In this episode of Discovering the Jewish Jesus, Rabbi Schneider tackles the challenging topic of why many Jewish people reject the identity of Jesus as the Messiah. He aims to demystify common misconceptions, primarily outlined through emotional, religious, and doctrinal barriers. With an insightful discussion, Rabbi Schneider reveals how these views are rooted more in cultural identity than theological analysis. Listeners are guided through three primary reasons: the cultural perception that being Jewish means rejecting Jesus, a traditional understanding against God’s incarnation, and misunderstandings surrounding Jesus’ teachings about the law. Rabbi Schneider provides historical and scriptural insights to offer
I began to gently witness to this individual. As soon as I said Jesus’s name, this person became filled with rage and said to me, I’m a Jew. Don’t say Jesus to me.
SPEAKER 01 :
Have you ever wondered why so many Jewish people don’t believe in Jesus or why the idea that he’s the Messiah can be such a hard thing to accept? Well, welcome to Discovering the Jewish Jesus today. I’m your host, Dustin Roberts, and today’s show is a special short program, and Rabbi Schneider is going to speak directly to those questions. Let’s get started. Rabbi?
SPEAKER 02 :
Why have the majority of Jewish people rejected Jesus? Today I’m going to share with you three reasons why Jews, by and large, reject Jesus. Reason number one is it is simply an emotional, knee-jerk reaction that they have to Jesus because they believe that you can’t be a Jew and believe in Jesus. To illustrate this point, let me give you a conversation that I recently had with a close relative of mine. I began to gently witness to this individual about Jesus. As soon as I said Jesus’s name, this person became filled with rage, filled with intense hostile energy and said to me, I’m a Jew, don’t say Jesus to me. Now, mind you that this individual that I’m referring to doesn’t even believe in God. They’re not a practicing religious Jew. They simply believe that being a Jew is not believing in Jesus. And so although many Jewish people, the majority are not religious, Judaism to them isn’t a religion, it’s simply a cultural identity. But as a cultural Jew, they believe that you can’t be Jewish and at the same time believe in Jesus. Now understand that this mindset is not something that they have thought through logically. It’s not something that they have thought the process through and then have come to a logical conclusion that you can’t be a Jew and believe in Jesus. It’s just something that they have picked up in their home. It’s something that they’ve picked up in their culture. It’s something they’ve heard since they’ve been little children. We’re Jews. We don’t believe in Jesus. It’s not based on logic. It’s not based on an analysis of the scriptures, at least an honest evaluation of the scriptures. It’s simply based on a traditional cultural position that they’ve taken that goes all the way back to the time that Yeshua, to the time that Jesus walked on the earth. Reason number one, then, that Jews reject Jesus is simply they believe they have to because part of being Jewish is rejecting Jesus. Reason number two that Jewish people reject Jesus does have more to do with the Torah. Because when God first revealed himself to the Jewish people on top of Mount Sinai, they didn’t see God. They saw his glory. They saw the fire on top of Mount Sinai. They saw the smoke. but they didn’t see God. And when God gave the Jewish people the law there, He said to them in the commandments, do not make any graven image of anything in the likeness of what is on earth. And so Jewish people feel that God should not be illustrated or should not be contained in any type of image. And so as believers in Jesus, we believe that God took upon himself flesh and blood, that he clothed himself in humanity. But to a traditional Jewish person, God cannot take on the form of a man. And again, this goes back to their concept of the Ten Commandments when God said that we should not make his likeness in any image of that which is upon the earth. But to me, as a Jewish believer in Jesus, this analysis is faulty and it is not as deep as the Scriptures go. Because in fact, we read in the Torah that God actually appeared to Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre in the form of a man. So as a Jewish believer in Jesus, we’re not saying, I’m not saying that God is a man. I’m saying that God clothed himself in humanity, just as the New Testament teaches in John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh. But Jewish people, because they’re trapped in the mindset of rabbinic Judaism and believe what the rabbis tell them, they are not open to understanding the deeper mystery. And the deeper mystery is, all the way back in the time of the Torah, God did appear in the form of a man and he ultimately condescended to clothe himself in humanity so that he could become the mediator between God and man. You see, Yeshua, who is the God-man, he’s completely God and completely man. He’s the perfect bridge between God and humanity because Yeshua as God relates to God as God and Yeshua as man relates to you and I as man. He becomes the go-between or the bridge between the everlasting God and between you and I that are created in His image. He’s fully God and fully man. But the traditional Jewish world isn’t able to consider that because they’re trapped in the mindset of the rabbis, which makes it anathema to believe that God could become a man. Reason number three that Jewish people reject Jesus is because a misunderstanding of what Jesus taught about the law, about the Ten Commandments. You see, what the rabbis teach is that Jesus did away with the law, that Jesus broke the Ten Commandments. For example, we read in the Gospels that Yeshua was walking through a field one day on the Sabbath and he picked grain up on the Sabbath and he was accused of harvesting or working on the Sabbath. And so Jewish people reject Jesus because they feel that Jesus broke the law and rejected the law and tried to do away with the law. But in fact, that’s not what Yeshua did. He kept the law. Again, he said, do not think I’ve come to abolish the law. I’ve not come to abolish, but to fulfill. He kept the law, beloved, in its truest and in its original intent. In other words, he kept the law in the sense that he did in the law what was meant to be done that pleased the Father that gave the law. And ultimately, he fulfilled it because the law’s true intent was ultimately to cause you and I, to cause mankind to recognize that we are not in and of ourselves capable of keeping the law to perfection. You see, in the book of Deuteronomy, the Lord said, if you perfectly keep this law, you’re going to be blessed. But if you can’t keep it or don’t keep it, you’ll be cursed. And what happened to Israel? A curse came upon them as a lesson for us all, because as humanity, we’re incapable of doing what needs to be done according to the law to receive the blessing. And so Yeshua fulfilled the law by causing mankind to realize that at the end of the day, our heart is not true enough, it’s not pure enough, it’s not perfect enough to meet the demands of the law. and recognizing that we are now prepared to receive God’s ultimate answer, which is the Messiah, King Jesus, King Yeshua. So in review, Jewish people reject Jesus because number one, they’re taught to by osmosis. Number two, they’ve been taught from the rabbis that God can’t be a man. And number three, they think that Jesus broke the law. None of those things are true. Yeshua is God in the flesh that perfectly kept the law and fulfilled God’s ultimate purpose from eternity.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. Thanks for listening today, friends. And you know the book of Romans, it says that when Jewish people come to faith in Christ, it’ll be like life from the dead for the church. We’re believing for a massive group of Jewish people to be saved. to understand that Jesus is the Messiah. Would you commit to praying and believing for Jewish people to be reached through discovering the Jewish Jesus? I want to thank you so much for your support of this ministry, for your prayers. We love you all so very much. Thank you for listening today, and join us again tomorrow when we’re back to normal with Rabbi Schneider talking about who the Father is and the most desperate need that we have. That’s Friday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
