A Jew Looks at Jesus - Stan Kellner

Insight Paper: A Jew Looks at Jesus Author: Stan Kellner Insight Papers Index	PDF version (142K)

Introduction

The purpose for this paper is to provide a brief, yet thorough look at who Jesus is, highlighting various insights from the Jewish perspective.

"...isn’t it interesting that something so Jewish, believing in Jesus, became so foreign to you, a Jew?"

"Oy Vey! Are you Meshuganah (crazy)? A Jew believe in Jesus? I can't be saved, I'm Jewish! Why, if I accept Jesus as my Savior I won't be Jewish anymore! If a Jew accepts Jesus he becomes a traitor to his own people!"
Seem like far-fetched statements, don't they? Believe it or not, they are actual statements made by Jewish people before they have come to accept Jesus as their Messiah. Fact is, I even said some of those things before I was saved back in September of 1973.
Dr. Dobson said it well when I was his guest on the Focus on the Family broadcast in 1993 and re-aired in 1995 (Finding Jesus in the Old Testament). He said, "Stan, isn't it interesting that something so Jewish, believing in Jesus, became so foreign to you, a Jew?"
In the last 2,000 years because of the dispersion of the Jewish people around the world and the emergence of Rabbinical writings becoming more important than Scripture, it has become very foreign for a Jewish person to accept the truth about His Jewish Messiah, Jesus.
Yet, what we know about our Messiah is founded solidly in Scripture -- pages written by Jewish people describing a Jewish hope providing by a Jew that was prophesied to come and fulfill all that which was spoken of Him between Genesis and Revelation.

Prophecies Concerning His Coming

There were actually over 300 different prophecies fulfilled during Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection. The challenge to the typical Jewish mind, related to these prophecies, is that most Jewish people do not accept the validity of the New Testament. They consider it a "Gentile" book. Therefore, they have never been exposed to the fulfillment of these many prophecies in and through the life of Jesus. Here are a few worth considering:

Genesis 3:15
"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel."
The offspring of a human woman would be used to bring judgment against the Evil One. This offspring, traced through the centuries, was Jesus (as described in Gal. 4:4).

Genesis 12:3
"...And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
The phrase "in you" means in your seed. We see that, according to Matthew 1:1, Jesus is called the "son of Abraham" as described in the genealogical list and that through Him all nations would be blessed.

2 Samuel 7:12-13
"When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever."
This passage clearly describes that One will be descended from David who will be the Messiah and have an eternal kingdom. Matthew 1:1 and 1:6 confirm that Jesus was born and can be directly connected to the line of David.
Side note -- since the line of David was so important pertaining to the coming of a Messiah, it is interesting that Jesus is the last one to claim He is Messiah that can prove his lineage. Ever since A.D. 70 when the Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem, all written records of genealogies were lost as well. So, any one after A.D. 70 claiming to be Messiah (and there have been many including Menachem Schneerson in New York back in 1994), cannot humanly trace their lineage back to David!

Isaiah 7:14
"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel."
According to Matthew 1:18-2:1 Jesus was born of a virgin, named Mary, and was given the name Jesus, which means "God is our salvation".

Micah 5:2
"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity."
Jesus, who called Himself the Bread of Life (John 6), was born in a city in Israel called Bethlehem. Bethlehem in Hebrew is "Beit Lehem" which means "House of Bread". So, by God's divine providence, the Eternal Bread of Life was born in the House of Bread.

There are many portions of these passages that prophecy details of the crucifixion and what Jesus would be accomplishing by dying on the cross. Here are some examples:

Psalm 22 -- The Crucifixion
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (quoted by Jesus before He died).
"All my bones are out of joint." Actual experience of one's body when being crucified.
"They pierced my hands and my Feet." Specific fulfillment when nails were driven in Jesus' hands and feet.
"They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots." This happened as Jesus hung on the cross, as recorded in Matthew 15:24.

Isaiah 53 -- Jesus' Accomplishments on the Cross
"Our griefs He Himself bore, our sorrows He carried." (v.4)
"He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him..." (v.5)
"He was cut off out of the land of the living..." (v.8)
"My servant will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities." (v.11)
"Yet He Himself for the sin of many." (v.12)
Read Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23 or John 19 for a detailed account of Jesus' crucifixion and compare the details for yourself.

