Just a Black Sheep Trying to Hang in There

Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me." For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. -Romans 15:2-6

For this coming week, along with the traditional readings from the Torah and the Prophets, I'm reading Romans 15 and 16 which is the conclusion of Paul's missive to the Jewish and Gentile believers in ancient Rome. As we see in the passage I just quoted, Paul is encouraging his audience to put aside their desires to please themselves and to instead, to join together "with one heart and mouth" to give glory to God, even as Messiah Yeshua did, acting as our example.

Particularly in Romans 15, Paul draws a strong connection between his service to the Jewish people and teaching the Gentiles to obey the lessons of God. In fact, the word "obedience" seems to come up a lot in this context.

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God's truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy... -Romans 15:7-9

Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done - by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. -Romans 15:17-19

I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. -Romans 16:17-19

Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him - to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen. -Romans 16:25-27

I've summarized my thoughts about what the Gentiles are supposed to obey in a previous blog post, and these conclusions shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone who is familiar to what Yeshua (Jesus) taught in the Gospels. There's no emphasis teaching Gentiles to try to look and act like Jews, but there's a tremendous emphasis in teaching Gentiles the morality imparted in the Torah of God; how to love God and how to love other people.

Paul quotes 2 Samuel 22:50, Psalm 18:49, Deuteronomy 32:43, Psalm 117:1, and Isaiah 11:10 in order to establish and emphasize that the Gentiles are just as welcome in the community of God as the Jewish people:

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God's truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy, as it is written:
"Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;
I will sing hymns to your name." Again, it says,
"Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people." And again,
"Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,
and sing praises to him, all you peoples." And again, Isaiah says,
"The Root of Jesse will spring up,
one who will arise to rule over the nations;
the Gentiles will hope in him." -Romans 15:7-12

In reviewing the state of Jewish and Gentile relations in the Messianic community today, it seems that either we have forgotten what Paul was trying to teach here or perhaps, the lesson was never actually implemented between Jewish and Gentile disciples in the Messianic community of the ancient world.

Paul made a specific point that if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings (Romans 15:27) and I think we see much of the traditional Christian church providing such support these days. If Gentile Messianics are serious about being co-heirs with Israel, then we must continue to provide that support, not because we are told we owe it to them by our Jewish counterparts, but because, as part of our "Torah" obedience, we are lining up our wills and our hearts with the desires of God and the choseness of the Jewish people.

We don't have to be estranged or divided if both types of sheep in the Messianic sheep pen are listening to the voice of the one shepherd as part of the one flock (John 10:16). If we concentrate on our differences and let the walls between us define our relationship, we will always be separate and apart from one another. Is that what "one flock and one shepherd means?

Signed, one lone black sheep in the flock, just trying to hang in there.

Obeying God

Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." -Matthew 22:37-40

I know I probably quote the Two Greatest Commandments too often, but there is a lot to consider, especially when addressing the debate regarding what obedience to God is supposed to look like between those Gentiles and Jews who honor the Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus). As part of my Bible readings for this week, I consulted Romans 13 and 14. Paul has a story to tell in this part of his letter.

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. -Romans 13:8-10

Without doing so explicitly, Paul recalls the words of the Master as previously quoted and also invokes Yeshua's commentary on the Torah as recorded in Matthew 5 and on which I've previously blogged. Paul's conclusions regarding Yeshua's teachings seem about what I'd expect; that we should do no harm to one another and everything done in the name of love is a fulfillment of all the commandments.

Of course Nietzsche said that Anything done for love is beyond good and evil, but given Nietzsche's general philosophy and history, I don't think he was talking about the same thing.

When Paul said that love is the fulfillment of the law, he didn't mean having a warm, fuzzy emotional feeling for someone was the end or the conclusion of obeying the written Law of God, but rather, when he referenced the specific commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet,", he was saying that loving God and loving our neighbor is behavioral. It's not a feeling, it's an action. In fact, it's a specific series of actions that can be found in the Bible.

Unlike Nietzsche's viewpoint, anything done for love is not beyond good or evil, but anything done truly out of love as God defines it for us is good.

Paul goes on to say, Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy, (Romans 13:13) defining behaviors that are the opposite of doing good and loving each other. He continues:

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. -Romans 14:1-4

This should be an eye opener for those of us involved in the Messianic, One Law/One Torah, and other similar communities, because most of our conversations in the blogosphere have to do with making such judgments about one another. I was recently criticized on the Gathering Sparks blog by someone in the comments section (not Yahnatan) for suggesting that the commandments are a goal to be achieved as a process when we walk with God, rather than a point event that we have to achieve perfectly in a single moment and then perform flawlessly for the rest of our existence.

For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. -Romans 14:9-10

We judge each other rather than learning to live at peace with each other as Paul also teaches. We judge each other and in doing so, usurp the rightful place of the Messiah as our judge.

Regardless of what commandments you think you are obligated or invited to obey, if you perform all of these behaviors perfectly, but you don't obey the commandment to love, what are you?

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. -1 Corinthians 13:1-3

These verses weren't written to spice up your wedding ceremony. They were a letter to the Corinthians and to us about obeying God. Even if we have all manner of spiritual gifts, college degrees, lead huge congregations, and are called by many exalted titles, but if at our core, we do not have love, we are nothing.

It's no mystery why both of the two greatest commandments declared by Yeshua involve the process of loving something and someone outside our own skin. Do we love or not? Do we go left or right? Are we the black sheep or the white sheep in the Master's flock? Even if we believe we obey all of the Torah, are we obeying God? Do we love?

Who Makes Disciples of All Nations?

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

I've written a great deal on this scripture in my What Did Jesus Teach series (this link leads to a summary of my conclusions) but it's occurred to me that what we sometimes call "The Great Commission" has changed quite a bit since the day Yeshua uttered these words. Yeshua, at that point in time, was speaking to his Jewish disciples, charging them to take the Good News of the Messiah to all the Gentiles of the nations, and directing the current disciples to make new Messianic disciples of Gentiles. Certainly a daunting task, considering the fact that Israel was occupied by a Gentile conqueror right about then.

Nevertheless, as we see in the letters of Paul; as we see in Peter's encounter with Cornelius in Acts 10 and beyond, Jewish emissaries were sent out to the Gentile God-fearers in the synagogues and to the Gentile pagans in the then civilized world to "make disciples of all nations". But what about now?

A few weeks ago, I read something on Derek Leman's blog where he said that not each and every law or commandment in the Bible has an eternal and unchanging application (and I apologize for not citing the original source, but I can't recall exactly where on his blog he said this...if you can find it, I'll include the link). Leman cites the laws pertaining to Jews becoming slaves of other Jews (which I think of as the ancient Hebrew welfare system) as having a specific situational application, rather than being an eternal commandment from God that it's OK to keep slaves. Of course, that opens the door to people trying to decide which laws can be applied today and which ones can't, but that's an article for another time.

It did start me to thinking though, about Matthew 28:18-20 and it's current applicability. If Yeshua's Jewish disciples were to obey the words of the Master and make disciples of Gentiles in the 1st Century, are Messianic Jews in the 21st Century still bound to the same command?

I don't actually see a lot of Messianic Jews trying to make disciples of Gentiles and indeed, quite the opposite. If you have read Dr Mark Kinzer's book Postmissionary Messianic Judaism: Redefining Christian Engagement with the Jewish People, even the very title of his work seems to say that Jews in the Messianic "Postmissionary" movement are past the point of making "disciples of all nations". That job seems to have been re-assigned to the Christian church and the church has pursued that goal with all deliberate zeal, even to the point of coming under condemnation from some Jews for attempting to convert them to Christianity.

I suppose you could make an argument for the Matthew 28 directive being obsolete among the Messianic Jewish people, at least as it applies to making non-Jews into disciples. After all, is the commandment to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28) still in force? When God gave the original commandment, there probably weren't a lot of people on the planet. Now we've overcrowded the place, so perhaps the "be fruitful" commandment has gone into abeyance (though strict Catholics, Mormons, and Orthodox Jews don't believe it has been "suspended" or "expired").

The reason I bring this up is that periodically, I read about how Gentiles who choose to worship in a manner similar to Jews are "doing it wrong". Usually, I read that Gentiles have no business doing anything that even vaguely smacks of Jewish worship practice because such behavior misappropriates the things of Judaism, violates identity boundaries, and is just poor form. We are usually pointed back to the practices of the traditional Christian church as the only worship model Gentiles should be performing, but it makes me wonder.

