteous.

In Romans 8, the verse before today’s passage, Paul says,

¹¹ … if the Spirit of the One who raised Yeshua from the dead is living in you, then the One who raised the Messiah Yeshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

When we identify with the Spirit, with Jesus, the Father enables us to be humble and giving and loving even to our enemies. We can, like Jesus, pray for those who offend and persecute us and say, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

When we do that, we prove that we’ve been adopted by God.

Let’s look at verses 14-17:

¹⁴ All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. ¹⁵ For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to bring you back again into fear; on the contrary, you received the Spirit, who makes us sons and by whose power we cry out, “Abba!” (“Father!”). ¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness with our own spirits that we are children of God; ¹⁷ and if we are children, then we are also heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with the Messiah—provided we are suffering with him in order also to be glorified with him. (CJB)

When we decide to follow Jesus, when God breathes his Holy Spirit into us at baptism, we go from being sinful sons and daughters of fallen Adam and to being righteous sons and daughters of God. The Holy Spirit enables us to cry out Abba to God the Father.

Abba is like saying Daddy in Aramaic. This word is in use even today in modern Hebrew. In Israel, you will hear children calling out to their dads, “Abba, Abba.” Those of us in Christ, following Jesus the Messiah, are little dear children in God’s sight. And he welcomes for us to call out to him in prayer, “Abba, Daddy, Father.”

God is a good father. If you’ve had a bad earthly father, God wants to be that loving daddy you didn’t have. It pleases him for you to call out to him “Abba.”

When you do call out to the Father, that is the Holy Spirit testifying that we are God’s children. That’s the Holy Spirit giving you utterance.

Now we get to one of my life verses, one of those verse that you know by heart and keep coming to in times of uncertainty or trouble.

As good Christians, we should all be Bible readers. In our Anglican tradition, we have the daily office that keeps us moving through the Scriptures. A lot of times, we are busy, and we’re reading quickly to get done. Yes? I admit it.

But other times, when the Holy Spirit really wants to get our attention, a verse will just fly up and slap you. It just pops. You see something you’d somehow missed before.

I remember when that happened to me with Romans 8:17. I know I’m a daughter of God. There is great comfort in knowing that, that God will provide for me, that he’ll answer my call,

¹⁷ and if we are children, then we are also heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with the Messiah—provided we are suffering with him in order also to be glorified with him. (CJB)

What does Jesus inherit for saying to the Father “not my will but yours be done”? What does Jesus inherit for being the Suffering Servant and dying to redeem humanity from the clutches of sin?

Let’s go back to Daniel 7. What does Daniel see?

¹³ “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven

there came one like a son of man,

and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.

¹⁴ And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,

that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him;

his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

which shall not pass away,

and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

When you see Jesus call himself the Son of Man in the Gospels, this is what he’s pointing to. He is saying he is the human-figure who takes a seat next to the Ancient of Day and is given dominion over all creation, he is given a kingdom that encompasses “all peoples, nations, languages.” The Son of Man is given the everlasting kingdom that will not pass away or be destroyed.

That is what Jesus, the Son of Man inherits.

In Revelation 5, John also sees this, but from a slightly different perspective.

⁶ And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain … ¹¹ Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, ¹² saying with a loud voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

So what does Jesus inherit? A kingdom that rules all the nations. He inherits power and wealth, wisdom and might, honor and glory and blessing!

So let’s read Romans 8 again:

¹⁷ and if we are children [of God], then we are also heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with the Messiah…

Mind blown! �� I’m not sure we can even process this. Paul is saying that those of us who are filled with God’s Spirit are his sons and daughters and we are even co-heirs with Messiah. We are co-heirs with the Son of Man. We are co-heirs with the King of kings. Co-heirs!

WOW!

There is a condition: ^“ we are also heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with the Messiah—provided we are suffering with him in order also to be glorified with him.”

… “provided we are suffering with him.”

Whoa. That’s a wow, too. We are co-heirs with Jesus, and that privilege comes with the responsibility of suffering.

What does this mean?

Jesus is a rabbi, He is our rabbi. We are his disciples. What do disciples do? We imitate our rabbi. We live with him. We watch his every move: how he prays, how he has compassion on the needy, how he calls out hypocrisy, how he finds time to rest, how he suffers with the sick and broken-hearted.

Then we do the same.

Our willingness to step into somebody’s danger or sadness speaks volumes to them. We are not trustworthy if we only preach from a distance and don’t let poverty, sickness, war touch us.

Back when AIDS made its first appearance, there was such fear and anxiety about the disease. Nobody wanted to risk either getting sick or being associated with those who were sick. If you had to engage with an HIV-positive patient, it was through gloves, gowns, and masks.

Then Princess Diana dared to see not the diagnosis but the human. She dared to visit HIV-positive patients without all the protective gear.[ii] Her actions interceded for AIDS patients and began to reduce society’s anxiety.

I just came from Israel. There are no Starbucks in Israel. In most of the world, you can get Starbucks coffee, but not in the Holy Land.

Starbucks tried to enter the Israeli market in the 2000s. They made some miscalculations, like trying to import Seattle’s moody coffee shop aesthetic into Tel Aviv the beach vibe. But their biggest mistake was refusing to open a shop in Jerusalem.[iii]

Israel suffered years of suicide bombings during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s. One of the most notorious was the Sbarro Pizza bombing in August 2001, when 15 were killed and 130 injured.[iv]

Starbucks did not want to risk one of its coffee shops getting bombed, so it avoided Jerusalem.

Israelis noticed. They took it personally. If Starbucks couldn’t really step into the reality of Israeli life, with all its risks, Israelis had no interest in spending their shekels on Starbucks coffee.

So it is with us and the Good News we carry. If we can’t step into somebody’s pain and suffering, why would they be interested in our Jesus?

This is why I risk going to Israel in this time. I hope it speaks to Israelis and our Jewish neighbors that I see their pain and I’m willing to step into it. I’m learning to love like Jesus loves us.

There are others who are stepping into Palestinian suffering for the sake of Christ. They are imitating our crucified Lord.

Yesterday morning, I read that three Christian missionaries were murdered in Haiti.[v] They suffered with Christ on behalf of the Haitians. They have their reward now; they have claimed their inheritance as co-heirs of the Messiah. They have added to the sufferings of Jesus for the people of Haiti. The seed they have sown will not return to God empty.

Jesus, our great high priest, still suffers with us. He intercedes for us before the Father. Intercession is born of empathy and compassion. He knows our plight, and so he pleads our case, he asks for mercy for us, for healing, for provision. And the Father, ever in love with the Son, gives him his heart’s desires. The Spirit, ever in love with the Father and the Son, carries down their comfort to us.

This is the Trinity in motion. Let’s meditate on how this tri-unity of love invites us into their family and teaches us to love one another as they love each other and love us.

As we have been invited into the family of Love, let us invite others. Who around you is suffering? Who needs to see Jesus in you suffering with them?

You are a co-heir with Messiah. Are you ready to suffer with him? Are you ready to share the love you’ve received from God with your neighbor – the one sleeping on the streets, the one dying of cancer, the one fighting addiction, the one suffering abuse.

Let us imitate our Beloved Jesus – the Suffering Servant – and receive our full inheritance.

Let us pray.

Almighty and everlasting God, in your tender love for us you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon himself our nature, and to suffer death upon the Cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and come to share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.[vi]

Footnotes

i See Daniel Boyarin, The Jewish Gospel.

ii “ How Princess Diana Changed Attitudes to Aids .” BBC News, 5 April 2017. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-39490507.

iii Aaron Priel, “ Starbucks in Israel: What Went Wrong? ” Just Food, 12 August 2002. https://www.just-food.com/features/starbucks-in-israel-what-went-wrong.

iv “ On This Day: Suicide Bombing Kills 15 at Sbarro Pizzeria. ” The Jerusalem Post | JPost.Com, 9 August 2021. https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/on-this-day-suicide-bombing-kills-15-at-sbarro-pizzeria-676228.

v Andy Rose, AnneClaire Stapleton, Hande Atay Alam and Caitlin Stephen Hu, “ Three Missionaries, Including American Couple, Killed by Gang in Haiti .” CNN, 24 May 2024. https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/24/us/american-missionary-couple-haiti/index.html.

vi Collect for Palm Sunday, Book of Common Prayer 2019, Anglican Church of North America.

Who Killed Jesus?

Tue, 14 May 2024 19:45:53 GMT

Those who argued against antisemitism bill HR 6090 are mistaken on what the Bible says about who is culpable for crucifying the Messiah

On Wednesday, May 1, the US House of Representatives passed a bill called the “Antisemitism Awareness Act” (H.R. 6090), aimed at curbing hate speech in the wake of anti-Israel protests on college campuses and a great increase in antisemitic violence around the country and the world. ^[ ⁱ ^] The bill accepts the following “Working Definition of Antisemitism” by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) as published in January 2005 and adopted by an IHRA plenary of 31 countries in May 2016.

“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” The Definition then lists 11 “contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and the religious sphere that could, taking into account the overall context, be included” Among these is: “ #9. Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis. ” (emphasis added)

H.R. 6090, introduced by Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and supported by 15 Democratic co-sponsors, was passed 320-91. ^[ ⁱⁱ ^] Among the 91 who voted against the bill were Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) (MTG) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). MTG said she was opposing the bill because it “could convict Christians of antisemitism for believing the Gospel that says Jesus was handed over to Herod to be crucified by the Jews.” ^[ ⁱⁱⁱ ^]

MTG is mistaken. Luke’s Gospel tells us that Pilate sent Jesus to Herod and that Herod sent him back to Pilate, who then ordered his crucifixion ( Luke 23:6-12 ). Three of the four Gospels say that the Sanhedrin handed Jesus over to Pilate. John says that “the Jews” did. But it is clear from the context that he is speaking of the same Council.

Gaetz wrote: “The Gospel itself would meet the definition of antisemitism under the terms of this bill!” He added that “One of the contemporary examples of antisemitism identified by the IHRA includes: ‘claims of Jews killing Jesus’” He goes on to say, “The Bible is clear. There is no myth or controversy on this.” ^[ ^iv ^] Gaetz then cited three Scripture passages to support his argument: ^[ ^v ^] Acts 4:10 ; 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 ; Acts 3:14-15 .

How are we to respond to this accusation? Who did kill Jesus?

Does the Biblical record in fact declare that “the Jews” killed their Messiah, thus justifying the charge of deicide, and is it right to accuse today’s Jews including Israelis of being “Christ-killers”? Is the Gospel, therefore, antisemitic according to the IHRA’s definition and example #9? This article will attempt to answer these questions.

1. What do the passages cited actually say?

a) Acts 3:1-10 tells the story of a lame man who sat begging at the ‘Beautiful Gate’ of the Temple in Jerusalem, and who was healed by the disciples, Peter and John through the name of Jesus. A crowd gathered there and Simon Peter began preaching to them about Jesus. He says, “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate , though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.” (3:13-15) ^[ ^vi ^] (emphasis added)

b) In Acts 4:10 , Simon Peter is again the speaker. This time he is responding to a question from the rulers, elders, and teachers of the law at a trial of John and himself in Jerusalem before Annas and Caiaphas, the high priests, and John, Alexander, and other members of the high priest’s family. The question was, “By what power or name did you do this (i.e. heal the lame man)?” (See 4:5-7) He says, “Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified , whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well.” (NKJ ^[ ^vii ^] , emphasis added)

Without a doubt, in both these passages Peter is talking to Jewish people – the crowd was in the Temple in Jerusalem, and the trial of the disciples was before the Jewish rulers. And, without a doubt, he accuses them all of killing Jesus Christ. But I want at this point to note two things: Peter and John were Jews themselves, and Peter had more to say than just that his audience had killed the Messiah.

c) Paul visited Thessalonica in Macedonia with Silas on his second missionary journey. Some of the Jewish people there believed Paul’s message, as did many “God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women”. ( Acts 17:4 ) But those Jewish people in the community who rejected his message were jealous of Paul’s success and tried to kill him and Silas. Paul and Silas escaped and soon afterward Paul wrote his first letter to the young Christian community there, composed of both Jews and Gentiles, to encourage them to stand firm in the face of this opposition.

And so, in chapter 2 verses 14 to 16 he writes: “For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus. You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.” (emphasis added)

Again, Paul, a Jew, ^[ ^viii ^] accuses “the Jews” of killing Jesus and the prophets and of other anti-God, sinful activities.

Thus the simple answer to the first question – does the Biblical record say that “the Jews” killed Christ? – is Yes, BUT :

We must ask a second question.

2. Who are “the Jews” in these passages?

The reference cannot mean all Jews since the speakers, Peter and Paul, are Jews themselves, and in Paul’s case, he is writing to Jews as well as Gentiles. Both also speak in the past tense of the Jews’ killing of Jesus.

In the Acts 3 passage, Peter is talking to a crowd of Jewish worshippers in the Temple, some of whom might well have been present at the trial of Jesus before Pilate and called out for him to be crucified. But note that Peter went on to say, “Now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance , as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer.” Peter then said, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you ” (3:17-20 emphasis added). There is an offer of forgiveness even for the heinous act of killing God’s Messiah.

Peter, in the Acts 4 passage, lays the charge of crucifying Jesus the Messiah specifically against the High Priests and the Jewish leaders, rather than the people of Israel as a whole. It is clear from the record of the events in the four Gospels that this was accurate. But Peter offered the chance of forgiveness even to these leaders when he told them, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (4:12).

By “the Jews” in his letter to Thessalonica, Paul is referring to the Jews of Judea, and in particular the authorities there. He compares the persecution of the believers in Thessalonica by the Jewish community there to that of the persecution of Jesus, and his early followers, by the Jews in Judea. There is ample evidence in the Gospels and Acts as well as the Jewish Scriptures themselves – the Old Testament – that his charges are accurate.

Speaking of judgment coming upon these Jews, Paul is affirming Jesus’s own prophecy in Luke 19:41-44 , where he says in speaking about Jerusalem: “The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you ” (emphasis added). It is worth noting that Jesus wept as he made this prediction, and that his words were fulfilled in AD70 when the Romans destroyed the city.

In none of these Scriptures then are the Jewish People as a whole at the time of Jesus being held responsible for his crucifixion. And, if there were to be any punishment of Jewish people for it, then the punishment would, according to Jesus, fall on that generation.

The clearest statement in the Bible as to who was to blame for the killing of Christ is found in the prayer of the disciples in Acts 4:27 : “Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.”

In other words, everyone in Jerusalem at the time had a hand in it : the King, the Governor, other Gentiles such as the soldiers, Jewish people such as the Chief Priests, the Sanhedrin, and the crowd at the trial…and even Judas who betrayed him, Peter who denied him and the rest of the disciples who deserted him! But it all happened according to God’s plan of salvation for all of mankind, Jew and non-Jew, before, at the time, and since.

[i] HR 6090 was received by the Senate on May 2

[ii] Gateway Pundit May 1, 2024

[iii] ibid

[iv] ibid

[v] ibid

[vi] Scripture quotations are from the New International Version (NIV) unless otherwise stated

[vii] NKJ = the New King James Version

[viii] In Acts 22:3 Paul, who has been a follower of Jesus for many years, states, “I am a Jew…” He does not say, “I was a Jew”.

The war against the Jewish story

Tue, 14 May 2024 18:08:02 GMT

Jewish Media Review - May 2024

Passsover was marred by the sometimes violent anti-Israel protests at U.S. college campuses. As you will see below, Jewish Americans are divided on the Israel-Hamas War and how to respond to it.

As Israel marks it’s 76 ^th Independence Day (Iyar 5/May 13, 2024), Israelis feel they are fighting for the nation’s survival. The first article we present has merit in that some in the nations forget or ignore why (in the political realm) the modern State of Israel was formed: to provide a refuge from antisemitism. In spiritual realm, we see God fulfilling his promises to the Sons of Jacob.

But American Jews are grieved by Palestinian suffering. Where do Christians stand on these questions?

�� The war against the Jewish story (Times of Israel)

The ease with which anti-Zionists have managed to portray the Jewish state as genocidal marks a historic failure of Holocaust education

⤴️Antisemitism surging, report finds, prompting fear for future of ‘Jewish life’ in West (Times of Israel)

The US saw a 103% increase in incidents fueled by Gaza war, a global report for 2023 shows, while France stands out with near-quadrupling of cases

✝️ Christians must march with Israel (JNS)

The rotten antisemitism of the universities is a rejection of Judeo-Christian values.

��Not in Our Name (Tablet)

Politicians are using the rise in antisemitism as an excuse to curtail free speech and expand their own power. Jews must not let them.

⛔The head of the largest Christian Zionist organization is no friend to Israel — he wants an apocalypse there (Forward)

Editor’s note: The commentary linked above is a Jewish critique of how they understand John Hagee’s eschatology. It is presented here without agreement or disagreement. What I do say to you, Christian reader, is that our theology of how the followers of Jesus are grafted into Israel and our eschatology must take seriously the promises of Hebrew Scriptures. Yes, we believe that all things are fulfilled in Jesus Messiah, including the land promises, but for the good of the Jewish people, not for their destruction.

��An Open letter to Jewish Participants in the Current Protests. With respect . (YouTube)

“Henry Abramson is a Canadian historian who is the dean of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences in Flatbush, New York. Before that, he served as the Dean for Academic Affairs and Student Services at Touro College's Miami branch. He is notable for his teachings on Jewish history and Judaism as a religion.” (Wikipedia)

��Opposing views

An open letter to the Columbia University Gaza war protesters from a pro-Palestinian activist in Israel (JTA)
“If I were studying at Columbia today, I would ask myself: Should I join your protests? After all, I, too, am pro-Palestinian.

But I am also pro-Jew.

And when you chant, “There is only one solution, intifada revolution!” and “From the Sea to the River, Palestine will live forever!” you are not calling, as I and my Palestinian-Israeli friends are, for peace, justice and equality for all humans within those borders. You are calling for the violent destruction of the country where we live, and the murder of its citizens — including the Palestinian ones. As we saw on Oct. 7, Hamas has no more sympathy for other-than-Jewish Israelis — not even for Muslim ones — than it does for Jewish Israelis.

When you say, “I am Hamas!” you are not identifying with innocent civilians, including children, women and seniors who were massacred and kidnapped or the women raped in captivity (according to eyewitness accounts from hostages who were freed). Even my Palestinian Israeli activist friends strongly condemned Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 and say Hamas is terrible for the Palestinian people.”
Protesters at Columbia are fighting for our deepest values as Jews (Forward)
The confluence of the outbreak of new protests with Passover is a reminder of what it means to fight for what’s right
I’m a Columbia Professor. The Protests on My Campus Are Not Justice (New York Times)
Lately that noise has been almost continuous during the day and into the evening, including lusty chanting of “From the river to the sea.” Two students in my class are Israeli; three others, to my knowledge, are American Jews. I couldn’t see making them sit and listen to this as if it were background music.

I thought about what would have happened if protesters were instead chanting anti-Black slogans or even something like “D.E.I. has got to die,” to the same “Sound Off” tune that “From the river to the sea” has been adapted to. They would have lasted roughly five minutes before masses of students shouted them down and drove them off the campus. Chants like that would have been condemned as a grave rupture of civilized exchange, heralded as threatening resegregation and branded as a form of violence. I’d wager that most of the student protesters against the Gaza war would view them that way. Why do so many people think that weekslong campus protests against not just the war in Gaza but Israel’s very existence are nevertheless permissible?
Yes, antisemitism is rising. But pro-Palestinian protests aren’t the real threat to our campuses (Forward)
University administrations are complicit in a political movement that’s making students feel more insecure

�� This rabbi is ‘horrified’ at how a song he wrote is being used at campus pro-Palestinian protests (Forward)

Rabbi Menachem Creditor said he objects to ‘Olam Chesed Yibaneh’ used to protest Israel

��After USC cancels graduation amid Israel protests, some Jewish students question their place on campus (Forward)

“Our campus has become such a spotlight,” one student said. “It used to be a place where we learned and studied, and now it’s this hotbox of tension and news and all eyes are on us”

��️ Violence at UCLA will only produce more violence. A remarkable Palestinian peace activist showed me an alternate way (Forward)

Amid the senseless violence at UCLA, a few demonstrators are genuinely promoting peace

Zahra Sakkejha is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants to Canada and works in Los Angeles in biotech. She and about 25 members of the LA support group for Standing Together, an Israeli social movement of Jews and Arabs demanding political and social equality and reconciliation, constituted a small, third group at UCLA protests over the weekend.

She and her peers wore purple T-shirts and held signs that read, “Free the Hostages, “Ceasefire Now,” “Diplomacy Now,” and “Not One More Drop of Blood!” They chanted, “In Gaza, in Tel Aviv, all the children want to live!”

✖️ Verified pro-Nazi X accounts flourish under Elon Musk (NBC News)

An NBC News review identified 150 verified "Premium" accounts that have posted or amplified pro-Nazi content.

⤴️ ADL: Reported antisemitic incidents up 140% in 2023, shattering records (JNS)

“Antisemitism is nothing short of a national emergency, a five-alarm fire that is still raging across the country and in our local communities and campuses.”

⚠️The war in Gaza and rebellion against the God of the Bible (All Israel)

“Is it alright to bring God into the discussion about the war between Israel and Hamas? Are the Israelis not just colonialists, annexing the land and displacing the native population? A short review of the history of the region in question and its biblical context sketches an astoundingly simple answer to the question of the war in Gaza.”

��The Rise of the ‘Survivors’ (Tablet)

And the increasingly forgotten story of the Shoah’s displaced persons

“At war’s end, an archipelago of hastily built or repurposed facilities, among them former concentration camps and Nazi youth summer camps, housed an estimated 1 million people left homeless. Though not all displaced persons were Jews, all surviving Jews were displaced persons, consigned by nationality to live among their tormentors. Once this and other untenable conditions came to light, a consequence of the harrowing revelations of the 1946 Harrison Report detailing the abysmal physical environment in which Jewish victims of the war unwittingly found themselves, they were relocated to displaced persons camps populated entirely by their own kind.”

��‘We Have Our Own History, Our Own Trauma, and Our Own Experience’ (Tablet)

A roundtable discussion with Jews from the former Soviet Union about their experience as immigrants, where they fit into the American Jewish community, how they view rising antisemitism after Oct. 7, and which customs and recipes they’re passing down to the next generation

��️Peacock’s ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ tackles a Holocaust love story based on real events (Jewish Chronicle)

“The Tattooist of Auschwitz” joins a crop of World War II-period TV series inspired by buzzy bestselling novels.

Just how accurate is the Peacock series ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz?’ (Forward)
Relying on testimony, the series try to correct some of the elements that caused controversy in Heather Morris’ book.

�� How Maurice Sendak’s Jewishness shaped ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ (Forward)

The children’s book author was raised by Jews from Poland. A show at the Skirball in LA explores those roots

��Amy Schumer Can’t Escape Backlash… She’s OK With That (Variety)

“ Amy Schumer was in the zone. This was in March, when she was filming on the street in Brooklyn for her upcoming movie “Kinda Pregnant,” a comedy about a woman who pretends to be knocked up for attention. In one take, Schumer emerged from a subway station while answering a phone call — and was interrupted by a stranger shouting at her from the sidewalk: “F*** you, Amy Schumer! You’re a Zionist! You love genocide!”

“It didn’t even raise my heart rate,” Schumer says over brunch at a cozy Brooklyn Heights tavern a couple days later. “I didn’t cry. Nothing.”

Later, “a 20-something woman approached our table and addressed Schumer. “Thank you for everything you’re doing for Israel,” the Brooklynite said. “I follow you on social media. I used to live in Israel and … thank you. We support you.”

After the woman disappears, Schumer says, “That moment you just saw? Maybe 10 times a day that happens to me.”

��The Americans Fighting—and Dying—for Israel (Tablet)

On Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, remembering those who’ve died in battle since Oct. 7, including three U.S.-born ‘lone soldiers’

�� Ultra-Orthodox rabbis openly call to avoid anti-Christian attacks in Jerusalem’s Old City (All Israel)

First public campaign by ultra-Orthodox Jews against ugly phenomenon

��Holiness and Loneliness - Commentary of Parashat Kedoshim (Substack)

“There is nothing alienated or lonely about the Jewish concept of Kedusha. Holiness, in the Torah, is about intimacy with God.”

Thumbnail/Banner Image credit: John Perivolaris via Flickr (cc)

Where are you on the Israel question?

Tue, 14 May 2024 17:50:02 GMT

God is regathering the tribes of Israel. How do Christians respond?

