by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Jan 18, 2014
This week, I’m continuing to share tips for people of faith who are resolved to evolve in 2014. Tip #1 was
Get Authentic.
Tip #2 is Get to know Jesus, again.
When Jesus first came to me in a vision, over 20 years ago, it was a shock. Not only that he was in the business of appearing to Jews like me, but that he didn’t look anything like the pictures I had ever seen of him! He wasn’t blond haired and blue-eyed. He wasn’t white. He didn’t have straight hair. He wasn’t tall. He wasn’t somber. He was curly-haired, olive-skinned, short and handsome! And most definitely Jewish. Just like a close reading of the New Testament would later reveal to me.
What’s your picture or image of Jesus? Maybe it’s time to be open to a change!
A recent Christian Century article, Jewish and Pacifist, made the case that “The separation of Jesus from his Jewishness is what led to the accommodation and eventual support of racism by traditional theology.” Not to mention centuries of church sponsored anti-Semitism!
It led to a “generic” or universalist Jesus that turned out to be white, European, and Christian!
Having a new experience of Jesus can refresh your faith. And shake the cobwebs out of your assumptions. It sure did mine.
I like the idea that getting the particulars of Jesus right–ethnicity, culture, religion–actually combats racism and anti-Semitism. Maybe all the isms!
This year, as you resolve to evolve, resolve to get to know Jesus, again. To help you…
- Read and discus The Jew Named Jesus. Pub theology groups, Bible studies, book clubs, others are reading and discussing this in a variety of settings.
- Host a wonderful Passover Seder, replete with Matzah, Hebrew blessings, and the cup of Elijah.
- Dig into whether the day of Jesus’ death was a Good Friday or Bad Friday.
To help you get into Jesus’ world, I’ve got another quiz for you with 3 questions:
What is the name of the calendar the year 2014 is based on? What calendar did Jesus follow? What is one of the main differences between the two calendars? The first one to answer all 3 questions correctly gets a free autographed copy of “The Jew Named Jesus.” Send us your answer, along with your name and address to claim your prize.
by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Aug 21, 2013
Just as Christians celebrate Easter and Christmas every year, so Jesus and his family—along with their relatives and friends—celebrated Passover every year.
It was a big to-do.
Each spring in the Hebrew month of Nisan they trekked from their home in Nazareth up to Jerusalem for the seven-day festival of Passover.
One year, as Jesus was approaching manhood by traditional Jewish calculation, “when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival.” They may have gone up as usual but they didn’t come back as usual. The rest of the family headed home but unbeknownst to them Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, without even a word.
What Mary and Joseph would’ve given for a cell phone and a text message!
Without any digital advantage however, his parents were worried sick. They turned around mid-journey and finally located Jesus in the Temple. They weren’t that happy about it either. Mary scolds Jesus who was “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” Apparently, they were also asking Jesus questions because the teachers “were amazed at his understanding and answers.” Jesus, unfazed, wonders why his parents were searching for him. “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” His parents were as baffled by his actions and his response as Jesus was by their anxiety.
If this story is any indication, Mary and Joseph definitely trained up their child in the way he should go. He loved God, loved Torah, and loved learning—all pluses in the Jewish world view. As the years went by, “Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.” Mary and Joseph did a good job raising Jesus as a faithful Jew. But as parents know all too well, not every kid keeps the faith. What about Jesus? Did he take it on as his own as he grew up? Or did he leave it behind and become a Christian?
(Excerpt from The Jew Named Jesus, p 27-28, Rebekah Simon-Peter, Abingdon Press, 2013)
by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Dec 1, 2012
Do you remember what happened on the 8th day of Christmas?
The 8th day of Christmas, you ask? You mean, eight maids a milking?
Nope!
On the eighth day of Christmas–after Jesus is born in a humble feeding trough, after the angels sing “Glory to God in the highest” and announce good news of great joy to all the people, after the shepherds, amazed, run to Bethlehem, but before the Magi come bearing gifts–Jesus is formally welcomed into the Jewish people.
The eighth day of Christmas, as it were, is when Jesus is circumcised and named. The ancient rite of circumcision, first practiced by Abraham as a sign of the covenant with God, is routinely performed in hospitals now. But not then.
And then as now, circumcision is the first and most basic mitzvah (commandment or law) to be fulfilled for a Jewish baby boy.
“This is my covenant which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is 8 days old…” Genesis 17:10-12a
Jesus isn’t the first Jewish boy whose circumcision is noted in the New Testament. Don’t forget cousin John’s, also on the eighth day. His naming and miraculous birth is mentioned as well.
“Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said ‘No, he is to be called John.’”
Luke 1: 57-60
Circumcision is a permanent sign, etched in the flesh, of partnership with God. Even more than lineage and ancestry, circumcision anchors these boys, and their families, firmly in the Jewish community.
At his circumcision Jesus is also named with “the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” (Luke 2:21) By the way, it should be noted that girls are named too, but not circumcised.
About a month after Jesus’ circumcision, Joseph and Mary come to Jerusalem. There they present Jesus to the LORD in the ancient practice of redemption of the firstborn son (pidyon ha ben). Since Jesus is Mary’s firstborn, and as the author of Colossians later asserts, “the firstborn of all creation” (1:15), he is presented then bought back or redeemed after he reaches 31 days old.
Joseph and Mary would have paid a small sum (five silver shekels in biblical times; today, usually five silver dollars) and performed a brief ritual in the Temple to fulfill the mitzvah. (Numbers 18:15-16)
While the family is at the Temple for the redemption ceremony, two righteous and devout Jews, Simeon and the prophetess Anna, recognize Jesus as a sign of God’s salvation and praise God, for this “light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” who would himself redeem Jerusalem. (Luke 2:32, 2:38)
From his earliest days, Jesus is raised in a strong and beautiful Jewish home. From circumcision to naming to redemption to offering sacrifices, Mary and Joseph do “everything required by the law of the Lord.”
Not from a sense of empty duty or obligation, I suspect, but a profound connection to God and Torah and love of their child, Jesus.
After these mitzvot (plural of mitzvah) are fulfilled, Jesus and his parents “returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.” At home in Nazareth the mitzvot, blessings, prophesies and praises take root: “the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.” (Luke 2:39-40)
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Excerpted from the forthcoming book, “The Jew Named Jesus” (Abingdon Press, 2013) by Rebekah Simon-Peter.
by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Nov 9, 2012
Recently the longstanding Christian-Jewish Roundtable sinned. As in missed the mark. Big time.
Christian leaders from the group–including representatives of the National Council of Churches, the United Methodist Church, the Lutheran Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA)–sent a letter to Congress on grounds of “moral responsibility” asking that US aid to Israel be reevaluted in light of the Jewish state’s alleged human rights violations against Palestinians.
The missed mark? Here’s one of them. The letter was sent shortly before the whole group was to meet for a regularly scheduled meeting. Jewish dialogue partners include leaders of Reform and Conservative Judaism, the American Jewish Committee, and the Anti Defamation League.
How moral is it to ambush your dialogue partners with a request that is sure to bring up a complex of emotions and responses?
Why didn’t they wait and speak to their partners in interfaith dialogue? It certainly would have been messy. It might have been indelicate. Perhaps there would have been hurt feelngs. Or big disagreement.
But all of that is happening anyway. Without the benefit of having spoken together. And now it may be hard to get the parties back to the Roundtable to talk. This very Roundtable by the way was established in part to help diffuse differing opinions over US aid to Israel.
Interfaith dialogue between Jews and Christians has come a very long way. Much has been accomplished. But this is a sign that there is still more work to be done.
When does interfaith dialogue not work? When it’s not practiced.
