"How odd of God to Choose the Jews"

An inquiring reader asks: "Why did God abandon the Jews? Were they not his people before the coming of Christ? I suppose they did crucify him (and they don't believe he's the savior) but wasn't that all part of God's plan to sacrifice his son for our sins?"

Dear reader,

Sometimes, in order to answer a question, the question needs to be challanged. The questions we ask have presuppositions behind them. This one has several -- very common! -- presuppositions. To give your question the space it deserves requires us to examine those presuppositions.

First presupposition: "God abandoned the Jews." Did God abandon them? I know this is a common belief among many Christians, and many Christian teachers hint that they believe this even when they don't explicitly teach it -- but is it true? To be honest, I can't think of a single passage anywhere in the Bible that teaches that it is true, even among those passages that most polemically attack "the Jews". Also, I can think of one major passage in the New Testament that teaches something stunningly different. In Romans 11 Paul writes: "I ask, then, has God rejected his people [the Jews]? Of course not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendent of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin...." Paul goes on to say quite a bit in Chapter 11 about Israel and its destiny in God's future plans, including quite a few things that leave Christian theologians stunned and questioning to this day. So, in a straightforward sense, the Bible teaches that God still has a purpose for the Old Israel, even as He has a purpose for New Israel, i.e. the Church of God.

A second presupposition: "Old Israel was God's people before the coming of Christ." This presupposition raises a complex matter, because in one sense it is true -- God had and has, on a straightforward reading of even the New Testament, a plan for Old Israel. But, in another sense, this presupposition is not true, because as Paul puts it in Romans 9:6 "But it is not that the word of God has failed. For not all who are Israel are Israel..." He goes on to talk about how a person could be born physically in a line of blessing, yet miss out on that blessing through a hardness of heart that God nevertheless uses as part of His glorious plan. He gives the example of Jacob and Esau. Both were children of Isaac, so both were in the line of the promise. The blessing became focussed, however, in Jacob only. "Why" is mysterious: you could read the Genesis account over and over again, and always be discovering more layers, I think, in answer to the question "Why?" The key matter, however, is that God was in control, and His grace won out through human obedience and disobedience as He molded his people of promise. When we sit down and read the whole Old Testament, especially in light of the gospels, this picture grows till it becomes huge. God molds his people again and again, seemingly rejecting some and embracing others, working in the agony and the glory of their spiritual adventures and misadventures before Him. He does this slowly, painstakingly, taking hundreds of years till everything comes in to focus on one poor little adolescent Jewish maiden, Mary -- an infinitely unlikely figure who looks like a rejected nothing before the world. You know the rest of story! My point is that the question of who is / who isn't God's people / person is a more complex matter than it seems on the surface. It's not that we can't tell anything at all -- we can. We have Israel in the Old Testament, for example, and today we have (both?) the Church (and Israel?). But within the purview of the Bible "Israel" and "the Church" are not without their own elements of divine mystery.

A third presupposition: "The Jews crucified the Lord Jesus." This presupposition is correct, I'm sad to say. However, it is correct in a way that immediately makes any person who has felt the Holy Spirit's convicting presence shudder. Perhaps you've seen this picture: the risen and ascended Jesus, clothed in brilliant white and outlined is mysterious shadow, lovingly cradles in his arms a weary and wounded modern man in modern dress. But, your vision is immediately drawn from the nail-scarred hands of the Glorified Lord to the weak, limp hands of the man he embraces, for the man's hands carry a hammer in one, nails in the other. "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" John the Baptist said of Jesus at Jesus' baptism. Most every Sunday in worship I pray, "Lord Jesus Christ, holy lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on me a sinner!" Old Israel took its role in crucifying the Savior -- along with blessed Peter who denied Him, his disciples who abandoned him to death, the Romans who did the dirty deed, and even me. As you pointed out, Jesus himself had his place as well, as Great High Priest, making the ultimate sacrifice on the day the sins of us all were atoned for. In making that sacrifice, as the ultimate High Priest, Jesus cried "Father! Forgive them -- for they know not what they do." With that act, Jesus blotted out forever the guilt of those who murdered him, and the guilt of those who, however distant in time and or space, sinned against God and so required for their atonement His sacrifice.

Now, I would write more, but I think this is enough to chew on. (And enough for Pastor Mike to process and throw his immensely valuable two cents in!) So, after questioning the question, instead of giving you an "answer", I'd like to give you a challange: go and read Romans 9 through 11. I think it will answer your original question, perhaps with the presuppositions shaken up just a bit.

Blessings,
P. Matt