Back in the day, when Peter and Paul were educating Gentiles in the proper worship of the Messiah and the appropriate devotion practices to the One God, what did they teach? I know sometimes we're lead to believe that Paul taught Gentile disciples an entirely different set of worship practices than those used by the Jewish disciples in order to make sure that Gentile believers didn't step on any ecclesiastic toes, but is that true? If not, then whatever practices the original Gentile Messianic disciples learned have been lost to history and it's a history of the "early church" that could give at least some of us a meaningful direction.

Since that time, and for most of the history of the church, Gentiles have been making disciples of other Gentiles and the separation of practices between Christians and Jews who, at least in theory, worship the same God, have gone spinning in wildly opposite directions. Is this what Yeshua meant when he said the following?

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me - just as the Father knows me and I know the Father - and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. -John 10:14-16

Are Gentiles still considered part of the Messianic flock or has the passage of time and the ever growing division between the church and the synagogue resulted in permanent separation? If Matthew 28:19-20 has been converted to a commandment given by Yeshua only to the Gentiles and only for the Gentiles, then we are truly of a different flock than the Messiah's Jewish "sheep". I can only hope and pray when Yeshua returns to us, he will recognize all of his sheep and teach us what it means to belong to a single flock. I'm eager to hear the message. I'm not sure we got it right the first time around.

And One Flew West

So Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left." -Genesis 13:8-9

One flew east, One flew west,
One flew over the cuckoo's nest
Ken Kesey
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next (1963)

The quote from Genesis 13 is part of a response I made to Dr. Michael Schiffman when he commented on a recent blog post I'd written for my congregation's blog.

I know what I said earlier. That I wasn't going to blog for awhile. But this has been bothering me. Before going on, read my blog post If You Love Me. It'll give you the context.

Studying Lekh L'kha this past week, I couldn't escape noticing the extraordinary efforts Abraham took to maintain the peace between Lot and him, even to the point of allowing Lot (though he didn't have to) to select the best piece of land in the region for his herds and his flocks. Abraham said, "...if you go north, I will go south; and if you go south, I will go north." In other words, "no matter which way you go, I'll go the other way." Keeping the peace was that important to him.

I first read Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" decades ago, the first time I was an undergrad. What makes the poem and the quote interesting is that the cuckoo bird makes no nest of its own. Cuckoos always take nests that have been abandoned by other birds. You might say that a cuckoo bird steals what doesn't belong to it in order to use it. If you wanted to be particularly unkind, you could call the cuckoo bird a thief.

There have been times when I've felt like a cuckoo bird...usually just after I've been told by Jews in the Messianic movement that Gentiles who perform certain Jewish worship practices are misappropriating those practices...they're stealing.

That wasn't my intent, but certain voices in the Messianic movement make it seem otherwise. No, not all voices. Many have been extraordinarily kind and understanding. But there are still enough voices out there who say I'm in their nest and they want me out.

O-U-T spells out
Goose swoops down and plucks you out.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (poem)

I've just been searching for some common ground; some place in the universe where the circle of Messianic Jews and the circle of Messianic Gentiles overlaps. Something that we can share. I thought if I couldn't find the overlapping point, I could participate in building a bridge between the two worlds. I don't know anymore. I feel like I've made a few friends, or at least a few friendly acquaintances among the Jews in Messianism, but there seem to be just as many who find the Gentiles who stray outside of their (our) churches and into the Messianic realm an "inconvenient truth", to misuse Al Gore's famous line.

There's no denying that Gentiles are included in the Messiah's flock of sheep (John 10) but implementing the practice of a theoretical co-heir status between Gentiles and Jews (Ephesians 3:2-6) doesn't seem to be a desired goal, at least for some. I don't know how Yeshua (Jesus) expected us to pull it off...not when the greatest enemy to enacting a life of faith is the human race. Yes, I know...by faith. We're supposed to walk by faith. I understand that. But I'm only one voice, and I'm tired, and I didn't come here to fight.

Really, I have no desire to rip anyone off. If this is your nest, I'll move on. If you go left, I'll go right. If you go north, I'll go south. One flew east. One flew west. One flew...

I'll continue to follow the Messiah. If anyone wants to share the trip with me, I'm not hard to find. If you don't want to share the road with me, then I'll walk alone. Peace be with you on the path you take; north or south, east or west.

Break

I realized this morning that I've been writing on this blog pretty much non-stop for 3 1/2 months. I tend to be a prolific writer, so that's not a surprise, but when I reflect on some of the responses to my blog posts as well as replies to the comments I've made on other people's blogs, I can see that I may be getting ahead of myself and not spending as much time with myself and with God as I need. As difficult as it may be for me to keep my big mouth shut (or my flashing fingers off the keyboard), I'm going to shut this down for awhile. I'm not sure how long. I'll leave that up to God.

While many of the responses to this blog have been thoughtful and considerate, I realize I'm not exactly on everybody's "favorite person" list in the Messianic blogosphere. I fly in the face of accepted tradition. I question "sacred cows" all the time (they don't say much except "Moo"..little joke there), and I really don't see why it's so difficult to build bridges between the different communities in "the movement" and to overcome what seems to be an isolationist mentality between different groups, all of whom profess to be disciples of the Messiah.

I'm going to cease performing my Don Quixote imitation now, put down my lance, and stop annoying the windmills, at least for the present. I'll still respond to comments made on this blog as appropriate, but otherwise, I'll try to stay out of the way and spend more time attending to my own spirituality and to my relationship with God.

Blessings.

Peace. Out.

What Did Jesus Teach the Gentiles to Obey?

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

You might consider this blog post to be the "conclusion of conclusions" of my "What Did Jesus Teach" series. This is the summary of everything I've posted so far and what came out of my investigation. Before proceeding, some caveats.

This is what I've gleaned of Yeshua's teachings from the Book of Matthew. I can't say this is the totality of what Yeshua taught his Jewish disciples, therefore, I can't say this is the totality of what Yeshua expected the Gentile disciples to be taught to obey. This is the foundation on which to build our understanding of Yeshua's perspectives of Gentile Messianic discipleship. If we are proper disciples, Jewish and Gentile alike, we'll rightly conclude that we will be studying our Master's teachings for the rest of our lives. On the other hand, we have to come to know some things for certain.

Here is what I believe the Master taught. Some of these are commands to obey. Others are things he wanted us to understand about ourselves, about others, about the world around us, about him, and about God. Notice that, even though I've separated Yeshua's teachings into categories, much of what he taught seems to follow a select set of repeated themes.

General Teachings

There are a few large "buckets" or containers that hold a smaller set of categories. This first container holds Yeshua's teachings about a few different and apparently unrelated topics.

About Gentiles

Gentiles are not second class citizens in the Kingdom of Heaven. We have equal access to God as adopted sons and daughters. In Messianic days, we will take our place at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are every bit as much saved by faith as the Jewish disciples. The Good News will be and already has been taught to all the nations so that we may put our hope in Yeshua and that justice will come to the Gentiles as the Prophet Isaiah writes. Gentiles, in order to understand the teachings of the Messiah are expected to study all the holy scriptures, including the Torah and the Prophets.

About Following the Messiah

When we are called to follow the Messiah, we are expected to immediately respond to him, making our discipleship the highest priority of our lives and acknowledging our faithfulness to the Messiah and to God before men. We won't have trouble-free lives, but we can depend on God to take care of our needs and to enable us to stay the course, as long as we keep our eyes on the Master.

About Response and Acceptance of the Messiah

When we hear the Good News, we need to put it into practice on our lives, building on the foundation of the Rock. Rather than keeping it to ourselves, we are to be like farmers, sowing good seed to yield a large crop. We can expect to exist in a world, not just of good fruit, but of bad. As previously taught, life will be difficult sometimes but it's how we grow in adversity that shows our fruit. What we do speaks more about us than what we say. Even if we initially rejected the Good News, we can repent, go out into the field and get to work.

About the Beatitudes

This is similar to the previous teachings about perseverance in the face of trials and that there are great rewards for those who stay the course. We are praiseworthy when we suffer, when we desire to make peace, when we mourn, and when we hunger for righteousness.

