The cost of believing

Most Jewish people have one thing in common above all others. They may be religious Jews; they may be secular Jews. They may have a deep faith in God; they may be atheists. They may have studied comparative religion; they may never have given it a thought. But the thing that most of them have in common is that they don’t believe in Jesus. Not because they don’t think that Jesus is the Messiah, or because they do think He’s the Messiah. But because they are Jews, and Jews don’t believe in Jesus.

Jhan Moscowitz - he was born to Holocaust survivors, and he believed in Jesus as Messiah - explained it like this:

“Believing in Jesus means, at least initially, a betrayal of loyalty. We’ve been trained and socialised as Jewish people to be loyal to our group. Our group is us, and everybody else is them. Us, them. Them believe in Jesus. We don’t. Therefore if you become a believer in Jesus you become a them. In becoming a them, there is a sense of disloyalty to heritage, people, family.

“And so the real cost is giving up that association, being considered a traitor, being pushed out from the community. And that’s an expensive cost, especially considering that loyalty really is a virtue. The only problem is that loyalty ceases to be a virtue when it’s employed in the service of a lie.

“That’s what I generally tell people. I say, Listen, I think it’s virtuous of you to be loyal to the Jewish people, and I don’t want to ask you to be disloyal to the Jewish people, but I want you to put your loyalty above the Jewish people, to God Himself.

“You are leaving them to wrestle with ‘If this is true, what does God want you to do?’ I try to quickly add that although the Jewish people may think you are a traitor to the Jewish cause, God doesn’t think so at all. In fact, it’s the most Jewish thing in the world to believe in the Jewish Messiah.

“If God is real and Jesus is the Messiah, then whatever the cost, it’s worth knowing and worth doing.”
           

One new man

By His death, Jesus instituted the new covenant. The price was His own precious blood. 

As the Bible says about the consequent relationship between Jew and Gentile:

For he himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of division between us,

Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,

And that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

  Ephesians 2:14 – 16.

God made the new covenant with Israel. The Jews had been subject to Moses’ law, given to them at Mount Sinai. The commandments of Moses’ law made a difference between them and the Gentiles. The Jews having broken that Mosaic covenant, God “broke down the middle wall of division” – the laws of Moses – so that Jesus could present Jew and Gentile as “one new man” to God.

With every one who was forgiven because of Jesus’ sacrifice no longer dead in trespasses, but alive in Him.

There had been two classes of people: Jews and Gentiles. Now there were three: Jews, Gentiles and the church, the church being made up of Jews and Gentiles who had believed on Jesus. The Jews were still Jews and the Gentiles were still Gentiles, but both equal before God.

But wait a minute. Doesn’t it say “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in  Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28)? Indeed it does. But when your sister found the Messiah, did she stop being feminine? When your brother had his sins forgiven, did he stop being a man? When you Gentiles became believers, did you stop being Gentiles? Neither does the Jew stop being a Jew. The Bible is explaining that each one has exactly the same experience in Christ.

Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out!

          

The last great sacrifice

The Jews believed that there were some miracles that only the Messiah, when he came, would be able to perform. Jesus deliberately did those miracles.

The rabbis, for instance, taught that a Jew with leprosy would be able to be healed only by the Messiah. One day a leper came to Jesus pleading to be healed. Jesus touched him; his leprosy disappeared. “Go your way,” He said, “show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them” (Mark 1:44).

 

 Again, it was not unknown for demon spirits to be cast out, but it was believed that only the Messiah would be able to cast out a dumb spirit. A man was brought to Jesus who was blind and mute. Jesus delivered him, so that he both spake and saw (Matthew 12;22).

It was said that only the Messiah would be able to heal a man blind from birth. When Jesus saw such a man, He didn’t heal him immediately, but anointed his eyes with clay and sent him to wash at the pool of Siloam, where there would be a good number of people (John 9:1 – 7).

The Pharisees had to investigate these miracles. They had two options: to declare that Jesus was the Messiah, or to come up with some other explanation for the healings. Jesus did not agree with some of the Pharisees’ beliefs: He was not their idea of what the Messiah should be. They chose the latter course. “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons,” they said (Matthew12:24). Jesus explained that this was the unforgivable sin, but to no avail. 
 

“We want to see a sign from you,” the scribes and Pharisees said. They had already had all the signs they needed. The only sign that evil and adulterous generation would be given, said Jesus, was the sign of the prophet Jonah, who was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. So would the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:39, 40). Jesus’ resurrection was the greatest sign of all.

Some would say that Jesus demonstrated that last sign, the sign of resurrection, when Lazarus died. Jesus deliberately waited until Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days before He called him out. It was then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a council and said, “What shall we do? For this man works many signs. If we let him alone like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.” Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said “You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.” From that day they plotted to put Jesus to death (John 11:45 – 53).

It was no coincidence Jesus died at Passover. When Passover was instituted in Egypt, the Israelites were told to take a male lamb for each household and set it aside on the 10th day of the month Nisan, apparently to check that the lamb was without blemish. It was to be slaughtered on the 14th of Nisan and its blood daubed on the doorposts of the house. That night the firstborn in every house would die – except for the firstborn in the houses covered by the blood of the lamb.

The year that Jesus died, the 10th of Nisan fell on what Christians have come to know as Palm Sunday. Jesus set Himself aside as the Lamb of God on that day. He was tested with some tough questions on the several days that followed. By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority? Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar, or not? A woman had seven husbands. In the resurrection, whose wife will she be? Which is the first commandment of all?

The religious leaders did not want Jesus to die at Passover. “Not during the feast,” they said, “lest there be an uproar among the people” (Matthew 26:5). But the prophetic significance of Scripture had to be fulfilled. Jesus had exposed Judas as the betrayer at the Last Supper, and told him “What you do, do quickly.” That night, Jesus was arrested. The following day He was crucified.

Jesus, “our Passover,” the Bible says, “was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).