parashat pinchas Messianic Failure
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The Torah portion read in synagogues around the world this week is parashat pinchas. Parashat pinchas runs from Numbers 25:10 to 30:1. In this portion God informs Moshe that he won’t be entering the Promised Land. I’ll just read a short extract from parashat pinchas. Numbers 26:63-65.
“These are those numbered by Moshe and Elazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel on the plains of Moab by the Jordan, near Yrecho. And among these there was not a person from those numbered by Moshe and Aaron the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For HaShem had said concerning them, ‘They shall surely die in the wilderness.’ There did remain a person among them, except for Kalev ben Yfune and Yhoshua bin Nun.”
Moshe is a failure. The Jewish slaves he’s dedicated his life to liberating, die in the wilderness. They get out of Egypt OK, but they never escape their slave mentality. The Jewish slaves are pathologically incapable of trust and cooperative effort. They’re a generation incapable of self-determination. They cannot build the society which will be a light to the Gentiles. Moshe will die homeless with his former slaves; he isn’t going to reach the Promised Land any more than they are. In parashat pinchas we’re confronted with the question, “How do we regard failure?”
Today we respectfully call this particular failed leader, Moshe Rabbenu, “Moshe our teacher.” The reason is that the Jewish people’s reinterpretation of Moshe’s pioneering effort went far beyond anything he could have conceived of in his lifetime.
There’s a legend [Bavli Menachot 29b] that Moshe came back down to earth early in the second century of the Common Era and visited Rabbi Aqiba’s schoolhouse. He sat quietly in the back row incognito. Moshe was all ears. Rabbi Aqiba lectured on an incredibly well-developed legal system, that took every legitimate interest into consideration, yet seemingly made room for every exception. It reflected a profoundly humane society. Moshe was astounded that the children Israel had come so far in their walk with God. This guy Rabbi Aqiba was so advanced in fairness and compassion that Moshe himself couldn’t follow all the ins and outs of it! At the end of the astounding lecture, Moshe meekly raised his hand (remember, according to the Torah, Moshe is the meekest man who ever lived on the face of the earth). He asked Rabbi Aqiba where he’d learned all this. Rabbi Aquiba, who didn’t know he was talking to Moshe Rabbenu, said, “Why, don’t you know? Every Jew knows. This is the Torah HaShem gave Moshe our Teacher on Mt Sinai. I got it all from him.”
The point of the legend is that Moshe cannot be properly evaluated strictly by what he achieved during his lifetime. In parashat pinchas Moshe doesn’t achieve his goal. His greatness is only apparent in his successors. The richness of the inheritance is in where the heirs go with it. What makes Moshe is his aftermath.
It’s the same with Israel’s prophets. The prophets labored in vain to convince their contemporaries to stop using God’s worship as an excuse to exploit other people. The prophets warned that God would destroy his own temple if his worshipers didn’t correct such abuse. Israel’s prophets were apparent failures, because the temple was destroyed, Israel went into exile, and never again enjoyed direct communication with God. The prophets didn’t achieve what they set out to do.
Today we often sit in judgment on ancient Israel. “What an incorrigible bunch! Nobody paid attention to the prophets.” But, of course, there were those who did. Certain Jews paid very close attention to the prophets; otherwise we wouldn’t have the record of what they prophesied. Isaiah [8:16] explicitly calls on his disciples to preserve his prophecies after his demise:
“Bind the testimony, seal the torah among my learners! I shall wait for HaShem who is hiding his face from the house of Yaaqov. I shall hope in him.”
Repentant Jews treasured those failed messages. Denied the privilege of implementing the Torah in exile, they sustained spiritual life on those failed prophetic messages. When they were restored to their land, they made those failed prophetic messages the cornerstone of a new way of life.
The prophets failed to achieve their goal, but they achieved something infinitely greater. The prophets didn’t prevent national collapse, but their words created an Israel who would love and obey God regardless of national conditions. The prophets created an Israel who could survive not only the short span of divine punishment, but also the much longer span of satanic persecution. The prophets created an Israel, who, in the words of Hoshea [3:4],
“Will sit many days without a king, without a government minister, without sacrifice, without a sacred pillar, without priestly vestments, and without trafim.”
Those failed prophetic messages still resonate. Those failed prophetic messages have sustained many other peoples in pain and perplexity. Those failed prophetic messages have afforded hope and comfort to God’s scattered children everywhere while creation groans for redemption. The prophets failed with those they addressed, but succeeded magnificently with those who overheard them. As with Moshe, it was their disciples who put them on the map.
As Jews and Christians, we count failure differently than the short-sighted world around us. We serve a God who takes our failures and produces something far beyond our cherished goals. We can’t measure success or failure by immediate results.
The Orthodox Jewish thinker “Yitz” Greenberg once remarked he was ashamed that in his generation there wasn’t at least one failed mashiach. In a world this bad something’s wrong when Jews can’t come up with even one mashiach. For Jews not to come up with even one, shows they’ve lost hope. For Jews to lose hope is much more serious than a long string of messianic failures.
