Jarryd
Hayne and the Jews: "Is evangelism anti-Semitic?”
By Bob Mendelsohn
Jews for Jesus,
National Director
Because of the tweets, Jewish
representatives immediately launched a counter campaign. And Hayne removed the
two tweets.
Michael
Koziol of the Sydney Morning Herald wrote about Jewish reaction,
“Chairman of the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission, Dvir
Abramovich, said he was deeply concerned by Hayne's tweets and labeled
them "damaging, painful and irresponsible".
"For thousands of years Jews were held
in contempt and were persecuted and murdered because they were labeled as
Christ-killers," he said in a statement.
Koziol reported, “Most Christians no longer
hold the view that the Jewish people were responsible for Jesus' death, and
persistent belief in that narrative is now associated with anti-Semitism.”
Hayne later sent out an apology tweet which
was welcomed by Jewish community representatives. But the issue remains
unsettling for Jews. Some of Hayne’s Twitter followers chided him for his
apology, using ugly language to describe Jewish people.
Hayne is a forthright Christian, and his
comments about Jewish people, inspired by a sermon to which he was listening,
highlight a larger question for the ordinary Christian in relation to
evangelism. Is sharing the Gospel with Jewish people by nature anti-Semitic?
Can a person have a view of another’s religion that is not tolerant or
sympathetic, and yet be forthright in proclamation of Jesus?
I believe the exact opposite is actually
true. If someone does not share the Gospel with a person because of an apparent
theological difference, it actually is the most hateful thing a person can
demonstrate. What if a pair of Jehovah’s Witness knocked at my door? What if my
thoughts were: Since their religion is
heretical, I will have nothing to do with them, ever, and thus refuse to share
what I believe with them? Or imagine if I concluded the Muslim teller at my
bank, with whom I at times share social pleasantries, was not able to hear the
Gospel, because, well, they are followers of Islam and thus didn’t give them an
invitation to my local church’s fete or carols program? That would be a very
hateful thing to conclude.
The same is true for the ordinary Christian
considering sharing faith with the ordinary Jewish person. I’m not saying that
each person has to pounce on every situation and each person in their life, but
I’m saying that with the people in our sphere of influence, when God gives us
opportunity we should extend to them a snippet of the religion we hold so dear.
To withhold a segue into Gospel presentation because of their religion being
different or even wrong, that’s influenced by a wrong spirit.
Here is a definition. Evangelism: Giving someone an opportunity to say “yes” to the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. There are two historical mistakes in sharing the Gospel with
Jewish people. One: not giving them an option/ opportunity, but rather
requiring the saying of ‘yes.’ This is most known in the Crusades, the
Inquisition, and pogroms. Forced conversions/ baptisms of Jewish people is an
ugly blight in Church history. I suppose some would say that “become a
Christian or die” is an option, but it doesn’t really give the Jew an
opportunity to say ‘no.’ By (my)
definition if you give someone an opportunity to say ‘yes’ you are also giving
them a chance to say ‘no.’ Wicked church persecution of the Jewish people
prevents that ‘no’ saying.
The other historical error is more abundant
in our days. Since the 1880s, worldwide, Jewish people are more in social contact
with their Christian neighbours than ever before. Jewish people may enter into
any field of study or occupation. Jewish academics since Schweitzer and
Montefiore (around 1900) and throughout the 20th Century have
“accepted” Jesus in a way that would make every Jewish scholar before more than
uncomfortable. Notables in our days: Vermes, Flusser, A-J Levine, and even
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach write about the New Testament and the Jesus of history
with sensitive and Jewish eyes. Councils of Jews and Christians are allowing
dialogue and mutual tolerance and acceptance globally.
That’s why Koziol’s remarks can be so
forthright: “Most Christians no longer hold the view that the Jewish people
were responsible for Jesus' death, and persistent belief in that narrative is
now associated with anti-Semitism.”
With all the welcome and blame revision
from the Jewish community, the 2nd great mistake Christians make viz evangelism is not giving the Jewish
person a chance to say ‘yes.’ We hear officials and thus give the individual
only the opportunity to say ‘no’, and thus fail to evangelize.
Either wrong is wrong. Giving the Jewish
person only one option: to say ‘yes’ or to say ‘no,’ is not biblical
evangelism. Proclaiming the Gospel to
each person, in language they can understand, via the personality and style of
the Christian, that’s when rubber meets road. That’s when we are fulfilling the
Great Commission.
To be fair, when rubber meets road much
friction is caused. That’s what happened with Jarryd Hayne. In measure that’s what you can expect from the
ordinary Jewish person with whom you want to share the faith. I hear it a lot. But
thousands, actually tens of thousands of Jews today, in Sydney, Melbourne,
throughout Australasia and worldwide, who are now believers in and followers of
the real Jesus, owe great gratitude to someone who had the character and
courage to share the faith with them. And we are grateful.
Is evangelism anti-Semitic? The exact
opposite is true. It’s the most loving thing a person can do with a Jewish
neighbour, colleague or friend.
------------------------------------------------------
If you have Facebook, you can see the thread of comments here: Hayne on FB 
No comments:
Post a Comment