The Olive Tree

The Jewish People, Like Olives

“Why are the Jews like the fruit of the olive tree?” 

…asks a famous Midrash, a rabbinical interpretation of ancient texts.

“Because as all liquids mix with each other, but the oil of the olive tree does not, so Israel does not mix with the Gentiles. As the olive does not yield its oil unless it’s crushed, so Israel does not return to God until it is crushed into affliction.”

The Crushing of Messiah

This Midrash brings to mind that never-to-be-forgotten night in Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, when Yeshua sweated drops of blood as he yielded his flesh to the will of his Father, the Almighty, the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. 

Like the olive, Messiah had to be crushed into affliction, “Smitten by God and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4) And in the same way Israel must be crushed before she returns to God. 

The Crushing Church

Over the centuries the church has been the instrument used for the crushing of the Jewish people. The more technical word for the age old conflict between the church and Judaism is supersessionism from the Latin “to supersede” (supersedere), meaning “to sit upon.”

The heavy weight of the church has almost crushed the Jewish people to death but they have resisted the pressure and survived. Like the oil of the olive they did not mix with the Gentiles. The truth is, their continued and independent existence has unintentionally provided the very support Christianity needed and without which it would have no identity.

"Do not boast against the branches remember you do not support the root but the root supports you. Concerning the Gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers."

Romans 11:18, 28

The root of the true olive tree has supported the church and given her life, as Soren Kierkegaard so aptly states:

“Christianity could have no other religion as a precursor, for no other but Judaism could establish, by means of negation, so definitely, so decisively what Christianity is.”

And Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva the famous Russian and Soviet poet wrote:

“To The Jews. In any one of you, Christ speaks more strongly than in Mark, Matthew, John or Luke. With the last of your sons O’ Israel in truth we will have buried Christ."

Tsvetaeva was saying there is no Christ / Messiah without Israel and the Jewish people, that by their very existence they declare God’s redemptive power and glory through Messiah to the Gentiles in a way that Christian theology can never live up to or explain.

Israel and her Messiah are one in thought, word and deed. If they die he too is buried. Had world Jewry been destroyed as Hitler had intended then the Christian religion too would have become extinct.

This should be a warning to all those who boast against Israel and say God is finished with the Jews. And so all Israel will be saved as it is written: 

"The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins."

Romans 11.26-27.

With love and blessings to you, 

Channah x

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