​What is a Messianic  synagogue?  What are Messianic Jews?  These are a couple of the many questions which are asked by people who first encounter Messianic Judaism.

 

As the term itself indicates, a Messianic synagogue is just that.  It is a synagogue; it is Jewish.  We incorporate the traditional Jewish forms and expressions of worship.  We celebrate Shabbat and the Jewish holidays.  We enjoy our traditions and love the G-d who graciously made them possible.  We praise the G-d of Israel for the atonement he has provided and the life he has given us.  We continually draw on our rich heritage and seek to share its beauty with others.

 

But, we are a Messianic synagogue. For centuries the devout among us have longed for the coming of our promised Messiah.  We have found him!  When he came, he fulfilled prediction after prediction made by Israel’s ancient prophets.  He said he came to carry out G-d’s purpose for our world and made good on his promises to our people; his mission was one of fulfillment (Matthew 5:17).  In other words  (as the term “fulfill” means in the language he spoke), he would uncover the depths and riches of our Scriptures and our heritage; he would showcase our traditions in all their beauty and brilliance; he would pack our beliefs and practices full of significance and meaning!

 

 

Everywhere he went, he touched people and transformed their lives; and he still does.  A noted rabbi and author said: “Who can compute all that he has meant to humanity?  The love he has inspired, the solace he has given, the good he has engendered, the hope and the joy he has kindled - - all that is unequalled in human history.”  One of our foremost philosophers, Martin Burber, added: “I am more certain than ever that a great place belongs to him in Israel’s history of faith and that this place cannot be described by any usual categories.”  Albert Einstein, one our  greatest scientists, observed; “He is too colossal for the pen of phrasemongers, however artful.”  As the anonymous author poetically put it: “...all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built, all the parliaments that ever sat, have not affected the life of mankind on this earth as has that one solitary life.”

 

Who is he?  History has come to know him as Jesus of Nazareth, but his friends just called him Yeshua (“salvation,” see Isaiah 62:11).  He brought a message of love and life, a message of hope and joy.  He injected peace and purpose, meaning and significance, into life after life.  And, he’s transformed us also!

 

“But,” you might say, “doesn’t Jesus, or Yeshua as you call him, deny or oppose Judaism?”  Not according to his own statements (Matthew 5:17-19), or according to the lives of his earliest followers, the apostles.  They joyfully celebrated the holidays and followed the traditions (Acts 2:46; 3:1; 20:5-6, 16; 21:24-26; 27:9).  They experienced the fullness Yeshua said he would pack into their traditions.  Even Rav Shaul, whom history knows as the Apostle Paul, remained a consistent, observant Jew (Acts 25:8; 28:17; cf. 21:20-26).  Moreover, he claims that he continued to live as a Pharisee (Acts 23:6), among the strictest of the Jewish groups of the first century!  History confirms this.  Irenaeus, whose teachers were taught by the apostles themselves, described the apostles’ lives (Against Heresies 3.23.15):  “But they themselves...continued in the ancient observances...thus did the apostles...scrupulously act according to the dispensation of the Mosaic law.”  Even our best scholars, such as David Flusser of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, concur (Jesus, p. 216):  “As a Jew Jesus fully accepted the law.  The community he founded, comparable in some ways to the Essenes, saw itself as a movement of reform and fulfillment within Judaism, not as a secession from it.”

 

As Messianic Jews, then, we have accepted Yeshua as the Messiah and have accepted G-d’s provision of atonement through him.  We acknowledge him as the one who fulfilled our prophets’ predictions and who rose from the dead, a fact concerning which history bears eloquent testimony.  This historical evidence brought Orthodox Jewish scholar, Pinhas Lapide, to acknowledge (Time, May 7, 1979, pp.88f.; cf.  The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective):  “his Resurrection was a Jewish affair...he is a dead Jew revived by the will of God.”

 

Is this something exclusively for Jewish people?  Absolutely not!  All who respond to the Messiah, Jew and Gentile alike, are heirs to a rich Jewish spiritual heritage and have deep Jewish roots (Romans 11:17f.).  We invite Yeshua’s Gentile followers to recapture the first century setting of our common faith, experience first-hand the Jewish backgrounds of the Bible, and enjoy their Jewish roots.  We have been excited to see those without physical Jewish roots find a home in our synagogue.   The walls between Jewish people and Gentiles have been broken down as they have united in a common worship and life, as the prophets envisioned (Isaiah 2:3; Zechariah 2:11; 8:23; 14:17).  This is a reality which, while encouraging Gentiles to discover and enjoy their Jewish roots, also encourages Jews to pursue their full Jewish identity.  We stand for the survival and preservation of the Jewish people.

 

We also commit ourselves to the preservation of the Jewish traditions. G-d gave them that our people might be preserved as a people, so that they can be a demonstration to the world of  G-d’s faithfulness to his promises; that we might remember G-d has worked in bringing people to himself;  and that the traditions might serve as pictures of the Messiah and of life with G-d in him (cf. Exodus 19:5-6; Deuteronomy 4:5-8; Isaiah 43:9-13).  Thus we preserve our Jewish heritage as a service to all followers of Yeshua.

 

As a synagogue we try to live out the principles of love and service that should follow from true faith.  We hope to support and build one another up and to spread the good news of the Messiah’s covenant to all men.  We also wait for his return to judge all men and to bring in the age of peace.