It is often portrayed that Christianity and Judaism are
separate. In the form that they take nowadays, it is true that they are.
Mainstream modern Christianity, with its megachurches, rock concert services,
emphasis of the spirit over the body, and Westernized mindset, is miles away
from the Jewish faith—both that of the first century and that of today. Jews
often look at Christianity as the bastard child of the elaborate, rich Jewish
tradition, while Christians look at Judaism as a primitive, obscure, weird religion
devoted to endless rules and regulations. Both stereotypes are false.
Christianity owes more than it is willing to believe to Judaism. But the
origins of Christianity lie in Judaism. Christianity began as a sect of
Judaism. Christianity is a branch off the tree of Judaism.
None of the first Christians were Christians. They were
Jews. Jews who happened to believe that a certain man, who hailed from Natzeret,
was the promised Mashiakh, come to rid the world of all evil human kingdoms and
install the godly kingdom on earth of peace and justice. They were not
Christians—in the modern sense of the word. They did not believe that Jesus was
their personal savior who died for them so that they could go to heaven when
they died. In the only sense of the word that they could be called Christians—was
that they were talmidim of a man who claimed to be, and they believed to
be, the Mashiakh. Maskiah is Hebrew for anointed. G-d promised to anoint a
ruler who would rule on the seat of the Jewish king David with righteousness and
justice. The Greek word for anointed is Χριστος. So Χριστος
+ ians. Christians. Followers of the anointed one. And they weren’t just any
followers—groupies, fans, watchers from afar. They were talmidim. Students. Scrupulous
studiers. Learners. Imitators—even to the exact detail. Talmidim follow a
rabbi. They were Jewish. They saw him as rabbi, teacher, and Mashiakh—not personal
savior.
Now of course saving from evil was an attribute they could
apply to Mashiakh, but their perspective on saving was more holistic. While it
was on an individual level (that is, each person had an individual commitment
to be talmid of Yeshua), the salvation they knew of was nothing short of the
re-creation of the whole world. They were not going anywhere when they died.
They were staying here. They were healing the world, here. They were repairing
the world, now. They believed Mashiakh was bringing heaven to earth. And they
were following him in that endeavor. The Jewish sages have a term for this: tikkun
olam, healing the world. Because the early Christians were actually Jews
and the Jewish goal of life (which happens to be G-d’s goal) is to repair the
world back to the way he intended it.
The first Christians were Jews. They attended Synagogue. And
Yeshua, as was his custom, went to the synagogue in Natsaret on the
Sabbath day, and he stood up to read (Luke 4). Jesus went to synagogue—every
Saturday or Friday evening. Jesus never went to church. Jesus’ followers never
went to church. Church comes later. (As the followers began forming their own
sect within Judaism, they began assembling together in their homes
– see the Acts of the Apostles for more information.)
Jesus’ followers were ethnically Jewish, living in a Jewish
region, interacting with Jewish people (and some Romans), reading Jewish texts,
living Jewish lives, eating, breathing, living Jewish. Which means Torah. Which
means G-d. Which means repairing the world. Which means here and now. Not then
and there. On that bright day when the Lord takes me home—No. That’s eighteenth-century
Christianity. Not Judaism. Not the early followers of Yeshua.
There was nothing—nothing—nothing—nothing “Christian” about
the early followers of Yeshua. They weren’t even trying to start something new.
They were simply teaching, as was their custom, from the Torah that Yeshua was the
Mashiakh.
What happened was that, since the early talmidim preached
that G-d was reconciling all people to himself—including goyyim, that gentiles
began becoming talmidim. This was in the second and third generations and later
after Yeshua ascended. Actually, it was not even until Acts chapter 10 that the
talmidim even preached Yeshua to the goyyim at all. That’s about twenty years!
For twenty years after Yeshua, the message of G-d reconciling, repairing, the
world thru Yeshua was only preached to Jews! No one else. Only Jews. But then
something funny happened. G-d gave Cephas (his Aramaic name, which means little
rock. His Greek name was Petros, which also means little rock) a vision
that goyyim were to receive the message too. So he preached to the household of
a Roman centurion named Cornelius—and the family believed, they trusted the
message, they decided they wanted to be talmidim and be a part of G-d’s
reconciliation effort.
