Christianity's Mother

A local church asked Scott to round out a sermon series called “What’s the Difference,” explaining how Christianity stands apart from Islam, Buddhism, Catholicism, and the cults. He agreed, and then a quiet unease set in. The difference between Judaism and Christianity is real, but it does not belong in that lineup. Picture five women in a photograph and a claim that none of them are related to you, until you spot your own mother in the middle. Judaism is Christianity’s mother. She gave it birth. Run a swab from the mouth of the faith and the results come back the same as Yeshua’s own, fully Jewish, and even a Jewish scholar like Samuel Sandmel could write that Christianity, raised above labels, is itself a form of Judaism.

The confusion clears once you see that there are two Judaisms. Biblical Judaism was designed by God, and its whole aim was the Messiah; Jewish scholars before Yeshua counted hundreds of passages in the Hebrew Scriptures pointing to the coming King. When the Temple fell and its sacrifices ended, the tradition we have received reorganized itself at the Council of Yavna into something that could survive without an altar, trading the blood of atonement for good deeds done “as if” they were a sacrifice. That is Rabbinic Judaism, a younger and man-made thing. The biblical daughter, the one still aiming at the Messiah, is what we call Messianic faith.

All of it traces back to a promise made under a desert sky, when God told Abram he would become a great nation and would carry blessing to every family on earth. Those unconditional promises flowered into covenants that hold even when Israel wanders, including the Davidic promise that a son of David would reign forever, the very promise an angel quietly handed back to Miriam over the cradle of Yeshua. So the difference comes down to one person. He is the life of God himself, and what we do with him is the difference between life and death. When the choice is set before us as plainly as it once was on the plains of Moab, will you choose life this week?