Mashiach, by the way, is a Jewish king with the job of putting the world right. Mashiach is not an honorary title; mashiach is a job description. There’s no such thing as prince regent mashiach, former mashiach, mashiach incognito, mashiach in exile, mashiach in retirement or mashiach in name only. The deal’s quite simple: somebody who isn’t functioning as mashiach isn’t mashiach.
The problem with Jesus being mashiach is that he didn’t manage to put the world right, not even the little corner of the world he lived in. Jesus did not free the slaves so they could obey God’s commandments. Like Moshe before him, Jesus performed some very impressive miracles, but the beneficiaries died off shortly thereafter. Instead of the wolf lying down with the lamb, the animals continued to eat each another. Idol-worshippers continued to rule the world and further debase God’s image. In the short-term Jesus was a failure. Even his own disciples conceded he was a failure. They spoke frankly of their disappointment on the road to Emmaus.
But by raising him from the dead, God encouraged his followers to reinterpret Jesus’ failure. In his name his disciples accomplished more than any Jewish king ever could, however endowed and empowered. If the world wasn’t put right, millions and millions of God’s estranged children were restored to him, and by anybody’s reckoning that counts as a stupendous achievement. God took the failure of his faithful servant Jesus and achieved a different goal. Through the failures of Moshe, the prophets, and Jesus, God takes the plan of salvation to the next level. As with Moshe and the prophets, the question of whether Jesus is counted a success or a failure depends on those who come after him. Success is in the aftermath.
Because it’s a matter of interpretation, Jews and Christians have disagreed over what to make of Jesus’ messianic failure. As Seventh-day Adventists interested in sharing Jesus with Jewish friends, you should be aware of these disagreements. These disagreements are very ancient. You’ll find them already embedded in the Apostolic Writings. These disagreements aren’t so much over what Jesus achieved during his lifetime, because in antiquity people weren’t shacked with our modern idea of history strictly limited to the past. These disagreements rather, are over the consequences of Jesus for Israel.
Instead of rejoicing in the multitude of Gentiles Jesus freed from the works of darkness to serve the true and living God, Jews who did not confess Jesus pointed out that for hundreds of years God had already been saving the Gentiles by incorporating them into his people Israel. God had been faithful to transform anyone who renounced false gods and learned to worship the true and living God. Jews claimed God’s existing plan for saving the world was working well enough and didn’t need fixing. Any alternative plan wouldn’t be from God.
For their part, Christians also felt missionary success spoke for itself. For Christians God had a new plan in place and the proof was in the pudding. Both sides felt their missionary success validated their own version of Gentile salvation. Jews argued Christianity couldn’t possibly be the next chapter in salvation history, because Christian missionaries strayed far beyond the boundaries of God’s covenant with Israel. According to Jews there’s nothing new about the new covenant; Christians are just run-of-the-mill heathen who haven’t learned to cooperate with God yet.
Christians retorted that their relationship with God invalided Israel’s relationship. The new rendered the old null and void. Christians said anybody who still continued to love and serve God under the old terms thereby forfeited his or her walk with God.
This first area of disagreement was over the legitimacy of including Gentiles in God’s family outside the framework of God’s covenant with Israel. To this day, the legitimacy of the gospel outside the covenant continues to be an issue. As Seventh-day Adventists, we’ve never given a clear answer to this question. While it’s a serious issue with far-reaching implications, it isn’t a make-or-break issue. It’s no reason for excluding other worshipers from fellowship. It’s an area of disagreement among Christians themselves as well as between Jews and Christians.
The second area of disagreement began when Jews pointed to the fact that creation hadn’t been transformed. Just look at the brutal world around us; God’s kingdom hasn’t arrived! If Jesus is the deliverer, this deliverer hasn’t delivered the goods.
Unfortunately for Jewish/Christian dialogue, this objection has become a kind of negative triumphalism. Some Jews almost gloat over the fact that Jesus failed to transform the world. In pushing the point, Jews forget that failure to transform the world is Jewish failure as much as Christian failure. Christians and Jews don’t live on separate planets. If Jesus has failed to transform the world, then Jews and Christians ought to console one another. The world definitely needs transforming. Jesus and Christians ought to work together for future success.
Perhaps we Christians should be more clear that when we refer to Jesus as Mashiach, this is our vote of confidence rather than objective fact. That Jesus is his designated Mashiach is something which God must reveal to a person [Matthew 16:16-17; John 6:44]. It’s a matter of Christian faith. We don’t expect non-Christians to believe Jesus is Mashiach. If non-Christians believed Jesus is Mashiach, they wouldn’t be non-Christians anymore.
The most popular answer to the objection that Jesus failed to transform the world has been to adjust the timing. If Jesus didn’t transform the world, then he’ll appear again and do whatever he’s left undone. In the Book of Revelation Jesus doesn’t transform the world until his third coming. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Where does it say, anyway, that mashiach has to do all his work all in one go?
