Jesus the Jew: Does It Matter?
In recent days, there has been a little social media kerfuffle over an incident in which the question was asked, “Was Jesus a Jew?” and the answer was, “It doesn’t really matter.” Putting aside all the comments and thoughts about the personalities involved, in this time in which the JQ (for the uninitiated, that’s the Jewish Question. Try to keep up.) raises the ire of all sides, knowing whether or not it matters that Jesus was a Jew is quite important, dare I say, essential.
We could go through a long and scholarly dissertation concerning Jesus’ Jewishness, but here is the short version:
When God promised that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent in Genesis 3:15, God was telling us that a son would be born sometime in the future who would undo all that had been done by the serpent, the woman, and the man. The seed then becomes a thread throughout the entire story of Scripture. The seed would be a new Adam, the new head of humanity and king of the world. As Adam, he would represent the entire created order, acting on its behalf.
The seed is not all the sons born to a certain man and woman in a family. The seed is God’s chosen son. He may have brothers, but not all of them are “the seed.” Abel is the seed. Cain is not. After Cain kills Abel, Seth takes up the mission of the seed. The seed line continues through to Noah (cf. Gen 5) and eventually Abraham (cf. Gen 11). Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, but Isaac was the seed, not Ismael (cf. Rom 9). Jacob (who became Israel) was then given the mission. The twelve sons of Israel (the twelve tribes of Israel) took up this mission, but Judah was the son whose line had the seed mission, the son from whom the king would come (cf. Gen 49:8-12). This is shown when God makes a covenant with David and promises that David’s son will be God’s son (2 Sam 7; 1 Chron 17; Ps 89). The whole mission of Israel to take the strike from the serpent in order to crush his head devolved upon the King of the Jews. Eventually, Jesus is born as the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom 1:4). When he is crucified, he is crucified as King of the Jews (Mt 27:11, 29, 37). As David’s son, King of the Jews, he is the second and last Adam (cf. Rom 5:12-21), the one who takes Israel’s mission as the seed upon himself to crush the serpent’s head. As Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “Salvation is of the Jews” (Jn 4:22).
Israel (eventually “the Jews”) is vital to the story. Jesus’ Jewishness is absolutely essential to the story. He couldn’t have been an Assyrian, Babylonian, Cushite, or any other ethnicity. The genealogy is not complicated. It’s covenantal. God’s plan went through Israel. It couldn’t be any other way.
Whatever your view of the modern state of Israel and the Jews may be, it shouldn’t become the lens through which you read the Scriptures. Jesus was born, lived, died, and rose again as the embodiment of Israel. If he didn’t, then he is not the Savior of the world
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