About the Shabbat

The Shabbat can be said to have a dual application to the Jews and Gentiles. God made the Sabbath holy at the end of Creation and by observing the Sabbath, all mankind can acknowledge that God is the God of all. For the Jews, Shabbat observance is also a commemoration of the release from Egyptian slavery. Those two meanings overlap and co-exist, so that all who believe can have a Sabbath rest now, and in the life of the World to Come.

Leadership and Servanthood

Yeshua taught a great deal on the topic of being good leaders and good servants. In fact, in order to be considered a good leader, you need to learn to be a good follower. This is a tough lesson for humans, since we all have the want and "need" to be exalted by others, called by titles, and given the best seats in the house. I wrote several blog posts on this topic. Here are the conclusions.

About Being Salt and Light

This is a very simple lesson. It comes down to sharing. Once you have received the Good News, share it with others, just as a light in your house lights a whole room or a lighthouse uses its light to guide those in darkness to safety. Don't horde it for just you and your friends and family. This also has applications on Messianic Jews discipling Gentiles, which I'll address a bit later.

About Being Servants

Serve others in his name and not in yours. Don't seek the limelight. Feed the hungry and visit the sick, but don't draw attention to yourself for your own sake. Pray in secret, serve the great and small equally, and realize that not everyone will understand or accept what you do, not even members of your family.

About Humility and Mercy

This is similar to the previous message. Don't exalt yourself. Be humble. It doesn't matter how much authority you wield in human terms, you are serving the great King who didn't think it was too lowly a thing to die for the rest of us, even though he didn't deserve it. There is no person who is too low for you to serve in his name. Show the same forgiveness to those who have sinned against you as Yeshua showed when you sinned against him. Be merciful if you expect to receive mercy.

About Being Good and Bad Fruit

Arrogance, hypocrisy, bad teachings are all examples of bad fruit. So are putting material things such as outward signs of your "holiness" before your own acts of generosity and kindness. If you are full of sin, anger, and greed inside, it doesn't matter how whitewashed you appear on the outside. You are not more holy than anyone else. Fear not. Even though you have made big mistakes, God desires to comfort you and to return you to Him. Practice justice and mercy to others before you get tied up in a knot over how to tie your tzitzit.

About Patience and Stewardship

Being a leader isn't being a big shot. It isn't having a title, a fancy education, or being an ethnic type. That stuff only works in the secular world, not in God's world. In God's world, people are leaders when they're servants. People are greatest only when they're least. People are the strongest when they comfort the weakest. Invest whatever gifts God has given you. Invest in people.

About the Torah

This last large section contains the conclusions of four different blog posts on what Yeshua taught specifically about Torah obedience that was to be passed to the Gentile disciples.

Part One: Gentiles are supposed to learn and obey everything Yeshua taught, including the fact that the Torah will be with us for a long time. We learned that God called each of us as the person He made us to be, so Jews don't have to turn into Gentiles, and Gentiles don't have to turn into Jews in order to be disciples of the Messiah and in fact, deliberately turning ourselves into something we're not just because we think it will justify us before God, makes Yeshua valueless to us. Loving God and loving others is the totality of the Torah and the Prophets and we should do both, not neglecting one for the other. In order to find out what comes next, we can't neglect what the Torah teaches, because that's what Yeshua teaches.

Part Two: The Torah commandments "Do not murder", "Do not commit adultery", "Do not divorce" unless under extreme circumstances, "Do not take oaths", "Do not sue" if you can avoid it, and loving those who do not love you are equally applied to the Gentile as to the Jew. To understand the depth of Yeshua's Torah teachings, the Gentile disciples must study Torah. Otherwise, we study the Messiah in vain.

Part Three: The decision of James and the Jerusalem Council cannot be interpreted as a replacement for the teachings of the Messiah about the Gentiles and the Torah and is likely a response to a very specific set of events relative to some Jewish people telling the Gentiles they must convert in order to be accepted. While Gentiles don't have to convert and keep the Torah commandments in a manner identical to Jews, they don't appear exempt from Torah observance either, at least as far as what Yeshua taught about the Torah.

Part Four: The Torah doesn't save anyone. We are all saved by grace through faith. There is a balance between our internal spiritual life and our lived experience. The Torah is the map to that lived experience and when we realize that it's not a straight jacket of rules and regulations, and that it's not the behaviors themselves that save us, the yoke of the Messiah is light.

Notice what Yeshua apparently didn't teach. He didn't specifically teach about the Kosher laws, about praying in Hebrew, about wearing tzitzit, or about laying tefillin. Of course, for his original Jewish audience, those behaviors and commandments would be considered a "given". If the Jews were rightly keeping those commandments, there's no reason Yeshua would have addressed them. The question is, because he didn't teach those commandments, does that mean Gentile disciples aren't meant to learn them or obey them?

If we're using Matthew 28:18-20 as our guide for what Gentiles are supposed to obey, the answer must be "yes". This may not the the final answer or the absolute conclusion in relation to the total body of Scripture, but in terms of the book of Matthew, I can see no other conclusion since Yeshua didn't literally teach each and every Torah commandment. However, I do see things that aren't presupposed by the traditional Bilateral Ecclesiology viewpoint.

I've been told in the past by BE proponents that, although it's not forbidden for Gentiles to study the Torah, the vast majority is irrelevant, including the Ten Commandments (Ten Words), because the majority of Torah was addressed to a Jewish audience. However, to the degree that Yeshua taught many of those Torah commandments in Matthew (as opposed to referencing Noahide laws found in Genesis), we have no choice but to conclude that Gentile study of Yeshua's source material is a must. In other words, Torah study is proper and required for Gentile disciples.

There's also the fact that, in a sense, Yeshua taught all of the Torah and the Prophets in one fell swoop when he taught the two greatest commandments (Matthew 22:37-40) and, if you connect that with what James declared in Acts 15:21 when he said, "Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath", then there is an open door to the question of how much more of the Torah Gentiles are supposed to learn and obey.

I did come to one conclusion I didn't make explicit. The original Matthew 28 mandate specifically directs the Jewish followers of Yeshua to disciple the Gentiles, yet Bilateral Ecclesiology, by definition, inhibits and maybe even obstructs that process. Obviously each Messianic Jewish group has to come to their own conclusions and make their own independent decisions about their duties to the Gentile disciples as well as to the commands of the Messiah, but "herding" us into two separate pens makes Jewish discipleship of the Gentiles all but impossible.

This is an area that needs a lot of work before the Messiah returns and, if done well, would probably solve a lot of the MJ/BE complaints about Gentile Messianic congregations shooting from the hip, making up our own rules, and pretty much caricaturing Judaism. If MJ/BE accuses Gentile Messianics of not knowing what we're doing, maybe they don't have far to look for the reason. Of course, the key would be for Messianic Jews and Gentiles to come to an agreement on exactly what he wants the Jews to teach the Gentiles and thereby hangs the tale.

Even if the ultimate conclusion of Yeshua's commandments and teachings says that Gentiles don't wear tzitzit or tefillin in prayer and don't try to look outwardly Jewish, I strongly suspect that all of the lifestyle commandments that have to do with performing acts of kindness, mercy, justice, and righteousness on a day to day basis are just as applicable to the Gentile disciple as to the Jewish disciple. There may be specific "identity markers" that distinguish the Jew from the Gentile, but once we became part of the Master's flock, we were also expected to be light to the lost and a guide to the blind.

If we obey that Torah, we are doing well.

What Did Jesus Teach About the Sabbath?

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

This is the fourteenth part of my series on what Yeshua (Jesus) taught his Jewish disciples to teach the newly minted Gentile disciples to obey. This is the last entry of this series (yes, I know I've been long-winded) and after this, I'll try to come up with some general conclusions about what this all means. Before we get into today's subject, let's review a summary of my previous blog post, What Did Jesus Teach in the Beatitudes:

In a nutshell, Yeshua teaches us to hang on, to keep the faith, to persevere in the face of hardship, for although life in this world now is hard and we suffer, great is our reward in the Kingdom if we stay the course and complete the race. Praiseworthy is the person who obeys Your mitzvos and takes to his heart Your teaching and Your word.