Another popular answer to the objection that Jesus failed to transform the world has been to move the goalpost. Christians claimed God wasn’t interested in transforming the present world, but only the spiritual world, or the next world, or the world inside your head. According to this answer Jesus didn’t bother to transform the present world, because it’s not worth redeeming.
In my opinion this particular answer forfeits important Bible teaching. The Bible teaches that this present world is worth redeeming because God created it good. God has invested himself so heavily in this present world precisely because it’s a world worth redeeming. Christians shouldn’t have given up on God’s creation so easily.
The second major area of disagreement then has been over Jesus’ failure to transform the world, or to say it with a charitable bias, his unfinished work.
The third major disagreement between Jews and Christians concerning Jesus has been over history. Jesus, who said by their fruit you shall know them, has himself produced bad fruit. Jews have objected that Christians have mistreated them so badly that this movement can’t possibly be of God. Jews have said the apparent success of Christianity is only a temporary anomaly. When God’s kingdom comes in truth and mashiach rules the Gentiles with a rod of iron, everyone will acknowledge that God still loves Israel. What’s happening now can’t be God’s doing. Jews were tempted to retreat from salvation history.
For their part, Christians said God wouldn’t reveal anything further in the course of Israel’s walk with him, because he’s walked out on his partner. Christians said Israel was a God-forsaken fugitive. The disagreement over Jesus led both Jews and Christians to evade salvation history. Jews wanted to defend their covenant in the face of Christian missionary success, and Christians wanted to defend Jesus in the face of messianic failure.
That evasion was a mistake on both counts. The God of Israel is still full of surprises. In the twentieth century God went and did the unthinkable. After chanting the mantra for nineteen hundred years that God was no longer walking with Israel after the flesh, that God was finished with Israel as an organized community, that Israel’s punishment would never end, that Israel is dead—Israel ups and lives.
God is once more on the stage of Jewish history. The political God of the Bible who against all odds intervenes on behalf of his chosen people is back in business!
The question now is, did God ever really retire from salvation history? Or did Jews and Christians merely step outside the arena so they could avoid each other’s truth?
Unlike mainstream Christianity, due to our understanding of time prophecy, Seventh-day Adventists never formally claimed that salvation history had come to an end. But the surprise of Jewish resurgence hit us just as hard as it hit other Christians.
By Jewish resurgence I don’t mean merely the founding of the Jewish state, although that’s certainly an aspect. By Jewish resurgence I mean Jewish emancipation and the increased Jewish contribution to the human family. Jewish culture is flourishing. Jewish achievement and Jewish prestige is at an all-time high. Jewish scholarship is making a magnificent contribution to Christian theology. According to traditional Christian teaching, none of this was supposed to happen. Jewish resurgence has taken Christianity by surprise.
As you can see from this survey, the major disagreements between Jews and Christians over Jesus aren’t as big as we once thought. They’re over the same familiar issues over which Christians disagree among themselves. The area of contention is not the Gospel accounts. Our disagreements are over the consequences for God’s people. Whether Jesus is another failed mashiach or the successful mashiach depends on us. You and I can determine the outcome. For many individuals and ethnic groups Jesus has already produced good fruit. But for the Jewish people Jesus has historically produced bad fruit. Thankfully, this trend is being reversed. Particularly in the American experience, Jesus has been good for the Jews. This tree can still produce good fruit.
For me this makes Jesus’ messianic failure a challenge rather than a disappointment. We are not stymied. Some of the answers which Christians have proposed, while incomplete, are very good answers. Interestingly, for Seventh-day Adventists, none of the concessions which would allow Israel to consider Jesus in a more favorable light requires a radical shift on our part.
Firstly, we can concede that the growth of Christian mission doesn’t invalidate Israel’s mission to the heathen. Secondly, we can concede that creation has not yet been transformed; Jesus certainly has his work cut out for him. Thirdly, we can concede that the curtain hasn’t yet come down on salvation history; that both Israel and the Church still have a vital part in God’s plan to recover his lost world. Of course, somebody for whom tradition and inertia are non-negotiables might consider these concessions too big. But I, for one, think there’s a way for Seventh-day Adventists to affirm our own unique identity and mission task without disenfranchising Israel.
It seems to me that at this point Jews and Christians actually need each other’s help to make Jesus a successful mashiach. Only with each other’s help can we correct the distortions and counterclaims which have impeded the plan of salvation. Instead of blaming one another, Jews and Christians need to hold one another to accountability before God. If we will reach out and help each other, Jesus can have totally successful consequences for both of us. This gospel can be good news for the Jews as it has been for so many non-Jews.
Success is up to the disciples. Parashat pinchas teaches us that disciples can achieve what their teacher was unable to. That’s how it was with Moshe, that’s how it was with the prophets, and that’s how it will be with Jesus. The aftermath is up to us. Seeing that God has already designated Jesus by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand, let’s make Jesus a successful mashiach. We’re his disciples, and that’s what disciples do.