Editor’s note: The modern State of Israel was born on May 14, 1948. It was the climax of 1,800 years of forced exile and waiting. The Prophets speak over and over about how God will regather the scattered tribes of Israel into the land promised to Abraham. We are in the midst of God’s fulfilment of these promises. Since at least the 1880s, Jewish people have been fleeing persecution and finding refugee in ancient Judea and Samaria. Roughly half of the world’s Jewish reside in Israel, and most of the other half reside in the United States. This sermon – given May 5, 2024, at Emmaus Anglican Church in Castle Rock, CO – is a meditation on how God is regathering the Jewish people and how Christians should engage with this reality. The base Bible texts are Isaiah 45:11–25 and Acts 11:19–30 .

Recently I started a book that’s been sitting on my nightstand for months: The Idea of Israel in Second Temple Judaism by Jason Staples. It’s a deep dive into what the word Israel means versus Jew and Hebrew .

In chapter one, he writes about a German scholar Karl G. Kuhn, who wrote an influential paper on Israel vs. Hebrews vs. Jews. Many biblical scholars have quoted this paper and its arguments have become accepted assumptions. Staples is not OK with that. He thinks we need to look again. And one of the reasons why is Karl Kuhn’s environment and personal convictions. Kuhn wrote in 1930s Germany. He would lecture on Judaism in a Nazi uniform. ^[i] He also lectured and wrote extensively on “the Jewish question.”

What’s “the Jewish question”? In the 19th century, “the status of European Jews became the subject of heated debate in an era when they were gradually being granted civil rights and equality.” ^[ii] Many expected Jews to assimilate by adapting or abandoning their customs and religion. “Racial antisemites, however, denied that conversion or acculturation were real ‘solutions’ to the ‘Jewish Question.’ Rather, they believed that Jews were a separate ‘race,’ whose behavior, traits, and character were negative and unchangeable.” ^[iii] This line of thinking ultimately led to Hilter’s “Final Solution” – final solution to the Jewish question – and the monstrous murder of 6 million Jews, including Jewish followers of Jesus.

Today, in a post-October 7 world – after Hamas invaded Israeli civilian homes and murdered 1200 and then Israel invaded Gaza and has killed tens of thousands of Gazans – some in the nations are debating “the Israel Question.” Should Israel exist as a nation-state? What about the Palestinians? What about Jews in the diaspora?

I will not answer those questions for you here. What I hope to do is give you biblical and historical data points as you mull these questions. And I hope you will see with me God’s call for us to imitate him in his compassion for all nations, for all peoples – Jew, Arab, North American, South American, European, Asian – ALL.

Let’s begin with Isaiah 45. This chapter starts with God talking to Cyrus, King of Persia. “For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me” (v. 4).

The northern kingdom of Judah was taken into Babylonian captivity after Jerusalem was destroyed. After 70 years of exile, God used Persia to conquer Babylon and free the exiles. God went so far as to call the pagan Cyrus “my shepherd” and “his messiah/anointed” ( Isa 44:28-45:1 ).

These passages on Cyrus are found in the midst of the Servant Songs of Isaiah, where “Isaiah has diagnosed a double need in the Lord’s people, national bondage (42:18–43:21) and spiritual sinfulness (43:22–44:23).” ^[iv] Isaiah then records how God will meet those needs.

For the Babylonian captivity, God’s answer was Cyrus. He would end their physical bondage and foster their return to their ancient homeland.

The cure for Israel’s spiritual sinfulness is spoken of in the last Servant Song, Isaiah 53:

⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.

⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

Who is this us? In the original context, it is the people of Israel.

In Acts 3, Peter preached in the temple and identified Jesus as God’s Servant. Jesus is the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, the one who has come to cleanse and justify sinful Israel and the nations ( Isa 52:13-15 ). The LORD used Peter’s first two sermons to bring 8,000 Jewish people to believe that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel. Amazing!

But not all in Israel believe. Not all are pleased. Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7 is not well received. It costs him his life. And with his death came a scattering, an exile of the Jewish followers of Jesus.

Our Acts 11 reading tells us that the followers of Jesus who fled Jerusalem stayed along the Mediterranean in Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. For reference, think Lebanon, southern Turkey, and the island of Cyprus.

As these refugees moved, they spoke of Jesus “to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus” ( Acts 11:19-29 ).

Let’s define some terms. We have some believers sharing the gospel with “Jews” and some sharing with “Hellenists.” Some translations will say “Greeks.”

The word Jew has come to mean anyone who is ethnically tied to one of the 12 tribes of Jacob and/or anyone who practices the religion of Judaism. In Greek it’s Ioudaios.

But in the time the New Testament was written, Ioudaios referred to someone from Judea and/or someone who worshiped the God of Israel in the Judean style. Judeans followed the Torah and worshipped in the temple at Jerusalem. ^[v]

So, who were the Hellenists? They were not Gentiles as some have taught. When Luke wants to refer to Gentiles, he uses another word. Three times in Acts, Luke uses Hellenist to refer to Greek-speaking Jews (cf. Acts 6, 9). The Hellenists were secularized Israelites who had assimilated into the greater Greco-Roman culture.

That Hellenists were believing in Jesus may have come as a shock to the Judeans. Why? The Macabbean Revolt commemorated at Hanukkah wasn’t just about throwing off Greek oppression but about cleansing Israel from those who were mixing and compromising with Greek culture. It was also a civil war. ^[vi] Jew fought against Jew.

We see some of these dynamics in the American church still, 160 years since our Civil War.

Well, those Southern Christians haven’t dealt with their racism.
Well, those Northern Christians are so liberal I wonder if they’re really Christians.

The identity politics of North and South – and of middle America vs. the coasts – color our Christian outlook. So it was among the Israelites of the first century. Their culture wars made them question who could come to Jesus.

Notice who’s preaching to the Hellenists: those from Cyprus and Cyrene. Cyprus is an island off the coast of Lebanon that has spoken Greek since it was conquered by Alexander the Great. Cyrene was a Greek colony in what is now Libya. So Greek-speaking Jews from outside Judea are preaching to the Greek-speaking Jews of Antioch.

“And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.” Hallelujah!

Word gets to Jerusalem – to Judea – that Greek-speaking Jews are coming to faith in Jesus! Shocking. So they send Barnabas to investigate.

²³ When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose.

Barnabas sees that the Holy Spirit is at work and validates the evangelistic work. He also knows that these Hellenists are probably biblically illiterate and need to get caught up. So he goes up a little ways from Antioch to find Saul in Tarsus. Together Barnabas the Levite and Saul the Pharisee teach the Hellenists about Jesus and the Scriptures.

Wow!

Earlier in Acts 7 we saw Pharisees and Sadducees execute Stephen the Greek-speaker as a blasphemer. Now in Acts 11 we see Levites, Pharisees, and Hellenists in communion under the banner of Jesus Messiah.

And so we see the first fruits fulfillment of Israel regathered spiritually. As the LORD said in Isaiah 45:

¹⁷ Israel is saved by the Lord

with everlasting salvation;

you shall not be put to shame

or confounded to all eternity.

¹⁸ For thus says the Lord…
“I am the Lord, and there is no other.
¹⁹ I did not speak in secret,
in a land of darkness;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
‘Seek me in vain.’ I the Lord speak the truth;
I declare what is right.

God did not create the people of Israel in vain. He did not create them just to give the nations the Messiah and then toss them as some used-up vessel. The message of salvation continues to be as much for them as it is for the nations.

In the 19th century, Israel was again scattered and exiled – physically and spiritually. As Europe was contemplating “the Jewish Question,” Jews began to return to their ancient homeland. As antisemitism flared in Russia, France, and Germany, Jews relocated – some here to the United States and some to ancient Judea and Samaria. It was not a Cyrus who beckoned the Israelites home this time. Instead, it was the antisemitic hatred of the nations driving them away.

Those same nations validated Israel’s return to their homeland through the League of Nations in 1920 ^[vii] and – after the Holocaust – through the United Nations in 1947. ^[viii] The Arab nations expelled most of their Jewish populations in the 1950s, and many Middle Eastern and North African Jews settled in the newly founded State of Israel. God used all the nations of the world in the 20th century to end Israel’s physical exile.

But what of spiritual renewal? Recently I attended a seminar at Denver Seminary on The Jews and the Church Pre-, During-, Post-Holocaust. We heard about the Jewish Christians who suffered in the Holocaust and about another German Christian theologian who initially saw the Nazis as a gift from God.

Then we heard from Dr. Dan Sered from Jews for Jesus. He reminded us that after the Holocaust so much of the church drew back from sharing Jesus with Jewish people out of shame for Christian antisemitism or out of too much caution.

But something happened in the 1960s and 70s. Young people – among them Jews – discarded religion and looked for meaning in political activism, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. But those things proved empty in time. In their confusion, these young seekers stumbled on to Jesus, first on the beaches of California and later in nations around the world.

Many of the elder statements in the Messianic movement today – Michael L. Brown, Dan Juster, Asher Intrater, David H. Stern – came to faith in the Messiah through the Jesus movement. They are now the Sauls and Barnabases teaching Jews and Gentiles about Jesus and the Scriptures.

Let’s finish back in Isaiah 45.

²⁰ “Assemble yourselves and come;
draw near together,
you survivors of the nations!
²² “Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.
²³ By myself I have sworn;
from my mouth has gone out in righteousness
a word that shall not return:
‘To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance.’

The LORD, in Isaiah 45, is calling all the nations to himself. ALL the nations, including Israel, including Palestine, and the United States, and China and Europe. “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.”

In Isaiah, it’s clear that the God of Israel is speaking. Paul focuses it a bit more when he quotes Isaiah 45 in Philippians 2 as he lauds the Messiah,

⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The Suffering Servant who justifies Israel and the nations is God himself. Jesus Messiah is ADONAI, and he beckons Israel and all the nations to himself.

Israel’s physical exile ended in 1948, but it continues in spiritual exile. Most Jews today are like the Hellenists – aware of their Jewish parentage, maybe they gather with family on the big feast days, but they are secular in most everything else.

²⁴ “Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me,
are righteousness and strength…
²⁵ In the Lord all the offspring of Israel
shall be justified and shall glory.”

Christian, where do we stand on the Israel question? Where do we stand on the Palestinian question?

We must stand with the crucified Messiah who says with his dying breath, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

We must stand with Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of Man who sits at the right hand of the Father ever interceding for humanity.

To the grief-stricken Jews and Arabs among us, we must offer a listening ear, a warm hug, a cold cup of water, a plate of hot food. We must be Jesus to them before we can preach Jesus to them.

Friends, we must be like the believers from Cyprus and Cyrene ready and eager to share the love of Jesus with those around us. Amen.

Footnotes

^[i] Jason A. Staples, The Idea of Israel in Second Temple Judaism: A New Theory of People, Exile, and Israelite Identity . (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 32ff.

^[ii] “ The ‘Jewish Question ,’” Holocaust Encyclopedia, The United State Holocaust Memorial Museum, Nov 26, 2019. Accessed May 3, 2024.

^[iii] “The ‘Jewish Question,’” Holocaust Encyclopedia.

^[iv] J. A. Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 352–353.

^[v] For a great discussion on Ioudaios , see The Jewish Gospel of John: Discovering Jesus, King of All Israel by Eli Lizorkin Eyzenberg.

^[vi] Pierre Vidal-Naquet, “ Maccabean Revolt .” My Jewish Learning.

^[vii] Efraim Karsh, “ How San Remo Birthed the Jewish National Home ,” Middle East Quarterly (2020).

^[viii] “ United Nations Resolution 181 | Map & Summary | Britannica"

How not to read Acts 3 antisemitically

Tue, 14 May 2024 16:22:59 GMT

How do we responsibly handle Peter's sermon preached to his fellow Jews?

Editor's note: This teaching is based on the sermon above, given at Christ Our Hope Anglican Church in Natrona Heights, PA. Invite CMJ USA to your church or conference.

Today we will look at Peter’s sermon in Acts 3. This sermon, given inside the Jerusalem temple, can be summed up in what we call the mystery of our faith: Messiah has died. Messiah is risen. Messiah will come again.

As director of CMJ USA, my job is to remind you that Jesus and his Gospel message are Jewish and that we should contemplate what that means for us Gentiles who follow Jesus.

We’ll see that:

Jesus is the Redeemer and Prophet that God promises to Israel,
we must guard against antisemitic readings by always reading the New Testament from within Judaism,
the Jewish context of the Gospel and the Jewish identity of Jesus must stir in us love and compassion for our Jewish neighbor.

Let’s set the scene of Acts 3. It’s late May or early June in Jerusalem. As Peter preaches, he expects the people to know what happened to Jesus of Nazareth. It’s probably a few days, weeks at most, since the biblical Feast of Weeks (Lev 23), what we call Pentecost. This was one of the three mandated pilgrim festivals when Jewish men were supposed to travel to Jerusalem to worship in the temple. It is thought that the population of Jerusalem tripled in size during feast times. The city is probably still full of pilgrims.

Peter and John are heading into the temple to pray. It’s about 3 in the afternoon on a warm day. ^[1] As they enter the temple complex, a lame beggar asks them for money.

…they stared straight at him; and Kefa (Peter) said, “Look at us!” The crippled man fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. Kefa said, “I don’t have silver, and I don’t have gold, but what I do have I give to you: in the name of the Messiah, Yeshua of Natzeret, walk!” And taking hold of him by his right hand, Kefa pulled him up. Instantly his feet and ankles became strong; so that he sprang up, stood a moment, and began walking. Then he entered the Temple court with them, walking and leaping and praising God! Everyone saw him walking and praising God. They recognized him as the same man who had formerly sat begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and they were utterly amazed and confounded at what had happened to him. ( Acts 3:4-10 CJB)

Why has this caught the worshippers’ attention? Because healing the lame was a sign of the Messiah. The prophets speak of a time when the lame will walk and the blind will see and the captives will be freed. These were the signs Jesus was constantly doing in his ministry. But most of the city thinks Jesus is dead. It’s been maybe two months since Passover and that wannabe messiah Jesus was crucified. Another disappointment.

But suddenly, a man everybody knows has been lame from birth is walking and leaping and praising God!

In Acts 3:13 , Peter says God, by healing the lame man, is glorifying “his servant Jesus.” When we see Jesus called God’s Servant, we mustn’t just read over it as some arbitrary selection from a thesaurus.

No, this is a deliberate word choice: servant. It is a reference to the Servant of God in Isaiah. Peter later unpacks this thought in his first letter when he quotes Isaiah 53:

²¹ …the Messiah suffered, on your behalf, leaving an example so that you should follow in his steps. ²² “He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found on his lips.” ²³ When he was insulted, he didn’t retaliate with insults; when he suffered, he didn’t threaten, but handed them over to him who judges justly. ²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness — by his wounds you were healed. ²⁵ For you used to be like sheep gone astray, but now you have turned to the Shepherd, who watches over you ( 1 Peter 2:21-25 ).

When Peter says Jesus is God’s servant, he means the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 who dies for the sins of Israel and the nations.

As Peter continues preaching, he does not pull any punches as he tells the story of Jesus:

¹⁴ [God’s] servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. ¹⁴ But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, ¹⁵ and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. ( Acts 3:14-15 )

This passage and others like it have been mishandled throughout church history. Let’s pause to understand how and then tread carefully as we unpack Peter’s message.

There is an ancient line of theological thinking – that still persists in some corners of Christianity – that reads the crucifixion accounts and concludes, “The Jews killed Jesus. Jesus is God. The Jews killed God.” When these biblically obtuse Christians say “the Jews” they mean all Jews for all time. Sound silly?

In Steven Speilberg’s semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans , the director depicts several antisemitic incidents suffered by a boy named Sammy Fabelman. The bully jocks call out Sammy’s Jewishness in the locker room. They mock his name and call him Bagelman. They hang a bagel labeled “Jew Hole” in his locker. The abuse escalates when one boy calls him “Christ killer” and demands Sammy apologize for “killing our Lord.” Sammy explains that he wasn’t alive 2,000 years ago. The bullies then proceed to beat their Jewish classmate until he’s curled up on the concrete with a bloody nose. This is not something out of Spielberg’s imagination but likely something that happened to him or someone he knew.

Where does this vitriol stem from? Some of it can be blamed on church father John Chrysostom. In the fourth century, he preached eight sermons against followers of Jesus who continued to celebrate Easter at the same time as Passover and who would sometimes go to synagogue to celebrate the biblical feasts.

In the first of his sermons Against the Jews, Chrysostom says,

Tell me this. If a man were to have slain your son, would you endure to look upon him, or accept his greeting? Would you not shun him as a wicked demon, as the devil himself? They slew the Son of your Lord; do you have the boldness to enter with them under the same roof? After he was slain he heaped such honor upon you that he made you his brother and coheir. But you dishonor him so much that you pay honor to those who slew him on the cross, that you observe with them the fellowship of the festivals, that you go to their profane places, enter their unclean doors, and share in the tables of demons. For I am persuaded to call the fasting of the Jews a table of demons because they slew God. ^[3]

Yikes! Three centuries after Jesus died and rose again in Jerusalem, Chrysostom held the Jews of Antioch, 300 miles and 300 years removed, responsible for killing Jesus. How wrong is that?

Still, some sections of the church have read Chrysostom uncritically and continue to accept his take on the culpability of all Jews for all time. They have missed that God says, “ The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” ( Ezek 18:20 )

They – we – also forget that in the Gospels and especially in the first chapters of Acts, nearly every interaction, conversation, and teaching happens between Jewish people. In Acts 3 Peter, a Galilean Jew, is preaching to pious Jews – likely from all over the world – who are in the temple to pray.

To avoid reading passages such as these antisemitically, we must consciously read them from within their Jewish context.

Peter’s harsh words –

you delivered [Jesus] over and denied him before Pilate
you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer instead
you killed the Author of life

are one reason I believe this sermon was given within days or a few weeks of his Pentecost/Shavuot sermon, when the Holy Spirit was poured out and 3,000 were baptized. Peter expects his listeners to not only remember but to have been present that Passover Eve two months before when Jesus was crucified.

They say that preachers are to afflict the comfortable and to comfort the afflicted. Peter has afflicted these Jewish worshipers by calling out their part in Jesus’ death. But then he quickly offers comfort:

“I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.”
This Jesus has “God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.”

When Peter says, “you did not understand” (CJB), I hear Jesus say from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Does the Father hear the Son praying? Does he give Jesus the desires of his heart? I hope so because the Scriptures say that the resurrected Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father ever interceding for us! I’m counting on the Father’s mercy for me for the sake of his Son! So certainly, God forgave those responsible for executing Jesus.

Back to Peter’s sermon, Acts 3:18 : ^“ But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.”

Here are some of the big prophecies Peter is alluding to:

Genesis 3: Jesus is the seed of the woman who is fatally bitten by the serpent as he crushes its head.
Genesis 22: Like Abraham offered Isaac to God, so God offers his Son for the sake of the Sons of Abraham.
Genesis 37-43: Jesus, like Joseph, was betrayed and sold by his brothers, was thought dead, and “returns to life” to save the family.
Psalm 22: Jesus, Son of David, cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” when his hands and feet are pierced.
Isaiah 52-53: The Servant of God is considered a sinner, is beaten for the healing of his people, and killed to cover the sin Israel and all the nations.

After Peter lays this out, he has a good, old-fashioned Baptist altar call:

¹⁹ Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, ²⁰ that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. ( Acts 3:19-21 )

Actually, it’s a very Jewish call to repentance. He gives three reasons for them to repent:

“That your sins may be blotted out.” That’s Yom Kippur language. To this day, when Jews fast on the Day of Atonement, it is so that their sins will be blotted out from God’s record books.
Repent, “that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” One Messianic Jewish commentator says the times of refreshing refers to the Messianic Age when God’s king brings peace to all the earth. In the Mishna, an early Jewish commentary, there is a similar reference to the refreshing or cooling of one’s spirit in the world to come. ^[4]
Repent, “that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, Yeshua.” Jesus ties his return and the start of the Messianic Age to the preaching of his gospel of repentance to all the nations of the world ( Matt 24:14 ). Here Peter also ties repentance to Jesus’ return. Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father maybe a month before, but Peter is already preaching Jesus’ return to his fellow Jews.

Is there a link between Jesus’ return and his Jewish brothers recognizing him as Messiah? When Jesus lamented over Jerusalem, he said, “You will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’” ( Matt 23:39 ; Luke 13:35 ).

To this day, in Hebrew, this is how you welcome someone when they come to your house. Baruch haba b’shem Adonai. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Jesus said Jerusalem will not see him again until they welcome him home, until they call for him to come ( Zech 12:10 ).

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” ( Rom 10:14-15 )

There’s more to Peter’s sermon that we won’t tackle here, like Jesus as the Prophet Like Moses and God calling Abraham to bless all the nations who rebelled at Babel.

The takeaway today, Christian, is that this story we step into when we believe on the name of our Lord Jesus Messiah and are saved is a Jewish one. We are disciples of the Jewish Rabbi Jesus. We worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

What we celebrate every Sunday was foretold by Moses, Samuel, David, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Zechariah, and all the rest. When we get to Pentecost and remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we are celebrating the fulfillment of a prophecy by the Israelite prophet Joel on a feast day prescribed in Leviticus.

Why can’t our Jewish neighbors see the fullness of who Jesus is? Only God knows really.

The story of Joseph, though, gives us hope. I mentioned before that in the Genesis account of Joseph, his brothers didn’t recognize him when he was dressed like an Egyptian ruler. Many Jews are content to say that Jesus is the Messiah for the Gentiles but they can’t recognize him as Jewish under hundreds of years of “Christian” garb.

What matters for us is how we will react and interact with our Jewish neighbors who say Jesus isn’t for them. Will we demonize them like Chrysostom, the Spanish Inquisition, and Martin Luther? ^[5]

Will we demonize them or will we love them sacrificially as Jesus calls us to?

Will we hold the sins of Israel’s government against all Jews or can we intercede for Israel like Jesus and say, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Jesus of Nazareth is the Prophet Like Moses, the Suffering Servant of God, the Author of Life. He was killed by sinful but ignorant humans – Jewish and Gentile. But he rose from the dead having atoned for our sins, the sins of our neighbors and to redeem us all – Jew and Gentile.

Let us receive our forgiveness and restoration and then invite others to repent and enter the new life offered by Jesus’ nail-scarred hands.

Footnotes

^[1] During the Babylonian exile, the sacrifice times had been converted into prayer times. When the temple was rebuilt, those prayer times were kept and integrated into temple worship. Even today, you will see observant Jews arrive at the Western Wall to pray at the morning, afternoon, and evening prayer times. We Christians inherit this practice of stopping to pray throughout the day through the daily office. So much of the Book of Common Prayer takes inspiration from the Jewish siddur (prayer book).

^[2] David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary : A Companion Volume to the Jewish New Testament, electronic ed. (Clarksville: Jewish New Testament Publications, 1996), Ac 3:13 .

^[3] John Chrysostom, Against the Jews, Homily 1. Tertullian.org. Accessed 6 Apr 2024. https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/chrysostom_adversus_judaeos_01_homily1.htm

^[4] Avot 4:17 as quoted in Stern, Ac 3:20 . See also Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, ed. and trans. Jacob N. Cerone, A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud & Midrash (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2022), 721.

^[5] Yes, Martin Luther was a raging antisemite at the end of his life. He called for synagogues to be burned among many other horrific things. Martin Luther, On the Jews and Their Lies, 1543.

CMJ Israel invites you to partner in prayer and more during the war

Sun, 14 Apr 2024 14:26:46 GMT

Editor's note: This update was written before Iran attacked Israel in the pre-dawn hours of April 14. Thank God that Israel and her allies were able to intercept 99 percent of the drones, ballistic and cruise missiles lobbied by the Islamic Republic of Iran. All are staff are well. Pray for the one Bedouin girl injured by falling shrapnel. Ministry continues in Israel and the Palestinian Territories and we welcome your partnership in this critical time.

As the Israel-Hamas War wages on, CMJ Israel continues to find ways to do life and ministry amidst the strife, turmoil, and lack.

Tourism has reduced to a crawl, leaving the ministries under the CMJ umbrella that rely on tourists – like Shoresh Study Tours, the Heritage Centre Museum, and the three guesthouses – short on funding. The guest houses have been offering housing to the displaced and, at times, soldiers. The reduction in tourism isn’t all bad news, though, as it has allowed CMJ staff extra time to minister the love of the Gospel to those around them.

The destruction and devastation of war has brought more work for the Christ Church Mercy Fund , which is doing its best to help people who have lost homes and loved ones and those in need of assistance from the government. A large part of the work that the Mercy Fund does includes counseling, and the need is great right now. They also offer practical support to Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and more.

