Why Jews don't see Easter the way Christians do

ABOUT a month before Easter this year, I received a poignant letter from a prominent Seattle-area evangelical Christian businessman, a passionate activist for Israel. He wrote to invite me for a kosher meal at his home — and to discuss Jesus.

He did not, he promised, intend to evangelize me, a believing Jew. Rather, as a leader in the growing movement of Christians and Jews allying on behalf of the Jewish state, he was puzzled about what we Jews believe about the Christian savior. He was, he said, "ashamed that I never engaged my friends in what is the most important aspect of their lives, their faith, simply because some Christians — not Jews — told me to never ask these questions of my Jewish friends, or risk deeply offending them."

With the approach of the most holy day on the Christian liturgical calendar, his questions deserve answers. As citizens of a largely Christian society, most Americans see Easter through Christian eyes: as a commemoration of Christ's death and resurrection, which won salvation for all mankind. My Christian friend was asking why Jews don't see Easter as he does.

In wondering, he is far from alone. The new political alliance of conservative Jews and Christians has aroused curiosities. Jews like me who work with evangelicals and other Christian conservatives are often asked, by friends and colleagues mustering their courage, how nice people like us could possibly reject the risen Christ.

How, indeed. The best answer may be that what distinguishes the two religions above all is that Jews never saw a need for the sacrifice recalled at Easter.

The apostle Paul, who originated the most distinctive ideas in Christianity, taught that salvation is not something you buy with deeds — in particular, not with the Torah's system of 613 commandments, whose practice he explained could now be discarded. Rather, salvation is God's gift. God gave the ultimate gift in the form of Jesus' saving death.

Later Christian theologians boasted of God's unmerited "grace" as if it were a unique feature of their religion, while Jews were stuck with a discouraging faith where you try to earn your way to heaven by performing commandments. This represents a misunderstanding of Judaism.

As the Bible's book of Ecclesiastes, attributed to King Solomon, advises, "Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a glad heart, for God has already approved your deeds." At the same time, Solomon crystallized the heart of biblical religion: "Be in awe of God and keep his commandments, for that is man's whole duty." How were the two ideas reconcilable?

In the Jewish understanding, salvation came in the form of the covenant given to Moses on Mount Sinai — God's gift. The commandments a Jew performs do not "earn" salvation. They are merely the response that God asks to the fact that the Jew is already saved — "God has already approved your deeds." As a fundamental Jewish text, the Mishnah, puts it, "All of Israel has a share in the world to come." Non-Jewish peoples had their own covenant with God, received by Noah after the flood. It worked the same way.

What about the great Jerusalem temple, often depicted as a mechanism for "purchasing" forgiveness with sacrificed animals — before the building was destroyed 40 years after Jesus died? Surely, this made the need for Christ's sacrifice clear.

But Solomon also said that when the Jews were in exile, without a temple, they "should repent saying, 'We have sinned; we have been iniquitous; we have been wicked,' and they [will] return to you with all their heart and with all their soul — may you hear their prayer and their supplication from heaven and forgive your people who sinned against you."

In Judaism, repentance is always available to people, Jews and non-Jews, who wish to "get right" with God. The temple sacrifices were an aid to this, not a precondition. That was proved by the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. The first temple lay in ruins for 70 years (before a new one was built). If God saw no need then for a sacrificial Christ, why would there ever be a need?

The offer of Christianity, for Jews, amounts to giving up the unique grammar of our relationship with God, the commandments, in return for a gift that we already had. This is why Easter is a day on which we should wish Christians all the blessings of their faith — a faith, however, that if we understand our own, we can never share.

After His Resurrection, however, He appeared to his disciples on many occasions, and they believed and knew He was the Messiah and thus they turned the world upside down for Jesus Christ, in fact, dying for Him, beginning in Jerusalem.

Proverbs 7 is the story of the Church and Jezebel…

Proverbs 7

1 My son, keep my words, And treasure my commands within you. 2 Keep my commands and live, And my Torah (law) as the apple of your eye. 3 Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," And call understanding your nearest kin, 5 That they may keep you from the immoral woman (Jezebel), From the seductress who flatters with her words.

6 For at the window of my house I looked through my lattice, 7 And saw among the simple, I perceived among the youths, A young man devoid of understanding, 8 Passing along the street near her corner; And he took the path to her house 9 In the twilight, in the evening, In the black and dark night. 10 And there a woman met him, With the attire of a harlot, and a crafty heart.

