Saturday 18 May 2013

"Did The Jews Kill Christ or was Jesus a Victim of Identity Theft?"

Consider the facts: 

* The Jews did not kill Christ because the Jews could not kill Christ. They did not have legal authority in matters of capital crimes under Roman law at that time. 

* The Jews were a diverse group of 4,500,000 people spread out over many nations of the world. They could not collectively make a single matzah ball or take any solitary decisive action for which all could take credit or all share blame. 

* The Jews did not have power over God. The death of Christ was according to God's sovereign will according to the Scriptures. 

*The Jews did not have control over a decision that belonged to Jesus. Jesus laid His life down. Nobody took it from Him. It would be wrong to depreciate His love by suggesting that the Jewish people, or other groups of people were responsible for our eternal salvation. After all, that is what Christ purchased through His death. It seems to me that the folks who confuse these matters misunderstand the real character and true identity of Jesus. Actually, many people reinterpret the life and purpose of Jesus to fit their own agendas. 

They recreate Jesus to fit a pattern they prefer. Perhaps that is what happened in Mr. Gibson's film. 

The producers substituted bread for matzah in the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Whether intentional or not, this error moved Jesus to a place outside the flow of Judaism. It is well known that Jews were forbidden to eat leavened bread during the time of Passover. To ignore this lowest common denominator that Jesus shared with the Jews of His community is to ignore that He was a faithful member of the Jewish community. 

If He can be extricated from His situation in life as a Jewish man in the first century, He can be recreated and recast in anyway that anyone chooses. In essence, He could be molded to fit the need anyone wished for Jesus to fill. But Jesus does not change at our insistence; we change at His. God does not change; He is perfect. We must change because we are imperfect. This may seem like an abstract philosophical concern, but it is not. It is a fundamental truth and we must let Jesus be Jesus. 

If we are permitted to modify Him to suit our fancy then we become God and He becomes our servant. That is why I refuse to ignore that the Last Supper was a traditional Jewish Passover. To make it less is to rob Jesus of His heritage on this earth. Of course that is the pattern for many Christian traditions. Leonardo Da Vinci had the same problem when he 
was commissioned to create The Last Supper for the Convent of Dominican friars at Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. If one looks carefully at this most famous religious painting, the traditional Gentile dinner rolls will become evident. 

Jesus was born into the line of Jewish kings. Christians believe He is King eternal. Had He been born into a non-Jewish home, He would have been discredited from inheriting this throne. The prophetic mantle would have remained unfulfilled. Had He sinned in His dietary regimen eating food 
not kosher for Passover, He would have been disqualified as a perfect sacrifice and the Cross would have been pointless in the Father's plan of salvation. If we ignore the small details of the food Jesus ate at His final Pesach seder, it becomes easier to ignore other details, such as the clothing Jesus wore. 

Consider what the poor woman with the issue of blood would have done if the wardrobe designer from Mr. Gibson's film had outfitted our Savior? She touched the “hem” of His garment and was healed according to Matthew 9:20. To the uninitiated reader, it might seem that Jesus wore Levi Docker slacks and the woman grabbed the neatly turned, starched 
hem of His pleated trousers gently draping over His penny loafers. 

Of course that would be quite ludicrous to suggest because everyone knows Jesus did not wear slacks. Would dressing Jesus in slacks be anymore foolish than presuming He disobeyed the commands of Numbers 15:38 and disregarded wearing His tallith with the proper long tsithith—fringes in the corners? According to Jewish practice and the best scholarship, it is these fringes that the women touched. It was 
not the hem of His trousers, it was the borders (corners or wings) where the tsithith hung. 

If we can quietly allow Mr. Gibson to separate Jesus from His Jewish food and His Jewish dress, we can begin to disentangle Him from His other Jewish characteristics. That is why the subtitle of this book asks the question, Did the Jews Kill Christ or Has Someone Stolen His Identity? 

The Jews are not to blame for His death. I believe He lives! There is no body. The accusation of murder is a moot point in light of the Resurrection. The crime is in how Jesus is usually represented. Many groups have stolen His identity. 

That is how the founder of The Great Passion Play of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, promoted Jesus. He presented images of a blond-haired, blue-eyed, WASP Savior. Jesus was the victim of identity theft. 

He stole the true identity of Jesus and created a fairy tale Christ invented in his vain imagination. The Bible commands us not to worship false gods, yet that is what happens when we worship an idea of God that is a fabrication. This can happen quite easily if we become distracted from 
worshipping the God of the Bible and begin to serve an illusion about God presented by false teachers. 


This is an excerpt from Randy's Book "The Passion Conspiracy"
If you are interested in getting a copy for yourself please visit 
www.ThePasionConspiracy.com


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