The Anglican International School Jerusalem has lost many students as people have relocated because of the war. The lower number of students is allowing the leadership to work and pray together to strengthen the Christian identity of the school and hopes to provide scholarships to local Christian and Messianic students.

In greater Israel, many foreign workers have left the country because of the war, so there are a great number of jobs that need to be done and no one to do them. CMJ, partnering with Shoresh Tours, is hosting Tours with Purpose to encourage people to come to Israel and serve the people of Israel by helping with these jobs. Visit cmj-usa.org/shoresh for info and dates.

If you feel led to sow into any of these on-going projects, you can give at cmj-usa.org/donate . Be sure to select the appropriate fund in the drop-down menu: Mercy Fund, War Relief, Christ Church Jerusalem, or Jerusalem Anglican School.

Please pray for and with us:

that the war ceases and the hostages are released.
for all who have been injured in this war and those grieving their dead.
for all who are working and caring for others, that they may be the recipient of kindness and care as well.
for the Lord’s provision, that it may be seen and bring glory to God.
also for the Jewish people, especially those from the West, as they are shattered and shocked by the rising antisemitism in the West. May they see the love of God in those around them and may we be better examples of his love for all of his creation.

We are thankful for the ways in which God has been working as we look for opportunities to share his love with those around us.

Image credit: Screenshot from CBN News via YouTube

The first Passover of the second Exodus

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 14:12:25 GMT

The Prophets were expecting another redemption and a time when Torah would be written on hearts rather than stone

The article below is based on this sermon preached at Christ Our Redeemer Anglican Church in Oklahoma City on the Fifth Sunday in Lent, Passion Sunday.

³¹ “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, ³² not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. ³³ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

Jeremiah was one of the last voices warning the Kingdom of Judah that judgment was coming. The Israelites repeatedly were unfaithful to God, breaking vows they made at the time of Moses.

In the first Exodus, God freed Israel from slavery in Egypt and whisked them away into the wilderness. At Mount Sinai, God and Israel promised to be faithful to one another as in a marriage relationship.

But Israel became a wayward spouse and worshipped other gods and failed to care for the most vulnerable in society. God was patient for more than 400 years. But enough was enough. God enacted the judgment clauses of the nuptial agreement (the Torah) and sent Babylon to judge Israel. The people were forcibly removed from the Promised Land.

But even as God pronounced judgment through Jeremiah, God offered comfort. When God judges, he always offers comfort and he always makes a way for restoration.

In Jeremiah 31, God restates his commitment to Israel. God promises to make a new covenant with the 12 tribes of Israel. This new covenant will differ from the Mosaic covenant, not necessarily in content but in execution. The content is still the Law. Law – that’s such a heavy word. When you read Law in the Scriptures, think Torah, think Community Instruction. The Torah is God’s guide to how we are to relate to him and to each other.

In his New Covenant with Israel, God promises to

“put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” Torah, God’s community instruction, will no longer be external to be learned in a human way. It will instead be internally recorded and taught by the Holy Spirit. God will write it on their hearts.
“be their God, and they shall be my people.” This is the same as in the Mosaic Covenant. God promises to make Israel his treasured people. Israel’s part is to make God their treasured life partner.
“No longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.” This is a promise of a personal relationship with God for everyone, no matter your social status, your financial status, your educational status, your marriage status, your health status. Every Israelite in the New Covenant will know God personally.
“I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” In the New Covenant, God promises to forgive and forget the sins of his people, the infidelity to him and to each other.

To whom are these promises of a New Covenant made? To Israel and Judah. To the 12 tribes of Jacob.

Has God kept this promise of a New Covenant? When and how?

We call the “Christian” half of the Bible the New Testament or New Covenant. If you’ve ever wondered why, the answer is Jeremiah 31 and Luke 22.

¹ Now the feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. ¹⁴ And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. ¹⁵ And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. ¹⁶ For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” ¹⁷ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. ¹⁸ For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” ¹⁹ And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁰ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:1, 14–20)

In verse 20, Jesus says, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, pronounces the start of the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31 at the Last Supper. Or maybe we should call it the First Passover of the New Exodus. What do I mean?

We saw in Jeremiah 31 that God referenced “the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.” For reasons we won’t cover today, the people of Israel wound up enslaved in Egypt. They cried out for salvation, and God raised up Moses. Through Moses, God brought judgment on Egypt for their idolatry and for enslaving Israel.

God’s final judgment on Egypt would affect all those who lived there. But God made a way of protection: the Passover meal.

In Exodus 12, God told Israel how to protect themselves from the coming judgment. They were to kill a sheep or a goat, put its blood over the door, roast the lamb, and eat it with unleavened bread. All peoples – Israelite or Egyptian – in houses where this meal is eaten were saved from God’s judgment on Egypt.

God commanded that this salvation meal be remembered every year. To this day, Jewish families gather every Passover to remember how God saved them from Egypt.

In the thousands of years since the Exodus, the Passover meal has evolved. It’s always included unleavened bread (matzah), but by the time of Jesus, four cups of wine had been added as symbols of joy and God’s four promises to Israel in Exodus 6:6-7:

I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians
I will deliver you from slavery to them
I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.
I will take you to be my people , and I will be your God.

I recently read The Nazarene , a novel based on the Gospels by Jewish writer Sholem Asch. It was published in 1938. Like The Chosen on TV today, The Nazarene puts Jesus back in his Jewish context and teases out details non-Jews might miss.[ii]

In the novel, Asch succeeds in giving readers a sense of the messianic expectation that arose every Passover. Was this the year God would throw off the Roman oppressors? Who in the Jewish community was with the latest revolutionary? Who was opposed to an uprising for political, financial, or religious reasons?

And what of this Jesus of Nazareth who preaches an elevated Torah in the Sermon on the Mount, who provides bread from heaven to feed the 5,000, who speaks to Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration? Is he the Messiah? Is he the Prophet Like Moses? Is he the Son of God?

Jesus answers these questions through his actions at the Last Supper.

We see Jesus take wine twice in Luke 22. More than likely, Luke records the first and the third cup of the Passover meal. Luke next says,

¹⁹ And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

With the help of Matthew’s Passover account (Matt 26:26), we know that this happened while they were eating. So Jesus paused the meal, blessed a piece of matzah and said the bread represents his body.

This is highly unusual, not just equating the bread to his body but the timing of the eating of the bread. The last thing you were supposed to eat – in Jesus’ time – at the seder was the Passover lamb. But Jesus has them eat bread last and says, “This is my body, which is given for you.”

With this action, Jesus is saying, “I am the ultimate Passover lamb.” Paul affirms this by saying Jesus is our Passover sacrificed for us (1 Cor 5:7).

Then we see Jesus take wine again after supper, Luke 22:20: “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” This is the third cup of the Passover meal, the Cup of Redemption.

With this cup of wine, Jesus announces to his Jewish disciples the arrival of New Covenant promised through Jeremiah centuries before! He is in effect saying, I am the Prophet Like Moses. This is the new exodus. I am the God who redeems you. I am writing my Torah on your heart.

When we come to the Communion table, we are partaking in a compressed Passover meal. We are remembering Jesus’ death until he comes, as he asked us to. We are also stepping into the New Covenant promised to Israel and Judah.

How can non-Jews, step into this promise? Because God chose Abraham on our behalf. The call of Abraham was always to bless the all the nations that rebelled at the Tower of Babel (Gen 10, 11). “In you,” God tells Abraham, “all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen 12:3).

In the New Covenant, God promises those who sign on – Jew and Gentile – that

He will write his good instruction on our heart.
We will be God’s people and he will be our God.
We will have a personal relationship with God.
Our sins will be forgiven and forgotten.

God will judge the sin of this world as he judged Egypt. Every injustice will incur God’s wrath. We are all sinners. We have all been unjust. We all deserve God’s wrath.

But he has made a way of forgiveness, of protection, of redemption. We need only take on the blood of Jesus, the ultimate Passover lamb, upon the door of our hearts. We need only come to the Communion table at his invitation and celebrate his victory over sin and death by eating his bread and drinking his wine.

Footnotes

i. A. Chadwick Thornhill, “Exodus,” The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

ii While the retelling of the Gospel account in The Nazarene is fairly faithful to the biblical account, the author Sholem Asch seemed to believe that Jesus is the Messiah for the Gentiles only, words he puts into the mouth of his version of Nicodemus the Pharisee. The book is worth reading for its Jewish perspective on Jesus and its discussion of Christian antisemitism.

Antisemitism is up but is it worth panicking?

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 14:12:21 GMT

Jewis h Media Review - April 2024

This month we have lots of statistics and questions about what those statistics mean. The truth is that antisemitic incidents are up nationwide (and in Europe). How bad is it? Jewish Americans disagree, you’ll see below.

Here’s my concern: that Jewish Americans are being demonized for the actions of the nation-state of Israel. No matter what we think about the Israel-Hamas War, the painting of any and all Jews as targets of protest and even attack is unfair and unjustified.

Take this city council meeting in California, where a Holocaust survivor was harassed as a protest against the war and a protestor said all Jews are traitors, spies, and “racist Zionists.” Not only is it wrong but it is the rehashing of old antisemitic trope of Jews as traitorous (e.g. Dreyfus Affair ).

This is where I am calling Christians – no matter your opinions on the Israel-Hamas War – to push back when you hear someone blaming all Jews for what is happening Gaza.

Reminder: These headlines are presented as a snapshot of what our Jewish neighbors are thinking and feeling. CMJ USA does not necessarily agree with all the opinions expressed in these articles.

On rising antisemitism

�� CAM Tracks Daily Average of 17.1 Antisemitic Incidents in March, a 315% Year-Over-Year Rise (Combat Antisemitism Movement)

�� The growing panic about antisemitism isn’t a reflection of reality (Forward)

Yes, antisemitism is up — but prominent voices are confusing protest with bigotry

�� Has the term ‘antisemitism’ been overused – or overblown – beyond usefulness? (Times of Israel)

Historians criticize use of word as ‘super-category’ for all anti-Jewish discrimination — from antiquity through Hamas’s October 7 massacre in Israel and global surge in Jew-bashing

�� When hate comes to your hometown (Forward)

Chants of “We don’t want no Zionists here” felt like a “knife through the heart” to a Montclair mom

�� American Jews Should Become a Little More Israeli (Tablet)

Instead of playing defense, we should learn how to stand up for ourselves better

�� Jews have been cursed to be lonely. The war is a reminder to fight back against that fate (Forward)

Many Jews feel isolated in this time of conflict — but it doesn’t need to be that way

Note: The Jews are called to be a peculiar people, yes to sometimes stand alone. Christians share that call. For too much of history, Christians have seen our call to stand separated as distinct and in opposition to the call of the Jewish people. But what if it’s the same call?

If the Gentile followers of Jesus are indeed grafted into the root of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Rom 11:17ff), then our call to be peculiar is to be peculiar WITH the Jewish people. So as antisemitism boldly raises its head, Christians – who follow the best-known Jewish man in the world – need to stand up and stand with our Jewish neighbors in their loneliness and be alone together.

�� BBYO survey reports that 71% of Jewish teens have experienced antisemitism (Jewish Chronicle)

Research shows high-schoolers encounter hate both in person and online.

✡️ Jewish Students Feel Less Safe on Campus – But Are Still Showing Their Jewish Pride (Jewish Journal)

The ICC/Schoen survey findings came from interviews with 1,000 U.S. adults, 400 American college students and 200 Jewish college students.

❓ Has the Golden Age of American Jewry Come to a Close? (complied by Jewish Journal)

A rise in antisemitism has many American Jews wondering if the era of American exceptionalism when it comes to antisemitism has come to a dramatic end.

The End of an Era - Franklin Foer, The Atlantic: “Liberalism helped unleash a Golden Age of American Jewry, an unprecedented period of safety, prosperity, and political influence… But that era is drawing to a close. America’s ascendant political movements—MAGA on one side, the illiberal left on the other—would demolish the last pillars of the consensus that Jews helped establish."
A Campaign of Violence - John Podhoretz, Commentary: “It is, as we go to press, four months since October 7. And the passage of time is not causing the forces arrayed against American Jews to relent or stand down. Supporters of Houthi terrorist attacks from Yemen against Israel (one Houthi drone was shot down just before it would have hit the Israeli city of Eilat) blockaded the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C."
Becoming Like Europe - Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, AJC: “While Americans have seen rising antisemitism in recent years, this level is uncharted territory. For Europeans, it is heartbreakingly familiar. Some of us have long warned that the antisemitism in Europe would cross the Atlantic and land on American shores. Seeing that gloomy prediction fulfilled has been profoundly depressing."

�� Is Anti-Zionism Really the New Antisemitism? (complied by Jewish Journal)

Is Anti-Zionism simply the new form of antisemitism for a new generation of Jew haters?

An Evolving Hatred - Steven Windmueller, Jewish Journal: “Extremist politics, both right and left, have readily adopted an array of new charges against Jews. And most recently, with the rise of postmodernism has come a whole new vocabulary that joins race and politics in framing Jews and Israel as “whites,” “colonialists” and “occupiers.”
A Tedious Word Game - Seth Mandel, Commentary: “No one is just finding out that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. Everyone already knew that. But many people were content to lie about this fact and claim ignorance. There is no real debate about what people mean when they say “Zionists."
A Creative Reinvention - Noah Feldman, TIME: “The core of this new antisemitism lies in the idea that Jews are not a historically oppressed people seeking self-preservation but instead oppressors… This view preserves vestiges of the trope that Jews exercise vast power. It creatively updates that narrative to contemporary circumstances and current cultural preoccupations with the nature of power and injustice.”

✡️ Should American Jews Blame Israel for Antisemitism? (complied by Jewish Journal)

A controversial new essay from Rob Eshman of the Forward (below) argues that American Jews should wake up to the fact that Israel is the cause of antisemitism:

The Consequences of Israel's Actions - Rob Eshman, Forward: “Israel’s choices about how to conduct it matter for Jewish safety everywhere — not just in Israel. Israel’s retaliatory attack against Hamas in Gaza has to date claimed more than an estimated 30,000 Palestinian lives. The images of death, destruction, terror and struggle are posted hourly on social media. They are, plainly, horrifying.
The Real Source of Antisemitism - Matthew Schultz, Instagram: “The wave of antisemitism we see right now is not a response to Israel’s war. It is a thrilled response to Hamas’ attack from people who want to get in on the action.”
The Problem with Eshman's Argument - Jonathan S. Tobin, JNS: “The first flaw in his reasoning is the way he accepts without much argument the smears of the Israel Defense Forces’ counter-offensive in Gaza.

▶️✡️◀️ Far Right and Far Left Converge — Against the Jews (Jewish Journal)

The world of antisemitism has become so muddled that it’s almost impossible to tell one from the other.

“Can you tell which of these haters is coming from the political right, and which from the political left? The world of antisemitism has become so muddled that it’s almost impossible to tell one from the other.

Consider: One of these three haters was recently arrested for painting the slogan “White Power” on synagogues. One co-chaired the Women’s March on Washington. One is a former New York Times correspondent and speechwriter for Ralph Nader. Can you tell which one is which?

One of the three is a Presbyterian minister. One is a devout Muslim. One owns a Ku Klux Klan robe. Still can’t tell who’s who?”

✡️ Spielberg fears repeat of history: ‘We may again have to fight for right to be Jewish’ (Times of Israel)

Filmmaker deplores ‘machinery of extremism’ stirring antisemitism on campus since Oct. 7; Jews can both ‘rage against heinous acts’ by terrorists and decry deaths of Gaza civilians

Interesting reads

✅ 5 Israeli politicians every Christian should know besides Netanyahu (All Israel)

A quick primer from Christian news site All Israel.

��️ ‘How many miracles can we get?’: Holocaust saga comes to life in new Hulu miniseries (Times of Israel)

Stars Joey King and Logan Lerman are joined by many Israeli cast members, including Lior Ashkenazi, Hadas Yaron and Michael Aloni, in ‘We Were the Lucky Ones,’ set in WWII Poland

✝️ How This Messianic Learned to Stop Hating Easter ( Kineti L'Tziyon )

When I was younger, I berated other Christians for celebrating Easter. Well, I've grown a bit since then and changed my mind about Easter. It's a good and holy thing that God's people celebrate Jesus' resurrection, even if they call it "Easter."

Israel-Hamas War

�� Can I really love my enemies? (All Israel)

Yeshua taught his followers to love their enemies. Once this was easy for me, growing up on a sheep farm in New Zealand. I had no enemies, none that wanted to kill me anyway. But now? As an Israeli, there are thousands of evil, twisted people living just next door, whose sole aim in life is to kill, rape, mutilate or capture me and my fellow countrymen. On October 7, they demonstrated what they can do, and since then they have been constantly threatening to carry out such acts again and again. How do I love them? Can I love them?

�� Fifteen Minutes of Flame (Tablet)

Aaron Bushnell self-immolated screaming ‘Free Palestine.’ His agony likely didn’t start with Israel’s war in Gaza but in an abusive ‘Christian’ cult that traumatized its children and saw the destruction of Israel as a gateway to heaven.

Note: The end of the subheadline that says the cult ‘saw the destruction of Israel as a gateway to heaven’ is misleading and an overstatement to what the writer believes are Christian eschatological beliefs. But it is important to know that some Jews distrust Christians because of this understanding that the coming of the Kingdom of Christ means the destruction of Israel. When we understand the Jewish-roots of Jesus’ gospel message, we better understand that the coming of the Kingdom of Christ (Messiah) means the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel, as foretold in the prophets, expanded to include the nations that pledge allegiance to the God of Israel.

�� Israel’s war is making American Jews unsafe. So why are so many still supporting it? (Forward)

Reckoning with surging antisemitism means reckoning with Israel’s role in fomenting it

�� Jewish groups are anguished over Israeli strike that killed aid workers — and divided on who to blame (JTA)

�� I spent months praying for a single Israeli hostage. Yesterday, I found out he’s dead. (Forward)

The more I think about Uriel Baruch, the more I wonder about the Palestinian victims whose names and faces I do not know.

�� 129 days: How one Israeli hostage in Gaza told stories to endure captivity (NPR)

Luis Har was taken hostage during the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and freed by an Israeli special forces operation in February. In captivity, he says, "Every time we fell into depression, we overcame it with stories. We started to say, where are we going to travel to today in our minds?"

Resurrection makes no sense without death

Sat, 30 Mar 2024 17:43:16 GMT

A meditation on the death of the Messiah for Good Friday

Jesus is dead!

You may be thinking, ‘But Sunday is coming!’ Yes, but let’s slow down.

It’s Good Friday or the Great & Holy Friday or Black Friday.

We’re here at church to sit in the reality of death for a day. If it didn’t matter, we wouldn’t mark it on the calendar. Resurrection makes no sense without death. We have no idea what resurrection is if we do not know and experience death.

We cannot fully enter into the joy of Resurrection Sunday without going deep down into the darkness of Good Friday. I pray that you don’t just bear with me but come with me into this Good Friday contemplation.

The church where I regularly worship has an icon we affectionately call Dead Jesus. When I first started attending the church, it was the only altar icon we had. See how Jesus is wrapped in burial cloths and how his mother Mary lovingly embraces her dead son.

Dead Jesus was up nearly year-round the first years I was at this church. One of the few times the icon was put away was for the seven weeks of Easter because it’s hard to celebrate the Resurrection when you’re looking at Dead Jesus.

Happily, in the past few years, the church has acquired other depictions of Jesus, like Resurrected Jesus and The Last Supper. Still, at Lent, Dead Jesus comes back out and is with us through Holy Week.

Who wants to see Dead Jesus? I didn’t at first. I said: He’s not on the cross anymore. The tomb is empty. Jesus is alive, sitting at the right hand of the Father. All true.

Then I watched colon cancer snuff out the life of my best friend. Suddenly, I needed to see Dead Jesus. I needed to see Mary holding Jesus’ dead body. I needed to remember that Jesus knows death and knows it intimately.

So let us contemplate Jesus’ death tonight and what it means for us.

What is death? The ceasing of life.

Where does death come from?

Genesis 2:15 - The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

It’s not that the fruit of that one tree was physically poisonous. It was the distrust of God’s word that brought death. God gave them one guideline: Don’t eat from the one tree. Everything else is freely available, but not that one tree.

But when Eve and Adam believed the lies of the serpent, they distrusted God and broke their relationship with him. God is the source of all life, eternal life. When Eve and Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they cut themselves off from God.

And they began to age. The body and mind began to break down, if slowly.

In short, as Paul says, “The wages of sin are death.” (Rom 6:26). Adam and Eve’s sin – their distrusting God and seeking wisdom of themselves – that rebellion brought death into the world (Rom 5:12).

But God gives Adam and Eve (and the snake) a hint of the antidote to death.

In Genesis 3:15, God tells the snake, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall crush your head, and you shall strike/bite his heel.”

A Son of Eve will crush the snake, and the snake will bite the son’s heel.

So, the Son of Eve will kill the snake, avenging his tempting and deceiving Adam and Eve. But the snake will likely get in a fatal bite on this Son of Eve.

Who is this Son of Eve? This reference to ‘the seed of the woman’ or the Son of Eve is unusual and unique. It appears nowhere else.

I imagine most of us here know how babies are made: a seed from a man fertilizes an egg from a woman. There’s no other way to make babies. Women do not have seed.

But then the Gospel of Matthew opens with a strange story of an angel telling a young, unmarried, chaste woman that she will have a baby without having known a man. Unlike Eve, who didn’t trust God’s instruction to Adam in the garden, Mary believes and trusts what God says through the word of an angel.

Is Mary’s son Jesus the ‘seed of the woman,’ the Son of Eve?

Go with me to John 12.

In this chapter, Passover is coming. Jesus has announced himself as King of Israel by riding a donkey into Jerusalem. The crowds are pressing him, asking him questions.

And Jesus says, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:31-32).

“Now will the ruler of this world be cast out.” Early Jewish sources show that when Jesus’ audience heard “ruler of this world,” they understood this to be Satan, “the prince of injustice.” ^[1] This is our oldest enemy, the deceitful Serpent in the Garden who told our first parents – Adam and Eve – and still tells us today that we can be self-sufficient and all-knowing, that we don’t need God’s help to live good, productive lives.

“Now will the ruler of this world be cast out.” It’s time to crush the serpent from Genesis 3!

How, Jesus?

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

The phrase “lifted up” had been cryptic to me for many years. We see it also in John 3 where Jesus references an obscure Bible story about an icon of a snake.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14)

Lifted up… that is one word in Greek. Where else do we see this word? In Isaiah 52:13 in Israel’s Greek translation of the Prophets.

Behold, my servant shall act wisely;

he shall be high and lifted up,

and shall be exalted.

As many were astonished at you—

his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,

and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—

so shall he sprinkle many nations. (Isa 52:13-15a)

So, this Servant of God in Isaiah 52 and 53 will suffer some severe trauma. He will be unrecognizable as a human being. If you keep reading, you see that this servant dies a violent death and is buried in the grave of a rich man. In the grave of Joseph of Arimathea.

“So shall he sprinkle many nations.” The word ‘sprinkled’ here is the same used in Leviticus concerning different sacrifices.

Sprinkled water and blood speak of cleansing. Water cleanses from death. Blood cleanses us from sin (cf. Isaiah 53:10).

Through suffering, this Servant cleanses the nations – the whole world – from death and sin. Through this cleansing, Jesus “will draw all humanity to himself.”

This word “draw” has the sense of dragging. Jesus will drag mankind from the grip of Satan, who has long tried to keep his clutches on us. ^[2]

But in the process, Jesus dies.

Death. We’re back at death.

The night before my friend died, we all held vigil at her bedside. Her breathing had become labored. We were sure she would pass during the night. So we waited.

It was agony to listen to her fight for breath all night. I sat in a far corner of the hospice room as long as I could, praying. Her sister and her husband stayed by her side all night.

As I listened to the death rattle emanate from my best friend, I thought of John the Beloved standing beneath Jesus’ cross.

If Jesus had a best friend, it was John. John was in the inner circle with his brother James and Peter. At the Last Supper, we see that John is comfortable enough with Jesus to lay across his chest. Then we see John at the cross, where the other 11 were not.

John, too, listened to his best friend fight to breathe. The brutality of the cross is that it suffocates you as you hang naked on a public road. The weight of your own body hanging on your outstretched arms makes it hard to breathe. The excruciating nail in the feet makes it harder and harder to push up and relieve the pressure. John (and Mary) watched for hours as Jesus painfully tried to breathe… until he didn't.

Have you experienced death? Have you watched a loved one die? Has death taken someone dear from you?

When we see our loved ones suffering, when death robs us of their presence, we want a villian to blame. It must be God. God is so cruel. If God loves, why do we suffer? He must be a sadist! ^[3]

Certainly not!

