Yeshua (Jesus)/ Messiah

Why would a Jewish person want to believe Yeshua(Jesus) is the Messiah?

Well the fact is that for many Jewish people, it is not a question of ‘want to’. Once one becomes certain that Yeshua is the Messiah, they feel compelled to make their lives demonstrate the obedience which that fact requires. There are actually many Jewish people who believe that the Biblical texts (Tanakh) demonstrate that Yeshua must be the Messiah of Israel. Still they do not proclaim that they believe this or feel the need to make a significant change in their lives. The reasons for this could be many. They may say the Biblical texts clearly indicate Yeshua is the Messiah, but perhaps they do not trust or believe the Biblical texts. There is also the possibility that they are afraid of the ostracization which they may experience from their families or the Jewish community for saying so. So, the fact that makes a Jewish person a Messianic Jew is that they believe Yeshua is the Messiah, and also that fact causes real change in their lives which includes repentance. So all that remains is the question, is Yeshua the Messiah of Israel?

Is Yeshua the Messiah of Israel?

The following will be broken down into sections with different types of information, so the reader can jump from one section to another based on the type of information which they are interested in.
In this section we will examine the major arguments made by anti-missionary organizations (Organizations of Jewish people who are dedicated to leading Jewish people NOT to believe that Yeshua is the Messiah of Israel).

Anti-missionary assertion… One of the fundamental beliefs of Judaism is the hope of the Messiah still today.

What do the ancient Rabbis have to say?

“R. Samuel b. Nahmani said in the name of R. Jonathan: Blasted be 18 the bones of those who calculate the end.19 For they would say, since the predetermined time has arrived, and yet he has not come, he will never come… Rab said: All the predestined dates [for redemption] have passed, and the matter [now] depends only on repentance and good deeds. But Samuel maintained: it is sufficient for a mourner to keep his [period of] mourning.28 This matter is disputed by Tannaim: R. Eliezer said: if Israel repent, they will be redeemed; if not, they will not be redeemed. R. Joshua said to him, if they do not repent, will they not be redeemed! But the Holy One, blessed be He, will set up a king over them, whose decrees shall be as cruel as Haman’s, whereby Israel shall engage in repentance, and he will thus bring them back to the right path.29 Another [Baraitha] taught: R. Eliezer said: if Israel repent, they will be redeemed, as it is written, Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.30 ” Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 97b.
Hence the Early Rabbis all understood the time of the Messiah to be past. Their interpretation is that He was supposed to have come before the second temple was destroyed (70 AD). They interpret that He did not come (unless He was Yeshua), which must have been due to the unrighteousness of Israel. The only thing left to do is to repent and get all Israel to repent. PERHAPS then the Messiah will come anyway, even though that is NOT how it was prophesied to happen.

Anti-missionary assertion “We do not believe that it is prophesied that the Messiah will be crucified… We do not believe that he will be raised from the dead any more than anyone else… We do not believe that the Messiah will be our “savior” in the sense that he will redeem us from our sins…”

It is often stated that Judaism does not believe in a suffering servant Messiah, It is said that the Hebrew scriptures only speak of a reigning king Messiah. However the ancient Rabbis interpreted Yeshayahu (Yeshayahu) 52:13-53:12, which is a suffering servant passage, as referring to the Messiah. The modern Rabbis interpret this passage as “having nothing to do with the Messiah”, and referring to Israel as the suffering servant.