Jesus and the Jews - Part III

In Part I of this series, I addressed the Pope’s decision to alter a traditional Catholic prayer for Good Friday that speaks of the blindness of the Jews. Part II dealt with how that blindness came about, and Part III will demonstrate why the blindness was necessary and why God chose Rome to reveal this mystery to.

The Apostle Paul first addressed the blindness of Israel in his letter to the Church at Rome. This letter is significant, because it confronts the ethnic bias that the Jews in Rome experienced. While Rome was embracing its own brand of Apartheid, the letter from Apostle Paul was written as a handbook against Antisemitism. Roman-Jewish relations had gotten so bad in Acts 18, that Caesar forced the Jewish residents out of the city – 1. After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; 2. And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them (Acts 18:1-2).

It was no coincidence that God gave the great revelation of Romans 11 to a church which was grappling with its own perceived superiority over the Jews. He chose Rome to unfold one of the great secrets of redemption – that blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all of Israel shall be saved. Apostle Paul used the book of Romans to demonstrate the position of honor given to the Jews by God:

• For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (Romans 1:16);

• But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile (Romans 2:10); and,

• 28. For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God (Romans 2:28-29).^[1]

Romans 11 provides us with a springboard to understand why the Jews rejected Christ and called for his crucifixion; however, we must dig a little deeper to discover why the plan of redemption required the blindness of the Jews.

The blindness of Israel goes beyond God creating a fertile environment to have Christ crucified, although that was one of the consequences. Hypothetically speaking, if we could have examined a summary of the redemption plan in advance of Christ's death, we would have recognized a potential problem: Jesus was married to Israel in the Old Testament - 14. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you (Jeremiah 3:14a) – but he intended to marry the Gentile Church in the New Testament. Without legally separating himself from his marriage, he could not have married another woman, without being considered an adulterer. He was bound by the oath of marriage that had been the tradition of men and women since the beginning – “for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, until death do us part,” or some similar variation.

When organizing his first evangelistic campaign, Jesus cautioned his disciples to steer clear of the Gentiles – 5. These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 6. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10: 5,6). This directive was not because the Gentiles were unrighteous, given the fact that Jesus came to redeem lost souls. It was because he was married and could not demonstrate affection towards another woman.

Interestingly enough, Paul described the power that the Law held over marriages in the same letter that he described how God blinded his bride –1. Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband (Romans 7:1-2).

In the case of Jesus, when he hung his head and yielded up the ghost, not only did his death change time to AD; not only did it give him the legal authority to go into hell and take the keys of death and hell from Satan; but it legally severed his marriage to Israel. After his death and subsequent resurrection and ascension, Jesus was entitled to marry his New Testament bride without being a polygamist and being charged with adultery.

Praise God for his wonderful plan of salvation!

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^[1] See Romans chapters 4 and 9-11 for more on the blessed position of the Jew.