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POSTED
21 APRIL, 2008
"Everyone
Is Wrong But Me!"
by
J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net
reproduced from the McHuey Blog
Passover is one of the most important times of year for the
Messianic community of faith.[1]
The season of Passover and Unleavened Bread is so affluent with
themes of God’s salvation history it absolutely overwhelms the
mind and inspires the soul. The Lord’s plagues upon Egypt, the
death of the firstborn, the Passover lamb, the deliverance
through the Red Sea, and the onset of the Ancient Israelites
sojourn in the desert immediately stir the senses and motivate
us to action. The final time before Yeshua’s crucifixion, His
Last Supper, His prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane, His trial
before the Jewish religious leaders, His encounter before Pilate
and being beaten by the Romans, and finally His crucifixion and
resurrection, are also remembered by the faithful as we
contemplate the sufferings of our Lord. What all these things
mean, how they connect together, and the significant role they
play in the Bible and for us today—are really beyond
comprehension.
Why does it seem that today’s Messianic community in the early
Twenty-First Century does not address these themes very well at
this time of year?
All the way back in 1996 when I first started celebrating Passover
as a Messianic Believer, things seemed so much easier than they
seem today. I was a part of a vibrant Messianic Jewish
congregation. We had a traditional sedar in our home the
first night of Passover. On the following night the congregation
assembled at a hotel for a catered, sit down
sedar
presentation that was also traditional. If I can recall
correctly, there were at least 400 people in attendance, things
went very smoothly, and many Christian visitors were exposed to
the Messianic movement and to the significance of the Passover
meal for the first time, in a very orderly and professional
manner. I still think back on this first sedar and
consider it to be the ideal for every congregation and
fellowship.
Since the late 1990s an incredible swell of non-Jewish Believers
has entered into the Messianic movement, and issues that were
not issues in Messianic Judaism have arisen to the surface. A
great number of debates ensue this time of year that can cause a
large amount of division and in-fighting among Messianic
congregations and assemblies. They all concern the season of
Passover. In the past three to four years (2004-2008), in
particular, I have encountered far too many people utter the
line: “Everybody is wrong but me!” People who are
believed to have differing opinions, are at worst chastised as
not truly following the Bible, or at best somehow not having the
right “revelation.” Where God’s love, reason, and a fair-minded
examination of the issues are I honestly do not know.
We start with the Passover sedar itself: Are we to follow
the traditional Jewish sedar with the four glasses of
wine or not? Or do we follow our own haggadah? Do we have
lamb following Sephardic Jewish custom, or chicken following
Ashkenazic Jewish custom? Do we eat with our “loins girded”
(Exodus 12:11), or in a relaxed posture (Mark 14:18; Luke
22:14)? Do we allow for an egg to be on our Passover plates?
Moving forward, to what degree do we consider what is “kosher
for Passover”? Is Orthodox Jewish halachah sufficient, do
we follow the lead of the more Centrist branches of Judaism, or
do we make up our own rulings? And what about the season of
counting the omer to
Shavuot? Do we follow the
traditional, Pharisaical method of determining when to celebrate
Shavuot, follow its competing Saddusaical method, or even
follow the Essenic method as attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls?
I
think it is safe to say that far too much attention has been
given to some of the minutiae of this season than is
appropriate—at the expense of some of the much larger issues.
With a large number of non-Jewish Believers entering into the
Messianic movement, and with the rise of an independent
Messianic congregational phenomenon, during this season we will
usually witness a great number of a-traditional ways to
celebrate Passover. We will also witness a great number of
congregational leaders asserting that their way of commemorating
the Festival of Freedom is the only way, and some will
even throw down the gauntlet and say that other ways are invalid
and that others are not truly “keeping Torah” or thus
commemorating Passover. When the Lord looks down on us from His
throne in Heaven, what does He really think? Does He see men and
women united around the two most important events in the entire
Bible: the Exodus of Ancient Israel from Egyptian bondage
and
the final atonement offered for our sins? Better yet, what does
the enemy think when he sees much of the Messianic movement this
time of year? He is probably very pleased to see many people
divided and harping on one another’s ills, and that the greatest
spiritual move since the First Century is ineffective to make a
difference.
Is it possible, that when you sit down to remember this special
season, we can all focus on some of the bigger concerns of
Passover?
What does the Exodus mean to you? What does it mean to sacrifice a
blameless lamb? What does it mean to be delivered via the Red
Sea and brought to God’s mountain? What does it mean for the
King of Kings to be conducting an intimate meal with His chosen
Twelve, as He prepares to be taken and executed on false charges
the next day? What does it mean for the Savior of the world to
be lifted up on a painful cross? What does it mean for Yeshua to
be resurrected from the dead?
The book is far from closed on some of the debates that ensue this
time of year. Only time, more research, a greater
consideration for a broad array of hermeneutical factors, and
reasonable people being problem solvers, will adequately answer
them. But this season is not about whether you have lamb or
chicken at your sedar meal, or whether you are a
designated Pharisee or Sadducee when it comes to counting the
omer. This season is about our all-powerful and merciful God
taking an interest in His creatures. It is about God directly
intervening in the affairs of His people, delivering them into
His salvation, and empowering them for new opportunities. How we
learn to do this as the emerging Messianic movement remains a
challenge, but not an impossible one if we are guided by His
Spirit. But it will not be accomplished if we brazenly assert
“Everybody is wrong but me!” during this special time of the
year. Such a statement will only cause more problems, and is not
solution oriented.
Oh, how I long for those simpler times of just twelve short years
ago!
J.K. McKee
(B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A., Asbury
Theological Seminary) is the editor of TNN
Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is a Messianic
apologist.
He is a 2009 recipient of the Zondervan Biblical
Languages Award for Greek.
He
is author of
numerous books, dealing with a wide range of
topics that are important for today’s
Messianic Believers. He has also written many articles on
theological issues,
and is presently focusing his attention on Messianic commentaries
of various books of the Bible.
NOTES
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