Chapter 23 - The Church and Its Jewish Origins

Moving away from Paul's letters, Drane introduces us to four shorter epistles he sees as intrinsically linked to the Christian origins found in Judaism. Even though the letters we call James, Hebrews, 1 Peter, and Revelation are relatively shorter than much of Paul's work, "they are no less valuable...for they give us direct access to areas of the church's life and thinking that are mentioned nowhere else in the New Testament." (409) As the church grew, questions of Jewish heritage began to be discussed. As more and more Gentiles became Christians, much of the Jewish "way" became seemingly unnecessary. The writers of these four letters saw the changing shape of the church, and understood the cultural challenges that were arising.

James, who may have been Jesus' brother (or not), dedicated his writing to instruction in proper Christian living. Just as Torah proclaimed that righteous Jewish life was expressed in obedience to God's will, James reminds his Christian readers that our lives in Christ do not end at the church building door. Our devotion to Christ, our lives reshaped by His Spirit, must show the recreation of which Paul wrote. It was not enough to say "I am Christ's," but to ignore the struggles of our neighbors. It is not right to proclaim the King with one breath, and lose control of a wicked tongue with the next. Although James may have relied on Jewish notions of rightful living to convey his message, all Christians should be able to quickly see how right he is.

Drane points out that the Temple that Jesus knew was constantly under construction. I had never thought about it before, but it's a really interesting point. Imagine if the building that your church gathered in was constantly occupied with scaffolding, or paint drop-clothes, or other construction equipment. I can just picture how edgy all the people of Jerusalem must have been - all the time. Their land occupied by a foreign empire, under the control of a ruthless local governor, not even really being able to turn to their place of worship for peace. MAN!!

It was into that kind of mess that the writer of Hebrews wrote his letter. Seeing little to no peace or truly lasting value in the systems of old, he wrote that God had put it all aside in favor of a priest, prophet, and sacrifice that was superior to everything and everyone who had ever come before. The letter to the Hebrews is obviously written to an audience which would have extensive knowledge of the OT. For the author, God had been showing the Jewish people the shadows of the things He was going to do in Christ. In Jesus, the Temple system, which was no longer offering peace, had come to an end. In a way, although Drane states that the letter could have been written as late as 96, I think it must have been before the fall of Jerusalem. If I received the letter that is Hebrews, with all it says, and I was as emotionally tied to the Temple and Jerusalem as the intended reader surely would have been, it is hard for me to think that great offense would not be conveyed - just 26 years removed from so terrible a time.

As the Church spread, Christians had to rethink the covenantal relationship God had with Israel. Jesus established a new covenant with His own, so what did those God made with Abraham and Moses have to do with them now? Seemingly the Apostle Peter, writing from Rome said - "Not much, and everything!" For the Christian, the need to enter into the earlier covenants did not exist. Christ's blood had done away with the old, and Christians had "been incorporated as full members into 'the people of God.'" (432) Peter stated clearly that there is a huge difference between the children of God under the old covenant than those under the new - namely the matter of sharing their faith. As children of God through Christ, we are not to keep our faith as a personal and private matter - we are to share the Gospel with all we can. We no longer rely on Law, but now on love.

We carry a message of hope. Our hope is in Christ. At times, the prophets of the OT wrote in seemingly hopeless fashion. They saw no way the evil of this world could be redeemed - God would have to destroy this world and start again. One day, a man named John had a vision in which Jesus led him on a journey seeing the work God was doing to bring an end to evil. Even though Christian scholars and theologians have wrestled with the book of Revelation throughout the centuries (some dismissing outright), it is a part of our Bible that continues the message of hope. Starting with stern warnings to the various churches of Asia minor, or perhaps to the Church throughout the ages, and moving to strange imagery of epic war, destruction, and monsters, Revelation is nevertheless truly a message of how God has been and continue to bring evil to an end. All creation is His, and He will possess it as His own. This is accomplished through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. Revelation is a "heavy-duty" book of symbols and language that have had different significance to the first Jewish readers that to our modern eyes. Even still, it continues to offer us a message of hope that God has "it all under control."

The little Jewish sect that started in Palestine 2000 years ago is no longer Jewish. And maybe it never was. It was a difference of a different kind, and that made it something new. We have to realize that the first Christians writers wanted to convey what God had laid on their hearts very much, and they wanted to draw others to Christ. Necessarily, they had to use language their first Jewish readers would understand. That truth remains the same for us today - no matter how important a message is, if I don't get, I don't get it.

Οὑτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὡστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἒδωκεν, ἱνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλ᾽ ἒχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον.