Jesus was a Jew (Gal. 4:4), a direct descendant of
King David (Rom. 1:3). Christopher Wright tells us, and this is within the
context of Jesus’ day, “your ancestry was your identity and your status.”[1]
Wright goes on to remind his reader that Jesus was born into a real world with
real people living within a real culture; Christians can easily forget Christ
was not a myth but a living breathing human being who happens to be a Jew.[2]
It is then, within the scope of his
cultural background that students of God’s word will build a foundation of
clear understanding of Jesus’ role within the whole of humanity. One simply
cannot grasp fully the, who, what, why, when, and how of the story of Christ
without a focused backdrop by which to rest that information. Listen, when we
meet someone that may become more to us than a casual friendship, we want to
know everything we can about that person; It helps us to build a reality around
him or her that allows us to either get closer or remain distant. We cannot
truly know someone without understanding where they are from, who their family
is, what experiences led them to who they are today and so forth.
The boy Jesus at the Temple was indicative
of his purpose and future ministry; “Everyone
who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:47, NIV). It should come as no surprise that
the boy Jesus, after he was found, would say “Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?” (2:49).
As a Jew, his purpose was to bring freedom to the Jew first; they are God’s
chosen people. Dr. R. Wayne Stacy says that God used one man Abraham to go to
one place to be the ancestor of one people, the Jews, and through them the
knowledge of the One True God would be carried unto the entire world.[3]
It is not that the Gentile (pretty much the rest of us) was to be omitted from
the work of salvation, they were not – it is simply the way God design it. Why
he did it this way, we do not know. Nonetheless, to truly know God one must
truly know his chosen people. That comes from knowing this Jewish stuff in the
form of first century Judaism study.
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