It doesn’t drive a wedge for me. I don’t consider Maimonides infallible, though he was brilliant and is an important Jew. If Jewish leaders were involved in the decision to kill Jesus I’d like to think Christians wouldn’t hold it against all Jews forever.
For Jews, Jesus did not bring among other things a messianic era. No, because to us he didn’t fulfill the prophecy. It doesn’t mean he is evil or mad. It means we can’t call him a prophet.
Is it OK that Jesus is a prophet or savior to Christians? Yes. Because for Christians it is so. For Christians, praying to or through Jesus is not idolatry. It would be for us Jews. But it is right for Christians.
I a. Not offended nor should any Jew be that you all struggle and think and pray on this difference. We respect struggling with Gd.
It’s a different paradigm. We are commanded to be Jews. We accept that others are not, nor should they be. Others have their own Ways. For them, their religion is the right way. Christianity feels it must convert others. So in your Way you must struggle with Judaism because yours is to be, for you, the Only Way. This is to me the saddest thing about Christianity, though I mean only expression of my honest feeling and no offense at all. I respect your theology even though it isn’t mine.
There is only one Gd. One creator. There are apparently different ways to worship Him. I can accept that. I think that is how Jews feel, or are supposed to feel, about Christian theology.
Well, this Christian doesn't hold it against all Jews forever. More to the point, I see all of humanity as being complicit in this killing. Pushing it off on to one group "Jews" or a smaller group "those Jewish leaders then" is pushing off one's own complicity.
Maimonides' comments are his own as an individual.
See y’all? This is a good reaction. Thank you.
~Theo
That is inherent in the very root of Christianity.
Christians believe Jesus is the Savior of man. If other groups, such as the Jews, can achieve salvation without His intercession, then this claim is false.
Jesus himself said, "Nobody comes to the Father except through me." No exceptions, even for His relatives.
If you reject that statement, you can still believe He is a great moral teacher, but you can't believe He is the Messiah in any meaningful sense.
Perhaps you can answer a question for me that I have wondered about for quite some time. Many Jews are apparently seriously offended by (what they believe to be) the Christian belief that Jews who don't accept Jesus as their Savior will go to hell. This pops up every so often when some Jewish group gets its panties all wadded up of the Southern Baptists or some other group.
I find this very odd. Quite a few Christians who believe differently from me on various aspects believe that I will therefore go to hell. This doesn't bother me at all, since their belief will presumably not affect God's judgment in any way.
Either they are right, and I'm in for eternity in the toaster, or they're wrong and I'm not. Either way, why should I (or the Jews I mentioned) care one way or another what some random idiot believes?
Obviously such belief can for fanatics lead to regrettable actions in the real world. But I think it has been quite some time (if ever) that the US has experienced a pogrom. Some Jews seem to expect the appearance around the corner at any moment of a mob of Cossacks.