God is not a villain. He created all we see and he called it good (Gen. 1-2). His character is always to have mercy (Exod 34:6-7). He also dares to step into our pain.

How do we know? Christmas and Easter and all that transpires in between tells us God feels our pain.

God, the all-powerful creator of the universe, became a human completely vulnerable to every physical and emotional wound we suffer. Jesus certainly experienced the death of his surrogate father Joseph. He was likely mocked as illegitimate ^[4] for most of his life. His own brothers mock his call and ministry (John 7:2-5). He is betrayed by Judas, disavowed by Peter, and abandoned by nine other disciples. Of the 12 men, only John is faithful to the end.

Jesus’ body was torn to shreds by the Roman cat o' nine tails. He was beaten and bruised by Roman and Jewish fists. Thorns and nails pierced his skin.

No, God cannot be a sadist. He doesn’t revel in our pain. Instead, he enters it. He made himself as vulnerable as a fetus in his mother’s womb and lived life as the son of a poor carpenter.

When death came for him in the form of a band of soldiers at Gethsemane, Jesus surrendered. He had already said, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matt 26:29) Jesus suffered the deep sorrow of knowing death was coming. Yet, once he surrendered to the Father’s will, he moved in peace and confidence.

Why? To finally crush the head of that Snake! To show that he loves you. He loves me.

2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
… his soul makes an offering for guilt …
he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53)

Jesus bore the sin of many and he prays for us sinners even today.

Let us tonight, stand under the cross with John, and watch Jesus die. Let us, with Joseph of Arimathea and Mary, hold the body of dead Jesus and grieve and mourn for his death, for our sin that caused him to suffer such pain and horror.

He did it for you. He did it for me. Because he loves us.

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)

We cannot know what resurrection is without experiencing death. Yes, Sunday is coming. Joy is coming Sunday morning. But let us sit with Jesus’ death tonight. Let us remember the heavy cost of that joy. How precious and expensive is our healing, our forgiveness, our joy. Thank you, Jesus.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus Messiah, Son of the living God, we pray you to set your passion, Cross, and death between your judgment and our souls, now and in the hour of our death. Give mercy and grace to the living; peace and rest to the dead; to your holy Church unity and concord; and to us sinners everlasting life and glory; for with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Footnotes

[1] Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, ed. and trans. Jacob N. Cerone, A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud & Midrash Vol. 2, (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2022), 634.

[2] John Chrysostom, “Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Gospel of St. John,” in Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and Epistle to the Hebrews, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. G. T. Stupart, vol. 14 of A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1889), 250.

[3] Even the great C.S. Lewis, who ministered Christ to all of Britain in the midst of World War II, felt God must be a sadist during one of those painful stab waves of grief after the death of his wife Joy. See C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed, various editions.

[4] See Jesus’ argument with Pharisees about parentage in John 8:12-59, particularly v. 41: “...They said to him, ‘We were not born of sexual immorality…’”

Sabbath: Imitation of God

Sat, 16 Mar 2024 15:11:43 GMT

Sabbath keeping can be a touchy subject in the Christian world. It’s in the 10 Commandments, yet many say that the Sabbath is fulfilled in Christ so we Christians don’t have to keep the Sabbath.

A writer at The Gospel Coalition says, “I do not believe the Sabbath is required for believers now that the new covenant has arrived in the person of Jesus Christ.”1

At Desiring God , answering “Should Christians keep the Sabbath?”, the writer says, “In one sense, no: under the new covenant, no Christian is bound to the fourth commandment as such. … In another sense, however, Christians should keep the Sabbath always.”2 At Grace to You, no, the Sabbath laws are not binding today.3

All three say ‘no’ and one spiritualizes, “Christians should keep the Sabbath always,” meaning resting in the work of Christ even though we still have work to do in our families, communities, and the wider world.

Throughout the Scriptures, including the New Testament, God tells his people to be holy like he is holy (1 Pet 1:16 quoting Leviticus). Where do we learn about God’s holy character? Through the Scriptures including the Torah (Pentateuch, first five books of the Bible).

Torah is sometimes translated as Law. We inherit this translation from Judaism when Torah was translated into Greek as Nomos ; from there, we jump to Law. But Torah may be better thought of as teaching or instruction . Torah, especially the 10 Commandments, teaches us about the character of God and instructs God’s people how to live in community with him and each other.

So, what does the command to keep the Sabbath teach us about God? How are we to imitate him?

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exod 20:8-11)

Why are we to remember the Sabbath day? Because God – the all-powerful Creator – rested on the seventh day. If God rested, how much more should we?

Also, God calls the Sabbath holy. The very first use of the word holy in all of Scripture is in Genesis 2. The very first thing God calls holy is not a place or person but a time.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel notes, in his book T he Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man ,

There is no mention of a sacred place in the Ten Commandments. On the contrary, following the event at Sinai, Moses is told: ‘In every place where I cause My name to be mentioned I will come unto thee and bless thee’ (Exod 20:24). The awareness that sanctity is not bound to a particular place made possible the rise of the synagogue. The temple was only in Jerusalem, while the synagogue was in every village. There are fixed times, but no fixed place of prayer.4

This resonates with what Jesus tells the Samaritan woman after she calls out the Jewish-Samaritan argument on which holy mountain is the right place to worship God. Jesus sidesteps the location argument: “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24).

How do we worship God? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and your mind” (Jesus in Matt 22:37, quoting the Sh’ma in Deut 6:5). Jesus elsewhere tells us, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

Are the 10 Commandments Jesus’ commandments? Is Jesus God? Yes and yes.

One of the arguments against Sabbath observance for Christians is that the Sabbath was a covenantal marker between God and Israel (Exod 31:16-17; Ezek 20:12) that passed away with the “old covenant.”

Let’s remember what the New Covenant is. The New Covenant was promised to the Houses of Judah and Israel – the 12 tribes of Jacob – in Jeremiah 31:31-33. In this New Covenant, the LORD promises to write the Torah on their hearts rather than on stone tablets. God also promises, in Ezekiel 36, to regather the scattered tribes of Jacob and “take the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit inside you and cause you to live by my laws,

respect my rulings and obey them” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

When Jesus ratifies the New Covenant, he does so at a Passover meal with his Jewish disciples (Luke 24:20). Jesus is acting out what he says in Matthew 5:17, “Don’t think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete.”

Jesus completes the Torah not just by living it out on Israel’s behalf, but by writing it on the hearts of his disciples, Jew and Gentile. In the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit takes the instruction of the Old Covenant and empowers us to be holy like God is holy.

What then does Sabbath observance look like for the followers of Yeshua?

Paul, in his letters to churches that contained both Jews and Gentiles, warns us against legalism (Rom 14:5, Col. 2:16-17). Jews shouldn’t force Gentiles to be Jewish (Acts 15). Gentiles shouldn’t force Jews to forsake Jewish practice.

Jesus models a Shabbat-keeping that makes room for human need, whether it’s allowing his disciples to “harvest” a snack while walking past a wheat field (Matt 12:1-8) or healing the sick, which Jesus does several times, “for the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

Where I can agree with the Christian writers, whom I’ve mentioned above, is that the Sabbath does point us to Jesus – our ultimate Sabbath rest. Instead of saying that we don’t have to observe the Sabbath because Jesus has fulfilled it and he is our rest; perhaps we should say, Let’s observe the Sabbath as a way to consciously and physically step into the holy rest of the consummated Kingdom of God.

Our Jewish neighbors see Shabbat as a foretaste of eternal life. “The Sabbath possesses a holiness like that of the world to come,” writes Abraham Heschel.5 Jesus is resurrection life itself (John 11:25-27, John 3:16). So, stopping to keep the Sabbath holy is another way for us to commune with Jesus in this broken world.

Footnotes:

Justin Taylor. “Is the Sabbath Still Required for Christians?” The Gospel Coalition , 14 October 2010.https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/schreiner-qa-is-the-sabbath-still-required-for-christians/.
Scott Hubbard, “Should Christians Keep the Sabbath?” Desiring God , 20 April 2021. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/should-christians-keep-the-sabbath.
“Are the Sabbath Laws Binding on Christians Today?” Grace to You , n.d. https://www.gty.org/library/questions/QA135/.
Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man , (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005), 79-80.
Heschel, 73.
Ronald H. Isaacs. Every Person’s Guide to Shabbat . Every Person’s Guide Series. Northvale, N.J: Jason Aronson, 1998.

24% of Americans reportedly hold antisemitic beliefs

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 19:13:16 GMT

Jewish Media Review – March 2024

It was very hard this month to decide which stories to share with you. When I sat down to edit this review, I started with an eight-page Word document. As I read articles throughout the month, I save the headline and link of stories that have value to Christians trying to love their Jewish neighbors well. All the articles feel important when I save them. Some lose their urgency or are eclipsed by something more striking after a week or two.

I do not purport to be a gatekeeper as in the pre-Internet days when only the local newspaper or TV station had access to the ever-ticking news wire. All the news sources referenced here are available on your phone or computer. I do hope that I can stir in you a desire to understand how our Jewish neighbors live the American experience and that this I turn stokes compassion for the Sons of Jacob.

�� Poll finds nearly 1 in 4 Americans hold antisemitic views, highest in 60 years (Times of Israel)

ADL chief decries ‘shocking’ results of survey, which shows younger respondents most likely to agree with anti-Jewish tropes, have little problem with backing for Hamas.

Does this percentage hold up in our churches? Let us not fall for the fallacy that having compassion on the Palestinian civilians caught in the war means we must demonize Jews whether they are in Israel or the United States. Nor should our validating Israel's right to defend itself from murderous Hamas mean we cannot weep for Gazans suffering.

✡️ Hide No More (Jewish Journal)

“’But you don’t look Jewish.’ Growing up in Orange County, with blonde hair and blue eyes, this was a common refrain. You don’t look Jewish. And as an 11- or 12-year-old, I didn’t know how to respond to my non-Jewish peers. Thirty years later, I realize — when someone said to me, “You don’t look Jewish,” they thought they were offering me a compliment.”

��‍��️ The Myth of the Homeless, Cultureless, Ahistorical Jew (Jewish Journal)

At a protest in London, a masterpiece of antisemitism was lifted on high: “The only place you’re indigenous to is Jahannam!” The idea that Jews belong in “Jahannam,” or “hell” in Arabic, is part of the venerable tradition of religious antisemitism, whether Christian or Islamist, while the reference to indigeneity is a nod to left-wing university-style antisemitism. At its core is a simple message: Jews don’t belong anywhere. At least not on earth.

�� UN confirmed Israelis experienced sexual violence on Oct. 7. Why is it so hard for the world to believe? (Forward)

Recent questions about a bombshell New York Times investigation are being used to cast doubt on the veracity of rape allegations

�� We’re living in the most worrying period for Jews since World War II (Times of Israel)

And there’s rarely been a time when Israel’s existence, imperiled from without, and hobbled from within, has been so manifestly necessary

✊�� White supremacists, seizing on Israel-Hamas war, have accelerated their antisemitism since Oct. 7 (JTA)

��‍�� A plea from the daughters of Abraham (Times of Israel)

We both have deep ties to this tragic land, and we have discovered that the way to reclaim our lost humanity is to listen

��️ Documentary on October 7 Supernova festival massacre makes US debut (Times of Israel)

Days after the Hamas onslaught, filmmaker Duki Dror headed to the devastated rave site near Re’im. It is now his mission to show the world ‘Supernova: The Music Festival Massacre’

�� Opinion: Why is the world not helping Gazans flee a war zone? (Forward)

In most contemporary conflicts, global efforts are made to facilitate the evacuation of refugees. Gaza is proving to be the exception

�� Redeeming hostages: What does Judaism really say? (Times of Israel)

There is a striking difference between Talmudic and Biblical responses to the painful dilemma of freeing captives

�� Antisemitic cartoons make a comeback (All Israel)

�� New survey of Orthodox Jews shows vast differences in attitudes toward Zionism (Forward)

“Orthodox Jews in the U.S. have embraced Zionism more strongly since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, but groups within Orthodoxy hold widely divergent views on the subject, a recent survey shows.”

��‍♀️ My Mother’s Secret (Tablet)

My mother was a top Middle East analyst for the CIA. On her deathbed, she begged me not to raise my children Jewish. To find out why, I asked her former colleagues. I’m still reeling from their answers.

�� ‘I do not feel safe on campus,’ says UC Santa Barbara student body president Tessa Veksler, daughter of Soviet refugees (Forward)

�� Would the Jon Stewart Peace Plan Work? ( Jewish Journal )

On the Daily Show, Stewart summarized the Israel-Palestine conflict decently (in a satirical context). He also took a swipe at a certain Christian eschatological view. Jewish media has been commenting on whether Stewart’s proposed ‘Middle East NATO’ would work. The Jewish Journal gathered these three sample responses. Jon Stewart is Jewish.

A Delusional Idea , Natan Kohn-Magnus, Times of Israel
“To claim that actors which hate each other — as Qatar and the UAE do — would get together and form an Article 5-like security commitment is delusional. To fail to mention Iran even once in his segment, with its support for Hamas and other terror proxies throughout the Middle East, is a fatal omission.”
A Worthy Idea , Matthew Loh, Business Insider
“While tongue-in-cheek, Stewart’s solution isn’t a new concept, experts on the Middle East told Business Insider. Most said an “Arab NATO” is unlikely to take root — even if it might do wonders for the region.”
An Unlikely Idea , PJ Grisar, Forward
“[Yair] Rosenberg mentioned how Arab countries may pay lip service to Palestinian freedom, but would likely be unwilling to protect it with boots on the ground.”

'British Schindler' and the Children's Exodus

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 19:13:13 GMT

The heart-wrenching story of a truly great escape

The story of how an agnostic London stockbroker dropped everything to rescue children from an impending Holocaust tugs hard at the emotions. Definitely a recipe for a sleepless night.

But a round of applause for Warner Bros and the BBC for producing the heart-wrenching movie One Life , very appropriately released at a time when Jews are once again being wickedly harassed and abused in the wake of Israel’s defensive response to the murderous Hamas invasion of October 7.

The subject is ‘British Schindler’ Sir Nicholas Winton (Anglicized from the German Wertheim) who courageously saved the lives of 669 children from Prague in Czechoslovakia following the Nazi invasion of their country and the beginnings of Germany’s genocidal actions against God’s chosen people. Their parents, for the most part, were already either killed or on their way to brutal concentration camps.

With Johnny Flynn playing the young Winton, Anthony Hopkins is a perfect fit for the older version in the late 1980s when the amazing story of what he achieved first became widely known through Robert Maxwell’s Sunday Mirror and Esther Rantzen’s That’s Life! program on the BBC. Helena Bonham Carter plays his mother, backing him to the hilt, in the run-up to the outbreak of war. It was a huge task largely run from their Hampstead home in north London.

Though born to Jewish parents, Winton was ‘baptized’ an Anglican but didn’t profess any particular faith, responding to the dire need he witnessed out of sheer human compassion. A man made in God’s image was simply reflecting the love of his Maker, risking his life and career for the sake of homeless and helpless kids in danger of starving. I cried at the scenes of them being torn away from relatives in a desperate attempt to save them.

Measured against the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust, the hundreds saved by Winton’s intervention doesn’t seem much. But every life counts, and the offspring of the rescued are alive today because of what he did.

This ‘great escape’ also served to bring the gospel to the Jewish people, as I discovered some years ago when I wrote about one of them. For John Fieldsend was placed with a Christian family in Sheffield, eventually becoming a disciple of Jesus himself and getting involved with reaching out to his own people with the truth of their Messiah through the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people.

For her part, Esther Rantzen brought home the enormity of the rescue in dramatic fashion through her popular consumer advice program. I well recall watching the show as the elderly Winton came face to face with the reality of what he had achieved. One after the other, every member of the audience stood up to acknowledge and thank him for his role in saving their lives. He was greatly moved and astonished. It was the best TV I’ve seen in over 50 years of living in England. And this film, though very upsetting, is an immensely moving account of the epic adventure of a very brave and determined young man who never sought any recognition.

Related reading: Educating about antisemitism | Since Oct. 7, I have felt a profound sense of pride in my Jewish identity

Written by the grandson of a Kindertransport survivor.

The foundational reasons behind the Israel-Palestine conflict

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 22:44:29 GMT

But, more importantly, why did this cowardly act of barbarism occur in the first place, and why has it so quickly escalated into an anti-Jewish and anti-Israel worldwide crusade? The main purpose of this paper is not to analyze the events of 7th October and the subsequent response of the Israeli government, as there are numerous other avenues covering these aspects, but to hopefully provide some broader background and context to the current crisis.

The Middle East situation is neither simple nor straightforward, especially to the western mindset. It is composed of many layers and is therefore quite complex and complicated, and cannot be even remotely understood unless one looks at these different layers. Some of these layers stretch back for thousands of years, while some are more recent. But all of these layers are connected. The very foundational layer relates to the cosmic battle between Almighty God and the adversary, named Satan, Lucifer or the devil, between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. This brief analysis by no means covers all such layers, nor does it pretend to cover all aspects of those layers, although hopefully it might provide some comprehension to this dynamic, a dynamic that affects every person in the entire world.

My personal perspective is shaped by having lived in Israel altogether for some 25 years stretching between 1979-2009. While there I was introduced to Jesus, I met and married my wife there and my four children were all born there.

Although most of my/our interaction was with Israeli Jews, yet there was considerable interaction with Arabic-speaking people, both Christian and Muslim. For one year I worked with physically handicapped Arabic-speaking and Jewish young adults and did all that was required in such a capacity. For three years in the mid-1980s I/we lived in what was then a totally Muslim village, Silwan (the City of David), while many of my work colleagues and staff in several work situations were Arabic-speaking people. Just as in any part of the world, there are pleasant and unpleasant Israeli Jews and there are pleasant and unpleasant Arabic-speaking peoples.

In the years before the first Intifada (an uprising of violence) against Israel inspired by the Arab leadership, which began in late 1987, I visited Gaza on numerous occasions, and even spent time walking through the refugee camps. Back then they were overcrowded and not at all pleasant places to visit, let alone to live in.

As a born-again follower of Jesus (John 3:1-17), I became somewhat aware of many of the spiritual dynamics associated with the Jewish people, Jerusalem, Islam and the land of Israel, and particularly of the principles of covenant.

What unfolded on Saturday 7th October can never be understood at the physical level as it is a spiritual conflict at the highest level. Unless there is some comprehension of these spiritual dynamics, then it is well-nigh impossible to comprehend the conflict on the ground. Paul, Moses and Jeremiah summarized the matters at hand:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12)
Then the LORD God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5)
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

There is a spiritual conflict of the highest order over the land of Israel. This battle is over the accomplishment of the purposes of Almighty God for worldwide redemption and the attempts by God’s adversary to hinder and thwart the accomplishment of this grand plan. Central to this plan are the dual themes of covenant and the heart of humankind.

Kelvin Crombie is an Australian who lived in Israel for almost twenty-five years and worked for CMJ Israel for many years as a guide, manager, and author. Kelvin has written many books and produced documentaries on the work of the Church's Ministry Among Jewish People, Christ Church Jerusalem, the ANZACs, and Jewish Christians in the Holocaust. Kelvin lives in Perth, Australia, with his Dutch wife Lexie. They have four adult daughters.

‘Gaza needs Jesus,’ says orthodox Jew

carino.casas@cmj-usa.org (Carino Casas) — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 21:00:57 GMT

Jewish Media Review - February 2024

I was encouraged by the positive feedback I received about the first edition of the Jewish Media Review. Let’s continue to walk with our Jewish neighbors this year and try to observe national and world events through their eyes. Reading Jewish media gives us a window into what our Jewish neighbors are thinking regarding a wide variety of topics – important at the current moment is the Israel-Hamas War and rising antisemitism.

We hope you find these articles and essays valuable as we work to build bridges with our Jewish neighbors. CMJ USA will not necessarily agree with the opinions shared in these pieces.

We start with the source of our headline, a quote by Jonathan Feldstein, an American-Israeli Jew who works with Christian supporters of Israel.

�� ‘Gaza needs Jesus,’ says orthodox Jew (Heart Publications)
With the war against Hamas raging and hostages still held since 7 October, Jonathan Feldstein is calling for Franklin Graham to hold crusades and an army of Christian volunteers to rebuild Gaza.

This is quite an astounding admission from an orthodox Jew in this op-ed published on a British Christian website.

Now, the salt to this pronouncement is that he says, “This is not a task for the Jewish people. Our covenant is unique.” There are hints of dual covenant theology here, that Jews can access the Father through Moses alone and Jesus is for Gentiles. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). One must go to the Son of Man to get to the Ancient of Days (cf. Daniel 7:13-14). Jesus is the prophet like Moses that Israel and the nations should listen to (Deut 18:15, cf. Matt 17:5).

Still, Feldstein sees that the Gospel of Jesus changes hearts and has the power to turn enemies into friends. Might Jesus say to Feldstein, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34)?
�� Oct. 7 upended my sense of safety. Studying the Exodus story is helping me reclaim it (The Forward)
Learning Torah about the antisemitism our ancestors faced in biblical Egypt is the only thing consoling me since the Hamas attacks

Some Christians struggle with how to read the Hebrew Scriptures (what we sometimes call the Old Testament), and particularly the Torah (Pentateuch). The Jewish people have been reading those 39 books twice as long as Christians have. Let us dare to listen in on how they apply the Scriptures in their daily lives. We might learn something and probably see Jesus clearer in the Hebrew texts.

�� Why Campus Antisemitism Matters (The Tablet)
Studies and polls of American Jewish students reveal a startling degree of anxiety and fear

Excerpt: “In the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, as reports of antisemitic incidents spiked, my colleagues and I launched a program of research to document Jewish young adults’ experiences of antisemitism. We wanted to understand how the war was affecting young diaspora Jews. Since the war began, we have conducted a set of surveys with nearly 7,000 Jewish young adults (college age to mid-30s) across the United States.

“Across schools, one-third of the Jewish students we surveyed reported personal experiences of insult or harassment. Many reported being insulted or harassed on social media, but at the most hostile campuses, nearly one-quarter reported personal experiences of harassment. The vast majority also reported seeing antisemitic images on campus, and many said that they were blamed for Israel’s actions because they were Jews.”

�� Two Friends—One Jewish, One Muslim—Have an Answer to Campus Conflict (The Tablet)

Many U.S. college campuses have been struggling with student reactions to the Israel-Hamas War. But the University of Pittsburgh been a peaceful outlier. Two professors there have used compassion to diffuse on-campus strife in the wake of October 7.

“Many people have asked us why our university did not disintegrate into chaos—like so many others—after Oct. 7. The students, faculty, and staff at the University of Pittsburgh are tied closely to the community. So many of us were touched by what happened at Tree of Life [synagogue massacre in October 2018]. The shadow of this tragedy—of this hatred—looms large. We suspect passions are tempered because people know just how high the stakes are here in Pittsburgh. We experienced the painful, ugly reality of dehumanization just footsteps from our campus.”

Jesus had compassion on the harassed masses (Matt 9:36), and we should too.
�� What Happens When You Teach at Columbia and Reject Hamas (The Tablet)
A professor and his wife saw their lives upended by their decision to denounce terrorism in Israel and antisemitism in America

Excerpt: "As leftist, liberal Zionists, we have always made a clear distinction between the people of Palestine and the inhumane terror organizations that falsely purport to speak in their name. Our support for a two-state solution has never wavered... Surely, we thought, our seemingly liberal friends would see that we, too, deserve to be heard.

"This is what we got wrong. We failed to realize that for many in our 'progressive' circle, being a liberal Israeli just wasn’t good enough. If we had kept quiet, they might have been willing to accept us as equals. If we apologized for Israel’s existence, they might have even given us some extra points. But exposing Hamas’ atrocities and the support it was gaining among young Americans? Naming the kidnapped children and begging the world to help bring them home? Giving voice to the Israeli victims of mass rape by Hamas terrorists? For our friends, our refusal to apologize for Israel’s existence simply deemed us intolerable. ... Our friends did not have a problem with our politics, they had a problem with our identity. Our friends were willing to overlook the fact that we were Jewish Israelis, but only so long as we shut up about it."

�� How fast does TikTok send users down the antisemitic rabbit hole? (The Forward)
TikTok feeds its users videos with little input. What makes it feed them antisemitism?

Excerpt: "Even when users try to find new content through specific searches, they’re subject to the algorithm’s decisions of which videos to pull up. Posts don’t appear in chronological order, or even order of popularity. ...The algorithm shapes every part of your experience in the app. The insidious issue with this algorithmic approach comes when it exposes people to radical ideologies when they’re not actively looking for — an issue that has also arisen with suggested videos on YouTube. But at least on YouTube, viewers have to click on a suggested video to watch it; on TikTok, most of the time, the video just appears in front of them."

