I saw this on Greg Boyd’s blog this week. I laughed and thought you might enjoy it too:
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Reminds me somehow of Jehovah’s Witnesses, particularly that “May I leave you with some literature?”
Q: Well, do we know whether the pink-colored contemporary with his drooping ears is a Jew?
A: If not, here’s a true story which could help clarifying the “the remnant” issue.
Five or six years ago, I watched a documentary on TV – as far as I can remember, it was Swiss TV – that left me rather intrigued.
A young and pretty Jewish woman, daughter of a diplomat, who was used to move from one country to another due to her father’s profession, initially told of her astonishing experience while staying with a Christian family. She said that her parents didn’t mind her living with them because they were convinced that a Jew cannot be converted to any other religion.
That woman, however, was very surprised at the gentleness and love she experienced during her stay in that Christian home. Nonetheless, she removed all nascent doubts and remained a confident Jew. Later she married a man who was open-minded toward all kinds of religion – I recall he had been a liberal Christian – who accepted her Jewish tradition in which their children were raised then as well.
One summer day in the afternoon, she was walking alone outside the house through their huge garden. But suddenly she stopped walking because someone behind her was calling her name. Turning around and searching for the person who called, she saw no one. A bit startled she moved along, as she heard the voice calling her again.
“I am Yeshua.”
Wheeling around, again, there was nobody to see. Only that voice, addressing her very heart.
“Why do you keep running away from me?” He asked.
“I cannot believe in you. I’m a Jew!!” she nervously replied.
“And I am the Messiah of the Jews,” He answered.
That hit home.
From that moment on, she believed in Him whom we call Jesus Christ. After that supernatural event she had no doubts about Him anymore. One might also say that Jesus called her to be part of the remnant, the Messianic Jews who will be with us – the “heathen” Christians – one flock under the same Shepherd (Jn 10:16).
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28 ESV)
As that woman was asked about what changed in her religious life after she “met” Yeshua, she said, “Not that much.” Since she went on celebrating all those Jewish feasts as she did before, but she added, “Now it makes sense to me since in Yeshua all things have been fulfilled.”
Do we see that she didn’t become a member of the visible church but a member of Christ’s Body?
Yeah, does kind of sound like the JWs. or the Mormons. That is an interesting story about that lady. I am not sure what to make of it, but if she is closer to Jesus, then what can I say against it?
“I am not sure what to make of it…”
I agree, Jeremy. This short excerpt of her story leaves not only a few questions open, for example,
“Was she baptized later?”
“Did she meet with others who believe in Christ?”
“What about her take on the New Testament?”
And many, many others.
Nonetheless, is it not the same with those “flashlight stories” the Bible offers particularly in the NT? I am just thinking of the rich young man, the woman of Samaria, Peter’s mother-in-law – to name but a few.
Or in other words, why didn’t Jesus explain the parables publicly? And why often only some nuggets of information instead of an extensive divine revelation?
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“He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.” (Mk 4:34 ESV)
“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (Jn 20:30-31 ESV)
“Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (Jn 21:25 ESV)
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I believe that these Scriptures and others point to the fact that we as His disciples or followers need a personal relationship with Jesus – culminating in a personal revelation of Christ (Jn 14:21) – in order to be able to grasp Scripture in its depth.
If we have the Bible, but not Christ, we will surely miss the point because eternal life does not spring from Scripture (Jn 5:39-40), instead, the Life Himself must be known (Jn 17:3) in order to gain knowledge and wisdom (Col 2:2-3) as it should be.
Anyway, I decided to stop here although there are still countless things on my mind right now…
😉
PS
Before “allowing” me to post this comment, God nudged me to read your article “Jesus’ Parables are Confusing? Good!”. “And behold, thanks be to God, now I can see that we agree. 🙂