While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” -Matthew 26:6-13

Who is this person? What was she doing with what, by today’s standards, would be thousands of dollars worth of perfume in an alabaster jar? How did she happen to just show up in Simon’s place? Why did she pour all that expensive perfume on Yeshua’s (Jesus’s) head and why did he not only approve, but say that this woman’s story would be told by everyone who spread the Good News of salvation through the Mashiach (Christ)? Obviously, the Master’s disciples disapproved of her actions, but Yeshua himself thought what she had done was “a beautiful thing”. Did she know she was doing a beautiful thing? Most importantly, is her story still told today by those of us to spread the good news? No? Why not?

Read the rest of this entry »

And the people of the nations who bind themselves to the LORD to serve him, to love the name of the LORD, and to worship him, and who hold fast to my covenant, these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. -Isaiah 56:6-7

Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles). If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, they will have no rain. If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The LORD will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate Sukkot. -Zechariah 14:16-18

Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses. -Acts 13:38-39

On the surface, these verses don’t seem to be well associated with a single theme, but if you dig in, even slightly, you’ll see that they all talk about how the Gentiles; the non-Jewish people of the world, can come to know the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. Quoting Paul in Acts, we see a message that I’m sure is abundantly familiar to Christians; that one is saved and reconciled with God through Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Christ). Yet the prophets Isaiah and Zechariah, although each contributed to Messianic prophesy, deliver a message that says access to God by the Goyim (nations) has always been available and in Messianic days, will not only be offered, but expected, at least on Sukkot.

Traditional Jews see the statements of Isaiah and Zechariah somewhat differently than traditional Christians and Messianics, and here’s the point of this article. That interpretation isn’t rendered differently to different groups based on different Bibles, although Jewish people of course, don’t acknowledge the Apostolic Scriptures as being from God. The different interpretations are rendered by different faith groups based on theology and tradition. Often a person’s first encounter with a religious life isn’t through the Bible but through how it’s interpreted, as viewed through those twin lenses. What would it be like to learn about God just from the Bible?

Read the rest of this entry »

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. -Exodus 20:16

You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, or lie to one another. -Leviticus 19:11

I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. -1 John 2:21

If you ask most believers if it’s OK to lie, most believers will say “no”. That said, under certain circumstances, believers lie sometimes, but usually “little white lies”. I’m talking about when a wife asks her husband if the dress she’s wearing makes her look fat, or when your host at a dinner party asks how you like a meal and you don’t think very much of the food. We call these “little white lies” and say them in order to not hurt someone’s feelings or to avoid appearing rude or insensitive. Based on the sampling of Bible verses I posted above though, how can we say that lying is acceptable against God’s standard?

Let’s cut to the chase. During the Holocaust, many, many “righteous Gentiles” lied to the Nazis when they were hiding Jewish people. It seems like a no brainer to lie under such circumstances. After all, to tell the truth and admit that you are hiding a Jewish family would probably result not only in the family being sent to the camps, but you being punished; even killed, for hiding out Jews in the first place. Does God approve of such lies?

In Judaism, the answer is “yes”, but not just because of “enlightened self-interest” as in the circumstance of the Holocaust.

Read the rest of this entry »

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the stranger within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. -Exodus 20:8-11

Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. -Mark 3:1-6

The long and the short of it is, traditional Christianity seems to believe that acts of the Master such as the one recorded in Mark 3:1-6 more or less “undid” the Word of God relative to working on the Shabbat (Sabbath), and that the anger of the Pharisees supports the idea that Yeshua (Jesus) worked on the Shabbat by healing the man with the shriveled hand. After all, Yeshua didn’t have to heal the man on Shabbat. The guy had that shriveled hand for years. If he had to wait another day to be healed, what’s the big deal? It’s not like he was dying and needed help right then. And there’s a provision for doing “work” on the Shabbat when it’s an emergency.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” -John 14:6

It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. -Acts 4:10-12

But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. -Romans 10:8-9

I’m writing this article as much to ask the question as to provide the answer. Actually, I’m more asking the question. I’m not sure everything I communicate here can be “proven” in the Bible, so keep in mind, there’s a fair amount opinion and commentary here. It’s a question though, that goes to a depth that may have a profound impact on the theologies we often take for granted. Here’s what I mean.

Read the rest of this entry »

For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are sojourners, for you yourselves were sojourners in Egypt. -Deuteronomy 10:17-19

When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. -Deuteronomy 26:12

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. -James 1:27

It seems clear that God is very concerned about how we treat those who are in want and that we should extend ourselves to take care of them. There are many charities established in both Christianity and Judaism to provide for the needy, the hungry, and homeless; those who we think of as the widow, the orphan, and the sojourner of our day and in our land. All this is good and gives honor to God, but what if the needy person is a member of our own family? Are we just as generous?

Read the rest of this entry »

Those of you who regularly follow this blog know I typically write about theological or social issues, usually in a pretty serious manner. While I was looking up the meaning of a Yiddish Chanukah greeting, I came across a rather unusual blog post, published online for last year’s Chanukah. It’s a poem and in fact, a poem that you might be familiar with, at least in style (but probably not content). It’s a Jew’s answer to Clement Clarke Moore’s famous poem Twas the Night Before Christmas.

The Messianic community, as well as traditional Judaism, usually works a bit to try and keep Chanukah and Christmas safely separated, but this writer, who describes the blog as “My thoughts, ideas and opinions on things Jewish, Australian, Lubavitch and everything else”, takes a completely tongue-in-cheek approach to the old classic and causes Chanukah and Christmas to thoroughly collide. When I read it, I couldn’t resist. Here’s the link to the new Chanukah classic: A Freilichen Chanukah.

Please enjoy and Ah Lichtige Chanukah (Have a Bright Chanukah)!

Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain. -Deuteronomy 25:4

The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.” -1 Timothy 5:17-18

According to 2001 IRS income tax statements, (990 forms): “Paul Crouch, president of California-based Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, received $403,700. His wife, Janice Crouch, earned $347,500 as the vice president for the organization, which broadcasts sermons nationally on the Trinity Broadcasting Network”. -From inplainsite.org.

Not to hammer on televangelists, but unfortunately, they tend to carry something of a “reputation”, certainly in the secular world, and sometimes in the world of faith, and that reputation isn’t always kind. Actually, I was reading some commentary on Bava Basra 110 and was considering the Biblical and traditional perspectives on “Torah teachers” or others who spread the “Good News” and earning a living while doing so. While both the Torah and Paul’s commentary on Deuteronomy 25:4 support the concept of a teacher deserving his or her wages, how are people charged by God with teaching the Bible, supposed to balance their responsibility from Heaven with making a living?

Read the rest of this entry »

While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” -Mark 2:15-17

There are a lot of churches and Messianic congregations who forget what this means. If our congregations are populated with people from mainly middle-class backgrounds, or otherwise are people free from a “shady” past involving felony convictions, among other things, we don’t really understand the depth of what Yeshua (Jesus) is saying here. All of us; all of humanity has “sinned, and fallen short of the expectations of God”, but as human beings, we have a tendency to think that some people have sinned worse than others.

Why am I writing this? I just read an interesting article I found at NPR.org titled Pastor Offers Sex Offenders A ‘Miracle’: A New Start. Please click the link and read the article before continuing here. What fascinated me about the story was that 76 year old Pastor Dick Witherow, a former Private Detective, has opened up a church and a living community…to dozens of homeless, convicted sex offenders. What?

Read the rest of this entry »