There are number of accounts to testify the fact that there are already 300 prophesies over a period of 1000 years recorded in the Old Testament depicting the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah in the years to come and he really came. One day Jesus posed the question before his disciples what they consider him to be and Peter’s answer was “You are he, the Messiah, Son of the living God.
” (Matthew 16:16) The intensity of this answer deeply encapsulated the Holy Scriptures and justified the 300 prophesies in the many years to come.He himself realizing this truth said, “ . . . upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:16-18). The reformed congregation in Israel is still standing as a testament to the faith Judaism conforming to the ideas and spiritual declarations on the basis of which Christianity spread in many years to come.
There could be no second thought to the fact that Christianity which evolved itself from the separate branch of Second Temple also known as “The Way”, owes itself to Lord Jesus.And this had been proved by the Jewish followers of Bible who also stated that the prophesies made by the Hebrew scriptures had been realized by Jesus as the only son of God. When Lord Jesus came face to face with Satan in the forests, he made the use of Scriptures to give him fight and used the quote from the Old Testament. Jesus had himself said that he did not come to nullify the Old Testament but would in the course of time reinterpret the Old Testament to bring about what is right in the eyes of God.
He was beginning to transit into new from old but without at the cost of old. For complete twenty centuries, various sects believed to be the followers of these Jewish believers gave their own versions of Church and the Christian faith creating complex thoughts on the church and the nature of Jesus himself. But the reform movements by Jesus and his followers within Judaism made the way to the formation of what is known today as Christianity. (Garr, Online Edition) The basis of whole concept and spiritual thoughts of Gospel had its roots in the Hebrew Bible.
Early Jewish Church had an ardent belief that God had chosen Lord Jesus as their Savior. As rightly conceptualized by Mike & Sue Dowgiewicz, “Christ fulfilled the reconciliation requirements of God. Jesus’ payment was complete, and a new covenant was established through His blood. The resurrection of Jesus was the Father’s sign that the sacrifice for our sins had been accepted by Him.
God was, and forever will be, satisfied. ” (Dowgiewicz, Mike & Sue, Online Edition) But as understood by Strauss and Ritschl, “Judaism and Christianity stand in a narrow and unmediated relationship. (Heschel, 113)Though Christianity originated from Judaism yet there are several aspects in Judaism to which Christianity opposes for e. g.
Christianity liberated God from nationalism and particularization Jews so propounded. Jews were living in Diaspora that they were the only sons of God and Jesus tried to remove them from this Diaspora. Another aspect to it lies in the fact that Jesus mainly wanted to refine certain laws in Judaism making them to have more universal appeal.It is rightly said that, “In insisting that moral values of a man depends simply and solely on disposition, Christianity was essentially original. In this way the affirmative relation which Jesus assumed towards the law involves in itself the opposite relation of antithesis to law”. (Heschel, 113) The Jesus wanted to propound laws for complete human race, which had Universal theme.
Jesus spoke on the necessity of discernment and when people asked him what were his greatest commandments, Jesus remarked that the greatest commandment was Love.All human beings should adopt in their intricate nature Love for God, Love for neighbor and Love for self. In one of the cities, a man affected with Leprosy came to see him, worshiped him and begged him to clean and cure him. Jesus without giving a second thought touched the man telling him he was most willing to do, so he was cleaned and cured. Then Jesus sent him away by warning him not to tell any body but to visit the priest and pay offerings as the commands of Moses but man did not abide the promise and he told every body and the news of Jesus fame spread far and wide.
Large number of people began to gather to get themselves with the hope Jesus would heal them from various ailments but Jesus withdrew himself into wilderness to pray. The second chapter of Leviticus denotes the way patients infected with infectious diseases were handled and treated if the person is infectious or not. He was supposed to visit the priest where the priest would give him rounds of ceremonial cleaning and subsequent isolations for seven days.Still if the patient was not recovered, he would be considered deemed to be infectious and he was supposed to wear torn clothes, keep his hair unkempt, keep the lower part of his face covered and had to declare himself ‘Unclean’ to keep other people away from himself. But by touching the Leper patient, Jesus broke the law because he wanted to make man incorporate into the their heart and soul love and mercy for all as these were the only laws important in the eyes of God and were therefore above any other law created by man.
In words of Jesus, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”. Mt. 22:40)Jesus broke all the barriers that had encompassed the man against sinners, toll collectors, Samaritans or Women. Jesus would say, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (5:32). At that time women were not treated equally with men. In Jerusalem temples too, women were segregated from men but Jesus deemed women on equal footing with man and relieved women from all customs that would deter her from moving on equal footing with man.
Jesus overturned all the taboos against women and men considered being inferior by the virtue of their cleanness and uncleanness.The book of Leviticus dictated the terms considered for Jews as clean or unclean and they would only become clean if they purify themselves. According to Jewish law, anyone who touched a corpse would be ritually unclean but nevertheless Jesus picked the corpse and was also touched by the hemorrhaging woman, and did not consider himself unclean which is clear in Luke: “The healing of the Gerasene demoniac is matched by the raising of Jairus’ daughter (8:40-42a, 49-56) and the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. (8:42b-48)Jesus said all human beings are children of God and need love, care and companionship of each other. God had created Eve for companionship.
He only said, “It is not good for the human to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. ” (Gen 2:18). God had not created human beings to live alone and so if the laws dictated women: some children of God as inferior then law should be excluded.
Jesus said that we live in terms of behaving correctly but this behavior itself changes according to the law, circumstances, environment and number of societal paradoxes.As Brian McLaren too wrote in his book “Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope” that Jesus wanted to reshape and redraw the outlined concepts and narratives to bring about sweeping changes for the Universal good. Jesus wanted each man to open his mind and heart to look every thing from new and fresh perspective. He instructed us to follow his words and path and enter into the aroma of new life where love prevails beyond any scope of cruelty, injustice and inequality.
