Daily Devotional
Roots of Our Faith
February 16, 2012 - 5:00 amThis Devotional's Hebrew Word
“You, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.” —Romans 11:17–18
Several years ago a book was published covering a subject near and dear to my heart – bridge-building between Christians and Jews. “The Sistine Secrets – Michelangelo’s Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican” shows how 500 years ago the renowned artist Michelangelo embedded images that appeal for Jewish-Christian understanding in one of his greatest works – the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
Pope Julius II in 1508 commissioned Michelangelo to paint the crumbling chapel ceiling in a very simple fashion – a demeaning job for such a great artist, particularly one who considered himself primarily a sculptor. Instead, Michelangelo threw his full creative energies into the task. The result is a masterpiece adorned primarily with images of heroes and heroines of the Hebrew Bible, and full of subtle reminders of the Jewish roots of the Christian faith – a stunning visual appeal for a revolutionary change in the relationship between Christians and Jews.
Indeed, the apostle Paul in his letter to the emerging church in Rome made it very clear that Gentiles, “branches from a wild olive tree” had been grafted in to Abraham’s tree, and therefore “now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children . . . But you must be careful not to brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. Remember, you are just a branch, not the root” (Romans 11:17–18, nlt).
This verse is one of the reasons why I love the imagery of the olive tree so much — it points to the very heart of The Fellowship’s mission: to build bridges of understanding between Christians and Jews, and to help Christians understand the very roots of their faith.
Only when we begin to understand each other — what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be a Jew — can we truly love each other as God has intended. God calls us to lead a life of imitation dei, imitating Him and loving real people. While it is much harder to love real people than to love the idea, or even ideal, God calls each one of us to do precisely that.
We cannot change what is past. But we can, and must, reverse the history of Christian-Jewish encounters. We can, and must, bridge the deep chasm existing between our faith communities by living out the doctrine that serves as cornerstones of both our faiths: love. True love is the gift of our faiths to the world; it is both the process through which we achieve the goal of God’s love and the goal itself. Living a life of love is how we can achieve a proper relationship with God.
My prayer for both faith communities, Christians and Jews, is that we nurture that life of love today, enabling it to grow abundantly in the future.
Dear Rabbi,Thank you for your words.These are words in due season for my husband and i. For The Lord has been showing us our hebraic roots and the importants of keeping all his feasts in our Christian faith and has put a burning desire to start a ministy to show other christians along with jews (Gods Chosen)The importantance of the torah and our loving Lord and To teach them the we both need one another to fufill the Lord’ plan. Thanks again for all that you do! Many Blessing !
Just wanted to tell you that your writings have been a blessing to me. This latest one was especially interesting to me because I refer to myself as a messianic gentile: a wild olive branch grafted into the roots of Israel. I learned that the Olive tree ‘s roots can lay dormant for 100 years then sprout again. What a picture of Israel.
I pray that those who claim Christianity would realize the richness of uniting with our Jewish roots rejecting the early erroneous writings that have had influence on the attitudes of gentile Christians even to this day. (Marcion of Sinope, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, Eusebius, John Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine of Hippo, also reformer Martin Luther), also early Church Councils that rejected the Jewish influence on Christianity. The Jewish writers of the New Testament used the Jewish scriptures to explain the person of Jesus to not only the Jews, but the gentiles. With any serious study of the scriptures it will become an undeniable reality that God will never ever abandon his “am segullah,” Jew or gentile.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Dearest Rabbi,
The Daily Devotional has become a very special part of my day.
Bless You.
Rabbi, thank you for your words of wisdom. One of the things that I get so angry and saddened about is the heretical lie that the Church has replaced the Jews. That He is finished with the Jews and His promises now belong to Christians. Nothing could be farther
from the truth. Paul also said in Romans 11 that “God has not cast away His people whom
He foreknew.”
I enjoyed this devotional. Over a year ago I was led to a Messianic Fellowship “Beth Tefillah” and your words about being grafted into Abraham’s tree blesses me so much. I WILL remember that I am just a branch and hopefully God will use me to build bridges of understanding between Christians and Jews and most importanly to help Christians understand the very roots of their faith. I know how much it has helped my understanding. I too hope that I can nuture a life of love only with God’s help and he would enable it to grow abundantly in the future. Because living a life of love is how I can achieve a proper relationship with God.