You, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others
and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root . . .
You do not support the root, but the root supports you.
Romans 11:17–18
Christians today are rooted in everything except Judaism: Hellenism, Greco-Romanism, and enculturation with all the false “isms” of our day, such as Buddhism and Hinduism (the root of the New Age Movement so prevalent in America). I would suggest to you that the missing foundational piece of your spiritual puzzle is your Jewish roots.
However, I am not speaking here of modern Israel and contemporary Judaism as it is largely practiced today. I am referring to the older, historic Judaism that the Bible records and archaeology continues to dig up. Christianity first grew in the spiritual soil of Palestine. Ours is the Judeo-Christian faith—not just the Christian faith.
While what we now refer to as Christianity originated with the life and teachings of Christ, Jesus was fully Jewish. He was born a Jew, He died a Jew, and He will be a Jew when He returns to earth at His Second Coming. Throughout His entire life, His practices, lifestyle, and teachings reveal a deep commitment to the Jewish beliefs and practices of His day.
It is unfortunate that our mental picture of Jesus has been far more influenced by classical art than by the Bible. Many great artworks portray Jesus as a light-skinned Aryan with sandy hair and blue eyes. He is a westernized Jesus rather than a Jewish Jesus!
To think biblically is to think Hebraically—not through a Western mindset! In reading and studying the Bible we must remember that virtually every writer was a Jew or a Jewish convert. If we are going to correctly interpret the Bible so that we can correctly apply it to our lives, we must learn to read it through a Jewish mindset.
Throughout his entire lifetime, Paul remained a Jew. His only Bible was the Tanakh, or the Jewish Scriptures. His God was the God of his fathers. His Messiah was a Jew by the name of Jesus—Yeshua! Many Christians today wrongly believe that the Apostle Paul totally set aside the Law in favor of grace through faith. However, Paul quotes from the Law some 80 times to establish the spiritual authority for his arguments.
We Gentiles are spiritual Jews because we have been grafted into the Jewish olive tree. Paul makes it clear that Gentiles were added to the birthright promised to God’s chosen people, and we can draw from that nourishing sap!
However, when the early church cut itself off from its Jewish roots, it ceased to be enriched by the rich sap of the olive tree. Needing to draw nourishment from somewhere, the church turned to the poisonous sap of the Greco-Roman world. The church philosophically moved from Mount Sinai to Mars Hill and from Jerusalem to Athens. She not only forgot her Jewish roots, she became hostile to everything Jewish from the second century on. This prejudiced mindset made it easy for many Christians to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the horrors of the Holocaust.
Only as we rediscover our spiritual roots in Judaism and separate ourselves from our secular roots in paganism will we begin to be the people of God that we are called and redeemed to be.
