Identity Theft (6 page)

By now I was sobbing inconsolably.

“David,” the angel called out. I didn’t answer. “
David Lebowitz!
” he called out again.

Still sobbing, I cried out, “But why?”

“I told you it would be hard, but He has a task for you, and you have to feel it deeply so that you can deliver it effectively, even though it pains you—even though you feel like your very guts are being ripped out.”

I calmed down. “You know, he never told us what happened there. Not even my father knows the full story. After they came to the states, it was as if they took a vow of silence. Not just my grandparents, but my great aunts as well. My God.” I sighed, “What had they suffered?”

Sobbing again, I could not get the image of my grandfather being tormented as a young Jew in Poland out of my mind. Finally, I looked up at Ariel and asked, “How in the world did a message as pure as the one the woman from Galilee shared, get so corrupted? She talked about a Man of love and immeasurable compassion, and one thousand years later, His followers are marching across Europe killing Jews as part of their devotion to Him. Help me understand!”

Ariel answered, “Indeed, these were
religious
people—but incredibly corrupted in their understanding of what true devotion to God really was. Yes, they were religious, but they were not practicing what is written in the Bible. Religion, apart from a true relationship with God, kills. Unsubmitted men will manipulate it for their own ends, be it lust for money or power.”

“But didn’t they read the Bible?” I asked.

“In time, David. All will be explained in time.”

“In the story of the family in Spain, the Jews were being told, ‘Convert or leave!’ The Church there seemed more like the KGB or present-day Iran.”

“You are correct, David. Those who converted were watched constantly by the Church to make sure they did not return to Judaism.
Conversos
accused of maintaining ties to or secretly practicing Judaism were cruelly punished.”

I was struggling to process this.

“The Church of the Middle Ages had certainly ceased to look anything like what the Holy Spirit had birthed on that warm summer day on Shavuot, 30
CE
, when the Jewish man, Simon Peter, preached so powerfully on the Temple steps, birthing a powerful revival. Instead, Rome had become a combination of greed, power, and politics dressed in the robes of religion. The good news had not merely been robbed of its Jewish roots, but of its purity and power, its message of salvation and reconciliation to God.”

Yes, I had read about Peter, the Christian evangelist, during my search for truth. But it hadn’t dawned on me at the time that he was
Jewish
. But, of course he was! It all took place here in Israel.

“I am sure that you also noticed that the Jews in the first story had no qualms about believing that Yeshua was the Messiah. Not only was Chaya Jewish, but she met Him on His way to heal the daughter of one of the leaders in the local synagogue. Those first-century Jews were able to evaluate Yeshua without bias. However, two thousand years later, after the worst kind of anti-Semitism coming forth from those who claimed to represent Him, it is nearly impossible for a Jewish person to look at Yeshua without prejudice.”

“We are taught, if not directly then indirectly, that one of the very definitions of being Jewish is that we don’t believe in Jesus,” I emphasized.

“When I was in elementary school, we had a discussion at the bus stop involving several Jewish children and Christian children. We were seeking to define the differences between our religions. After a lengthy exchange of views—our bus was always late—the ‘Council of Cutshaw Avenue’ concluded that the primary difference was that they believed in a man named Jesus and we did not. End of subject.”

“Listen to the testimony of this rabbi.” A man wearing a yarmulke appeared on the massive screen and began to speak.

Growing up in an orthodox Jewish household, I held great antipathy toward Jesus. The very name reminded me of the suffering laid upon Jewish communities for two thousand years: persecutions, forced conversions, expulsions, inquisitions, false accusations, degradations, economic exile, taxation, pogroms, stereotyping, ghettoization, and systematic extermination. All this incomprehensible violence and cruelty against us, against our friends and families, committed in the name of a Jew!

In my neighborhood, we did not even mention his name.
¹

“This rabbi, along with countless other Jews, could not help but factor in the Church’s wide-ranging record of ungodly behavior when considering Yeshua. But what if Jewish people were able to appraise both the person and the message of Yeshua without any knowledge of either how the rabbis have viewed Him or how the Church has misrepresented Him?” Ariel pondered. “What if they could read the New Covenant without this bias?”

“I don’t know that it could ever happen.”

“Perhaps not, but you are with me, David, to receive an honest, accurate picture of this Man and His followers. No, it will not erase what you have learned from history, but it will give you the knowledge and capacity to discern history so that you will be able to differentiate Yeshua from religious fanatics who caused great damage to the Jewish people in His name.”

Note

1
.   Shmuley Boteach,
Kosher Jesus
(Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, 2012), ix.