So the goyyim were learning how to be talmidim of a Jewish
Mashiakh—not a Christian one. The goyyim—who were Greeks and Romans—began coming
to the Jewish assemblies (separate from the synagogues – this was where,
as I mentioned above, Yeshua’s talmidim were assemble at home to meet
together). So as more and more goyyim and more and more Jews were adding daily
to their number, they began meeting in larger places. Then issues of Jewish law
came up—do I have to be circumcised? Why? Why not? The Jewish talmidim decided
that gentile followers of Yeshua only have to abstain from fornication (porneia),
from blood, from food offered to idols, and from what has been strangled (Acts
15).
So there was this increasing misunderstanding between the
relation of gentiles and Jews in G-d’s new creation order. And some people
began preaching that one had to follow all the laws in the Torah to be
reconciled with G-d. Others said that the laws in the Torah don’t matter—they’re
old, obsolete, primitive. Well, neither is the truth—and this debate is still a
debate today (faith vs. works).
Anyways, in a tragic turn of events, probably the end of the
first century, the assembly of talmidim, which became what we know as the
church, began to have way more gentiles than Jews. Which means that it was no
longer Jews preaching the message as in the early days, since gentiles were
replacing them. And the gentiles thought the Jews were kinda weird anyway, with
all the laws they “had” to follow. And some Jewish Christian groups developed
composed only of Jews and they required everybody to keep all the Torah, as we
mentioned above. So the now gentile Christian majority began to see Jews as
weird, legalistic, backwards—not trusting Yeshua.
And then from the Jews side—non-messianic Jews, those that
did not see Yeshua as the Maskiah began trying to argue that Yeshua was not the
messiah. And so then the Christian church and the Jews became polarized – and the
messianic/Christian Jews were stuck in between, relegated to the stereotype of
Judaizers and legalists.
So by the end of the first century, Christianity was its
own, fledging religion—whose basis was in Judaism, but whose form and content
was increasingly not, as the gentiles began bringing in non-Jewish beliefs from
their original religions.
One of these beliefs was from Plato. Plato taught that the
world was bad and the spirit was good. Others expanded this to mean that the
god who created the world (whom they called the demiurge) was an evil, fleshly
god. This got incorporated into other religious ideas and began syncretized
with Christianity to form the believe that the god who created this world
(yhwh) was evil, and that the good god was higher than that, and that our
spirits are sparks from the divine primordial creation, which have to be
released from their body-prison through knowledge, so that the sparks
can return to their source, the higher god. This was called Gnosticism. The
Jews, however, believed that all of life was good, a blessing from YHWH. And
they also believed that YHWH was good. And they believed that the body is good.
And the spirit is good. They are two parts to the same reality. Two sides of
the same coin. You are a holistic person—with a good body and good soul. None
of it is bad. You are good. And Elohim saw all that he had made, and behold,
it was very good. You are very good. You are very good. Good, with
sin. Good, with a fall. Good, with evil. But you are good. The
fall of mankind happened. But that did not take away from the goodness with
which G-d created you. It did not change the elements with which you were made.
It did not transform you into an evil being. You are good. The fall only added
to sin to your goodness. It only covered it up. It only soiled the mirror.
Now you know good and evil. You ate the apple. You disobeyed
G-d. Now life is going to be hard. There will be pain, and longing, and
subordination; and cursed ground, and thorns and thistles, and sweat, and—dust.
For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Now Jesus wants to take the dust and dirt that covers you
and wipe it all off. He wants to see the imago Dei in you clearly—not soiled.
He wants to restore to you to what he created you—as an image-bearer of him. As
someone who wants his will done on earth and who will do it. Someone who will
co-labor with him as co-heirs, co-stewards, and co-creators in the world.
Yeshua wants to give you a bath. Will you let him? Will you accept the
invitation to engage in the godly, divine, glorious task of tikkun olam, repairing
the world, which he is working on right now? Will you join him? If you do,
there will be a reward. It will be nothing short of heaving coming to earth.
And that is a glorious thought indeed.
