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Teaching

Defending Yeshua

Messianic believers who live in the Christian world have an arduous task. Christians need to be educated in the ongoing validity of the Torah, the Jewish hashkafah (worldview) needed for understanding the Scriptures, the continued special role and calling of the Jewish people, and the place of Gentiles in God's plan. I believe that with God's help, First Fruits of Zion has contributed to this effort. Equipping people to carry out that task has always been the specialty of First Fruits.

But the early Jewish pioneers of the modern Messianic movement did not have to deal with this mission. They did not find themselves fighting for continued Torah observance or promoting a Jewish hashkafah. Rather, they were vying for a continued existence within Judaism. Their struggle was to demonstrate the legitimacy of a life devoted to Yeshua in a Jewish context. Instead of explaining and defending the Torah to Christians, they had to defend Jesus as a Jew to both the Jewish and Christian world. These men knew the true Yeshua, who was Jewish, and they knew that he affirmed the Jewish people and the Torah. To their brothers in the Jewish community, the task at hand was thus to defend Yeshua against the false impressions and accusations. They were uniquely able to do this because of their knowledge and identity within Judaism.

Historically, many Christians have portrayed Jesus as non-Jewish figure whose mission was to put an end to Judaism, the Torah, and the God's covenant with the Jewish people. They portray him as initiating a new faith, a new law, and a covenant with a new people. This portrayal was underscored by Christian triumphalism and persecution of Jews. The Jewish community, for the most part, has accepted this portrayal of Jesus and thus rejected him as incompatible with Torah. Both groups agreed that Jesus has nothing to do with Judaism.

To those of us who have been awakened to a more historically correct view of Yeshua of Nazareth, we see that case of misrepresentation as one of the most tragic events in history. It resulted in many centuries of Christian anti-Semitism. The name of the Messiah, a pure, holy, and righteous Jew, faithful to the Torah, to God, and his people Israel, has become associated with some of the most vile acts in human history. To many Jews, the name of Jesus evokes the same feelings as the names of the other arch-villains in the history of the Jewish people.

We want to see Christian anti-Semitism end. We also want to see a place for followers of Yeshua in the world of Judaism. These will only be accomplished when he is correctly viewed as a Jew who affirmed the Torah and the Jewish people.

That means that the task ahead of us, in the footsteps of the Messianic pioneers, is a defense of the name and person of Yeshua--to educate the world about the true nature of the Messiah and his teachings when properly understood in a Jewish context. By giving these scholars of Messianic Judaism a voice, Vine of David humbly seeks to help our movement take steps forward toward accomplishing that goal of defending Yeshua.

When we speak of defending Yeshua, we do not mean evangelism. The point is not to plead or demand that religious Jews accept Yeshua as messiah. After all, what observant Jew in their right mind would accept as messiah someone who they perceive as diametrically opposed to Judaism? It would not matter how many hundreds of messianic prophecies he claimed to fulfill.

The immediate task of Vine of David is to bring honor to our master by demonstrating and communicating who he really is: the glory of his people Israel.