✡️ Opinion: Why it’s time to leave the labels of ‘Zionist’ and ‘anti-Zionist’ behind (The Forward)

Our Jewish neighbors are as conflicted about the Israel-Hamas War as Christians are. Excerpt: “As war has raged across Israel and Gaza, there’s been a parallel war raging within my synagogue. For some of my fellow congregants, it feels as though they are being asked to share a sacred space with people who ignore or even justify the brutal slaughter of our fellow Jews. Others have said they’re being asked to pray next to people whose concern for human rights ends when the victims are Palestinian and the perpetrators are Jews.”

�� The People Behind ‘The Chosen’ (The Tablet)
Jewish advisers help a hit television show about the life of Jesus grapple with Judaism

There is a history in Christian interpretation of making the Pharisees the villains of the gospel narratives. Jesus has a tough critique for Pharisees as well as the scribes, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. Far removed from the first century, Christians sometimes read these arguments as if they are Christian vs. Jew, when in fact these are Jew vs. Jew debates. The makers of ‘The Chosen’ series are going to great lengths to depict the nuances and the Jewish nature of the story of Jesus of Nazareth.

Excerpt: “Prior to Season 4, [Dallas] Jenkins and his team had pursued historical and theological accuracy by consulting with their multifaith team, running things past Jewish friends, or going down internet rabbit holes. The problem was that the answers didn’t always agree, he said, ‘even within the Jewish community and even among Jewish scholars.’ Meanwhile, he said that when members of The Chosen production team visited Israel, they began to hear from Jews who liked the show. With the help of the Christian organization The Philos Project, which works to develop productive relationships between Christians and Jews with regard to the Middle East, a Jewish Advisory Board for The Chosen was established. ‘We thought it would be good,’ he told me, ‘to get a more formal perspective from current Israeli Jews’ who were steeped in the history and practices of Christ’s time period. ‘Even if there’s disagreement about specific things, at least we have a deeper and wider perspective.’”

✡️ Why would anyone convert to Judaism after Oct. 7? (The Forward)
Despite rising antisemitism, interest in conversion is up and those already on the path are sticking with it

I include this story for three reasons:
It provides vignettes of antisemitic abuse hurled at those wearing visibly Jewish symbols.
It shows the variety of political and theological thought within the Jewish community and those moving to join it.
I hope it would provoke prayerful contemplation on how we can stand with and identify with our Jewish neighbors and step into their shoes without letting go of Jesus as Lord and Messiah.

The Rev. Cariño Casas is the Executive Director of CMJ USA. She joined the CMJ family in 2014 as the media coordinator of Christ Church Jerusalem. She has a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies from Trinity School for Ministry and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Texas A&M University. She is the deacon at Grace Anglican Church in Edgeworth, Pennsylvania.

Celebrating 175th anniversary of Christ Church Jerusalem

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 21:37:15 GMT

A lecture by Dr. Richard Harvey

Christ Church Jerusalem, founded by CMJ, was consecrated on January 21, 1849. This year CMJ celebrates 175 years of ministry in Old City Jerusalem. In celebration, Christ Church hosted a lecture by Dr. Richard Harvey, a historian and theologian. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Wales (Lampeter). Scroll down for a related article.

A beacon of hope

Christ Church Jerusalem celebrates 175 years of ministry

by Charles Gardner

Founded in London in 1809 by Joseph Frey, the mission last year celebrated the bicentenary of its involvement in the Holy Land. But it was not until 1849 that Christ Church was built.

Delivered at the venue itself by London-based Messianic Jewish leader Richard Harvey, the lecture focused on the centre’s extraordinary influence over the years in praying and working towards greater recognition among Jews of Jesus as their Messiah. And it had truly fulfilled the hopes of an early leader in becoming “a house of prayer for all nations” (quoting Isaiah 56:6-8).

Today, they continue to reach out to both Jews and Arabs as a place of reconciliation along the lines of the “one new man” created by Jesus’ sacrifice (Ephesians 2:14-16).

Evangelical politicians and preachers in 19th century Britain had played a key role in promoting Jewish restoration – both physically to the land and spiritually to the Lord. Lady Palmerston, wife of then Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston, had in a letter to her husband in 1840 referred to the prospect of ancient prophecies being fulfilled as “something miraculous”.

Another significant contribution was made by Anglican clergyman Rev William Hechler (1845-1931) through his close friendship and counsel of Zionist founder Theodor Herzl.

Richard’s talk was entitled A Beacon of Hope in the Middle East? presumably to allow his audience to judge for themselves, but his personal view was clear by his comment: “I know CMJ is doing all it can right now to stand with our people.”

However, as he pointed out, there was need for repentance over lack of charity in the past, referencing an early leader who suggested that Christians not conforming to their way of thinking were beyond the pale.

Richard’s lecture was his first time in Israel since October 7 when, at Ben Gurion Airport, he was caught on camera (by CNN) lying on the tarmac as Hamas fired rockets in his direction.

I suspect his anecdote on the Hatikvah author, who confessed that his head could not follow his heart as far as the gospel is concerned, might have been prompted by his own experience. When first considering the validity of the Christian faith at school in Winchester, England, Richard faced two main obstacles. The first, of course, appeared to be the fact of his being Jewish, and then there was the question of Jesus being raised from the dead, which he couldn’t get his head around.

But it was while later debating with his Christian friends that he suddenly ‘saw’ an empty tomb. “I knew that Jesus was not there – that he had in fact risen from the dead. Call it a dream or a vision or just my imagination running riot, but for me there was a ring of truth to it.” You can read the full story at Israel Today.

Richard is involved with the British Messianic Jewish Alliance while also lecturing at All Nations Bible College in Hertfordshire, preparing men and women for cross-cultural ministry.

Charles Gardner is the editor of CMJ UK Prayer Focus and was on the editorial board of ProphecyToday.uk for seven years.

Study Jewish history in Poland

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 17:43:00 GMT

Antisemitism is spiking around the world. Antisemitic incidents continue to increase in the United States. It is imperative that Christians speak up on behalf of our Jewish neighbors. Education is a first step in preparing to speak out.

Join David Pileggi in Poland as he looks at how hatred drove the Nazis to murder six million Jewish people, including followers of Jesus. He will also look at how Jews arrived in Poland and flourished there for 1,000 years. You will visit medieval cities, castles and churches to better understand the historical context of the Polish Jewish experience. David will also touch on the Hebrew Christian communities that existed before World War II.

When: August 29-Sept 10, 2024
Where: Warsaw to Cracow.
How much: $3,200 per person*

Visit NarrowBridgeTour.com for more info or email David at info@narrowbridgetour.com .

* Actual cost, €2975 (euros) per person. Must be paid in euros. Single supplement extra. Details at NarrowBridgeTour.com

A Holocaust Remembrance Day Prayer

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 14:54:02 GMT

Father God, we come to you with heavy hearts, remembering the 6 million Jewish souls murdered during the Holocaust. In the horrors of that history, when so many groups were targeted, we recognize the evil in our world and ask that you equip us to stand against it.

Let us not forget this horrific event in our history just as you have not forgotten the Jewish people in your eternal plan. Thank you that you have overcome this evil through your Son, Jesus Messiah who makes atonement for sin and gives us everlasting life.

Amen.

Contemplating antisemitism on Holocaust Remembrance Day

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 04:11:36 GMT

Jewish (& Christian) media review

January 27 — the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau — was designed as International Holocaust Remembrance day by the United Nations General Assembly. It is set aside as a day for the nations to remember the 6 million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators as well as the millions of others persecuted by the Nazis.

October 7 saw the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. On that day Hamas murdered, raped, incinerated, tortured, beheaded, and kidnapped Jewish and Arab Israelis as well as foreign workers. Israel, unsurprisingly, vowed to destroy Hamas and rescue the hostages.

The subsequent Israel-Hamas War has stoked not just political protest but inflammatory language and destructive behavior that reveals antisemitism lurking in some hearts. The protest language has included denials of what occurred on October 7. Even Hamas, who documented and published evidence of their attack on civilians now claims it did no such thing .

To see the most recent cases of antisemitic incidents, see the @ADLTracker on X , which included an item about a targeted Messianic synagogue ! Lest you think this is not a problem for Christians, the rising antisemitism is already affecting the community of Jesus.

Other recent incidents include

Below we share some recent news reports and essays on antisemitism then and now, starting with a report from CBN on how Israelis are processing the October 7 atrocity on International Holocaust Day. Scroll down past the video for other headlines.

Video is from the CBN story " For Israelis Grieved by Hamas Atrocities, Holocaust Remembrance Day a Chilling Reminder of Nazi Era ."

We share these stories to give us a glimpse into how our Jewish neighbors are feeling so that we would have compassion for them whether we agree with their political or theological leanings.

Never Again is Now: October 7 & Holocaust Remembrance Day

Excerpt: "While Holocaust scholars and Israeli politicians debate the use of classic Holocaust language and imagery in discussing October 7, it’s clear to every Israeli that the trauma of the Hamas massacres has revived the trauma of the Shoah in Israeli society. 'We thought that after the Holocaust we’d never see such massacres of Jews again' commented a Holocaust survivor I met in Hostage Square, 'yet right before our very eyes, in our own country, on our own land, southern Israel became Babi Yar on October 7.'”
Mayim Bialik, Rabbi Farkas and Dr. Berenbaum on how they combat antisemitism

Excerpt: "Berenbaum discussed the different types of antisemitism, including religious, economic, social and cultural, and how they have been used at various times throughout history and now. 'This is not the Holocaust, and it’s not even close to the Holocaust. It’s serious, but it’s not the same.' The author also touched upon what’s going on in the progressive space, and how Jews have been s uddenly labeled as white people. “Congratulations to the Jewish community: We are now perceived as white, except for people who believe that white is Christian nationalist white. We are simply [considered] the white privileged oppressor.'”
The Return of the Swastika: In 1959 there was a global swastika epidemic. What does the last resurgence of this symbol of Jewish hatred tell us about the current one?
Why America was an easy mark for Nazi ideas : 'Nazi Town, USA’ explores how Nazi organizations flourished in the years before World War II

Check on your Jewish neighbors and ask them what they think about some of what you've read here.

Let us begin with prayer

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 21:28:10 GMT

CMJ USA is looking for churches committed to breaking ground for our Bridge Builder program

“Unless the Lord builds the [bridge], those who build it labor in vain.” Please pardon this paraphrase of Psalm 127:1. By saying bridge instead of house, we refer to our developing Bridge Builder program which will equip and activate church outreach teams to rebuild trust and nurture relationships with the synagogue down the street. In light of nearly 2,000 years of fraught Jewish-Christian relations, this is a daunting task. We must only attempt it covered in prayer.

For this reason, we are first establishing Ground Breaker teams in churches, especially those that may not be near a Jewish community. Before one builds anything, one needs to prepare the ground. Before we go to work for the Lord, we should pray for God’s guidance, protection, and favor.

What do you need to be a Ground Breaker church?

Lay-led team of three to ten members committed to consistently praying for CMJ USA and, eventually, a Bridge Builder church.
Support from your pastor.
Include CMJ USA in your church mission budget. How much is for your church to discern.

CMJ USA will provide:

monthly prayer points of CMJ USA needs.
weekly prayers for CMJ staff and US cities that need a Bridge Builder church.
In the future, Ground Breaker (praying) churches will be partnered with a Bridge Builder (outreach) church, which will provide prayer points specific to their team.
Once the Bridge Builder curriculum is launched, we’ll make teachings available to Ground Breaker groups that want to inform their prayers by knowing more about the Jewishness of the Gospel, the history of antisemitism, and the Jewish-American experience.

We really need your prayers. God loves it when we come before him in prayer. We would be so blessed if your congregation would partner with us in this way.

Interested? Want to hear more? Let us know at info@cmj-usa.org . Help us build bridges with our Jewish neighbors.

What does war relief look like in Israel

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 20:42:43 GMT

It’s been more than 100 days since Hamas brutally attacked southern Israel on a Shabbat morning. It’s been more than 100 days of Israel fighting to root Hamas out of Gaza. More than 100 hostages have marked 100 days in captivity, their families unsure of their wellbeing or if they are even alive. Gaza civilians have suffered loss, death, and displacement for more than 100 days.

Our colleagues at CMJ Israel are working hard to minister the love of Yeshua in this tragic time. We are grateful for how you have come alongside to support this crucial work. Here is a sample of how your gifts to Israel War Relief are being used.

CMJ Israel is doing ministry from its three centers: Christ Church Jerusalem, Beit Immanuel in Tel Aviv, and Beit Bracha in the Galilee.

Archival photo of Christmas Eve Open House in Jerusalem

Christ Church Jerusalem in the Old City continues to live out the One New Man – Jew and Arab and Internationals in community – in the midst of a tense situation. Together they have:

Hosted as many as 3,000 Jewish and Arab Israelis at the annual Christmas Eve Open house. Arab Christians were grateful that someone was celebrating Christmas. Jewish Israelis come to ask questions about Messiah they wouldn't ask any other time of the year.
Broadcast the weekly Arab livestream watched around the Middle East, including by Christians in Gaza.
Offered pastoral ministry to Gazan cancer patients in Jerusalem.
This is all on top of hosting English, Hebrew, and Arabic congregations that meet weekly.

The Christ Church Mercy Fund helps those in Jerusalem who “fall between the cracks” and can’t get help from their governments or other NGOs. The need in this area has only increased during the war. Examples of Mercy Fund ministry include:
PELES - Mercy Fund Legal Team - Three full-time lawyers (all believers) offer pro-bono legal aid for the poor, new immigrants, victims of domestic violence, and most recently for bereaved families who are having a hard time collecting benefits from Israel’s social security administration due to red tape and other difficulties. Most recently, a PELES lawyer created and maintains a website that reminds the Ministry of Defense and social security administration of their legal obligations to bereaved families.
Ethiopian Community Economic Relief Initiative - This project provides food as well as Hebrew language education to Ethiopian Jews struggling to integrate into Israeli society. It serves Ethiopian Messianic congregations as well as Ethiopians Jews who do not believe in Jesus.
Other Mercy Fund projects in process or planned for the future:
School supplies and electronic tablets for students throughout Israel.
Food for Christian Families in Bethlehem.
Food baskets and home visits to elderly in Old City Jerusalem.
Food baskets/blankets/heating bills for Domari (Gypsies).
Hebrew Lessons for Arab women in Jerusalem promoting reconciliation and bridge building.
Looking for opportunity to provide for Christians in Gaza, especially scholarships for children at Christian schools as well as mattresses, household items, furniture for Gaza Christians who lost homes and possessions.

Beit Bracha in the Galilee has been housing peoples displaced by the war as well Christian ministers and IDF soldiers seeking rest.
Beit Immanuel in Tel Aviv has housed peoples displaced by the war.
It also has the only public bomb shelter in the neighborhood, so it has been offering shelter to neighbors as Hamas continues to fire rockets at Tel Aviv.
It also hosted ‘Singing the Psalms’ concerts offering comfort and consolation. They were well attended and appreciated by Israelis.

Please pray that the LORD would continue to provide for these and still arising needs. Pray also that the LORD would strengthen and refresh the laborers, for they are few.

Is the LORD calling you to give?

Is the LORD calling you to volunteer your time? Volunteer in Israel for a week or for a year.

‘Everybody needs to be uncomfortable’

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 19:51:57 GMT

Jewish Media Review - January 2024

Part of my office routine is scanning Jewish media when I first get to the office and maybe a couple of times during the workday. While mainstream media may report on rising antisemitism when an annual or semi-annual report is released, they don’t always publish the vandalizing of a synagogue or the antisemitic flyers left on the doors of a Jewish neighborhood. However, Jewish media – like The Forward and The Jewish Chronicle – pay attention to those incidents.

They also give us a window into what our Jewish neighbors are thinking regarding a wide variety of topics – important at the current moment is the Israel-Hamas War and rising antisemitism.

For this reason, we are starting a regular feature in Heart’s Cry we’ll call Jewish Media Review. Every month, I hope to share some articles and essays that I have found valuable as we work to build bridges with our Jewish neighbors. CMJ USA will not necessarily agree with the opinions shared in these pieces.

We start with the source of our headline, a quote by Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the mother of Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23.

�� ‘Everybody needs to be uncomfortable’: Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s tireless campaign to bring her son home

Rachel has become “the international face, voice and conscious” of the Israel-Hamas War, writes The Forward. She wears a piece of tape marking how many days her son has been a captive.

“It makes people very uncomfortable — it’s uncomfortable to look at a mother wearing a number of the days since her son was stolen from her,” Goldberg-Polin told [the reporter] when [they] met at her home on Day 58. “It’s masking tape and a Sharpie. I would be fine with everybody doing it. Meaning, not hostage families — if everybody in America wanted to do it, everybody on planet Earth. Everybody needs to be uncomfortable.”

I hear in this the call for Christians to sit in the awkward silences and the discomfort of discussing the war, of praying for justice, of calling for the hostages’ release. We say Jesus Messiah came to free the captives and to heal the brokenhearted. Do we believe Jesus is big enough to free Israeli hostages and to heal the broken hearts of Israelis and Gazans alike?
�� ‘Ashamed at how my heart has shrunk’: Takeaways from 10 days of reporting in Israel

The quote in this headline comes from a left-leaning, activist rabbi named Levi Weiman-Kelman. He captures the struggle some of us feel to a lesser degree as we grapple with the atrocities of October 7 and the suffering of Gazan civilians.

“'I think on October 7 all of our hearts were broken, and since then everyone is just trying to cope with so much, and we’re limited human beings,' explained Weiman-Kelman, who made aliyah in the 1970s and has been active in Rabbis for Human Rights and voted for the leftist Meretz Party ever since. 'The suffering in Gaza is real. I definitely don’t wish anyone in Gaza harm, but I just don’t feel I have the emotional capacity to contain all this,' he continued. 'This is the ultimate Hamas victory. They made me a worse person, they made me a less compassionate person. I’m just so angry about that.'”

Those of us who are followers of Jesus, we need to pray for his strength through the Holy Spirit to grow in compassion, especially for the side we may not naturally lean toward. Yes, we pray for justice. But we’re also supposed to love mercy as we walk humbly with our God.
�� I didn’t understand Holocaust denial until Oct. 7

A Jewish young man thought his grandmother was overly anxious that no one really believed her Holocaust experiences. “Her fears of denial seemed unfounded. Yes, there were Holocaust deniers, but they were outliers. Besides, a logical solution to denial seemed to be more education. With enough proof, I thought, the skeptics my grandmother feared so deeply would have to acknowledge the truth. Amid so much evidence, how could anyone have the gall to deny?”
Yet, here were are months from the unspeakable atrocities Hamas perpetrated on October 7, and we hear voices sowing doubt about what happened, how it happened, who the actors were.

“Now, in the aftermath of Oct. 7, I finally get it. My grandmother was not paranoid; her cynicism was exactly right. No proof of Jewish suffering will ever be enough to quash denial — so perhaps, it’s time we stop trying to explain ourselves.”

The Holocaust generation is dying and will no longer be able to tell their lived experiences. It is up to us to pick up their stories and educate future generations. Likewise, we must speak honestly about what happened on October 7 and not allow the deniers to minimize Hamas’ crimes against civilians – men, women, children, the elderly.
✝️ Christians reacted to October 7 with muddled thinking

This opinion piece from The Jewish Chronicle will make many of us uncomfortable. We will have rebuttals and critiques. But first, just sit with it. In order to love our Jewish neighbors well, we need to listen to them. We need to hear their hearts and thoughts, especially when they have something to say to us Christians. Oliver Kamm is a British writer with Jewish background.

The impact of everyday Christian witness

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 20:29:35 GMT

A Jewish young man comes to faith in Jesus and hears the call to be a pastor through the steady friendship of his Christian neighbors

By Rev. Jordan Peiser
Apple of His Eye

Editor's note: Apple of His Eye was founded in 1996 by Steve Cohen, a disciple of Jesus Messiah. Its mission is to bring the gospel message to fellow Jews and to educate the church, especially Lutherans, about how they can gently do the same. CMJ USA Executive Director Cariño Casas met Jordan Peiser at a conference earlier this year and was encouraged to find another ministry working to equip the church to engage our to Jewish neighbors.

In addition to the high holidays, my family would get together to celebrate Hanukkah by lighting the menorah, opening gifts, and having dinner together, and we would celebrate Passover as well with my grandfather leading the seder. Every celebration involved delicious home-cooked meals, good conversations, fun, and shared love in the family.

My dad’s side was less religiously observant, but they still saw the Jewish holidays as good times to get together, have fun, express their love, and share a good meal. One year, my dad’s side of the family decided to have a Passover seder at a local Chinese restaurant; the restaurant served a typical menu alongside a Jewish-inspired menu with foods like matzah ball soup, gefilte fish, and roasted chicken or lamb. As we were eating, my Bubbe , grandmother, pulled out a box of matzah, set it in the center of our table, and said something like: “there, now it's a proper Passover.” My Bubbe has always had a great sense of comedic timing and humor.

Looking back, I see great value and deeply appreciate these times with my family and our time of celebrating the holidays together. I miss these celebrations now that my family lives further apart.

But how did I come to know the Jewish Messiah?

The story begins when I was in preschool. I became friends with a kid named Neal Tierney. As a result of our friendship, I was invited to his house, where I met his family. My mom and Neil's mom, Joan, became friends too.

Joan was and is a woman who has a heart for telling people about Jesus; she took to that calling with me. Whenever I stayed at their house, Joan would read stories about Jesus from a children’s Bible storybook and take me to family-friendly events that were hosted at her church. I was not always sure how to respond to the invitation, because I knew my family told me that “Jews do not believe in Jesus.

A few years after I met the Tierenys, they introduced me to the Urquizo family – Andres, Eve, and their son, Andy. I became friends with Andy, and my mom became friends with Eve. From day one, they treated me like I was part of their family. I was invited to events like quinceañeras and christenings. The Urquizos also brought me to their church's youth group, picnics, and potlucks. Eve – who had such a deep love for the Jewish people – liked to ask questions about Judaism, what I learned in Hebrew school, and how that all might connect to the life of Jesus.

Eve got to know my mom and my mom’s side of the family and began being invited to Hanukkah parties and Passover seders. Her deep commitment to my family, understanding Judaism, and the message of Jesus have impacted my life. Unfortunately, Eve died in October 2020, shortly before All Saints’ Day that year. She is greatly missed, but I know that she is in heaven rejoicing with our Lord.

There is one other family that I should mention that is central to how God called me to faith in Jesus. When I was in second grade, the Axelrads moved into my neighborhood. Jackie and Michael Axelrad with their four children: Karissa, Ryan, Marcella, and Jared. The Axelrad’s house was right in front of the school bus stop. They decided that was a prime location to begin their family devotions, pray for their children, and pray for the children gathered at the stop. I guess it worked since I became friends with Ryan. I remember long summer days playing baseball or video games with Ryan or playing by the creek in their backyard with Ryan and his siblings. We created imaginary worlds, told stories, and discussed faith questions. Looking back, Ryan was already an evangelist to me. His parents must have taught him well.

Michael had been raised Jewish but came to know the Jewish Messiah as his Lord and Savior. Jackie and Michael – Ryan’s parents – became missionaries with Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) and served all over the country and in parts of Europe before settling down in Illinois. And so, their family, having been a missionary family, began sharing the hope that they had with me. They too invited me to church. I began attending Awana – a youth group organization that focuses on scripture memorization – with Ryan. All three of these families continue to walk with me in my faith journey and are important friends in my life. I am grateful to God for their friendship and that they are my family in Christ.

The testimony and friendship of these families were used by the Lord to call me to faith in Jesus and resulted in me being baptized when I was 17.

The conversations with family after Jesus called me to faith were tense at times, but I am grateful to God that my family was always respectful, if a bit hurt and confused. Some people have a much harder experience after coming to faith in Jesus than I did. However, the first thing my mother said when I told her that I believed in Jesus as my Lord was, “Did I fail in raising you?” That definitely stung, but you know what? She came to faith shortly after I did! That is her story to tell. Over time, the rest of my family has softened a bit and is generally supportive of me and my ministry as a Lutheran pastor. In fact, my dad, who was more-or-less indifferent to the whole affair, was baptized five years after I was baptized.

A couple of years after I was baptized, I began to receive encouragement from friends and members of the congregation I was attending to consider going to seminary. So, I spoke with pastors. The pastors I knew encouraged me to consider it and wrote letters of recommendation to the two seminaries of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.

