[This is from the concluding chapters of Rabbi Schmuley’s KOSHER JESUS, where he presents Jesus as “a Bridge between Religions” and specifically the 2 religions reflected in the Christian Bible: Judaism from the Old Testament, and Christiantiy from the New Testament. Here are excerpts from Chapters 38 -39. While it is surprising to discover this particular approach of this particular Rabbi toward Jesus and Christianity, it is interesting that he does see in Jesus a connection between the two major religions that trace their roots to Abraham. After all indeed, the term ‘Judeo-Christian’ has been used together as though they are kin beliefs.]
Jews and Christians have so much in common, we must unite behind our democratic values, defend the embattled State of Israel, and participate in a unified front against those who have vowed to defeat us.
Religious hatred and divisiveness plague the world. Leaders of Christianity and Judaism can ill afford trials of one-upmanship; we are not competitors, and religion is not a zero-sum game. Agreement between religions is not only valuable, but an outright necessity in our times.
Crucial to transforming the way Christianity and Judaism relate to one another is promulgating awareness of Jesus’ heretofore ignored Jewishness. Christians to fully embrace my picture of Jesus [Will the Real Jesus please step forward?] and what he stood for, even as I bolster my arguments with pages from the New Testament. Mutual respect is crucial to the kind of rapprochement I’m advocating. Both Christians and Jews have much to learn from how devoted Jesus was to his people, from his belief in the sanctity of God’s law, and the fact that the central figure in Christianity was one of the greatest Jewish patriots. We will find more commonalities with Jesus’ Jewishness than we ever expected.
For one thing, Christian Evangelicals have proven themselves stalwarts when it comes to foreign policy, fighting terrorists, and standing up to evil. . . and yet according to Paul and the Lucan editors, these beliefs appear to be in opposition to Jesus’ own behavior. The Romans were a brutal occupying power, and he seems to readily submit to their torments. The Lucan editors would have us believe Jesus said, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” Is that different from an Iraqi saying “Render unto Saddam Hussein what is Saddam’s? Or an Iranian saying, Render unto Ahmadinejad what is his? How does this square with the modern Christian opposition to people who are no different than the Romans?
It is a revolutionary idea to balance the statements of Paul and the work of the Lucan editors with the Jewish truth about Jesus: he never voluntarily submitted, but rather fought the Romans with his last breath. We see this in the text of his own statements, when on the cross he lamented, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” Is this the statement of a humble, meek, and retiring man? Or is it a statement of defiance, a son of Israel living up to the definition of his name, “He who wrestles with God?” The Jesus who cried out to God to stop his suffering — the Jesus who demanded of God to render justice against he Romans and not abandon him, the innocent victim — is the same man who said, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” He is a man ready to fight for what’s right rather than live in humble resignation to a foreign, occupying power.
Jesus’ last words on the cross, according to Matthew, demanding of God why he was forsaken, are echoed in the mouths of Jews today when we ask “Where was God during the Holocaust?” God promised that goodness would triumph and the righteous would win out. So why was he being abandoned to the brutality of Rome on a cross? It was a travesty of justice, and the Jews have forever inveighed even against God when it comes to seeming miscarriages of justice. “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” is the challenge issued by Jesus’ father Abraham against God when the Almighty threatens to destroy the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. How much more so when an innocent Jewish leader is being put to death by the wicked and evil Romans. In clamoring for salvation while on the cross, even if it appears to be an indictment of God’s justice, Jesus is following in the traditional footsteps. We forever defend innocent life and call God to account for His seeming abandonment of it.
One thing is clear. In crying out as he died, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus is certainly not turning the other cheek.
Of Evangelical Christians looked deeply and clearly at the Jewish Jesus outlined in this book, they would see a leader whose ideas agree with theirs more frequently than not. And rightly so. In my opinion, the depiction of Jesus as a figure who is passive in the face of evil is not something that resonates. If brutal occupiers are in our country, abusing human rights, we should fight them. Evangelical Christians in particular (who make up an estimated 60 percent of our armed forces) can embrace and draw strength from the redefinition of the hero that Judaism and Christianity hold in common.
. . . . Christian thinkers maintain that redemption and salvation are decided by belief rather than action. Protestant Christianity establishes that a person’s good acts are insufficient for getting into heaven. Righteous faith rather than righteous action truly saves the person. Paul says it best: “That I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”
What would Jesus really have thought of this doctrine? He was, after all, an observant Jew, who kept all the mitzvahs and all the commandments of the Torah. So scrupulously did he observe the law that he famously said, in the book of Matthew, “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter nor the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” In incontrovertible opposition to the claims in the previous paragraph, this declares unmistakably that righteous acts save the individual, not “correct” believe or professions of faith.
Jesus’ declaration accords far more with American sensibilities than Christian doctrine. In the United States, we judge people by their actions, not by what they believe. The Pilgrims came to America in the 17th century precisely to escape persecution for their “wrong” beliefs. American democracy is about doing, saying, and voting for what we believe in, transforming those beliefs into action. Jesus, too, preached moral empowerment to draw closer to God, and the need for individual repentance rather than collective dependency on one individual sacrifice.
Finally, there is the bedrock belief that acceptance of Jesus is the only way to get to heaven — and all who fail to are damned. This idea that we should live our lives in order to get into heaven runs counter to basic American values, as well. John Kennedy expressed it best. “As not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” You’re not supposed to do the right thing for a reward. Rather, the action is invaluable in and of itself. But for some Christians, belief in Jesus becomes the royal road to salvation, a means rather than an end.
In this country we revere those who live justly and patriotically with little or no reward. Our military men and women offer a prime example. Wall Street bankers, by contrast, are far less respected. Much of what they do is perceived as geared toward personal profit. Yet in Christianity, we have an entire theological construct that would seem to emphasize the “payoff” over the good behavior itself.
If Jesus is the sole key to salvation, what is the fate of the Jews? Jesus, a deeply religious Jew, who fought for his people’s independence from Rome, would never agree with a belief that consigns his own people to eternal damnation. Such an idea aligns neither with American values nor with the heroic Jesus that actually lived and died for his people.
This is not to say that Christian doctrine is wrong. But it may prompt a Christian who studies the Jewishness of Jesus to say to him — or herself, “Okay — I believe in the primacy of faith over works. That’s part of the essence of my religion. However, now that I see the way Jesus actually approached this issue, I am expanding my view of the matter. I accept the possibility that faith can be expressed through deeds. After all, the faithfulness and goodness of non-Christians make them all the more precious to God. Perhaps this was the lesson Jesus intended me to take form his example after all.”
Christianity and Judaism remain separate faiths. But by finding their common ground through a discovery of the Jewish Jesus, we strengthen America’s Judeo-Christian values. And that is, in the end, the essence of what I seek to accomplish.