“You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman.”

It has ebbed and flowed, waxed and waned, and come in waves for millennia.  What is that, you say?  Anti-Semitism, that repeating trend of discrimination against the Jews.  The Holocaust of World War 2 undoubtedly and permanently etched it in the consciousness of history.  At least that’s what Jews since the war want the world to remember.  This trend has carried on, though slowly at first, ever since Jacob’s day.  It was later epitomized in the conflict with Pharaoh in Moses’ time.

Today’s Middle East trouble is the current events version of the ongoing tension, which is exacerbated by two things.  First is the surrounding presence of 250 million angry Muslim neighbors.  They’re angry for a number of reasons, but clearly one is that once Muslims conquer a territory, it is to remain in Muslim control.  Ever since Muslim losses in World War 1 and the subsequent creation of the state of Israel, she has had to utilize the utmost diligence fending off and defending themselves from angry neighbors within and without.  Second is the distinction between Jews and Gentiles.  Paul described this difference as a “wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14), hostile because the Jews, as God’s people, essentially testify to the reality of God, something Satan would like removed as depicted in Revelation 12:1-6.

Given the litany of discrimination, hostility and suffering, why would God send Jesus to earth to be a Jew?  The woman at the well in John 4 readily identified Jesus as a Jew from Israel, not a Samaritan like her, or a Moabite or a Philistine or a Roman.  So why wasn’t he from some other nation or country or people?  Well, one very obvious reason is the already stated fact of the Jews being God’s people.  Paul describes it this way in Romans 9:4-5: “Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises.  Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!  Amen.”  The genealogies of Matthew 1 and Luke 3 likewise speak for themselves.

But there are other, perhaps more compelling reasons why Jesus became a Jew.  First, Galatians 4:4-5 says “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law…”  The phrase “under law” is a clear reference to being Jewish, as evident in Ephesians 2 and Romans 2.  Being born “under law” entitled Jesus to redeem other Jews, the closer of the two groups separated from God by their sin.  But because Jesus could pay for the sins of his own people, and since God does not discriminate, Jesus was likewise able to pay for the sins of the Gentiles who were ‘not under law’.

We find the second reason in Hebrews 2:17: “Therefore, in all things [Christ] had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (NKJV).  The “brethren” here are his Jewish brothers, identified by “Abraham’s descendants” in the preceding verse.  If it were speaking of human beings in general, it would have stated, “Adam’s descendants”, not Abraham’s.  Being a Jewish brother, he is eligible to take on the responsibilities of the high priest, most notably making a sacrifice that propitiates, or satisfies, God’s perfect standard.  To put it negatively, no Jewish savior, no high priest, and no propitiation!

We find one final reason in Matthew 2 when the Magi visited baby Jesus.  Their question to King Herod, the Jews’ current ‘king’, was, “Where is the one who been born king of the Jews?” (v. 2).  This “disturbed” Herod “and all Jerusalem” (v. 3) partly because Herod descended from Esau and was appointed king of the Jewish homeland by Mark Antony, Octavian and the Roman Senate. Yet the sign over Jesus’ head on the cross said, “King of the Jews”.  By God’s standard, kings of the Jews must be Jewish themselves, exposing Rome and Herod’s fabrication.  Moreover, in Psalm 2:6 God the Father says, “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill”.  Clearly this speaks of Jesus, but installed where?  Zion, another name for Jerusalem.  Not Washington, Moscow, London, Brasilia, Khartoum or any other capital.  Then verse 8 says, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance…” In other words, since Jesus is the King of the Jews, God’s people, he is qualified to be King of Kings.  All of this because he is a Jew.

With so much riding on his Jewish background, are you praising God for your Jewish Savior?