The Sabbath is either the most obvious commandment to understand or the most confusing. In Judaism, Shabbos observance is a lovely and sacred weekly event, when everyone puts down their labors and strife and acknowledges the God of Creation. Christianity seems to be a little more confused on the Sabbath or at least the Jewish interpretation of it. On the one hand, Jewish Shabbat observance seems an unnecessary chore of "you can't do this" when after all, Jesus freed us from the law. On the other hand, they say that Sunday, the Lord's Day, has replaced the Shabbat, and is a day on which a special Sunday worship traditionally occurs, along with Sunday brunch, mowing the lawn, and a few rounds of golf. The freedom of the Lord's Day. I'm sorry if a sound a bit "snarky", but Christianity did itself and we Gentiles a great disservice by eliminating the loveliness and holiness of the Sabbath.

But what did Jesus teach about the Sabbath?

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath."

He answered, "Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread - which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." -Matthew 12:1-8

This is one of two lessons Yeshua teaches about the Sabbath according to Matthew, although there are additional lessons in other Gospels. In this saying, from a Christian point of view, it's easy to read into Yeshua's words and believe he's saying it's OK to do away with the Sabbath and yet remain innocent. Did Yeshua say that he and his disciples just canceled the Sabbath? What would cause him to issue such a reversal over the various parts of the Torah and the Prophets commanding Shabbat observance? What did he really say?

What does David eating the Priest's bread, Priests performing their sacred duty on the Shabbat, and Yeshua and his disciples gleaning and eating on Shabbat have in common? Were they all lawless and disrespectful of God's laws?

Yeshua quotes the Prophet Hosea as part of the answer: "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." (Hosea 6:6). This is somewhat the same message as we see here:

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." -Mark 12:32-33

This is a response to Yeshua and his interpretation of the two greatest commandments by one of the Torah teachers and the teacher seems to say that the core of the Torah isn't in the raw mechanics of obedience but the intent and the heart behind obedience. It doesn't make spirit vs action mutually exclusive terms, but rather, two bookends containing the entire Torah between them.

While some of the Pharisees were criticizing Yeshua and his disciples for gleaning for food (working) on the Sabbath, they were emphasizing the mechanics of Shabbat observance without taking into consideration the intent of the Shabbat. Yeshua also seems to be saying that, if you have to make a decision between the two, it's better to "err" on the side of mercy. David, the Priesthood, and Yeshua's disciples were all innocent of any violation of the Sabbath.

Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"

He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. -Matthew 12:9-14

Yeshua could have waited 24 hours to heal this guy. He wasn't like a sheep in a pit, who would certainly suffer and might even die if left there until the Shabbat ended. The guy probably lived with that shriveled hand for years. Another day wouldn't have made much difference. Yeshua was trying to make a point:

How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. -Matthew 12:12

I doubt all this means that God was reversing traditional Shabbat observance. I doubt Yeshua is saying we need to cancel our worship and our prayers so that we can all go out and perform acts of good that could have waited until the next day or that we could have done the previous day. Remember, he was making a point to an audience that needed to hear a specific message.

I do believe Yeshua's lesson means we need to think about our Shabbat observance. Are we observing the Shabbat as a matter of robotic mechanics, going through the motions like so many wind-up toy dolls and criticizing anyone who operates outside of our rigid paradigm, or are we observing the Shabbat in the Spirit of the Shabbat, as God originally designed it to be?

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. -Genesis 2:2-3

It's pretty hard to get past the Genesis 2 establishment of the Shabbat and interpret it as a "Jewish" observance, since it's clear here that the seventh day was made holy since the days of Adam. Resting on the seventh day is a demonstration and declaration of God as the God of all Creation. Here's another example:

"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 alien 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

While Moses is specifically addressing the Children of Israel as well as the Gentile mixed multitude who also accepted the Torah at Sinai, the Shabbat is still defined by the holiness of the seventh day after creation. We do see a change in the following, however:

"Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. 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 ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. -Deuteronomy 5:12-15

At the banks of the Jordan, on the threshold of the promise fulfilled, Moses presents the commandment to keep the Sabbath to the children of the slaves who came out of Egypt as a commemoration of the release from bondage. Is this when God made the Sabbath a fully Jewish event? Does God think in terms of either/or?

Westerners sometimes get accused of being too locked into linear thinking. We categorize and pigeon-hole everything and do our level best to eliminate ambiguity and double-meaning. Computers "think" in binary and apparently, so do we. But I've been told that Hebraic thought is more global and that themes, relationships, and connections are interwoven into a complex and sometimes paradoxical tapestry. It's sometimes explained this way:

When you come to a fork in the road, take it. -Yogi Berra

While Berra never meant for his words to hold any significant philosophical meaning, in this case, I think they do. I think that the Sabbath can both be a special commemoration for the Jews of their release from slavery in Egypt and a commemoration for all humanity that God is the God of Creation and is the God of all of us.

"As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me," declares the LORD, "so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me," says the LORD. -Isaiah 66:22-23

We light the Sabbath candles in my home every Friday evening for a number of reasons, not the least of which is because my wife is Jewish. I have no problem seeing two overlapping meanings to Shabbat observance for Jews and for Gentiles, just like there is in my family, and in fact, it seems to be one of those commandments that has an overarching application to the entire human race.

Conclusion: What did Jesus teach about the Sabbath that Jewish and Gentile disciples are to obey?

1. The mechanics of Sabbath observance and the spirit of Sabbath observance are both important.
2. If you are in a situation where you must choose between mechanics and spirit, err on the side of the spirit and intent of Sabbath.
3. There are some jobs and activities that must be done, even on the Sabbath, yet anyone doing them is considered blameless of a violation of the Sabbath.
4. Helping a person on the Sabbath isn't wrong, even if they could have waited until the next day.

I'll add, even though Yeshua didn't teach this specifically, that the Sabbath can have a special meaning for the Jewish people in relation to their release from Egyptian slavery and still have a general meaning and application to everyone else.

This series will end with my next entry in which I'll try to summarize my all of my conclusions. Beyond that, there are a few ways I can go.

There have been a lot of comments on Judah Gabriel's blog post 7 Conclusions on Keeping God's Commandments, which was Judah's commentary on my blog entry What Did Jesus Teach About the Torah, Part 1. It would certainly be appropriate if I blogged on everyone's thoughts and tried to respond by "tightening up" my conclusions from that article.

I chose the book of Matthew for this series because it was the Gospel written specifically for a Jewish audience, so if any set of teachings could be said to be specifically Jewish, they would be found in Matthew's writings. Matthew is also the only Gospel writer that records "the Great Commission" which is the foundation of this series. Does that mean Yeshua didn't provide any fundamentally different or additionally illuminating teachings in Mark, Luke, and John? Exploring the other Gospels is an option.

All that said, it seems inevitable that I'll need to visit the Apostolic scriptures more specifically than I already have. While none of the apostles can override Yeshua's teachings, they can add dimension and expand the meaning of our understanding of what Yeshua taught. Also, the development of the early "church" and the record of how (or if) Gentile disciples were integrated into Jewish synagogue worship could help show us a picture, or at least a hint, of how (or if) Torah observance was managed by the Gentiles.

Next time: the conclusion of conclusions.

What Did Jesus Teach in the Beatitudes?

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

This is the thirteenth part of my series on what Yeshua (Jesus) taught his Jewish disciples to teach the newly minted Gentile disciples to obey. We are coming to the end of the material I was able to glean from Matthew's Gospel on Yeshua's teachings. Before proceeding, let's review a summary of my previous blog post, Part 4 of What Did Jesus Teach About the Torah:

In a nutshell, we learn that the Yoke of the Messiah's Torah is light when we realize that obedience to Torah starts with faith and grace. Everything we do to obey God out of our faith and devotion, when we love God with all our might and we love our neighbor as ourselves, will yield much good fruit and contains all of the teachings in the Torah.

I must admit, I've been avoiding the Beatitudes. What does one say about Yeshua's teachings in the Beatitudes? What do these teachings mean? Are you really "blessed" if you're in mourning, if you're meek, or if you're "persecuted because of righteousness"?

Let's take a look at the Beatitudes, as recorded in Matthew 5:

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. -Matthew 5:1-12

Yeshua seems to be saying in a nutshell, "Don't worry if your life is bad now for my sake because it'll be great in the Kingdom of Heaven." This is similar to what we find in James 1:2: Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds. There's also a parallel in the following:

Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.

Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted. -Habakkuk:1:3-4

Is Yeshua just giving the troops a "pep talk" so that they (and we) will put up with the various injustices in the world until Messiah's return?

In trying to research the Beatitudes, I came across a couple of excerpts from Derek Leman's new book, Yeshua in Context where he addresses this topic. Leman points out something that had never really occurred to me before:

Another scholar famous for his work on the Sermon on the Mount is Hans Dieter Betz. He suggests, as do others, that the Sermon on the Mount is not to be thought of as the exact address or outline Yeshua used on one occasion when speaking. A number of factors give evidence that the Sermon on the Mount is an ancient summary of the many things Yeshua taught, compiled by someone after Yeshua’s time (Essays on the Sermon on the Mount). For one thing, there is the fact that the Sermon on the Mount is very similar to Luke’s Sermon on the Plain. Yet comparison of the two stories shows that they are not the same event. And differences between the two show that Yeshua spoke about certain topics repeatedly.

In other words, you can make a pretty good case that the Sermon on the Mount is a sort of summation of the life message of Yeshua prepared after him by his disciples.

And the Beatitudes occupy a very important place in the Sermon on the Mount. They introduce the essential message of Yeshua. They are the epitome of what he stood for.
Quoted from Origin of the Sermon on the Mount

In reading this quote, I imagined Yeshua as a traveling Rabbi, trying to spread a specific message to the Jewish people throughout the Land of Israel (and beyond). If he wanted to present the same teaching to a large number of people, he would likely present (more or less) the same message at different times and at different venues. This is no different than a person today going on a promotional speaking tour or an author visiting different cities on a book signing tour, trying to attract the attention of a large number of people to a specific work or lesson.

Leman's take on the Beatitudes, as quoted from Beatitudes as a Sad Reality, describes Yeshua's central message as not one of happiness and joy (wiktionary.org defines beatitude as a "supreme, utmost bliss and happiness") but of sadness. This isn't to be confused with despair, but functions more as a "reality check". God didn't "promise us a rose garden" in this life and our work for the Kingdom in this world will have its share of hardships. Only at the end, when God rules, will our sufferings be rewarded. I said something similar in one of my blog posts on Yeshua's teachings about following Jesus and it certainly is important to realize that God won't make life easier for us than for unbelievers, just because we are Yeshua's disciples. In fact, I suspect quite the opposite.

Remember Yeshua's audience. They were a group of, for the most part, common men and women of the Land. Today, we'd call them blue collar workers, laborers, "Joe the Plumber", or "the average guy". These were Jews who lived and labored in a nation held by military occupation. Rome was a brutal task master, and to make things worse, like in many other military occupations, the Roman governors had put their own people in key positions of authority, including Jewish religious authority, in order to control the masses and to keep them down.

The other part to remember is that, once people started to realize that Yeshua was the Messiah, they'd expect him to kick the Romans out and restore self-rule of the Jews to Israel immediately (see an example of this in Acts 1:6-8). He knew they'd be crushed when, instead of witnessing him ascending to the throne of Israel, they saw him die a horrible, torturous death on the Roman execution stake, as if he were nothing more than a thief or a terrorist. Even after he was resurrected, he would ascend into Heaven 40 days later. While the Spirit would be sent as a comforter, the people would also need Yeshua's words of encouragement to hang on to as they lived through the long years, as they lived through the destruction of the Temple, and as they lived through losing their nation.

We need that encouragement, too. In the almost 20 centuries that have passed since these events occurred, the Messiah has yet to return. Many, many hard things have happened and many more are likely to come. We need to hang on through the hardships, even though it is very difficult sometimes.

The word "Beatitudes" is taken from Latin "beatus", meaning "blessed" or "happy", but I sometimes wonder if we shouldn't substitute the word "Praiseworthy" instead. Consider these examples I found at mitzva.org:

Praise G-d, Praiseworthy is the man who fears G-d, who greatly desires His mitzvos.
Tehillim 112:1

Praiseworthy is the one who merits completing the mitzvos. He causes man to complete his spirit and soul in this world and the world to Come.
Zohar, Terumah

Praiseworthy is the man who fulfills the mitzvos and knows her secrets.
Zohar II, 218b

Praiseworthy is the person who obeys Your mitzvos and takes to his heart Your teaching and Your word.
Morning Prayer before Shema

The term "blessed" always seemed a little abstract for me. I tend to be a linear thinker and rather concrete in my conceptualizations (I can get past these limitations, but it takes work). If "blessed" doesn't make a connection for me, "praiseworthy" or "worthy of praise" is easier to grasp. Imagine Yeshua saying something like:

You are praiseworthy if you are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.
You are praiseworthy if you are in mourning and you will be comforted.
You are praiseworthy if you have been broken, feel dejected, and are treated as if you are unimportant, to paraphrase Leman's commentary on the Beatitudes from his book.

Conclusion: What do we learn from the collection of Yeshua's teachings we commonly refer to as "the Beatitudes"?

1. We learn that there will continue to be suffering, sorrow, pain, and despair in the current world for disciples of the Master who are working for the Kingdom.
2. We learn that, once the Messiah returns and God rules the world, there will be great rewards for those who have fought the good fight, those who have finished the race, and those who have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).
3. We learn, through Leman's interpretation and as we apply Matthew 28:18-20, that this teaching is a central message the Master intended to be passed on to his Jewish disciples, to the people of Israel, and to all of us who labor and struggle for the sake of righteousness.

In a nutshell, Yeshua teaches us to hang on, to keep the faith, to persevere in the face of hardship, for although life in this world now is hard and we suffer, great is our reward in the Kingdom if we stay the course and complete the race. Praiseworthy is the person who obeys Your mitzvos and takes to his heart Your teaching and Your word.

My next blog post will be the final one in this series presenting the teachings of Yeshua that are to be learned and obeyed by both the Jewish and Gentile disciples, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. After that, there will be one last post to try and summarize the conclusions of this series and hopefully, by God's wisdom and grace, bring all of us, me especially, to a better understanding of how we Gentile disciples of the Messiah are to live our lives and obey his commandments.

What Did Jesus Teach About the Torah, Part 4

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

This is the twelfth part of my series on what Yeshua (Jesus) taught his Jewish disciples to teach the newly minted Gentile disciples to obey. It's also the fourth part of my series that specifically focuses on what Yeshua taught about the Torah (the Law) that can be applied to non-Jewish disciples. Before proceeding, let's review a summary for Part 3 of What Did Jesus Teach About the Torah:

In a nutshell, we learned that in addition to the conditions outlined for Gentile disciples in terms of Torah obedience we find in the Acts 15 letter, there are a number of commands that Yeshua taught in Matthew 5 that can be applied to Gentile Torah obedience, including commandments to not murder, not to commit adultery, not to divorce except under extreme circumstances, to avoid taking oaths, and to love your enemies. These commandments are found in several sections of the Torah including Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. We find that the Acts 15 letter was written in direct response to events reported in Paul's Galatians letter where we discover Messianic Jewish disciples, without authorization from the Jerusalem Council, were telling new Gentile believers that they had to convert to Judaism in order to become Messianic disciples. The letter corrects this disinformation and we see that Gentile disciples are allowed to discover their lives in the Jewish Messiah, in the Torah, and in God without the requirement to become Jewish or to be obligated to the entire body of the Torah as are the Jewish people.

I want to revisit a portion of Acts 15 because I believe that Peter said something in response to some Messianic Jewish disciples who belonged to the party of the Pharisees that has relevance on how Yeshua taught about the nature of the Torah:

The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." -Acts 15:6-11

These words are usually referenced by traditional Christianity to illustrate that the Law (Torah) was considered to be a burden too heavy for both Jewish and Gentile Christians and to justify the notion that the Torah was replaced by Grace. Frankly, it's a good point because how else can you explain Peter including both Gentiles and Jews in the statement ...putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? Were the Torah commandments an unbearable yoke? Compare what Peter is saying to what Yeshua says:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." -Matthew 11:28-30

Of course, I'm assuming that both Peter and Yeshua are using the term "yoke" in the same way, that "yoke" refers to the Torah, and that the "yoke of Torah" can either be heavy or light. As support for this, consider the following quote from Torah.org:

This week's mishna provides us with an important life insight, one not only philosophically intriguing but practically valuable as well. One who accepts upon himself the "yoke of Torah" -- meaning he undertakes to study Torah diligently and without interruption, will find the yokes of government and of livelihood less burdensome or removed altogether.
Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld

So why is Yeshua's yoke (of Torah) easy and why does Peter refer to the yoke (of Torah) as a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? What's the difference between the yokes?

