What is Messianic Judaism?

Messianic Judaism is the term given to those Jews who believe, and have accepted, Yeshua (the Hebrew name for Jesus) of Nazareth as the promised Messiah of the Jewish Scriptures. These Jews believe in maintaining a Jewish lifestyle of faith while celebrating all biblical holidays and many customs that are in line with Holy Scripture.

The Messianic movement is not new. It began in the land of Israel in the midst of the Jewish people themselves. Its leader, Yeshua (Jesus of Nazareth), lived a life of first century Judaism. He worshipped on Shabbat (Luke 4:16), this incident being recorded only by Dr. Luke. Luke tells us that after the temptation, the Lord returned to His home in Nazareth, and as was His custom on the Sabbath, He went to the Synagogue. I like this verse because it tells me that He never entertained the false notion that one can worship God in nature as well as in the appointed place. You see, if I go to out to play tennis on Sunday morning, do I go to worship God or to hit the tennis balls? The fact of the matter is, I have no intention of worshipping God on that tennis court. I go to church on Sunday morning to worship and I go to the court to play tennis. It was the custom of the Lord to go to Synagogue on the Sabbath day. He also celebrated all of the Jewish holidays such as Passover (Matthew 9:20) and Chanukah (John 10:22), and even wore the traditional tzitzit, a fringed shawl. His name testifies to His Jewish identity, since it is the Hebrew for Salvation.

Most people today can readily accept the fact that Yeshua was a Jewish teacher--that is not usually questioned. The problem with some people is that they believe that His early followers changed Judaism into a non-Jewish religion. However, the Brit Chadashah, the New Covenant, itself gives a variant picture. It describes this cause as containing tens of thousands of Jews who believed and yet remained devoted to the Torah. These people were not converts to a Gentile religion but Jews who believed in Yeshua as the Messiah. (Acts 21:20).

Jeremiah 31:31-33 is important to Messianic Jewery: "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Yisra'el, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of mine they broke, although I was their master, says the Lord; but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Yisra'el after those days, says the Lord; I will put my Torah in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people, and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

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