In the Thursday Bible Class at St. Clement's Church here in El Paso, we've been reading one of the Books in the Old Testament. One of the pet peeves I have is to approach the Old Testament Scriptures as if we Christians were Jews--I mean devout Jews. We know that the Jewish priests of Jesus' time did the most to persecute him. They objected to His attempts to instruct the priests at the temple in His interpretation of the Jewish scriptures at His age of 12. They scolded Him for failing to observe the rules and regulations that guided the believers of His day; and they regarded His contention that there are only 2 rules basic to religion: love God and love your neighbor as yourself! Outrageous!
And, to be sure, these clerics must have rejoiced that they rid Him on the cross at Calvary.
It is with this backdrop of their treatment of our Lord that I refrain from regarding the origins of our Lord's ministry stemming from Judaism as something sacred to Christianity. Indeed, Paul had to disassociate himself from the Church of Jerusalem's tendencies to insist that Christians become "good" Jews first!
My own approach to the Old Testament writings is to see them in anticipation to the divine revelation of the New Testament, i.e., the New Covenant, where Jesus declares He leaves us with God's Comforter, the Holy Spirit. For God as the Holy Spirit attests to God's forgiveness of our shortcomings and through His Absolution imbues us with the power of God the Father, the Creator, to go forth in newness of life and determination to do what He has planned for us to do.
Let us never forget nor gloss over the fact of the hell Jesus endured lo those year of His Ministry at the hands of His religious priestly tormentors that wanted Him dead! Nevertheless, Jesus forgave them.
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