Old Testament Pictures Fulfilled by Jesus

God gave to the Jewish people many illustrations or word pictures of what the coming Messiah would be like. Most Jews today have lost hope in the return of the Messiah. In fact, they feel this belief is irrelevant today, especially since most do not believe in any type of afterlife. And yet the 12th point in the "13 Principles of Faith" for the Jewish people says "I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah and, though He tarry, I will wait daily for His coming."

Here are a few of the more recognized types of word pictures:

1. Our Passover Lamb
The Messiah would sacrifice His life for us.
According to Exodus 12, a lamb was to be sacrificed for a family, the blood was put on the doorpost and lintel of the house so when God would Pass Over the house He would bring no death to the household and the lamb was to be roasted with fire and eaten by each member of the family that very night.
Jesus, when seen by John the Baptist (as recorded in John 1:29) was referred to as the "Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world". Jesus became our once and for all sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin.
Taking the picture of the Passover and applying it spiritually, when we accept Jesus as our sin sacrifice His blood is applied to the doorpost of our heart and when God passes over us He will not judge us for the penalty of sin (Romans 6:23 -- the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord).
Also, just as each member of the family ate individually of the passover lamb, we must each eat personally of the Lamb of God, Jesus, in order to be born again. John 1:12 tells us "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God..."

"Jesus completed the work of our salvation by offering a once and for all payment by shedding His own blood..."

2. Our Atonement
The Messiah would bring us back to God.
One of the key feasts in the Old Testament that relates to our salvation is the Day of Atonement (At-one-ment with God), described in Leviticus 23:26-32. Once a year the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant with blood of bulls and goats.
The biggest challenge to the priests and to the people, in general, was that this was only a temporary covering, obviously because they had to repeat it every year.
Jesus came to earth, according to Hebrews 9-10, to offer the final atonement for sin. We are told in Hebrews 10:3,4 and 12:

"I AM" in the Hebrew is the verb "to be" or "to exist". God is literally telling Moses that He is God who exists eternally...

"But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins...But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down..."
Jesus completed the work of our salvation by offering a once and for all payment by shedding His own blood, not the blood of bulls and goats, and thereby fully purchasing our salvation.

3. Yahweh
The Messiah would be God Himself.
We find in Exodus 3 God revealing His personal name, His memorial name to Moses while Moses stood before the burning bush. God said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent you'"
"I AM" in the Hebrew is the verb "to be" or "to exist". God is literally telling Moses to explain to the sons of Israel that He is God who exists eternally. He is without beginning or end. This is the clearest statement to this point recorded in Scripture of God making a clear claim of His eternal nature. Yahweh, the name we get from this passage, is used over 6,000 times in the Old Testament. Usually, when you see LORD in the passage that is the name Yahweh or as some pronounce it, Jehovah.
Jesus, wanting to make one of His many claims to deity, proving that He is God, engages in an interesting conversation with the religious leaders of the day. He told them, in John 8, that Abraham rejoiced to see His day. They were dumbfounded. They basically said Abraham couldn't have seen you, you are standing in front of us right now. He replied, "...I say to you, before Abraham was I AM." They proceeded to pick up stones because they recognized He was claiming to be God!
Many more pictures of Jesus can be seen in the Old Testament -- Our High Priest, Our Great Shepherd, Prince of Peace, Root of Jesse. The list goes on. You may want to invest in an excellent book that will give you a better understanding of Jesus -- "The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah" by Alfred Edersheim.
Now, you've gotten a glimpse of who Jesus is, particularly through Jewish eyes. Pray for your Jewish friends and family members that God would open the eyes of their understanding. And, may you worship our LORD more completely as you come face to face with Him through His Word.

Stan R. Kellner is the Founder of Sheresh Ministries, Inc. Sheresh Ministries exists to proclaim Jesus as Messiah to all peoples, especially emphasizing the Jewish Roots of our faith. Stan graduated from Dallas Bible College, where he met his wife, Nita. He earned his master’s degree in business from Abilene Christian University. Stan and Nita live in Colorado Springs and have attended Fellowship Bible Church for 10 years.

Sheresh Ministries, Inc.
P.O. Box 26415
Colorado Springs, CO 80936
phone/fax: 719-532-1573
email: Sheresh@aol.com