11 She was loud and rebellious, Her feet would not stay at home. 12 At times she was outside, at times in the open square, Lurking at every corner. 13 So she caught him and kissed him; With an impudent face she said to him: 14 "I have peace offerings with me; Today I have paid my vows. 15 So I came out to meet you, Diligently to seek your face, And I have found you.

16 I have spread my bed with tapestry, Colored coverings of Egyptian linen. 17 I have perfumed my bed With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 18 Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; Let us delight ourselves with love. 19 For my husband is not at home; He has gone on a long journey; 20 He has taken a bag of money with him, And will come home on the appointed day."

21 With her enticing speech she caused him to yield, With her flattering lips she seduced him. 22 Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, 23 Till an arrow struck his liver. As a bird hastens to the snare, He did not know it would cost his life. 24 Now therefore, listen to me, my children; Pay attention to the words of my mouth: 25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways, Do not stray into her paths;

26 For she has cast down many wounded, And all who were slain by her were strong men. 27 Her house is the way to hell, Descending to the chambers of death.

Christmas and Easter

Jeremiah 16

19 O LORD, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles (Goyim) shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say,

"Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things."

20 Will a man make gods for himself, Which are not gods? 21 "Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know My hand and My might; And they shall know that My name is the LORD.

Jeremiah 10

1 Hear what the LORD says to you, O house of Israel. 2 This is what the LORD says:

"Do not learn the ways of the nations (Goyim) or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. 3 For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. 4 They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. 5 Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good."

Works

Revelation 2
18 "And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, "These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass: 19 "I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first. 20 Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21 And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. 22 Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. 23 I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.

Colossians 2
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Messiah.

Rabbi Sha’ul is a second generation Pharisee, so when he refers to Holy Days (Festivals) he’s talking Leviticus 23.

So if the Festivals are shadows of Messiah (they are), why does the church prefer to dine at Jezebel’s table?

Yeshua, Conception during Chanukah, Born during Tabernacles, Crucified on Pesach, Resurrected on First Fruits.

Early on, the Romans/Italians/Catholics got together and decided that the Feasts of The LORD were too Jewish, so they made up their own using the Feasts as templates. The Sabbath became Sunday, Passover became Easter and what they did with Chanukah is nothing less than amazing.

Chanukah begins 25 Kislev, lasts 8 days, the first and last days are Holy Days. Christmas is (as you know) December 25th. And 8 days later is New Years Day.

And to top it off they moved the whole thing off the lunar calendar to the solar. They got as far away from the Feasts of The LORD as they could!!! But it’s been done before…

1 Kings 12
25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built Penuel. 26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:

27 If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. 28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.

31 And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. 32And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.

33 So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.

So what to do?

Climb Mt. Zion…

Isaiah 2
1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the LORD's house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it. 3 Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

The Prodigal Returns!

Jewish Christians are Messianic Jews, and fulfilled Jews because they have found their Messiah. That does not make them any less Jewish.
And a Muslim could say to you "Christian Muslims are Prophetic Christians and true Christians because they follow the final prophet. That does not make them any less Christian."
It is chauvinistic and not one that would convince an intelligent person of the faith that was supposedly transcended or superseded.

I am not changing any rules... I am telling it what is written in the Holy Scriptures. The virgin birth of Jesus Christ is the "miracle" of the birth. Jesus had to be born pure, without sin, and this is the way God through His Spirit atoned for sin of the world once and for all.
And no one but literalist Christians believe that. It is an article of faith in Christianity, completely out of steps with Judaism. It is closer to the birth stories of Dionysus (Greek traditional religion), Zoroaster, and Mithras than anything prophesied in Hebrew scriptures. Most Jews at the time and now scoff at it.

"Either Jesus was the Son of God or of the Davidic line."
HE IS BOTH.
In Hebrew almah means "young woman". Mary was a young woman, and also a virgin, and had not yet married Joseph, according to the scriptures.
1. Paternity defines tribal affiliation. Nothing in the Law makes this story feasible. Why would any Jew follow a story, whose premise is outside the Law?
2.So in your world, 3 is one, and babies have two daddies? That may be your faith, but it is hardly convincing to anyone who was not raised to believe.

Jesus always was. He is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
I didn't by that argument of being born and always being with Greek deities either and neither did most Jews.

Genesis 26 reads: " And God said, Let US make man in our image. Who is God talking about?
1. The word for "God" in Genesis 26 is grammatically plural. (I can't write it out in a profane forum.)
2. The angels were already created. The "LORD of Hosts" spoke unto them.

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