1Peter 3:15 — but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear:
This verse came to mind today, and it’s caused me to take a break from my series of Christmas Devotions, although I expect to return to them.
I’ve been reading a book by David Klinghoffer about why the Jews rejected Jesus. I’ve always wondered how they missed it. All the Jewish prophets … All the scriptures … What happened. Was it willful denial, or what?
I really don’t enjoy reading books by those who are, in some ways, opposed to what I believe — but I think it’s something I should be prepared to do, to be ready to explain what I believe to someone who might really want to understand as they are seeking for God.
To be honest, Mr. Klinghoffer does a very good job of explaining many reasons why the Jews of Jesus’s day rejected Him — for example:
He puts Jesus in a historical and cultural context that suggests He might not have been so spectacularly different from other claimants to be the Messiah.
He points out that a lot of the scriptures interpreted by Christians as pointing to Jesus originally had a very different context.
He points out that Pauline promotion of Christianity looked to the Jews of his day to look very like trying to undermine Judaism from within.
And so it goes on. One reason for the rejection is piled on top of another. And then Mr. Klinghoffer makes a stunning reversal. He says, “So far, we have discussed a number of the reasoned Jews have given for not accepting Jesus as their Messiah. The sheer variety of these is striking, even suspicious. If I ask a friend why he chose to act a certain way on a certain occasion, and if he proceeds to give me not one reason but thirty, I’m likely to doubt that He is being entirely frank with me or possibly with himself”. He goes on to suggest that the true, underlying, reason for the rejection is that if Jesus is the Messiah, and the claims of Christianity to be true, then the Jews unique position is undermined and their reason for being called into question.
I learned a lot from reading David Kilinghoffer’s book. Honestly, there’s a lot in it that I can’t refute of my own knowledge. And that made me wonder. Peter says “always be ready to give an answer” … But what happens when the person I’m talking to is smarter, better educated, more knowledgable than I am? It’s a pretty large group …
Here’s what I came to. This is what I say:
These might not be the greatest most comprehensive set of “reasons for hope” you’ve ever seen — and I’m hoping you can add some of your own. In the mean time, I’m grateful for people like David Klinghoffer who keep stretching me and reminding me of how little I know and how much more there is for me to learn!