How to be a trustworthy Messianic Jew

In his article You Have Not Obeyed Me in Proclaiming Liberty, Israeli Messianic theologian Tzvi Sadan gives some pointers on how to be a trustworthy Messianic Jew.

Do not preach to Jews the gospel of hate that rejects Judaism:

It goes without saying therefore that trustworthy Jews do not despise, ridicule, or hate their religion. “Love the Jews but reject their religion” should quickly turn into an intolerable misnomer. The gospel that publicly proclaims “the rabbis are our worst enemies”; “the Siddur is poison”, “tefillin, I spit on them,” is a gospel of hate… Instead, Messianic Jews must go out of their way to draw others nearer to a Jewish way of life by personal example and by making past traditions and beliefs more understandable and friendly to the disenchanted and the disconnected. The good news here is not that Jesus came to do away with Judaism but that he came to restore and rejuvenate it.

Work to strengthen the Jewish people, not to assimilate them:

Any community of Jews that fails to restore love and appreciation for their people and traditions will inevitably be viewed as hostile to any kind of meaningful Jewish future. This is true not only concerning Messianic Jews but also with respect to any other form of Judaism that tries to establish itself by reinventing Judaism…. Statistics show that outside Israel Jews assimilate themselves into oblivion. Trustworthy Jews, on the other hand, are those who work hard toward strengthening the Jewish people also, by marrying Jewish spouses as an expression of their commitment to the future of the Jewish people and the state of Israel.

A trustworthy Jewish witness for Messiah is a Jew who faithfully observes Torah:

Toward the very end of his life Paul was able to say: “Brothers… I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers” (Acts 28:17). If he had, his witness could not have been called good news and he wouldn’t have had three Jews to talk to. Yet today, Messianic Jews think they can be good witnesses only by assuming some kind of moral stand which some call biblical. In its biblical meaning, however, a trustworthy witness can only be one who observe the law…

Within the framework of Judaism up until modern times, no “non-observant” Jew was permitted to give a testimony in a Jewish court of law… If no Israelite who rejects the Torah can testify – cannot be trusted with minor things – who will listen to his testimony concerning the most important things?

Messianic Jews today cannot be surprised if, at best, their witness is ignored. They cannot stand in opposition to Moses and speak for God. It is simply incredible to think that a Jew can be faithful to God and at the same time be unfaithful to Moses. Accordingly, good witness is established only in the context of trustworthy observant Jews who hold Yeshua to be their sage about whom it was said. “Torah that man learns in this world is hevel [vapor] in the light of the Torah of the Messiah” (Kohelet Rabba on Ecclesiastes 11:8)

From article based on paper presented at the first Borough Park Symposium, 2008. Republished in Fall 2012 Messiah Journal.