Amazingly, I think I have an answer. The clue is here:

No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are. -Acts 15:11

I don't believe that Peter was saying the Torah commandments were a yoke that the Jewish people found too heavy to bear. I think Peter is saying that believing that Torah obedience in and of itself will save you is an unbearable burden.

We see a perfect example of this in some One Law congregations today, where Gentile believers focus so much on certain aspects of Torah obedience, such as avoiding pork chops and scrimp scampi, learning how to tie their tzitzit, and the proper method for laying tefillin, that they've neglected the more important matters of the Torah, such as feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, and caring for the homeless and the friendless. If even some of the Jews in the First Century C.E. were "misaligned" in terms of their understanding of Torah too, then I have no doubt that the yoke of Torah would be heavy for them, just as it is for Gentile believers who expect Torah obedience to save them today.

Now look at the fact that Yeshua had to tell the Jewish people in Matthew 5 the correct interpretation of certain Torah commandments and link that to his teaching that the yoke of the Messiah's Torah is light, and you can understand what Peter is talking about. Peter isn't negating Torah obedience for the Jews, but he's negating Torah obedience for the sake of blindly following rules and expecting the Torah to be able to save you. This is exactly that the Gentiles in Galatians were being lured into by some unreliable Jewish brothers and what Paul was so upset about.

The yoke of Torah is light when we realize that it's faith and grace that saves us, not robotic Torah obedience and the Torah is heavy when we become rule-bound for the sake of being rule-bound and believe that it's the little details of obeying the Torah commandments that will either save or condemn us. Paul says in Romans 3:10 that no one is perfect; no one obeys God's Torah perfectly. It's not the perfection of Torah obedience that saves us, it's the continual struggle to perfect our faith by grace. Paul compares our journey of faith to running a race in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 and in 2 Timothy 4:7, he says he has finished the race and has kept the faith.

Both in Matthew 7:15-23 and Matthew 16:5-12, Yeshua admonishes his disciples to guard themselves against "false prophets" and against "the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees". The Gentiles in the Galatian church needed to hear that lesson as well and Paul was able to take the message to them. This message was then re-enforced by the Acts 15 letter, and we modern Gentile Messianic disciples also need to be paying attention to what this teaching is saying. There are still plenty of "teachers" out there who elevate the benefits of blind Torah obedience above living a life of faith, grace, and fruitfulness by obeying the weightier matters of Torah and accepting the proper yoke of the Messiah.

Conclusion: What do we learn about Yeshua's yoke of Torah for the Jewish and Gentile Messianic disciples?

1. God made no distinction between Jewish and Gentile disciples in terms of receiving the Spirit, having hearts purified by faith, and being saved by the Messiah's grace.
2. The Yoke of Torah is heavy if we believe we must obey every little Torah commandment to the letter in order to be saved.
3. The Yoke of Torah is light if we realize that both Jewish and Gentile Messianic disciples are saved by faith, rather than by robotic Torah observance.
4. Avoid the "yeast" of "false prophets" and bad teachers who contradict the teachings of the Messiah.
5. Faith is a race we run all our lives in order to win the only reward that will last for all eternity.

In a nutshell, for today's lesson, we learn that the Yoke of the Messiah's Torah is light when we realize that obedience to Torah starts with faith and grace. Everything we do to obey God out of our faith and devotion, when we love God with all our might and we love our neighbor as ourselves, will yield much good fruit.

I know that I haven't come to an absolute conclusion regarding Gentile Messianic Torah obedience vs. Jewish Messianic Torah obedience. As far as the book of Matthew is concerned, this is as much as I can find specifically about how Yeshua taught the Torah. If what we Gentile disciples are to obey is contained within the limits of Matthew, then how Gentiles respond to the Torah is certainly different than how Jews respond to the Torah.

I haven't quite exhausted the teachings of the Messiah in Matthew yet, and there will be a few more entries in this series. Beyond that, we'll see what final conclusions I can make when the final blog post wraps up my observations.

What Did Jesus Teach About the Torah, Part 3?

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

This is the eleventh part of my series on what Yeshua (Jesus) taught his Jewish disciples to teach the newly minted Gentile disciples to obey. It is also the third part of my series that specifically focuses on what Yeshua taught about the Torah (the Law) that can be applied to non-Jewish disciples. Before continuing, let's review the summary for Part 2 of What Jesus Teaches About the Torah:

In a nutshell, Yeshua taught that the Torah commandment to not murder includes not denigrating another person. "Do not commit adultery" is not just a matter of refraining from extramarital sex, but a prohibition of even looking at another woman with lustful desire and intent. Although Torah allows divorce, no married couple should remove the bond between them created by God except under the most serious circumstances. It is better to take no oath at all than to take an oath before God and then fail to complete it. Even if you are in the right to sue another, consider the consequences before proceeding. Loving those who love you is easy. Loving someone who doesn't love you is from God.

While each of these commandments has their source in the Torah of Moses, Yeshua brings the correct and original understanding of each of these statements to his Jewish disciples and, through the Matthew 28 directive, to the Gentile disciples; to us. However, there's a problem.

In my previous conversations with Messianic Jewish adherents to Bilateral Ecclesiology, Divine Invitation (as defined by First Fruits of Zion or FFOZ), and to others aligned with the specific teachings of organizations such as the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations (UMJC), the only standard they believe is valid for Torah observance by Gentile disciples of Yeshua is found in Acts 15, in what we now call "the Jerusalem Letter". Let's take a look at it.

We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul - men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell. -Acts 15:24-29

This letter seems to have been written in response to a situation described by Paul in his Galatians letter. Here's a small sample:

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! -Galatians 5:2-12

Paul appears to be describing a group of Messianic Jews who were struggling with the idea that Gentiles could enter the community of Messianic faith and become disciples and worshipers of the One God without actually converting to Judaism (circumcision is the shorthand Paul is using to describe conversion). If Gentiles were being instructed that they could only become disciples by becoming Jews, it would completely undo everything Yeshua had done and taught, according to Paul. Yet, it was understandable that many of the Jewish disciples of Yeshua would have a tendency to not want Gentiles to share the status of full disciples with them.

In that place and time, Jews generally believed that any sort of contact with a Gentile would make a Jew unclean. Even being in a Gentile's house would be like touching a corpse. There were already many Gentile God-fearers worshiping in Jewish synagogues (see Acts 17 for examples of God-fearers worshiping with Jews in Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens), but their status would not have been as equals before God among the Jews, even though Gentiles too were created in the image of God.

Peter was only convinced to visit the home of the Roman God-fearer Cornelius after having a vision on a rooftop where God explained to him that Gentiles were in fact not unclean (see Acts 10:9-22). The following shows what a total shock it was for Jewish believers to witness Gentiles also being accepted as Messianic disciples and receiving the Spirit:

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. -Acts 10:44-46

Witnessing Gentiles being accepted as disciples of the Jewish Messiah and actually receiving the Holy Spirit just as the Jewish disciples did in Acts 2, was a completely mind-blowing experience for many of the Jewish disciples who witnessed the event. Imagine how difficult it was for the hundreds or thousands of Jewish Messianic disciples of that time to believe that Gentiles could receive the Spirit, since they had not seen this event with their own eyes. Were they willing to take Peter's and Paul's word for it? Were they be willing to take the Jerusalem Council's word for it?

Some of them obviously were not willing, hence Paul's comments to the Galatians and the necessity of the Jerusalem letter. But let's get back to the problem.

While Acts 16:4-5 describes the response of the Gentile believers to the delivery of the letter, given what Yeshua taught in Matthew 5:21-48 and the directive Yeshua gave to the Jewish disciples in Matthew 28:18-20, are we to believe that the conditions James and the Council wrote in their letter to the Gentile disciples were the only behavioral changes the Gentiles had to make? How could the Gentiles make sense of these directives if they didn't have access to the larger body of scriptures for context? Even assuming a different set of behavioral expectations for Jews and Gentiles in the synagogue and as believers, how could Gentiles understand this difference and why it exists if they didn't have access to the larger body of scriptures, and particularly to the teachings of the Messiah, to whom the Gentile believers were to be disciples and students?

