We're Here to Bring Mashiach

As a Jew, I believe that the coming of the Messiah does not depend on my belief that he will come, nor does it rest solely in God's hands. I believe it remains our task to bring the Messiah -- that he will arrive only when we are in a state of readiness to bring him, to welcome him, to appreciate him. Salvation must be earned. And thus it is what we do, as Jews, that will determine the time of the Messianic arrival.

from Bringing the Messiah - On Our Own Terms
by Rabbi Jerome Epstein
Published on September 1999
at The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism site

This isn't a message you'll hear preached from the pulpit of any Christian church. Christianity believes the second coming of Christ is an event fixed in time and known only to God, and there's nothing that anyone can do to make it come any sooner or to make it come any later. This isn't true from a Jewish perspective. Human beings are junior partners in God's creation and as such, we have an active role in the coming of the Mashiach.

Here's more from Rabbi Epstein:

The unique message of Jewish Messianism is that with courage, commitment, hope and effort, a corrupt world can be righted, a sick world can be healed. Messianism gave our ancestors a light in the darker times of our history. But Jewish Messianism also put responsibility into the hands of the people. We must not attach ourselves to a magical, mythical vision with unrealistic hopes that the Messiah will spontaneously appear and save us from our folly.

The last sentence apparently is Rabbi Epstein taking a shot at Christianity. If you read the full text of the article from which I'm quoting, you'll see that he's responding to an event sponsored by Southern Baptists in his community to encourage "Jews to convert to Christianity during the High Holy Days." Needless to say, he was not pleased.

Yet, in many ways, Christians and Jews are looking for the same thing. We're looking for God to hear our cry, to come and heal our broken world, and to come and live among His people. We are looking for the coming of the Messiah to bring justice and mercy into our midst, as He did with His people so many years ago:

When Moses had finished the work, the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud had settled upon it and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. When the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle, the Israelites would set out, on their various journeys; but if the cloud did not lift, they would not set out until such time as it did lift. For over the Tabernacle a cloud of the Lord rested by day, and fire would appear in it by night, in the view of all the house of Israel throughout their journeys. -Exodus 40:33-38 (JPS Tanakh)

This coming Shabbat, I'm going to teach on the Divine among us, both as represented by the Divine Presence in the Mishkan and by the Messiah as he will return to us at the end of this age. But is there something we're supposed to do to prepare the world for his return?

God tests us each day by challenging us to help others use their potential to become the Messiah. That is our real contribution. If the potential Savior is sitting next to us, right now, how should we react? If we tell our children how much we appreciate them, perhaps their hidden skills will be revealed. If our friends sense the importance to us of their support, their contribution to others may grow. If we help our spouses remember what drew them to us, those qualities may reawaken. In short, if the potential Messiah is sitting next to us, our task is to help cultivate that potential. What we do makes a difference.

From a Jewish point of view, the Messiah could be anyone. In fact, it may not be apparent to the Messiah that he, in fact, is the Messiah before it is revealed to him. If we were to assume that anyone we know could be the Messiah, what would we do to encourage him and to bring him to a point where he will be ready to fix a damaged creation? This begs a further question. If we, indeed, have something to do with repairing the world and summoning the Messiah, are we not "little fixers" in our own right; are we not just a little bit "Messianic"?

I'm not suggesting that we necessarily have any power to override God's timetable as far as the Messiah's coming is concerned, but perhaps we are more a part of that timetable than we've previously imagined? What if our actions really do make a difference? What if feeding even one hungry person, encouraging even one discouraged child, or visiting even one lonely person in the hospital, are all intermingled threads in God's overarching tapestry to send the Messiah to us and to, on a cosmic scale, do what we are supposed to be doing all along as the Messiah's disciples?

We ask God to save us and to redeem His lost sheep. If we expect this from Him, how can we not do the same to those in need around us? Not only can we be the answer to someone's prayers to God, we, in our own small way, can be a small part of the Messiah, fixing our damaged world...one hurt at a time.

In this life we cannot always do great things. But we can do small things with great love. -Mother Teresa

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.