Here is an excellent video of Israelis answering the question, “Who is Jesus to you?” I found the video through a post on Rosh Pina Project. Comments following.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Christendom has historically failed miserably at the ‘Jew first’ part. Why? Christendom assumes stiff-neckedness and hard-heartedness on the part of the Jew. While that may be a contributing factor, it is FAR from being the main or even a top ten reason that it is so hard to communicate the message of Salvation.
Rather than trying to lay the blame for lack of Jewish acceptance at someone else’s door, Christendom needs to take a hard look in the mirror to find the reasons why.
Point blank: Christendom misrepresents Jesus. No wonder the Jews avoid Him like the plague! (But that is changing, more in a minute.)
How has He been misrepresented? Here are a couple articles if you are new to this blog:
- Jesus was on Mt. Sinai! It matters!
- Christian anti-Semitism?
- Paradigm-shifting New Testament verses…
- Paradigm-shifting Old Testament verses…
- Jesus said, “Walk like an Egyptian?”
Lots of links and related articles to follow for more information.
Back to the main point: The reason the Jews have so much trouble accepting Jesus as the Messiah is because Christendom has historically misrepresented Him. BUT, that is changing because more and more believers are being drawn to look behind the facade at a very Jewish rabbi who never broke or taught against the Torah. And, they are learning to ‘walk as He walked.’ In doing so, they are prepared to introduce this Jewish rabbi to His brothers…
A commenter about the video on Rosh Pina Project says,
The video shows the variety of opinions that Israeli Jews have regarding who Yeshua is. The only thing they have in common is that Yeshua isn’t the Messiah. Yet that perception is in the nascent stages of beginning to change. Too bad they didn’t interview a believer.
If you understand and agree with Rav Sha’ul’s (Apostle Paul) statement, ‘to the Jew first,’ then you need to understand who the Messiah really is… I encourage you to read and process the above articles and more. Follow links and read the commenter discussion….
Shalom.
11:3 Restoration 
Wow. Talk about busting stereotypes! I appreciate the honesty from these Israelis. There’s a lot of mushy, ill-defined opinions out there on all sides, both from Christians who think they know what Jews think, and Jews who think they know what Christians think. Some things surprised me, such as the Hasid who indicated no one could know how to recognize Messiah until he comes, but then we’ll “just know”. There can’t be a better setup for the entrance of Antimessiah! But the most informative interview was the last one, when this humble cafe owner explained basically that Jesus did well preaching “Love one another” and “Love God with all your heart”, but he didn’t provide any details on how to do that because the details are in the Torah and the Mishna. Isn’t that a big reason we are going back to Hebrew roots – because the details on how God wants us to live are in the Torah, and we’ve been cut off from Torah all these centuries?
Thanks for sharing this. It’s a reall eye-opener and call to prayer.
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Along the lines of one of my recent posts, Why Do Jewish People Reject Jesus?
Thanks for sharing, Pete!
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Jewish people reject jesus because they have to reject anything that is false.
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I agree with you that the Jews should not accept a false Messiah. See http://natsab.com/2013/05/06/jesus-false-messiah/
Shalom.
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