Also remember this:

"It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath." -Acts 15:19-21

Somehow, the fact that the Torah of Moses was read in the synagogues on every Sabbath factored into the way the Council crafted their letter in response to the Jewish believers who had erroneously been attempting to get the Gentiles to convert to Judaism as a requirement of worshiping God.

Now remember that we're dealing with two general classes of Gentile disciples: those who had been God-fearers, had a familiarity with the synagogue, and had heard the Torah taught on Shabbat, and those who had just come out of pagan worship and hadn't a clue what was going on. The former population were already somewhat "on board" with having faith in God and they already loved the Jewish people. The latter population came to faith through hearing Paul or another Messianic emissary, but largely had no understanding of God, the Messiah, and Judaism, beyond what would have been common knowledge in the diaspora.

It must have been quite a shock when the Gentiles were originally told (erroneously) that they had to convert to Judaism and take on board the whole of Torah obedience and halacha; behaviors and concepts that were likely completely mysterious to them, confusing, and maybe even a little terrifying. Becoming a Gentile disciple of the Master would have seemed an overwhelming task for someone coming out of paganism if conversion to Judaism were a major requirement. How could they possible ramp up to speed in any reasonable amount of time and come to an understanding of all the commandments, equal to born Jews who had been hearing the Torah since childhood? You might not get any Gentile converts to the Messianic faith at all if they had to face that sort of chore. What to do?

In this context, the Jerusalem letter makes a great deal of sense. James could be saying, "Let's calm the Gentiles down". And to the Gentiles, the letter could say, "Don't worry, guys...you don't have to do everything all at once." But does the Jerusalem letter override what Yeshua said in Matthew 5 and Matthew 28? Of course not. If James (and interestingly enough, the Holy Spirit) had contradicted Yeshua's teachings, then the Apostolic Scriptures wouldn't be worth the paper they're printed on. So what do we do and how do we understand all this? The clue is here:

For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath. -Acts 15:21

If Yeshua expected what he taught the Jewish disciples to obey to be transmitted to the Gentile disciples, then the Acts 15 letter cannot be the totality of what a Gentile disciples were to learn and obey. Based on my previous conclusions, Yeshua directly taught the correct interpretation of portions of the Torah, specifically from Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. The only way for the Gentile disciples to make sense of Yeshua's teachings and to put them in proper context, was for the Gentile disciples to be able to study the original portions of the Torah they were expected to understand and obey.

Conclusion: What do we learn about Yeshua's Torah teachings as connected to the Jerusalem letter to the Gentiles?

1. Yeshua taught the correct interpretation to a number of Torah commandments as seen in Matthew 5.
2. Yeshua specifically directed the Jewish disciples to teach the Gentile disciples to obey everything Yeshua taught, as seen in Matthew 28.
3. Some Messianic Jewish disciples were teaching the new Gentile disciples that the only way to become disciples of the Messiah was to convert to Judaism, as described in Paul's Galatians letter.
4. Paul and the Messianic authorities in Jerusalem correctly taught that Gentiles do not have to convert to Judaism in order to be Messianic disciples.
5. In order to calm the Gentile disciples down and to tell them that they did not have to take on board a totally Jewish obedience to the Torah, a letter was sent out as recorded in Acts 15.
6. Acts 16 shows how the letter was well received among the Gentiles.
7. Matthew 5 and 28 and Acts 15:21, as well as Acts 17:10-15, show that Gentiles were expected to learn, understand, and obey at least some of the Torah commandments outside the direct context of the Jerusalem letter.

There's no way around it. The Acts 15 letter cannot be the total and absolute limit of a Gentile disciple's behavioral compliance to God. At least some portions of the Torah of Moses must be included for the Gentiles to even make sense of who the Messiah is and what righteous living really means as an expectation of God.

Notice though, so far, I haven't presented one line of evidence that could support the idea that Gentiles are supposed to wear tzitzit, pray with teffilin, or to keep the totality of the 613 commandments (or at least that portion that's possible to keep outside of Israel and without a Priesthood or a Temple) as understood in rabbinic Judaism. So far, what I've found (but I'm not done, yet) is that, according to the teachings of Yeshua and the Jewish disciples, Gentiles, when they have become Messianic disciples, are required to change their behaviors based on more than just the Acts 15 letter. However, the Gentiles do not necessarily have to obey each and every Torah commandment exactly as a born Jew is required (and in fact, we see that Gentile conversion to Judaism in order to become a disciple is not only not required, but severely frowned upon).

We're getting rather deep into this topic, and so far, not many folks have been responding, although Judah Gabriel has started his own blog post to comment on this portion of my study. My conclusions aren't precisely lining up with either the understanding of the One Law/One Torah congregations nor the teachings of the Messianic Jewish adherents to Bilateral Ecclesiology (as defined by Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations or UMJC) or Divine Invitation (as defined by First Fruits of Zion or FFOZ).

I want to assure you that I'm not expending all this time and energy just to be disrespectful and offensive to people who don't share my exact viewpoint, so please don't take what I'm writing as some sort of slap in the face. I really am trying to make sense of what the Bible is saying to Gentiles without "drinking the Kool-Aid", so to speak, of any particular group's theology. Once married to a theology, having an objective viewpoint can be something of a challenge. If I can present this information while standing even a little bit outside my own assumptions, then perhaps I, and everyone else reading my blogs, can learn something new.

Needless to say, to be continued.

What Did Jesus Teach About the Torah, Part 2?

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

This is the tenth part of my series on what Yeshua (Jesus) taught his Jewish disciples to teach the newly minted Gentile disciples to obey. It is also the second part focusing on his teachings on the Torah (the Law). Before we begin, let's take a look at the summary of Part 1: What Did Jesus Teach About the Torah?

In a nutshell, we learn that Gentiles are supposed to learn and obey everything Yeshua taught, including the fact that the Torah will be with us for a long time. We learned that God called each of us as the person He made us to be, so Jews don't have to turn into Gentiles, and Gentiles don't have to turn into Jews in order to be disciples of the Messiah and in fact, deliberately turning ourselves into something we're not just because we think it will justify us before God, makes Yeshua valueless to us. Loving God and loving others is the totality of the Torah and the Prophets and we should do both, not neglecting one for the other. In order to find out what comes next, we can't neglect what the Torah teaches, because that's what Yeshua teaches.

We see Yeshua teaching that the Torah is more important in the lives of the Gentile believers than what we might imagine, especially from a traditional Christian viewpoint. After all, in the church, we are generally taught that the Law or the Torah was nailed to the cross with Jesus and died there with him. We are taught that Jesus was resurrected, but that the Law remained dead and was replaced by grace. Of course this assumes that the Law and Grace are mutually exclusive concepts and, if you've read my previous nine blog posts in this series or many of my other posts, both here and at my congregation's blog, you'll know that's not what I believe.

Today, I'm going to present what you might think of as Yeshua's commentary on the Torah, found in Matthew 5:21-48. Earlier, in the same chapter, Yeshua said:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. -Matthew 5:17-20

I've already explained in Part 1 of this series that my understanding of Yeshua's words is that he did not do away with Torah by "fulfilling" it, but rather, he brought the Torah to its ultimate lived expression through the actions of his earthly life. He became our perfect role model for righteous living. Since disciples are students who learn from imitating their teacher, then we, as Yeshua's disciples, should learn by imitating all he did. The Matthew 28:18-20 directive seems to confirm that even Gentile disciples were to learn to obey everything he taught, and since Yeshua is a role model, we Gentile disciples can only learn by watching him and then doing what he did as well. But does that really mean we Gentile Messianic disciples are to behave as if we were Jewish Messianic disciples? Perhaps and perhaps not, but the pursuit of the answer to this question is the core of my blog series.

In seeking to answer that really tough question, I want to address the Torah commentary of the Master found in Matthew 5:21-48. To understand what he's saying though, I have to reference another teacher:

The opposing statements of Jesus that follow His opening teaching on the vitality of the Torah and the Prophets are each introduced with the statement, "You have heard..."

...Thus the phrases, "I hear..." or "You hear..." in rabbinic dialog introduces one interpretation of the text, but one with which the writer disagrees.

"He who hears..." is used in the sense of "He who sticks to the superficial, literal meaning of Scritpure"...

