Folks in the Messianic movement like to fancy ourselves as a Judaism, distinguishing ourselves from Christianity.
I sometimes question that approach, and it was questioned again today:
Daniel at Christian4Moses asked his readers,
What branch of Judaism would the Messiah belong to were he here today?
Anachronistic and all, sure, but it got me thinking: Yeshua himself was a kind of heretic within Judaism. Messiah operated within Judaism, but was considered a heretic by the major sects of his time.
Yet more interesting still is the kind of dual thrusts of Yeshua’s actions: he was a force against the religious authorities of his time, and yet, a strengthener of the very commandments those religious authorities based themselves on.
Consider this:
Is there any form of Judaism today that rejects the heavy yoke of the ultra religious leadership, chiding them for missing the weightier matters of the commandments, while at the same time, lifting up the commandments, strengthening, applying them inwardly?
It’s a peculiar thing: Both chiding the religious establishment for their heavy yoke and their missing-the-point-of-it-all, but strengthening and amplifying the commandments themselves. Yeshua did that.
On one hand, that’s Reform Judaism — rebelling against the harsh, stringent religious establishment. On the other hand, that’s ultra-religious: strengthening and amplifying the commandments.
I don’t think there is any kind of Judaism today that practices this staple of Yeshua.
I don’t think Yeshua would be a member of any branches of Judaism were he here today. The religious establishment would throw him out, and if he shook things up enough, they’d conspire against him. Church or synagogue, same difference.
What do you think? Would Yeshua practice Judaism? Christianity? Obviously some paradoxes here, but it’s an interesting question nonetheless.