The Forgotten JesusSample

Considering Jesus’ Jewishness

Jesus was a Jewish man who was raised in a Jewish culture, was reared by exceptionally devout Jewish parents, and lived according to Jewish laws. He was circumcised on the eighth day of His earthly life and was dedicated to the Lord. As Jesus grew up, He regularly attended the synagogue on the Sabbath, participated in every biblical feast, studied and memorized the Scriptures, learned a trade from His father, and started His rabbinic ministry at age thirty—all according to Jewish customs of the time. 

At the age of thirty, Jesus selected and called twelve Jewish men to forsake everything, learn His teachings, and carry on His mission. Consequently, prior to His death, most of Jesus’ followers were Jews who professed faith in Him as the Messiah but still celebrated the Jewish festivals, worshiped in the temple, and observed the Sabbath.

If we look at Christianity today and compare it to the way it began, we might notice that the Jewishness of both its founder and its original followers has been lost. In this study we’ll put ourselves in the shoes of the people who physically walked with Jesus. They observed His actions, heard His voice, lived in the same culture, and knew the same stories. Once we’ve put ourselves into the mindset of a Hebrew, we’ll take a look at some of Jesus’ teachings, which will come alive to us as never before. 

In His most famous sermon Jesus said something we sometimes have difficulty understanding. In the New Testament the Law and the Prophets refer to what we call the Old Testament. Jesus was saying that instead of abolishing or destroying the Old Testament Scriptures or setting them aside, He came to fulfill them—literally, to fill them full.

In many ways the Old Testament commandments can be understood as the sketch of God’s purposes, and Jesus is a rich and textured painting. The full picture of who God was and what He was doing wasn’t complete when God gave the Jewish people the law and established a relationship with them. He brought it to completion in the person of Jesus. 

As we study Jesus in His historical, cultural, and religious context over the next several days, we’ll begin to see Him in a different light. In the process we’ll learn how twenty-first-century Westerners can follow a first-century Eastern rabbi.  

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