Now, I serve as a pastor of a church in New Jersey and am on the staff of the Apple of His Eye Mission Society. More information can be found at the Apple of His Eye website in my article “Jewish and Lutheran?”

If you have any questions, would like to know more, or are still uncertain about your faith and what it means to believe in the Jewish Messiah, feel free to email or call me: jordan.peiser@appleofhiseye.org

Rev. Jordan Peiser is the pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Maywood, New Jersey.

Hanukkah: God in our History

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 20:15:18 GMT

Is secular history devoid of God? God doesn't always work through might or by power but He still works in history. The story of Hanukkah can be read in both a secular (military, political, and even economic) and spiritual (prayers, miracles, and even martyrdom) manner, but both show God in our history.

An edited version of the video transcript.

Shalom, I'm David Pileggi, rector of Christ Church Jerusalem, and I'm currently standing here in the Jewish Quarter not very far from Christ Church. We're here to talk about Hanukkah and the things that make it different and unique.

Of course, we all know the story of the candles, the jelly donuts, the songs, and the festivities that surround Hanukkah, which are very popular, especially in many Western countries. Most of us know the story of the cleansing of the Temple, the miracle of the oil, the lights, and more. But there is so much more to the story of Hanukkah, especially for us as Christians.

The place to start would be history: what is the story of Hanukkah, when did it happen, and how? We won't go into all the details, as people can easily look them up. Instead, there is something more essential at stake: how the Jewish people understood and still understand history. Not surprisingly, the Jewish people have two different versions of this story.

Version 1: First Maccabees

The first version appears in the First Book of Maccabees. This book, found in the Apocrypha (in the Bibles of Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, and other Eastern churches), is a story of the few against the many. It describes a group of fighters who go from strength to strength and overcome the Seleucid Greek Empire. They do so by military skill, a force of arms, and more. What is virtually missing from First Maccabees (after chapter 4) is virtually any reference to God, the power of prayer, fasting, or the role of the martyrs.

Version 2: Second Maccabees

Second Maccabees, written in Greek by Jews in the diaspora, brings God back into the center of the story. The revolt and the cleansing of the Temple occur not simply due to human skill or military might, but because of the power of prayer and fasting. It happens because God sees the mitzvot (good deeds) of the people of Israel and acts on their behalf.

What is especially highlighted in Second Maccabees is the role of the martyrs—those faithful Jews who refused to compromise with the Greeks, refuse to violate Shabbat, or refuse to violate the laws of kashrut by eating forbidden food. Their sacrifices actually move God to act on behalf of Israel and give them victory.

The Jewish Purpose of History: Torah

Ultimately, especially from the point of view of Second Maccabees, we are talking about the Jewish understanding of history. While other ancient peoples (Persians, Greeks, and later the Romans) were known for being good historians, history did not have the same purpose for the Jewish people.

Jews wrote history to:

Instruct them.
Guide them.
Show them God's purposes and how God wanted them to live.

This is why the Bible becomes Torah. Torah in Hebrew means guidance, direction, and instruction—not just a collection of stories or laws. The Jewish people have the promise that obedience to the Torah, or modeling our lives after God’s will, leads to life.

This high status of the Bible was not always the case; it only changed and achieved this high status after the Jewish people returned from Babylon. When Jews returned, thanks to the Persians, they found themselves in a difficult situation: living under Persian suzerainty but with no independence. There was no king, the prophets (such as Isaiah and Jeremiah) stopped prophesying, and the Temple and priesthood became suspect due to corruption.

Where could one find guidance and instruction for life? The Jewish people had one thing left: Scripture (the writings of the prophets and the five books of Moses). This is when Scripture began to become more and more important in the lives of the Jewish people. This increased importance in the role of the Torah is highlighted for us in Psalm 119, which was written well after the return from Babylon and extols the place of the Word of God.

The Bible (or at least the Hebrew Bible), which is essentially a history book, becomes this guidance, direction, and instruction.

Let's go back to First Maccabees and Second Maccabees. There is seemingly a contradiction: First Maccabees looks quite secular, while Second Maccabees is all about God, His Providence, and His care for His people in the midst of suffering.

How did Jews deal with this contradiction?

Basically, throughout Jewish history, the themes of First Maccabees were set aside and ignored. What was emphasized over the centuries, at least until recently, was the miracle itself.

During the eight-day festival of Hanukkah, the Scripture read on the Sabbath is from the book of Zechariah: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord."

While the Jewish people understand the importance of history, it is not understood in a secular way; God is never fully or totally written out of the story.

David Pileggi is the rector of Christ Church Jerusalem. He and his wife Carol have lived in Jerusalem for more than 40 years. They have three children and five grandchildren.

Israel Update - Dec 11

carino.casas@cmj-usa.org (Carino Casas) — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 20:10:35 GMT

CMJ in Israel continues to minister to the displaced and unemployed in the midst of the Israel-Hamas War

Two months into the Israel-Hamas War, there are still hundreds of thousands of Israelis who are unable to return to their homes near active combat operations. Hezbollah is threatening an escalation of violence on Israel's northern border while the fighting in the Gaza Strip may be coming to an end. In Israel and the West Bank, economic slowdown has led to many people losing their jobs even as they are hurting in other ways. CMJ is stepping up to assist however we can wherever we can.

Please continue to pray peace. Not just for regional peace, but peace within families. The Mercy Fund has seen a spike in domestic violence as the war stokes anxiety and fear. Please pray for our Peles legal teams and Mercy Fund personnel as the work is very difficult and an additional battlefield in this war.

We are grateful to all who have given toward our relief efforts. We ask for your prayers and continued financial support in this difficult time.

To help you understand our prayer needs and how your donations are being utilized, CMJ Israel has put together this brief snapshot-style report.

What is CMJ doing in the current crisis?

Discipleship continues through weekly meetings and Bible studies at Christ Church Jerusalem. Many members of our community have been faithfully coming every week during the crisis, and many new people have also begun attending. Prayer meetings are always well attended as we lift up the needs of all the people in the Holy Land, including those of our community of faith.

At the Christ Church Guest House in Jerusalem, there are currently 12 internally displaced people still staying with us, most of them children. There are also a few tourists from overseas who have come to stay with us in recent days as the threat from rocket fire has receded.

CMJ volunteers from overseas have also partnered with the Fellowship of Israel Related Ministries (FIRM) to help farmers harvest crops. These volunteers are filling the gap left by foreign farmworkers who have fled the war.

How can you help?

We are prayerfully seeking the best way to continue ministering amid the ongoing crisis. No matter how we are led to serve, our response requires financial resources in a season where finances are already limited. If you feel led, please consider contributing so that we can continue to serve those deeply affected by the crisis.

Please continue to pray:

That the conflict will not escalate in the north.
For all who remain in Gaza as hostages and for the healing of those who have been released.
For God's grace and comfort to be with all grieving families.
Especially for the many children who are caught up in the horror of these events. Many are scared, hungry, and have lost their homes and shelter, as well as some who have lost their parents or other family members.
For our leadership at CMJ as we continue to assess how best to respond to the unfolding situation. At the time that we need them the most, many key personnel have been called to defend Israel. That means that their usual workload, as well as the extra work brought on by this emergency, are being carried by those who remain behind.
Pray specifically for the peace, well-being, and strength of the individuals who are staying at Christ Church and those who continue to seek refuge .

Yeshua of Nazareth, the Prophet Like Moses

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 00:08:00 GMT

CMJ USA Executive Director Cariño Casas was a guest teacher on The Torah Guide podcast, where she looks at three Gospel accounts that show that Jesus is the Prophet Like Moses of Deuteronomy 18

Tears of Gratitude

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 04:04:00 GMT

Amid the despicable scenes of Jew-hatred being spewed out on the streets of the world’s major cities, it was so heart-warming to receive a glowing report of the massive pro-Israel rally in Washington DC from my dear friend and CMJ USA founder Theresa Newell.

Speaking of this week’s rally, Theresa said:

“Most touching were the conversations we had with Jewish people who noticed our signs identifying us as Christians.

“A young man from Long Island stopped with his friends to tell me that they were experiencing fear where they lived because of hostility. He said they were not wearing kippahs on the street but added that he was so grateful to see we were there.

“I told him that they would always have a home in Lancaster County (in Pennsylvania) if they needed a place to be safe. I handed him my card with my phone number and email. ‘You are not alone,’ I told him. And all of his friends said ‘Thank you. We need to hear this.’

“Many others waved to us and said, ‘We are so glad you came’. In fact, so many young and older Jewish people thanked us profusely for standing with them.

“Tears came to the eyes of an older Jewish woman as we hugged. I thought of the centuries of Jew-hatred that had been perpetrated by people who called themselves ‘Christians’.

“I knew I could not wipe away the fear of the ‘goyim’ (Hebrew for Gentiles) that had made its way into their Jewish souls and even their DNA. But how I longed for the miracle that in that one hug the ugly sin would be eradicated forever in at least one heart.”

Theresa added that though security was visible, there were no disturbances.

Charles Gardner is the editor of CMJ UK Prayer Focus and was on the editorial board of ProphecyToday.uk for seven years.

Can a Jew Love Jesus?

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 17:53:00 GMT

In my late twenties, I secretly became enamored with Yeshua after watching the Franco Zefferelli mini-series Jesus of Nazareth. Although I felt drawn to Yeshua, I was deeply conflicted. I felt that if Jews knew I was interested in Yeshua they would think I was a traitor, and if Christians knew I was attracted to Jesus they would be confused because “Jews don’t believe in Jesus.” I remember using the analogy of peering through the window of a fancy restaurant where people were enjoying a sumptuous meal. But I was not permitted to partake because the meal was – I wrongly thought – only for Christians. This left me with a deep feeling of sadness. I was falling in love with someone I thought I could never have in my life.

Around this time, a close friend died in a freak swimming accident, and a business I helped my father start failed. I felt lost and didn’t know where to turn. Fortunately, I began to have conversations about Yeshua with a Christian friend who loved Israel and the Jewish people. Sonja told me that since Yeshua was Jewish, it was entirely appropriate for a Jewish person to believe in him. She suggested that I attend a concert featuring Messianic Jewish singer/songwriter Marty Goetz. When I arrived at the concert, the room was packed with Jewish people wearing kippas – skull caps – singing and worshipping God and Yeshua alongside Christians. I was flabbergasted. I thought I was the only Jewish person in the world who was attracted to Yeshua!

'Father, I’m Jewish, but I love Jesus'

Sonja suggested I read the New Covenant scriptures and decide for myself who Yeshua was. I was shocked the first time I opened the Brit Hadash – the New Testament. In spite of what Jews are told about Yeshua, everything I read was Jewish! Yeshua was called Rabbi, his disciplines were Jewish, he fulfilled dozens of Messianic prophecies, attended the Jewish feasts and festivals, and taught in the Temple. Although it was not what I had been taught, I knew it in my spirit. Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah!

Shortly thereafter, I attended my friend’s funeral at a Catholic church. When the priest invited people to come forth for communion, I nervously went forward. When it was my turn, the priest looked at this young Jewish man wearing a kippa with a highly quizzical look. I whispered: “Father, I’m Jewish, but I love Jesus”. This was the first time I publicly acknowledged my love and faith in Yeshua of Nazareth, the Jewish Messiah.

Sonja suggested I visit a Messianic Jewish congregation by the name of Tikvat Yisrael – the Hope of Israel – in Cleveland, Ohio. I went, and 36 years later I am still there. I have had the privilege of serving as Tikvat’s board chair, elder, worship leader, youth pastor, and head of outreach. I was fortunate. Unlike many Jewish parents who disown their children for believing in Yeshua, my parents assumed my interest in Yeshua was a fad. If it was, it would be the longest fad ever!

Some in the Jewish community say if you chose to follow Yeshua you are no longer Jewish. For me, the exact opposite was true. Before I believed in Yeshua, I had been uninterested and uninvolved with Judaism. After I met Yeshua, I became passionate about my Jewishness and my Jewish heritage.

Sonja told me that since Yeshua was Jewish, it was entirely appropriate for a Jewish person to believe in him.

When I was young, I played in local rock groups and helped organize and promote rock concerts featuring Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artists like Richie Havens, the Temptations, Heart, Steve Miller, and Electric Light Orchestra. But that was all in my past. Or so I thought. After I became a believer, the Lord enabled me to play piano and helped me write dozens of original praise and worship songs based on the words and people in the Bible. Along with two like-minded friends, I co-founded the Messianic worship group Voice of the Shepherd , which recorded two Scripture-inspired albums.

I’d like to close with a praise report. Although I had a somewhat successful business career including forming several faith-based companies and helping 125 clients like IBM, Oracle, and Motorola generate hundreds of millions of dollars in sales, I felt restless and unfulfilled. I asked the Lord to open the right door and to use my business experience to serve him and God’s people. I praise God for answering my prayer! I am honored to join CMJ USA as Director of Fundraising and Partnerships!

I’d love to hear from you, get to know you, and explore how CMJ USA can be of service. I can be reached at jeff.roberts@cmj-usa.org. May the Lord bless you, the work of CMJ in America and Israel, and may he watch over and safeguard Israel and his beloved Jewish people.

Israel Update - November 15

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 17:33:00 GMT

Please continue to pray

That the conflict will not escalate in the north.
For all who have been taken hostage.
For God's grace and comfort to be with all grieving families.
Especially for the many children who are caught up in the horror of these events. Many are scared, hungry, and have lost their homes and shelter, as well as some who have lost their parents or other family members.
For our leadership at CMJ as we continue to assess how best to respond to the unfolding situation. At the time that we need them the most, many key personnel have been called into service to the defense of Israel and their usual workload, as well as the additional tasks that have come with this emergency, are being carried by those who remain behind.
Pray specifically for the peace, well-being, and strength for the individuals who are staying at Christ Church and those who continue to seek refuge. The children who are without school, the grandparents who wait for phone calls, and the handicapped who are without their normal structure.

We close with the testimony of one of the Russian-speakin g Israelis who has found refugee at the Christ Church Jerusalem guest house.

Thank you: Light Up the Church

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 19:35:00 GMT

For the se cond year, CMJ USA has participated in the Light Up the Church initiative by Root Source. Root Source is a Jewish-run organization that enables, encourages, and enriches relationships between Christians and Jews based on mutual respect and love.

Root Source reports that the number of churches participating nearly doubled, to 126 from 72 plus dozens of parachurch ministries, businesses and individuals also signed up. We can report that CMJ participation went up 500 percent, from one CMJ USA-associated church last year to five this year plus CMJ UK.

Participating Churches 2023

These are the churches we recognized from the Light Up the Church participant list. If you also participated but didn’t register or we missed your name, let us know, info@cmj-usa.org.

Prince of Peace Anglican - Hopewell, PA
Christ Anglican Church - Orange, VA
Church of the Savior - Ambridge, PA
Grace Anglican Church - Edgeworth, PA
St. Francis Anglican Cathedral - El Paso, TX

Light Up the Church is a simple way for churches, particularly near Jewish communities, to show that we are thinking about our Jewish neighbors. We know that St. Francis Anglican Cathedral hosted a day of prayer on Nov. 9, 2023. Our hope is to grow the participation by CMJ USA churches in 2024, perhaps following St. Francis’ lead of hosting a day of prayer or hosting an evening of fellowship with nearby Jewish neighbors.

We welcome your ideas and suggestions. Our Jewish neighbors are currently aching and maybe even fearful in the wake of the Hamas attack on October 7 and the increasingly violent antisemitic rhetoric around the country. Please step out of your comfort zone and reach out to the nearest Jewish community center or synagogue or individual. Listen to their worries and pain, and continue to pray that the hostages are released, that war ceases, that there would be peace and healing for all in Israel and Gaza.

Israel Prayer Update - Oct 30

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 20:11:00 GMT

CMJ Israel continues to purchase and distrbute food, hygiene products, clothes, and children's toys to families who have been displaced from their homes in the south.

‘You’re killing yourself’

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 17:49:00 GMT

Video: Israel at War with David Pileggi

Sat, 21 Oct 2023 14:35:00 GMT

Rev. David Pileggi, rector of Christ Church Jerusalem, offers his analysis of the Israel-Hamas War on Anglican Ink. David has resided in Jerusalem for more than 40 years, has lived through the Second Intifada and the other wars.

Israel Prayer Update - Oct 18

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 20:39:00 GMT

Have you checked on your Jewish neighbor?

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 18:50:00 GMT

Listen Carefully for the Echoes of Antisemitism

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 18:23:00 GMT

The recent massacre of Jews by Hamas in Israel has revealed to us the face of this antisemitism in our government leaders and many church leaders, both in what they have said, justifying the actions of Hamas as a liberation struggle, and by what has been left unsaid, the silences.

Editor's note: This piece was written primarily for the context of South Africa, but it speaks words of exhortation to all Christians, especially in the West, as antisemitism continues to rise in our respective nations.

By Rev. Peter Houston
CMJ South Africa

In the words of a former President of South Africa, “listen carefully!”

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (of blessed memory) recognized the new face of antisemitism years ago. In a speech to the European Union parliament in 2016 he said the following:

Antisemitism means denying the right of Jews to exist collectively as Jews with the same rights as everyone else. It takes different forms in different ages. In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated because of their religion. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century they were hated because of their race. Today they are hated because of their nation state, the state of Israel. It takes different forms but it remains the same thing: the view that Jews have no right to exist as free and equal human beings.

He likened antisemitism to a mutating virus, and this was before the 2020 Covid pandemic that made us all armchair experts overnight. Rabbi Sacks said:

Throughout history, when people have sought to justify antisemitism, they have done so by recourse to the highest source of authority available within the culture. In the Middle Ages, it was religion. So we had religious anti-Judaism. In post-Enlightenment Europe it was science. So we had the twin foundations of Nazi ideology, Social Darwinism and the so-called Scientific Study of Race. Today the highest source of authority worldwide is human rights. That is why Israel—the only fully functioning democracy in the Middle East with a free press and independent judiciary—is regularly accused of the five cardinal sins against human rights: racism, apartheid, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide.

The recent massacre of Jews by Hamas in Israel has revealed to us the face of this antisemitism in our government leaders and many church leaders, both in what they have said, justifying the actions of Hamas as a liberation struggle, and by what has been left unsaid, the silences. This was to be expected from a ruling government who themselves supported an armed liberation struggle that targeted not only security forces but also ended up killing civilians. According to a TRC report published in 2003, “the majority of casualties of MK operations were civilians."

But what about the response of church leaders?

A central tenet of the Christian faith is that one new man (or one new humanity) has been achieved in Jesus Christ, that the old creation has gone, and all things have become new. That’s the claim, anyway. In the name of this new humanity, and in the name of human rights, the Church has been outspoken, and taken a vocal public stand against the rape of women, the murder of children, and the abuse of the elderly. The Anglican Church of Southern Africa, in particular, calls its members to observe Thursdays in Black, arguing that (and I quote from the Thursdays in Black movement) “we all have a responsibility to speak out against violence, to ensure that women and men, boys and girls, are safe from rape and violence in homes, schools, work, streets – in all places in our societies.” Furthermore, the Anglican church has gone out of its way to set up safeguarding policies, protocols, and commissions to ensure that its own members are safe and secure.

Yet what was the response when Hamas raped Jewish women, murdered Jewish children, and abused Jewish elders? Mostly silence, a few vigils for the Palestinian cause, some generalized prayers for peace, and plenty of qualified fence-sitting statements that never mentioned Hamas, let alone condemned Hamas. The Anglican Church of Southern Africa was not alone. In effect, what many Church leaders seem to be saying, by what they’re not saying:

The rape of women is wrong, except if you’re a Jewish woman.
The murder of children is wrong, except if you’re a Jewish child.
The abuse of the elderly is wrong, except if you’re a Jewish elder.

The blaming of the victims for the crimes perpetrated against them would not be tolerated by the #MeToo movement or by Thursdays in Black advocacy, or by a Safe Church Commission. This is exceptionalism. This exceptionalism has a name. It is called antisemitism.

Throughout history prominent church leaders have been the incarnation of the antisemitism of that age, preaching it in the Middle Ages, theologizing away Jesus’ Jewishness under Nazism, and ignoring Hamas in their liberation struggle narratives while also remaining silent about the rise of blatant antisemitism around the world. Since the Sukkot massacre in Israel on 7 October, Jews have been subject to a marked and sudden rise in antisemitic incidents on the streets of London, Manchester, Berlin, New York, and elsewhere. The number of antisemitic posts online has surged by 1,200 percent. Jews are being subject to horrendous verbal abuse, vandalism of property, and even physical attack.

Each new epoch of antisemitism builds on the old. We hear echoes of 20th-century antisemitism when a “race” narrative is advanced to explain the conflict in Israel as being a liberation struggle against white colonial oppressors, only this time Jews are not the antipathy of a particular form of whiteness (which Nazis believed) but have come to embody whiteness.

But even older echoes are heard. The Blood Libel accusation is one of the most ancient and enduring forms of antisemitism. The accusation first arose in the 12th century, alleging that Jews murdered Christian children to use their blood in religious rituals. Despite these allegations being baseless, Jews were killed in retaliatory riots.

When the Black Death swept Europe in the 14th century, killing an estimated 25-50 million people, Jews were accused of poisoning wells to kill Christians. The reality was that the bubonic plague killed people irrespective of their religion, including Jews. Nevertheless, Jews were killed in retaliation. In the 19th century, Jews in Damascus were accused of murdering a Christian monk and his Muslim servant to use their blood for rituals. Both Christians and Muslims in Damascus responded with violence against Jews. Eventually Sultan Abdülmecid I issued a firmān (edict) denouncing the blood libel.

Fast forward, when Hamas fired rockets at Israel in 2021 and 2022, later studies indicated that between 15-20 percent of their rockets misfired and fell on the Gaza Strip, adding to the civilian death toll. A similar trend is being observed with these 2023 attacks, with Hamas rockets killing civilians in Gaza. Israel is blamed and by extension Jews everywhere. The yet unfounded accusation becomes a modern form of blood libel as ordinary Jews become potential targets of violent retaliation, as has been the witness of history in every age.

To end where I began with the words of Rabbi Sacks:

Antisemitism means denying the right of Jews to exist collectively as Jews with the same rights as everyone else. It takes different forms in different ages. In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated because of their religion. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century they were hated because of their race. Today they are hated because of their nation state, the state of Israel. It takes different forms but it remains the same thing: the view that Jews have no right to exist as free and equal human beings.

His words remain as pertinent as ever. Listen carefully.

The Rev. Canon Peter Houston is a senior Anglican Priest and Canon Theologian in the Diocese of Natal. He has an academic interest in Church History, especially as it pertains to Christian antisemitism.

Pray for peace. Give for war relief.

Fri, 13 Oct 2023 03:04:00 GMT

A letter from our Patron, The Most Reverend Doctor Foley Beach

Israel War Relief and Prayer Update

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 18:39:00 GMT

While this war manifests in the natural, we know that there is also war in the heavenlies. Let us join God's angels in worship and cry out to Jesus for mercy and salvation.

Israel Prayer Alert - War with Hamas

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 16:49:00 GMT

Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16

The Creator God is merciful. Answer his trumpet call

Fri, 22 Sep 2023 03:46:00 GMT

Psalm 103 remnds us that God's character is always to have mercy and that he longs to dwell with us an makes a way fo him to be always among us.

Called to be Suffering Servants

Fri, 22 Sep 2023 03:19:00 GMT

The light of Messiah is either revelation or judgment to each of our souls. Jesus’ invitation to walk in the light is a call to discipleship. We stay in the light if we follow him through death to eternal life.

The hope in a Chinese bishop for the Sons of Jacob

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 17:24:00 GMT

By Rev. Cariño Casas
CMJ USA Executive Director

Recently, I visited the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh to see the exhibit and meet the staff there. They seemed excited to have a Christian visiting who is interested in Holocaust and antisemitism education. Eventually, they asked how it is that I came to be interested in antisemitism education.

I had to be honest. I told them of discovering the Jewishness of Jesus through reading David Stern’s Jewish New Testament and how that eventually led me to Israel. From there, I visited Poland twice with Rev. David Pileggi on his Jewish history study tour . Walking the Holocaust sites caused me to wrestle with that ugly history and with God, and I came out with a passion to teach the church this awful history.

It is a discouraging thing to hear. One does lose heart.

I explained that, yes, we were interested in having conversations about the identity of the Messiah, but that I knew 2,000 years of persecution and antisemitic Christian theology had to be addressed first.

