Searching for Identity

This is why we keep hoping that identities will come our way because the rest of the world is so confusing: everything else is turning, but identities ought to be some stable points of reference which were like that in the past, are now and ever shall be, still points in a turning world.
-- Stuart Hall

Since freshman year in college, I have been fascinated with the Jewish religion and culture. My love and excitement for the Judaism perplexes the majority of those who know me. I have been known to search wide eyed in the Kosher section of supermarkets (Phil just LOVED Passover pizza). I've attempted to learn multiple Hebrew words. Apparently some people think I look Jewish, and at one point, friends needed to point out to a guy that I was "a Gentile" (I just learned the Yiddish word for that is "goy"). Tomorrow night, I am going to my first Jewish service at Chabad. It's spoken entirely in Hebrew, but I won't mind much :)

I have often wondered how this all fits in with my Christian identity. I have been disappointed at the lack of integration of the Jewish roots of Christianity. After all, if salvation comes from the Jews, if Jesus was Jewish, where did it all go?

It is important to understand that according to Christians, and thus myself, Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament Messianic prophecies. That Jesus was the final and perfect sacrifice, bridging the inescapable casm between people and the Holy God Almighty. It is impossible and sacreligious to seperate the two testaments: the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old, and the Old gives the validity for the New. Yet I feel like many Christians do not fully appreciate or understand the intricacies of this relationship. And when it is understood, how much more beautiful we see Jesus as the Christ.

Case point: This Sunday at sundown begins the High Holy Day of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, where the Jewish people fast for 24 hours while reflecting upon the Lord and their sins from the previous year. Historically, Yom Kippur is the day that the Lord forgave the Jewish people for worshipping the golden calf and Moses was given the second tablets. According to "The Jewish Book of Why," the Jews believe that the Lord decides on Yom Kippur who is forgiven and who is not for the new year, which is why the day is solemn and not necessarily a celebration. It is my interpretation that the Jews understood that their sacrifices were not perfect, that they could not fully cleanse them.

Enter the Messiah, Jesus Christ, as the perfect sacrifice. The Book of Hebrews explains the significance:

For the gifts and sacrifices that the [Old Testament] priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them. For that old system deals only with food and drink and ritual washing--external regulations that are in effect only until their limitations can be corrected. So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that great, perfect sanctuary in heaven, not made by human hands and not part of this created world. Once for all time he took blood into that Most Holy Place, but not the blood of goats and calves. He took his own blood, and with it he secured our salvation forever. Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people's bodies from ritual defilement. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our hearts from deeds that lead to death so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. (Hebrews 9:9-14)

Why do we need a Savior? Because our actions, not matter how correct we try to make them, can never get to the root of the problem. This is why the sacrifices had to be offered year after year. This is why Jesus spoke so much about the condition of the heart and the mind: because HE was the solution to the problem. He was pointing to Himself. THIS is why on the Day of Atonement, Christians can "approach the throne of grace with confidence", because our sacrifice, Jesus Christ, was enough.

Blessed be Your Name. Shalom.