"He who hears" (who takes Scripture literally, i.e., woodenly) will form the erroneous belief that the second account refers to different facts, but in reality, it is merely a repetition with more particulars.
From It is Often Said, Volume 1
by Tim Hegg

To rephrase Hegg's comments in more plain language, when Yeshua says, "You have heard it said, but I say to you..", he isn't re-writing or contradicting the original Torah scripture, but rather, expanding on the original meaning as it was given to Moses. Just like today, among the Jewish population in Israel in the 1st Century C.E., the meaning of the Word of God wasn't always made clear to the common people or even those who were well educated. Yeshua cut through all the theological error and bias (much of which we still have with us today) and laid out the Torah in a way that reflected the original details and intent of Moses and of God.

With that in mind, let's now go to the specifics of Yeshua's commentary:

"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You good-for-nothing!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.

"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. -Matthew 5:21-24

Yeshua is addressing Exodus 20:13 which states simply (in English) You shall not murder. Obviously, he's not removing or contradicting the commandment to not murder another person, but rather, he's expanding the concept of "murder" to leveling insults and denegrating a person. It is no better to be cruel or to behave hatefully towards a person than to actually kill the person.

Just a few days ago, college student Tyler Clementi committed suicide after he discovered that his recent gay sexual encounter was secretly recorded and streamed online by two fellow students. We will never know what 18 year old Clementi felt, but obviously this act of cruelty by his Rutgers University classmates resulted in emotions so terrible that they lead to Clementi's suicide. While the classmates doubtlessly didn't intend Clementi's death, nevertheless, their careless actions cost another human being his life. We cannot be so callous with our words and deeds toward another person. As Yeshua says, we must, to the best of our ability, make peace with our fellow, particularly before approaching God (yes, I know that Clementi's classmates weren't worrying too much about God's perspective). If we have no peace with other people, how can we have peace with our Creator?

"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. -Matthew 5:27-30

Yeshua is quoting from Exodus 20:14, You shall not commit adultery, and giving a more detailed description of just what "adultery" actually means (and no, he's not literally suggesting casual self-injury). It's not enough to avoid having physical, sexual contact with a person other than your spouse. Looking longingly and lustfully at another, fantasizing about them, and actively desiring that person, is an affront to your spouse and a betrayal to your wedding vows (such as "forsaking all others") before God. That rather punches a hole in, not only "coveting your neighbor's wife" but even looking at pornographic material with lustful intent (and who actively seeks out pornographic material without lust in their minds and hearts?).

"It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.' But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery. -Matthew 5:31-32

This is Yeshua's commentary on the following:

If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD. Do not bring sin upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. -Deuteronomy 24:1-4

This might be clearer if we consult Yeshua's commentary on divorce in Matthew 19:1-12 and specifically the following:

So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate. -Matthew 19:6

In the church in the U.S. today, it has been said that the divorce rate is at or over 50%, though these figures have been disputed. But even if there are any significant percentages of divorced people in the community of faith, and particularly if the church supports and even advocates for casual divorce, it is clear evidence of a watering down of the commandments in both Deuteronomy and Yeshua's commentary in Matthew. Marriage is a state in which we are not to enter lightly and having once entered it, we should not leave it in haste or with minimal concern, yet we see exactly that happening every day. Are we hearing yet?

"Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. -Matthew 5:33-37

This isn't a simple topic and, according to a commentary found at Torah.org, there are a number of different kinds of oaths, including false oaths, vain oaths, oaths about deposits, and so on. In general, the danger in taking an oath in God's name is if we fail to fulfill our oath. Exodus 20:7 states "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. It would be better to take no oath and all and just to say "yes" or "no" rather than swear upon the Name of God and fail to keep our word.

"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. -Matthew 5:38-42

Yeshua is referencing a number of parts of the Torah here including Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20, and Deuteronomy 19:21. Let's take a closer look at one of them:

If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. -Exodus 21:22-25

If taken literally, it sounds like a mutilation free-for-all, but every legitimate rabbinic interpretation states that these verses address what we could consider in the U.S. courts today to be civil suits for injury. If you were involved in an industrial accident, for instance, that cost you the sight in one eye, you could sue the company for financial damages that would be considered equivalent payment for your loss of sight. You certainly wouldn't demand that the company's CEO have one of his eyes taken out as payment. What good would that do you? How would this express the justice and righteousness of God?

Yeshua isn't necessarily contradicting the option to sue someone for damages (though I can see how you could interpret his words this way), but if we maintain the context and theme of our study, a better way to understand the Master's words is that, even in situations where we are owed damages, we should consider carefully if suing is the best way to express God's love and mercy as well as His justice. Yeshua offers the avenue of rejecting the option to sue and rather, continuing to behave humbly. Imagine what message you could send as a believer, if you could sue a person (and they knew you had them dead to rights), but instead, you relented and showed mercy. This fits very, very well with a teaching of Paul's on Proverbs 25:21-22:

On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. -Romans 12:20-21

This seems to fold quite well into the final commentary Yeshua has on the Torah in the current study:

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. -Matthew 5:43-48

This is Yeshua's commentary on the following:

" 'Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.

" 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. -Leviticus 19:17-18

Yeshua's words seem to fly in the face of other portions of the Torah (not to mention human nature), including the commandment to Remember Amalek (Deuteronomy 25:17-19), but of course, it also begs the question "who is my neighbor" (see Luke 10:25-37)?

Yeshua isn't speaking of those nations or people groups who seek our death and he's not saying we can't defend ourselves (otherwise, the story of Esther would be moot). He is instructing us how to behave towards people we don't like and who don't like us, within our faith community and outside the faith but within our societal community. Just because your next door neighbor borrowed your power tools and didn't give them back, doesn't mean he's evil. Don't run over his kid's bike with your car, which was left carelessly in your driveway, but rather, give the bike back, then offer to mow your neighbor's lawn when he has the flu. Believe me, you'll make a bigger and better impression and you'll probably get your power tools back as well.

There's one huge issue looking us in the face. Many Messianic Jewish groups have said that the Torah is only for the Jews, except for certain minor portions that can also be applied to Gentile Messianic disciples. However, if we take Yeshua seriously in Matthew 28:18-20 about we Gentile disciples being taught to obey everything that the Yeshua taught the Jewish disciples, and if Yeshua taught the Jewish disciples Torah interpretation in Matthew 5, then we have evidence that at least the portions of Torah quoted by the Master here are as equally applicable to Gentile disciples as they are to Jewish disciples.

Wow!

Conclusion: What did Yeshua instruct the Jewish disciples to teach the Gentile disciples about obeying the Torah?

1. Do not murder, either by killing a person's body or by "killing" their spirit through insult and denigration. If you injure a person's emotions, you may actually take his life.
2. Do not commit adultery, either by having sex with a person other than your spouse, or by lusting after another person, desiring them in your heart.
3. Do not divorce, except in extreme cases such as sexual infidelity. Your marriage vows are not to be taken lightly, since they were taken before God. God made you one flesh with your spouse. Don't try to pull apart what God put together.
4. It is better to make no oaths at all than to swear an oath before God and then break it. Just say "yes" or "no". Do not tempt God (Deuteronomy 6:16; Luke 4:12).
5. Even if you can rightfully sue another for damages, consider that you could better show the justice and mercy of God by not suing.
6. Love both those who love you and those who don't even like you. Imagine the message you could send someone you don't like by doing kindness to them.

If we take the Matthew 28 directive seriously, then the Jewish disciples were and are to teach the Gentile disciples to obey these portions of the Torah. This is starting to fit some of the teachings of what we call One Law/One Torah and we seem to be coming up against the teachings of Messianic Judaism as proposed by organizations such as the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations. These are Messianic Jews who are  specifically opposed to all or most forms of Torah observance by Gentile Messianic believers (i.e. Gentile Christians).

There will likely be a Part 3 to this study of Gentile Torah obedience. After all, how can there not be? I'm leaving this at what you could call a "cliffhanger", since we have only a partially defined map of a Gentile believer's relationship to the Torah. What will we ultimately find? My current opinion is that we'll discover Gentile Torah obedience will more than what "strict Messianic Judaism" wants to believe. That said, it may also be quite different than what One Law/One Torah adherents have traditionally understood.

What a way to celebrate Simchat Torah. To be continued. Yasher koach.