Michael Cohen, former Rector of Jerusalem and worker with CMJ, spent his Saturday teaching us about our heritage. Over 90 people attended this all-day teaching event at Christ Church. Every single one of them got great value for whatever donation they made to the retiring collection.
One of Michaels favourite stories is about visiting schools and asking the children how many times they think Jesus went to church. I'd love to hear some of the answers. The point is, of course, that Jesus NEVER went to church. I'd like to see the faces when they were told that also! Jesus was a Jew, born in Bethlehem during the Roman occupation of the area some 2000 years ago. How much do you know about the world of those days. Well for my part, I knew a little about the Romans, but almost nothing about the Jews.
How can I possibly understand the stories about Jesus in the Bible properly unless I have some idea of the culture of the Jews, and their expectations. Michael has such a different perspective, but about the same fundamental events and beliefs. I had heard Michael before, so knew what to look forward to – and I was not disappointed. His teachings add another dimension to understanding Jesus, and therefore help us in our quest to become closer to Him.
That's where this day provided so much input. In the section on History we learnt, among many other things, that the country we now call Israel has only had this title for a small percentage of the time since Joshua claimed the land God had promised to the descendants of Abraham. Even in King David's time land occupied was not as large as the area promised by God.
We looked at some of the complexities of the families that descended from Abraham, and how the various people of the area came to be what they are today. The history of the events of last century, and even further back have shaped the political landscape in particular ways, and given groups of people different views about their rights and expectations.
Jesus did not come to found a church, but to reform Judaism. We saw that God is still working through the Jews and land of Israel. We looked at the future and found that our destiny is bound up with what happens in that land and to that people.
The teaching of the Rabbi's on the Messiah is fascinating, and quite a difficult subject to get in to. Some of it is quite unbelievable, but there is much that is interesting. We looked at the prophesies in scripture and saw how Jesus fulfils the majority of them. Those that aren't fulfilled relate to the Messiah's return.
The day was intense, and the breaks between sessions highly valued – a time to evaluate some of the things that had been heard. I have many pages of notes, which represent only a small fraction of the notes I could have taken (and should have taken). Christ Church has the powerpoint slides that Michael used, and the sessions have all been recorded. We are planning to produce a CD from the day. A number of people have already asked for one.
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