The center educators listened respectfully. Then one of them told me, “Any hope you have that I will convert is a red line.” He said this several times in our talk. He referenced and agreed with Rabbi Abraham Heschel, who repeatedly said, “If I were asked either to convert or to die in Auschwitz, I’d rather go to Auschwitz.” ¹

I wasn’t asking this young man to convert or threatening him with death, but even my hope to speak about the identity of the Messiah was a redline and had him – a Holocaust educator – saying he would rather die in Auschwitz.

It is a discouraging thing to hear. One does lose heart.

Prayer and Bible reading – especially a strongly Jewish translation – encourage me, but my heart is especially buoyed by stories of Jewish disciples of Jesus, both past and present.

So, this month we are looking at the story of Bishop Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky – Bishop of Shanghai and translator of the Hebrew Scriptures into Chinese. Bishop Schereschewsky is a shining example of the fruit of CMJ’s proclamation of the gospel through the years. For this reason, we have chosen to time the CMJ USA Day of Giving with the church’s Feast of Bishop Schereschewsky, October 14.

Schereschewsky's story

Joseph moved to western Pennsylvania to study at Western Theological Seminary – now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He enrolled as Samuel Isaac Joseph dropping his very ethnic last name, possibly to avoid antisemitism, though he changed his mind the next year and restored Schereschewsky.

At Western, Joseph was strongly drawn to missionary work, but he also found that the Presbyterian Church was not the place for him. An Episcopal priest in the area saw Joseph’s potential and helped him transfer into The Episcopal Church. The Bishop of Maryland affirmed Joseph’s call and sent him to General Theological Seminary in New York. There he learned that the Bishop of Shanghai was looking for missionaries, and he volunteered. He wanted to translate the Bible into Chinese. In 1859, Joseph was ordained a deacon and sailed to China with several other missionaries. They all learned Chinese on the six-month voyage. ⁴

In 1900, there were 1.7 billion humans on earth. Nearly a quarter – 400 million – lived in China, and Joseph Schereschewsky made sure they had access to the story of Israel and the Gospel of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.

Irene Eber – an Israeli scholar – wrote that Joseph Schereschewsky was a remarkable integration of Jew and Christian. She also notes that Jewish law considers a Jew who believes in Jesus as an apostate but still a Jew. “In terms of halakha, the apostate is a sinner, but he is a Jewish sinner.” Joseph knew that he never ceased to be a Jew even as he served Jesus. ⁸

We have told a very distilled version of Bishop Schereschewsky’s life. We encourage you to read more about this amazing saint. His story is full of color and drama.

Apostle of China by James A. Mueller. Available free on Archive.org .
The Jewish Bishop and the Chinese Bible by Irene Eber. Read our review on our blog.

Footnotes

[1] “The Legacy of Abraham Joshua Heschel.” America Magazine, 14 October 2015. https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/understanding-other.

[2] Irene Eber, The Jewish Bishop and the Chinese Bible: S.I.J. Schereschewsky (1831-1906). Studies in Christian Mission v. 22, (Boston: Brill, 1999), 36.

[3] James A. Muller, Apostle of China (New York: Morehouse Pub, 1937), 32.

[4] Muller, Apostle of China, 34-40.

[5] Eber, The Jewish Bishop¸71.

[6] This number of characters in Literary Chinese is given in the 1930s by biographer Muller, Apostle of China, 213. There are more than 100,000 Chinese characters today. Peter Cahill and the CLI. “How Many Characters Are There in Chinese? | Chinese Language Institute.” CLI, 27 May 2020. https://studycli.org/chinese-characters/number-of-characters-in-chinese/.

[7] Muller, Apostle of China, 254.

[8] Eber, The Jewish Bishop¸ 243-245.

CMJ USA Day of Giving - October 14

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 20:28:00 GMT

This year for the Feast of Bishop Schereschewsky -- October 14, 2023 -- we are doing a CMJ USA Day of Giving. Our goal is to raise $35,000 this year in order to offset the negative impact the economy has had on giving and our budget. We ask you to pray about making a donation toward this day. You can make a one-time gift or create a recurring gift. This donation goes towards the work that is being done at CMJ USA and encourages us in our education and bridge-building ministry.

Traveling the Winding Path with God

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 19:05:00 GMT

Doug Ames grew up in a family with two faith traditions. After he had expressed faith in Christ for himself, he found himself worshiping with Jewish-believers in Jesus and encountering the power of the Holy Spirit. Then he learned that he has a genetic link to the Jewish people.

Help get Turkish-Kurdish pastors ‘Up to Zion’

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 19:02:00 GMT

Derech Avraham, with Shoresh Study Tours, is hosting an Israel study tour for church leaders in November

Light up the Church!

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 19:00:00 GMT

Stand in solidarity with our Jewish neighbors. On November 9th, 2022, synagogues and churches kept their lights to remember the horrific Night of Broken Glass, Kristallnacht. The Nazis tried to extinguish the light of the Jewish people forever; we say “Never Again!” Will you and your church, business, or home group join us in leaving the lights on November 9, 2023?

The Loving Pursuit of God

Sun, 16 Jul 2023 21:00:00 GMT

Helene's family saw first-hand the devastating effects of antisemitism, and God lovingly pursued her throughout this journey.

It's Yeshua, not Yahshua

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 19:16:00 GMT

How do you say Jesus' name in Hebrew? Dr. Michael Brown helps us out.

Pulling Jesus out of the Closet

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 19:41:00 GMT

One by one, a Jewish family comes to believe Jesus is the Messiah of Israel. Yet, it is a family secret shared with nearly no one until a daughter cries out to the God of Israel for mercy.

The Messiah, Israel, and The Holy Spirit

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 21:00:00 GMT

What does the Holy Spirit and the season after Pentecost have to do with Jesus - the Messiah - and Israel?

Yosef Bar-Naba, imitator of the Messiah

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 15:48:00 GMT

On June 11, the greater church remembers the life of Barnabas, a Jewish believer who traveled around the Roman world with Paul.

The church preacher who gave sermons in Yiddish

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 20:23:00 GMT

Joseph Rabinowitz, a 19th-century Hasid who found Jesus, hoped that his Christian-Jewish sect would improve the fate of the Jews

Seeing God's voice to Israel & the nations

Wed, 31 May 2023 21:00:00 GMT

Why did God choose the pilgrim feast of Shavuot/Pentecost to pour out the Holy Spirit on the followers of Jesus the Messiah? Executive Director Cariño Casas looks at Acts 2 and Exodus 19-20 to answer the question.

Shavuot - God's call to Israel and the nations

Thu, 25 May 2023 21:51:00 GMT

When God writes Torah on our hearts and regathers Israel and the nations together

Fast forward through Kings and Chronicles. Israel has not done well and is exiled from the promise land. After much weeping, Jeremiah speaks out God’s promise of regathering and restoration. Jeremiah 31 has an especially dear promise:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. … For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jer 31:31-34, ESV)

God promises to regather the exiles and give them a new Sinai experience. However, God will write his Torah on the hearts of the faithful instead of stone tablets.

Jesus surely has Jeremiah 31 in mind when he declares the start of this new covenant at his last Passover seder: “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:14-23, cf. Exod 24:6-8).

The New Covenant is initiated at Passover, when Jesus sacrifices himself for the sins of the whole world.
The new covenant is validated when Jesus rises from the dead on the Feast of Firstfruits (cf. 1 Cor 15:20). Forty days later, Jesus ascends on the clouds to take his throne at the right hand of the Ancient of Days (Dan 7:13-14, Ps 110).
Ten days after that – 50 days after the resurrection – on Shavuot, God pours out the Holy Spirit on the men and women who follow Jesus Messiah.

Why send out the Holy Spirit on Shavuot?

Because God is writing his Torah on the hearts of those who trust in his Messiah Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man.
Because God is once again inviting Israel AND the nations to himself.

Jew and Gentile called together at Shavuot

We know that Egyptians – and perhaps others – left Egypt with the Hebrews ( Exod 12:38). These Gentiles also heard God’s instruction. The implication of the rabbinic tradition is that they would have heard God’s instruction in their own language when the flame of the voice of God split into 70 flames, one for each of the nations in Genesis 10.

In Acts 2, God is once again calling Israel and the nations to himself. If we weren’t sure that the tongues of fire attest to God’s global vision, the multi-national Jewish worshipers in Jerusalem hear the gospel in their own languages (Acts 2:5-11).

Peter preaches the Gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection to this crowd and 3,000 come to believe in Jesus as Messiah and Lord – 3,000 Jews. But notice a detail in verse 11. The crowd contained both Jews and proselytes. In other words, this was a mixed multitude of Israelites and Gentile worshipers of the God of Israel, just like in Exodus at Sinai.

A refreshing Jewish openness to Jesus

We must, like Peter, continue to proclaim Jesus as Messiah to all who will listen. Two articles from Jewish media this month signal that more of our Jewish neighbors may be willing to broach the subject:

“ Why this Jew is binge-watching The Chosen (and maybe you should too) ” from the Times of Israel
“ It’s a giant musical about Jesus – with a Jewish producer. Will it make America believe? ” from The Forward

In both, Jewish writers review and comment on Christian depictions of Jesus. The reflections are startlingly open. In the first, the Orthodox Jewish writer praises “the most intensely Jewish Jesus” of The Chosen series. She also encourages Jews to read the New Testament, to not be afraid of it and in it get a glimpse at first-century Judaism. The second ends with the recognition that the catchy closing number of the musical His Story is not just a song but a prayer for Jesus’ return.

We’ve seen how Shavuot is a season that highlights God’s pursuit of Jew and Gentile. What a great opportunity for Gentile followers of Yeshua the Messiah to engage with our Jewish neighbors. Send them holiday greetings and perhaps use the two articles above as conversation starters. Remember you’re not alone. The Holy Spirit is with you, ready to reveal the identity of the Jewish Messiah to those we encounter.

Footnote

[i] Shemot Exodus 5:9; Weissman, Moshe, The Midrash Says: Shemot (Brooklyn: Bnay Yakov Publications, 1980), 182.

Glimpsing the mind of God in the Hebrew Scriptures

Thu, 11 May 2023 16:46:00 GMT

In seminary, Pastor George Koch thought he was just checking off the Old Testament requirement. Then the professor left him and his classmates frightened and awe-struck as he showed them the face of God.

Firstfruits of God's Middle East Peace Plan

Thu, 11 May 2023 12:17:00 GMT

An update from At the Crossroads and a glimpse into what God is doing in the lives of people in the Middle East

Ruhan ¹ – a young Jordanian man – had been sitting in the back of the room listening, unbeknownst to most of us. He spoke only Arabic. He had never met anyone from Israel.

A woman from Lebanon had just shared how her small organization was ministering among Syrian refugees despite the bad history between the two nations. The organization had now started a school in Syria and even planted a church. She asked that we pray for the young people of Lebanon who – in the midst of an economy in freefall and a government in a holding pattern – see no future for themselves.

In response, a dozen Israelis – both Jew and Arab – surrounded the Lebanese speaker and began to pray for her.

Ruhan’s heart was moved when he saw all these Israelis. He wanted to bless them.

Ruhan has been a follower of Jesus for more than a year. He had been suffering physical and psychological abuse from his family for his Christian faith. He had decided that day that he had to leave Jordan or leave Jesus. He had a ticket to another country, but he came to the At the Crossroads gathering first. He had recently admitted to his pastors that he felt he loved Israel after reading his Bible diligently. He wasn’t sure what to do about it. And now here were all these Israelis in front of him.

After he came up to tell us this testimony, he was surrounded by all the Israelis, who blessed him and prayed the Aaronic blessing over him. Ruhan then blessed them and the whole nation of Israel. The Israelis blessed his family. Then all the fathers present laid hands on Ruhan and prayed for him to know the love of his heavenly Father.

This was one of many scenes of genuine love and brotherhood at the At the Crossroads 2023 gathering. Others involved Israeli Jews and Palestinians praying for one another, hugging, fellowshipping, worshipping in each other’s languages, and repenting of national sins. We also heard how the believers in Turkey and Cyprus have been ministering to those devastated by the February earthquakes.

What does this have to do with Christians and Jews in the United States?

When Christians look at the world, some of us are pricked with compassion for one group while others are moved by the plight of others. Sometimes, good God-fearing Christians find themselves loving people groups on opposite sides of a conflict and so find themselves at odds with other good God-fearing Christians. When we love these conflicted peoples with a soulish or merely human love, we will likely find ourselves hating their enemies.

Frankly, some Christians love Israelis and other Christians love Palestinians. We pick sides. Then we make cliques based on what we think is the right side. In the process, we hamper fellowship and partnership with one another.

We are called to love with the all-encompassing love of the Messiah. Messiah loves Jew and Gentile, Israeli and Palestinian, Kurd and Turk, Arab and Persian, and so on and so forth.

God chose Abraham in Genesis 12 to bless the nations scattered from Babel in Genesis 11. It is through Abraham’s physical descendants – the nation of Israel – that God has spoken to the world. It is the Jewish people who have safeguarded the Scriptures for us, taught us how to worship, and from whom the Messiah comes physically (Rom 9).

The blessing of the lands that Abraham walked has begun. The reconciliation of these ancient enemies is in process. We are seeing what Paul wrote about in Ephesians 2 as those foreign to the covenants of God are brought into the Commonwealth of Israel. Jesus himself “is our shalom, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” ( Eph 2:14 ).

At the Crossroads began in 2012 at Christ Church Jerusalem, inspired by the worship alliance found in Isaiah 19:23-25 . From the annual At the Crossroads gatherings has grown the Derech Avraham Initiative , which “brings together Muslim-background believers in Jesus, Messianic Jews, Middle-Eastern Christians, and internationals for the specific purpose of encouraging believing communities beyond the strategy of survival and the nationalist church mentality to a view of the region that reflects the Isaiah 19 highway and the Kingdom of God.”

I’ve had the privilege of hearing Isaiah 19 stories of reconciliation for more than a decade. I’ve seen men and women that the world considers mortal enemies together laughing and weeping, singing and dancing, breaking bread and praying together. ... These sights and sounds ... are true glimpses of heaven.

I’ve also seen these relationships started in worship mature into conduits of practical aid when war and disaster tear across the Middle East. These sights and sounds are evidence that Yeshua is alive and the Kingdom of God is really at hand. They are true glimpses of heaven.

Yes, the people of Israel continue to be chosen by God to speak of his faithfulness to all humanity. Yes, all his gifts and promises to them are irrevocable. Yet, they will only come into full maturity when they acknowledge their Messiah and, by his power, partner in love and worship with their ancient enemies. Then the world will hear, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”

Footnote

[1] His name was changed for his protection.

‘Alarming rise’ in antisemitic incidents in 2022

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 13:19:00 GMT

Follower of Jesus, we must take seriously the fear and anxiety felt by our Jewish neighbors.

Remembering the Holocaust: 'They Died As Jews'

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 10:35:00 GMT

Researcher Kelvin Crombie shows background information and untold stories from Jewish believers who died in the Holocaust.

Loving the God of Israel, his Word, & our Jewish neighbors

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 19:04:00 GMT

Executive Director Cariño Casas shares how God called her to CMJ and how he opened her heart to the Jewish people

That Jesus is the Prophet Like Moses, the Son of David, the Messiah is made plain by the Gospel writers. It’s even clearer when the Hebraic context of Jesus’ good news – obscured in many translations – is restored. I wondered, then, why Jesus’ kinsmen, the Sons of Jacob, cannot recognize that he is the long-awaited Redeemer of Israel. This question drove me to prayer. I prayed alone in my room for more than a year that the eyes of the Sons of Jacob would be opened to Yeshua’s identity.

In those prayer times, the LORD ministered to me, spoke deep into my heart and told me he had a job for me in Israel. It was one of the clearest things I’d ever heard from him. So, I sold or gave away most of what I owned, packed up my life in the States, and flew to Israel in May 2009. I would love at some other time to detail how the LORD faithfully guided me and cared for me, taught me and used me.

The short version is that I spent four years in intercession, worship, and service at a house of prayer. There the LORD broadened my heart and deepened my love when he taught me about his Middle East peace plan at the end of Isaiah 19.

It was an Isaiah 19 conference that took me to Christ Church Jerusalem, founded by CMJ in 1849. There I learned the history of CMJ and how Jewish and Gentile disciples of Jesus had come to the Holy Land in 1823 to proclaim Yeshua to the Jews of Ottoman Palestine. It was the LORD’s hand that put me on the Christ Church staff in 2014 as the media coordinator. It was the LORD who drove me back to the States to prepare me for ordained ministry as a deacon in the Anglican church. It was the LORD who made clear at a providential meeting in North Carolina that he was calling me to write the next CMJ USA chapter.

Christ Church Jerusalem as seen from above.

As the new director, I’ve been telling my story a lot recently as I introduce myself to ministry partners. It has been a sort of meditation, and in it, the Holy Spirit has highlighted a pattern.

Turn to the God of Israel.
Feed on his Word.
Allow the Word to stoke compassion for our neighbors.
Pray.
Serve God and neighbor.
Turn and follow the God of Israel.

God loved the world in this way, that he chose Abraham, he chose Israel to bring forth Salvation – Yeshua – for all the world. Jesus is the Seed of Abraham in whom all the earth will be blessed (Gen 22:18, 26:4, 28:14; Matt 1:1; Rom 4). Our response should be to love God and to love our neighbor, especially Jesus’ DNA brothers and sisters.

We at CMJ USA desire to help you better love God and love your Jewish neighbor. We want to encourage you to connect to the Hebraic foundations of the Gospel and Jesus’ Jewishness so that 1) you would know Jesus better and 2) you would see Jesus in your Jewish neighbor.

In the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matt 25:31-46), the King judges the nations based on how they treat his brothers. The church has long seen in these verses a call to see Jesus in the faces of the poor, imprisoned, and downtrodden. This is not wrong, yet we must not forget that the first definition of brother is a blood relative.

When we see our Jewish neighbors – in a yarmulke, in Hassidic dress, wearing the Star of David, going into a synagogue, celebrating the Feasts of the LORD – we must see Yeshua our master in their faces and treat them as we would our King.

Sadly, church history is littered with accounts of how the church didn’t just fail to be kind but was malicious and even murderous. Let us turn again to the God of Israel, feed anew on his Word, and let him teach us how to humbly love our Jewish neighbors with the love of Jesus.

The Messiah, Resurrection, and Israel

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 11:52:00 GMT

The resurrection of Jesus is a sign for us of his kingship and shows us that he is truly the Messiah we have been waiting for.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2023

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 17:15:00 GMT

Video recordings of the lectures given at Christ Church Jerusalem for International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2023.

How do we make sense of a history marred by atrocities? And more importantly, how do we combat prejudice and hate today?

International Holocaust Remembrance Day was on January 27 and Yom HaShoah -- Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day in Israel -- begins at sundown on April 17th to sundown on April 18th. Sadly, antisemitism is on the rise in the United States. One way that we can defend ourselves and our Jewish neighbors is by educating ourselves. According to recent data, 1 in 4 Jews in America have experienced antisemitism , and 2021 saw more incidents than any other year on record since 1979 . These incidents are on the rise and have turned some synagogues into a place of fear for our Jewish neighbors .

In a recent interview reflecting on the attack at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, Jeff Cohen implores people to speak out against antisemitism and all hate when they see it, as that is the only way we can reduce the amount of hate in our society. “‘When you hear things, you know they're not true, you close your eyes, you grimace, you roll your eyes, you look the other way, but you don't say anything,’ Jeff said. ‘And I'm not being accusatory, because, before this time last year, I would do the same thing. But we can't. We need to challenge it when we hear these things.’”

Before we can speak into these areas, we must first educate ourselves so we can be faithful witnesses.

Martin Luther & The Judensau

Dr. Richard Harvey joined us on Holocaust Remembrance Day, for a thought-provoking lecture, taking us back to medieval Europe, and exploring the deeply-ingrained antisemitism that gave rise to anti-Jewish art like the notorious Judensau (Jew-pig) image in Germany. Learn how religious leaders in Europe throughout history, including Martin Luther himself, were influenced by these depictions of Jewry and fueled rabid antisemitism. Dr. Harvey's lecture aims to spark awareness and invite dialogue through his personal experiences as a Jewish Believer, by striving to work together towards reconciliation and the combating of antisemitism today.

It Is NOT Enough to be an Anti Antisemite

In this thought-provoking talk, Rev. David Pileggi from @ChristChurchJerusalem tackles the complex issue of antisemitism and offers insights on why it's not enough to simply be against it. Drawing from his extensive experience as a pastor and scholar in Israel, he delves into the historical and cultural roots of antisemitism and explains why it's important to actively work towards building systems of proactivity that will make sure that we will not be bystanders in the next genocide.

People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 13:45:00 GMT

A review of Dara Horn's book People Love Dead Jews, looking at the effects of antisemitism and misinformation on our Jewish neighbors.

Christian Antisemitism Through The Fabelmans' Eyes

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 19:00:00 GMT

In the film, Steven Spielberg shares the joys and trials of his growing up. His antisemitic experiences should make Christians pause and consider how we can love our Jewish neighbors better.

Searching the World for God

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 19:00:00 GMT

The story of how a Jewish girl became an Anglican priest

God is Working Behind the Scenes

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 12:00:00 GMT

In honor of the theme of Purim - Remember - Nadine looks back over her journey to becoming a Holocaust education volunteer to see how God has been working in her life.

Help At the Crossroads get aid to Turkey

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 20:02:00 GMT

CMJ partner Derech Avraham, with the help of an Israeli entrepreneur, is working to build tiny-house shelters in Diyarbakir that can protect a family from the elements.

A Good Jew's Passionate Experience of Christ

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 19:30:00 GMT

A young Jewish woman was content in her Orthodox Jewish world; until a rabbi asked her to write a movie review of Mel Gibson’s portrayal of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Lent: Israel and Her King in the Wilderness

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 18:30:00 GMT

What is Lent? And what does it have to do with the Jewishness of Jesus?

Meeting Jesus in the Poconos

Fri, 13 Jan 2023 18:04:00 GMT

Ron First, CMJ’s rep in Texas, was raised in the synagogue and became a professional musician. Unsatisfied with his career in New York, he joins a cruise ship band and finds himself weeping at the Western Wall. For the next five years, he searches for himself and for God.

Messiah’s manifest destiny

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 20:59:00 GMT

Of those who have claimed to be the Messiah of Israel, only Yeshua of Nazareth has drawn the pagan nations toward the God of Israel

Editor’s Note: Part of our occasional teaching series on how the seasons of the Christian calendar relate to Israel and Jesus the Messiah.

By Aaron Gann
CMJ USA contributor

After the long weeks of Advent, we finally came to the feast time known as Christmas, the time when we as the Church recognize the incarnation and physical birth of the Messiah – when God became flesh, born of a virgin, and dwelt among us, Immanuel (Isa 7:10-14). Debates over whether this is the actual timing of his birth aside, it is a joyous time of lights, carols, special readings, and sermons about when the Messiah came, born in Bethlehem, as a sign and fulfillment to his people Israel.

First, it ought to be noted that the Church has never been exclusively Gentile, but there has always been a Jewish presence within the Church from the days of the Apostles until this present day. For instance, the current archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, ++Foley Beach, is of Jewish ethnicity ¹ . Even today, particularly in the West ² and Israel ³ , the presence of Jewish Followers of Yeshua has grown considerably and constitutes a sizable population within the Church. However, Gentiles still outnumber their Jewish brethren by a large margin.

What is often missed though is that this does not diminish Yeshua’s messianic claims but strengthens it. Among the characteristics that the Hebrews Scriptures teach concerning the Messiah is that he would not only be a witness to Israel but he would also be a witness to the Gentiles as well and would have a large Gentile following! Consider the words of the Prophet Isaiah who said concerning the Messiah,

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isa 49:6) ⁴ .

Notice that while part of the Messiah’s mission would certainly be to Israel, this was too small a task for him. Instead, his influence would be spread throughout the entire world and would bring salvation to the Gentiles as well. Given that the Gentiles in the world outnumber the Jewish people, it should be no surprise then that there are more Gentile followers of Yeshua today than Jewish people. Should even the entire world come to faith tomorrow, I suspect that the percentage would still be similar.

This makes Yeshua’s claim stand out against all other messianic claimants throughout Jewish history. While there have been those who have claimed to the Messiah of Israel, such as Bar Kokhba, Sabbatai Zevi, or the recent Rabbi Schneerson, whom his followers claim to have been the Messiah, none of these claimants have had any interest to Gentiles or brought the light of God to the Nations. It is only Yeshua of Nazareth that is known for both his Jewish and Gentile followers. I myself am a Gentile, of Irish and English descent, who by all rights should be a follower of some form of Celtic paganism. However, my worship is not directed to Irish deities but rather to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel, and the God of the entire world.

