Jesus Was a Jew

    I knew that, of course. But the more I studied Jesus, the more I realized that his humanity had receded far away. I knew Christ-- "Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made" --but not Jesus, or Rabbi Jeshua bar-Joseph, the Jew from Nazareth.
     Jesus' true-blue Jewishness leaps out from Matthew's very first sentence, which introduces him as the son of David, the son of Abraham. Jesus grew up in an era of Jewish pride, when families were adopting names that harked back to the times of the patriarchs and the exodus from Egypt (not unlike ethnic Americans who choose African names for their children). Circumcised as a baby, Jesus attended religious festivals in Jerusalem as a young man, and as an adult he worshiped in the synagogue and the temple. Even his controversies with other Jews, such as the Pharisees, underscored the fact that they expected him to share their values and act more like them.
     Growing up, I did not know a single Jew. I do now. I know something of their culture: the close ties that keep sacred holidays alive even for families who no longer believe in their meaning; the passionate arguments that at first unsettled me but soon attracted me as a style of personal engagement; the respect, even reverence, for legalism amid a society that mainly values autonomy; the ability to link arms and dance and sing and laugh even when the world offers scant reason for celebration.
     This was the culture Jesus grew up in, a Jewish culture. Yes, he changed it, but always from his starting point as a Jew. Now when I find myself wondering what Jesus was like as a teenager, I think of Jewish boys I know in Chicago. When the thought jars me, I remember that in his own day Jesus got the opposite reaction. A Jewish teenager, surely--but the Son of God?