Ariel continued, “While the Holocaust, unlike the Crusades and the Inquisitions, was not explicitly religious, the Church had set the stage. I am sure you have read the old axiom about Jews being called
Christ Killers
. The Nazis and others throughout the centuries have long enjoyed the employment of this claim as a satanic pretext for blood libels, pogroms, and Holocaust-scale genocide. In short, it is the excuse for nearly every perverted form of persecution that anti-Semitism has ever staged. And the enemy utilized all of this to further alienate Jews from their Jewish Messiah.

“Yes,
Christ Killer
has become a common moniker for Jews during these past 1,900 years. Under this theme, Jewish blood has flowed down the streets of not only Jerusalem, but numerous other cities as well.”

“It never made any sense to me,” I shared, “how an entire race of people over thousands of years of existence could be responsible for the killing of one man.”

“Well David, who do you think
really
killed Yeshua?”

“I could make a case for the Romans, as Jews were forbidden from enforcing a death penalty. But I do know that it was Jewish people who handed Him over to the Romans.”

Ariel helped, “Actually, David, it was primarily the Jewish
leaders
, not the people, who had a problem with Yeshua. I want you to read this.”

As the words came out of his mouth, they appeared written in fire. Two passages of Scripture were before me, with some commentary in between. They were suspended in air and close enough for me to touch. I was in awe. “Go ahead, read!” I did.

Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. But when they sought to lay hands on
[Yeshua]
, they feared the multitudes
[of Jews]
…
(Matthew 21:45-46 NKJV).

“In secret they found Him praying with His disciples at night, and only then did they dare arrest Him. In the morning, the day they planned to execute Him, the residents of Jerusalem were stunned to see this beloved Rabbi condemned. Read this next one.”

Again, I read as I was asked.

And a great multitude of the people followed Him… who also mourned and lamented Him
(Luke 23:27 NKJV).

“Yeshua was taken to the home of Pilate. He was the Roman governor over the province of Judea. Read on.”

Again, emblazoned in fire I saw the Scriptures, but this time certain words were highlighted:

Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the
Jewish officials
arrested Jesus…
(John 18:12).

Then the
Jewish leaders
took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor…
(John 18:28).

“While in the Greek,” Ariel shared, “it merely says ‘they’ in verse twenty-eight, it is understood that the ‘they’ in this verse is referring to the Jewish officials in verse twelve.”

“Ariel, I was told that the entire city of Jerusalem was shouting for Him to be crucified. That would be more than just a few leaders.”

“Nowhere in the New Testament does it claim that the entire city was calling for His death, but a crowd of people, out of about a half a million who were in the city at the time… and even this crowd had been worked up by the religious leaders. But you are not the first to wrongly assume this. As you will see on our journey, Yeshua was loved by the Jewish masses and they came from all over the region to hear Him teach. I want you to read a message that a Messianic Jew sent to a Christian author on Facebook.”

“
Facebook?
An angel who’s into Facebook?”

“Well, I don’t have my own account, but yes David, we kind of know about
everything
. Read!” Immediately, a Facebook page containing a message appeared on the screen.

Dear Martin,

My name is Avi Marks. I came across your website and I found your article, “Jesus and the Jews” very interesting; it was certainly well researched.

May I just offer one critique that will help your Jewish readers? You used the phrase “the Jews” over fifty times. Sometimes it is just part of the phrase “king of
the Jews
.” But more often than not, you are referring to the group of men who brought Yeshua to Pilate. John 18:12 makes it clear that it was not “the Jews” who brought Yeshua to Pilate, but “Jewish officials,” “officers of the Jews,” or the “Temple guards,” just to quote a few modern translations.

The problem with the way you use the term “the Jews,” is that it makes it appear as if you are saying
all of the Jews
. There are a few times when you correctly say Jewish religious leaders, but for the most part you simply say, “the Jews.”

It is true that in the Greek, John at certain times simply writes the phrase “the Jews” (John 18:14; 19:7,12), but there can be no doubt that he is referring to the Jewish leadership. In fact, some modern English translations, such as the New International Version, actually translate those passages using the phrase “the Jewish leaders” as opposed to “the Jews” even though they know that is not what the Greek says. How can they be so bold?

I’ll explain. Take a look at John 18:14:
“Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people”
(NKJV).

In this passage it states clearly that Caiaphas was speaking to “the Jews.” However, if we turn back a few pages we can see exactly to whom Caiaphas was speaking:

Then the
chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin
…. Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish”
(John 11:47,49-50).

So “the Jews” of John 18 and 19 are Jewish leaders, not the Jewish population. It would have been strange for those who flocked to hear Him teach—many of whom were healed—to suddenly call for His execution. Scripture makes it clear that a very large number of Jews followed Yeshua, even some high-profile leaders like Nicodemus.

When He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?” So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth…
(Matthew 21:10-11 NKJV).