So, as we enter the season of Epiphany, it is right that the Church should focus on the manifestation of God to the Gentiles. It was promised that, “In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious” (Isa 11:10). Today, while we are still waiting for the Messiah’s return, when he shall judge the living and the dead and all the world shall know him (Ps 22:27-31), we see as a preview of that glorious day when the Gentiles have seen the Light of God in his Son Yeshua the Messiah and have responded in faith, joining the Jewish people in worship of the One True God.

Amen and Amen.

Aaron Gann desires to help people develop biblical literacy and a biblically-informed love for Israel and the Jewish people. He and his wife, Rebecca, have been married for two years and reside in Raleigh, North Carolina. They serve at Redeemer Anglican Church in Raleigh as well as at L’Chaim Messianic Fellowship in Cary, North Carolina. Aaron is studying toward a master of divinity at Shepherds Theological Seminary in Cary and is an aspirant discerning a call to ordained ministry within the Anglican Church in North America.

Footnotes

^{1 Foley Beach, personal communication, June 16, 2021.

2 Sarah Posner, “} ^{Kosher Jesus: Messianic Jews in the Holy Land} ^{,” The Atlantic, 29 November 2012. In this article is a citation that there were in 2012 between 175,000-250,000 Messianic Jews in the United States.

3 “} ^{Findings of New Research on the Messianic Movement in Israel} ^{,” One For Israel, 11 April 2018.

4 All Scripture quotations are taken from the ESV.}

Originally published 30 Dec 2021

Amazing Grace

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 19:51:00 GMT

The part played in Israel’s restoration by the author of this beloved hymn

CMJ USA starts the year with a new director

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 22:16:00 GMT

The Board of Directors of CMJ USA is pleased to welcome the Rev. Cariño Casas into her role as our new Executive Director. Before joining the staff of CMJ USA in January 2020, Cariño served as the media coordinator of Christ Church Jerusalem from April 2014.

Yeshua, the Prophet-Like-Moses, is born!

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 20:18:00 GMT

For some, the Christmas narrative has become trite, something to be toyed with, but the story of the infant in the manager is not some fairy tale. It is the revelation of the King-Like-David, the Redeemer of Israel and the Nations.

Remembering John Rodgers, faithful, enthusiastic CMJ supporter

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 18:33:00 GMT

Just before Thanksgiving, Bishop John Rodgers died and entered into the presence of his Messiah. He was 92 years old. John – who was a respected Anglican theologian and seminary dean – supported the work of CMJ USA from our start in 1982.

Advent and the Messianic Hope of Israel

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 17:32:00 GMT

The Messiah's Advent, both in the past and in the future, is important not only to the Church but is also of great importance to the people of Israel. In his first Advent, the Messiah came for his own Jewish people. His ministry was to them, first and foremost.

The Lesson of the Loaves

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 20:38:00 GMT

When Jesus feeds the multitude by multiplying bread, it is not lost on the people that he is the Prophet Moses predicted. Yet, the people - and even the disciples - fail to understand what this prophetic role would entail. Part of our ongoing series "Jesus, the Prophet Like Moses."

Sukkot 2022 in the Texas Hill Country

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 19:52:00 GMT

"In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps." Proverbs 16:9

History in First Person: Rev. Daryl Fenton

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 19:14:00 GMT

The now director of CMJ Israel recounts how he met Theresa Newell and how the Lord the ministry led to engage churches to build bridges with their Jewish neighbors

From Moses to Messiah in a Wedding, Water, and Wine

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 20:30:00 GMT

Why does Jesus turn water into wine? Is he announcing the fading of the Law? No, rather he is announcing the new Exodus and his identity as Moses' successor. Part of our ongoing series "Jesus, the Prophet Like Moses."

History in First Person: Cheryl Gonzales

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 20:30:00 GMT

The fourth director recounts how the LORD opened her eyes to the Jewishness of Jesus and the Scriptures and then how she led Shoresh USA through a ministry shift as the Second Intifada killed all tourism to Israel

New Wineskins / 40th Anniversary celebration recap

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 19:56:00 GMT

We praise God for his faithfulness to us and are grateful for all those who were able to celebrate with us in person in North Carolina

Thank you, David H. Stern, for everything

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 18:57:00 GMT

15 years ago this month, I ran across the Jewish New Testament, and God changed my life. The translator of the Jewish New Testament died Shabbat morning, Oct. 8, 2022. He was 86.

Last week, while on a trip to Minnesota to see an ailing aunt , I learned of the death of David H. Stern , the translator of the Jewish New Testament and writer of the Jewish New Testament Commentary . Here I was traveling and preparing for the death of a beloved aunt, and God had brought me back to the area where I first encountered the testimony and work of David, my elder brother in Messiah, just as he passed into eternity.

The LORD used the work of David Stern to kick start an adventure I never saw coming, that brought me to CMJ, and that I’m still exploring, unsure what surprise the LORD has next.

I was a newspaper journalist by call and training. In 2006, I left my last full-time newspaper job near Los Angeles to move to Minneapolis. My friends were starting a business, and the LORD called me to help them.

The years in southern California were the best of my newspaper career, yet they were the driest spiritually in my life. In Minnesota, I was among believers, and I began to study the Word deeply again. I encountered a Christology course online that highlighted the Jewishness of the Messiah. My interest was piqued, and I needed to know more.

That Jesus is the Prophet Like Moses, the Son of David, the Messiah is so plain. Then I wondered why Jesus’ kinsmen, the Sons of Jacob, cannot recognize that he is the long-awaited Redeemer of Israel. This question drove me to prayer. I prayed alone in my room that the eyes of the Sons of Jacob would be opened to Yeshua’s identity.

In those prayer times, the LORD ministered to me, spoke deep into my heart and told me he had a job for me in Israel. It was one of the clearest things I’d ever heard from him. So I packed up my life in Minnesota and flew to Israel in May of 2009. I cannot here detail how the LORD guided me and cared for me, taught me and used me. The short version is that I spent four years in intercession, worship, and service at a house of prayer. There, the LORD broadened my heart and deepened my love when he taught me about his Middle East peace plan at the end of Isaiah 19.

It was an Isaiah 19 conference that took me to Christ Church Jerusalem, founded by CMJ in 1849. There I learned the history of CMJ and how Jewish and Gentile disciples of Jesus had come to the Holy Land from the 1820s to proclaim Yeshua to the Jews of Ottoman Palestine. It was the LORD’s hand t put me on the Christ Church staff in 2014 as the media coordinator. It was the LORD who drove me back to the States to prepare me for ordained ministry as a deacon in the Anglican church and to serve now as the communications director of CMJ USA. Only God knows what's next!

Thank you, David Stern, for running with the vision of the Messiah, for making his identity plain so that those of us who see it can run with it. Thank you for teaching me my first Hebrew words, for introducing me to rabbinical thought, for showing me Jesus and Paul and the other disciples draped in their tallits, good Jewish men and women announcing the great news that the Messiah has arrived – not just for Israel but for ALL the nations. Thank you for helping me get to know my Lord and Savior much more intimately so that I could hear his invitation to my ongoing adventure.

David H. Stern with his wife Martha (Facebook)

I came really close to meeting David in 2009. By the Spirit, I found myself at the congregation where he worshiped. I was maybe too eager to show my gratitude, so his friends and family did not allow me to speak with him. But we worshipped together in that congregation on several occasions.

For a disciple of the resurrected Messiah, death prompts so many mixed emotions. We’re wired to live forever, but the sin curse wracks our aching bodies. As followers of the Resurrected Messiah, we live in the hope of the age to come but we must endure the suffering of watching each other die and then dying ourselves. Jesus goes before us in death and in resurrection life. Hallelujah!

So long, David. You have sent out the LORD’s word from Zion, and it will NOT return void.

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant, David. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting shalom, and into the glorious company of the holy ones in light.

In the Name of God the Father Almighty who created us;
In the Name of Yeshua HaMashiach who redeemed us;
In the Name of the Ruach HaKodesh who sanctifies us. Amen.

The Complete Jewish Bible is available online free at BibleGateway.com . The Jewish New Testament Commentary is available printed or as an ebook via Amazon/Kindle, Logos, and other booksellers. Visit Messianic Jewish Publishers for other titles by David H. Stern.

The Rev. Cariño Casas is the Communications Director of CMJ USA. She began as the media coordinator of Christ Church Jerusalem in 2014. She previously worked as a newspaper copy editor and photojournalist. Cariño serves as a deacon in the Anglican church in the Pittsburgh area.

Here Comes the Judge!

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 16:59:00 GMT

Receiving Jesus is the most Jewish thing I’ve ever done

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 16:31:00 GMT

One day the girl I was dating told me she was getting into witchcraft. These words came out of my mouth: “Jesus is the most important part of my life.” What I really wanted to tell her was: “You can’t get involved in witchcraft you’ll bring demons into my life.” Jesus was certainly not the most important part of my life, I only said that because I was scared of demons.

Well, my girlfriend did end up bringing demons into her life. She would hear them talking to her, and she quickly became a different person just consumed with hatred. And we parted ways.

I went on with my life, and about a year later I was in the store about to steal hair product , something I used to do every month. As I held it in my hand, the words I told my ex-girlfriend the year before repeated in my head: “Jesus is the most important part of my life.” Standing there in Target I realized if Jesus really was God then I was evil! That if God is real then morality has to be based on his character. I didn’t want to be evil. My whole life I just wanted to be unwaveringly good like my Grandpa seemed. I knew I wasn’t as good as my Grandpa , but I didn’t realize I was evil.

I made a decision: I’d live as if Jesus was God for now and investigate Christianity. Once I disproved Christianity I could then feel comfortable returning to making life about me.

I made a decision: I’d live as if Jesus was God for now and investigate Christianity. Once I disproved Christianity I could then feel comfortable returning to making life about me. Well, it quickly became evident that the evidence isn’t even close. From a historical perspective alone, we have more solid evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than just about any other event from that time period.

After I finally realized all the evidence points to Jesus, it occurred to me that while, yes, Jesus doesn’t want me to be evil, it’s not about morality for Jesus. I realized that he died for me. He didn’t die so I would shape up and be good. He died so I’d have life. While I was still using him as a means to an end, while I was trying to include Jesus just enough so that I wouldn’t go to hell, he gave up his life for me. He knew that and died for me anyway so that I could live.

Suddenly I wanted to read the Bible and tell people about him. So, I did. Little by little everything wasn’t all about me anymore. Now I want to desire what he wants me to desire. I want to make my life all about him. So it is. And since I stopped chasing my own desires and started pursuing his, he’s given me real unshakeable fulfillment. I was made on purpose for a purpose and, just like an Xbox isn’t designed for hammering in nails, I wasn’t designed to be king of my own life. You can hammer a nail with an Xbox, but you’re going to destroy the Xbox.

When I bent the knee to King Jesus, I finally started to experience what I was made for. I no longer need to get my happiness or love or any other good thing from a person, thing, or feeling. I’m constantly given joy and love from a never-ending supply, and it doesn’t come from anything temporary. It comes from the eternal God who adopted me. I very quickly realized that Jesus’ messianic mission is completely Jewish. Since he is the long-awaited Messiah of Israel, the most Jewish thing I’ve ever done is to receive him.

Aaron Dranoff is the founder of thetorahguide.com . Aaron works to establish genuine relationships between Christians and Jewish people to combat antisemitism in the Church, teach about the Hebrew roots of Christianity, and lead discussions about the Hebrew Bible. Aaron also teaches high school history & geography and is a licensed commercial pilot.

Elizabeth, Servant of the Most High

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 15:35:00 GMT

A Journey of Discovery

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 17:41:00 GMT

History in First Person: Marcia Lebhar

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 15:08:00 GMT

The Prophet-Like-Moses Offers Water to an Israelite

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 17:41:00 GMT

Film about Israel-Palestine conflict aims to rekindle dialogue

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 16:48:00 GMT

History in First Person: Rev. Alfred Sawyer

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 16:48:00 GMT

The world hates to be reminded God exists

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:52:00 GMT

The Storm of Revelation

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 20:27:00 GMT

How can followers of Jesus fight antisemitism?

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 20:26:00 GMT

History in first person: Rev. Philip Bottomley

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 20:26:00 GMT

My Personal Pentecost

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 15:05:00 GMT

Ascending the Mountain of God

Mon, 16 May 2022 15:46:00 GMT

Meet two Jewish Anglicans, ancestors in the faith

Mon, 16 May 2022 15:45:00 GMT

Church of England repents of antisemitism

Wed, 11 May 2022 17:59:00 GMT

The Prophet-Like-Moses & The Last Supper

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 16:43:00 GMT

CMJ & The Pilgrim Fathers Tour

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 16:42:00 GMT

Invite Us for a Visit

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 15:37:00 GMT

The Temptation in the Wilderness

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 16:54:00 GMT

The first coming of CMJ to America

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 15:51:00 GMT

Praying for Ukraine: Messianic Jewish Spiritual Landscape

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 15:46:00 GMT

Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 17:48:00 GMT

Jewish Christians in the Netherlands during the Holocaust

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 17:43:00 GMT

Joseph Frey in America

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 17:41:00 GMT

Christmas in February: The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 21:42:00 GMT

‘A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise’

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 15:30:00 GMT

Royal Remembrance

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 16:30:00 GMT

The Enduring Legacy of Michael Solomon Alexander

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 17:58:00 GMT

Celebrating 40 years of CMJ USA

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 18:12:00 GMT

Meet Jesus, the Prophet-like-Moses

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 18:11:00 GMT

Breakfast on the Beach: The Development of Simon Peter

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 18:11:00 GMT

Won't you be their neighbor?

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 19:18:00 GMT

It is telling that those who do not know any Jewish neighbors would not sense the threat of antisemitism.

God's Christmas grace is enough for us

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 16:22:00 GMT

On Christmas Eve, in a normal year, the Christ Church compound would be teeming with thousands of local Arabs and Jews partaking in our Christmas open house festivities. Last year, due to COVID-19, we were severely limited in how many people we could host. Only one or two hundred people joined us for our traditional carol singing and fellowship over cookies and mulled wine. This year, despite still being in the shadow of a pandemic, we are cautiously optimistic that more visitors will join us .

Dialogue of Suffering

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 17:40:00 GMT

In 2021, CMJ USA committed to writing about antisemitism in the United States throughout the year. We close with this meditation by artist Rick Wienecke. The ugliness of antisemitism bore the awful fruit of the Holocaust in the 20th century. What does Jesus have to say about this cataclysm? Rick and his wife Dafna created the Fountain of Tears , a sculpture that displays a conversation between the crucified Messiah and a Holocaust survivor.

Remembering December 18, 2010

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 15:32:00 GMT

Without Hanukkah, there’s no Christmas

Thu, 02 Dec 2021 18:02:00 GMT

If it weren’t for the victory over an evil regime bent on destroying the Jewish people and their heritage, the course of history would have been different. If Judaism had been wiped out, then arguably there would have been no Jesus of Nazareth born of a Jewish woman in the land of Judea, circumcised on the eighth day, presented at the Temple in Jerusalem, and raised as a son of the Torah.

The Maccabees, Martyrs, and the Messiah

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 18:06:00 GMT

How the Hanukkah story inspired Jewish theology that explains how Jesus’ death atones for the sin of the world

This article is based on “The Maccabees, Martyrs, and the Messiah,” an audio teaching by the Rev. Aaron Eime. Listen or read below.

Hanukkah is not quite a biblical holiday, yet it has become a very visible Jewish holiday around the world . The events th at Hanukkah commemorates are recorded in the four Books of the Maccabees, none of which enter either the Jewish or Protestant Christian canons. [1]

Yet, Hanukkah gets a mention in the New Testament. John 10:22-23 records Jesus walking in the temple during the winter Feast of Dedication . Hanukkah means “ dedication,” and it was the Maccabees who rededicated the temple in the winter after the desecration by Antiochus Epiphanies (1 Macc 4:52- 9). [2]

Jesus celebrated Hanukkah, and if we are imitators of the Messiah, it must be all right for us to light candles and eat doughnuts and latkes. The holiday should also draw us into study, as some of the theological questions and answers that arise from the Maccabean period informed how the New Testament writers understood the person and work of Jesus as the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world.

Restoration interrupted

In 586 B.C., Judah was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar and exiled to Babylon. The prophets are clear: Judah, and Israel before her, suffered for their sins. Then the captivity ends. Cyrus, ruler of the Persian empire, allows the exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. The restoration of the kingdom was on the way.

More than 300 years later, the Seleucid empire tried to make the Jews into Greeks by force, outlawing Sabbath observance, circumcision, and the reading of the Torah. The Greeks went so far as to sacrifice a pig on the altar in Jerusalem.

A revolt was led by a priest named Mattathias the Hasmonean and his sons starting in 167 B.C. They were victorious and reclaimed the temple for God, rededicating it on the 25th of Kislev ( 1 Macc 4:52 ). The Hasmoneans, who called themselves the Maccabees — that is, the Hammers — ruled restored Israel for about one hundred years. (If you’re wondering when the miracle of the oil happened, no such miracle is recorded in the four books of the Maccabees. The story of the oil only appears in the Talmud 600 years later.)

The Maccabees believed that they were bringing about the final redemption of Israel. Assuming they were living in the messianic age, they expanded Jewish territory by force, converting those around them. They also changed how the priestly succession worked in the temple, leading to the temple corruption depicted in the Gospels. The Hasmonean Dynasty eventually descended into civil war, leading to Rome’s conquest of Jerusalem in 63 B.C.

Why do the righteous suffer?

The Hellenizing Seleucids killed many pious Jews who would not give up their devotion to God. One example recorded in 2 Maccabees 7 is a story of a woman and her seven sons murdered for refusing to eat pork. The theologians begin to ask:

Is it worth dying for faith?
Does martyrdom have any effect?
Why does a good, all-powerful God allow his faithful followers to suffer and die?

They conclude that the martyrs’ death s served as a ransom for the sin of Israel: “Through the blood of those devout ones and their death as an expiation, divine Providence preserved Israel that previously had been afflicted” (4 Macc 17:21-22). The blood of pious martyrs becomes an atoning sacrifice for Israel (4 Macc 17:5, 12).

Better than the blood of Abel

Having arrived at this theological truth, late Second Temple period scholars went back into the Scriptures to look for martyrs. The first martyr is Abel, who offers God a pleasing sacrifice and is then murdered by his brother Cain (Gen 4) . A tradition develop s that when one dies , Abel is the first to judge all souls . This first martyr, still bleeding, would sprinkle his blood on those entering the presence of God. The righteous would be able to continue but the evil would not.

When Jesus of Nazareth appears and announces himself as the Messiah, his countrymen are chafing under Rome’s oppressive yoke. To many first-century Jews, Rome must have appeared as the Seleucids returned. Rome had absorbed Hellenistic culture and now imposed their rule through out the Mediterranean world. The people of Judea , Samaria and Galilee desired a Maccabean-like m essiah who would overthrow Rome and reestablish Israelite independence.

Instead, Jesus redeems Israel by suffering like Abel and the righteous who were murdered by the oppressive Greeks. Jesus, a pious Jew, was betrayed by the corrupt leadership initiated by the Hasmoneans and martyred by pagan Rome. By Second Temple theology, his blood qualifies to have atoning effects for the sins of Israel.

However, Jesus is no ordinary martyr. He is the Word of God, the essence of God made flesh ( John 1:1 , 14 ). The atoning power is magnified to include all the earth and all the nations and even cleanses the temple in heaven ( Heb 9:23-24 ). Thus, the writer of Hebrew s declares that Jesus’ sprinkled blood speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel ( Heb 12:24 ).

This article is based on “The Maccabees, Martyrs, and the Messiah,” an audio teaching by the Rev. Aaron Eime. Aaron Eime served as the deacon at Christ Church Jerusalem and teacher for CMJ Israel for many years. He is now the director of CMJ UK and lives with his wife and children in England.

Footnotes

The first two books of the Maccabees are in the Roman Catholic canon , and all four are in Eastern Orthodox canon.
Solomon’s Temple was dedicated during Sukkot (1 Kgs 8:2, 2 Chron 5:3), and the second temple was initially dedicated in the month of Adar in early spring (Ezra 6:15-16).

CMJ USA News and Views

The good news: Messiah is risen from the dead!

Rt. Rev. Julian Dobbs, CMJ USA board member, reads the Gospel of Matthew's account of Jesus' resurrection in Jerusalem

Will you believe God's answer to our hosanna?

God hears our cry for help and answers with what we need, not what we think we need

Interview: Understanding the Jewish People (915 Talk)

Listen to an interview with CMJ USA director Rev. Cariño Casas on KELP, the Christian talk radio station in her hometown of El Paso, Texas

A Jewish view of replacement theology, supersessionism

Jewish writer Mira Fox at the Forward analyzes, comments on the idea that Jesus made Judaism obsolete

Why including Christians in Jewish traditions is key to fighting antisemitism

Is celebration of Jewish holidays by Jewish followers of Jesus an act of appropriation? And is it inappropriate for Gentile Christians to participate?

Jewish Followers of Jesus Celebrating Jewish Holidays

Gentile Christians Celebrating Jewish Holidays

How Do We Ensure Appreciation Doesn’t Turn into Appropriation?

Rev. David Pileggi on the Iran-Israel War, antisemitism

' What a time to be alive!'

"90–95 percent of the Iranian population does not go along with the regime. They don't like the regime. They have shown their disdain for the mullah version of Islam by either converting to Christianity or becoming quite agnostic, religiously speaking."

- Rev David Pileggi

-Rev. David Pileggi

-Rev. David Pileggi

How CMJ’s work in Israel continues during the war

CMJ's guest houses, school, and Mercy Fund minister to all Israelis amid the conflict

Beit Immanuel: A Place of Peace and Witness

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. —Colossians 3:16

The Mercy Fund: Sharing God’s Love in Practical Ways

The Anglican International School: Education Continues

Reflecting the Father’s Heart

Twisted Scripture: Reclaiming the Bible from antisemites

There are some who, like Satan, misuse the Scriptures to incite hatred

Psalm 121 in a time of war

Praying for CMJ Israel staff during this conflict

A Call to Prayer

Standing with Us in This Season

The Servant of the Lord who gathers Israel & the nations

We are also called to carry the light of the Messiah to our neighbors and the world

(Re)Introducing Krystal Hustead, Assistant Director

Former CMJ USA staffer returns to run operations and help with teaching content

A note & invitation from the Assistant Director

Turn the Page with CMJ: A New Book Club Initiative ﻿

How an ‘all-American boy’ became a synagogue arson suspect

Jewish Media Review - January 2026

Historic churches forget their Israeli Jewish brothers in Christ

Pastor says statement by Jerusalem clerics asserting sole authority over all Christians of the Holy Land ignores evangelicals, reduces Jewish believers to a political ploy

Remembering and loving our Jewish neighbor

The Jewish context of the New Testament should move us to love our Jewish neighbors today

Paul the Pharisee, Apostle to the Gentiles

Grafting Gentiles into Israel

How Christians should engage with Jews today

Remember those who don't feel safe

Yeshua's attributes of mercy

God shows his glory by declaring his merciful nature then by sending Jesus Messiah

Jewish Paul in Greece 2025 tour recap

Relive the tour through our videos then consider joining us on the next one!

Walk through Greece with us via our Reels

Eucharist between the Acropolis and Mars Hill in Athens

How to wait for the Second Coming

Jesus is coming back. We are called to share his good news and live good lives until he returns.

What God’s kingdom on earth will look like

What to expect at Jesus’ return

What should we doing while we wait?

Nobodies like Paul among the idols

A sermon on Paul the Pharisee's ministry in Greece

Is antisemitism normal in the U.S. now?

Jewish Media Review - Sept & Oct 2025

U.S. Antisemitism

Christian-Jewish Relations

Israel-Hamas War

Politics

Media and Art and Science

Loving our Jewish neighbor like Ruth

Christians are the foreigners invited into the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Part of our call is to love and comfort the Sons of Jacob

The wild olive in the sukkah

A midrash on Nehemiah 8:15 and Romans 11

Why the Church should care about antisemitism

Jesus is Jewish. There are Jewish believers in the church. God loves the Jewish people

How to Love Your Jewish Neighbors Today

A video on the need to befriend and care for Jewish people in midst of antisemitism

CMJ USA Day of Giving - October 14

FBI: 70% of religious ‘hate crimes’ in US directed against Jews

Jewish Media Review - August 2025

Turn the Page with CMJ: A New Book Club Initiative

Jewish Media Review - July 2025

On the murder of Yaron Lischinsky in Washington, D.C.

Jewish Media review - March 2025

God's visual aids to teach us about himself and his plan of redemption