Who is Yeshua?

There could hardly be a more polarizing figure than Jesus of Nazareth. The reclaiming of Jesus by Messianic Judaism as Yeshua is bound to be a divisive topic. Some Christians will not want to let him be a Jew and some Jews will not accept him as anything other than a Gentile deity to be avoided.

History is on the side of Jesus' reclamation as a Jewish teacher (proto-rabbi) and founder of a movement within Judaism. Scholars of Christian and Jewish origin have been saying for decades now that Yeshua is not the founder of a new religion, but a movement within the traditions of Judaism.

In his day, Yeshua was regarded as a prophet, a healer who proclaimed the coming rule of G-d on this earth. He seemed to be Elijah returned. Yet many could see something more than Elijah as well, one who spoke and brought healing rather than praying for G-d to heal.

He called himself the Son of Man, which furthered the uncertainty. The title could have been meant as G-d used it of Ezekiel, a designation for any person. Son of Man, however, could also be in the sense of Daniel: the one to whom God would hand over the unending kingdom.

His close associates passed down traditions and four ancient books were written about him. Outsiders wrote about him too. A controversy in Rome over "Chrestus" led the emperor Claudius to expel the Jews from the city of Rome, said Seutonius (c. 69-140 C.E.) in his Lives of the Caesars. Josephus, a Jewish writer in the service of Rome, spoke of him as well, calling him "a wise man who performed surprising works, a teacher of men who gladly welcome strange things" in his Antiquities.

Yet it was his close associates who understood Yeshua as Messiah and as G-d become man. The idea that G-d became one of us to make us like him is something new, an idea not found in the Judaism of the time. Nonetheless, one has to wonder about a man who could start such a movement that emperors felt his power as soon as the reign of Claudius (the late 40's C.E.). Yeshua achieved what religious frauds of history have never been able to achieve and it is reasonable to consider his identity as G-d become man.

Those closest to Yeshua in his lifetime also found this all hard to believe. When Yeshua was executed by the Romans, they believed their movement had come to an end. The women went to prepare his corpse with spices. The men hid in fear of Jewish and Roman authorities, defeated and without direction.

Something happened, though, which transformed these defeated followers of a small messianic movement into unshakeable preachers of a Jewish Messiah. No theory about mass hallucination or a conspiracy to fake Yeshua's resurrection from the dead can adequately explain the power and selflessness of the movement that started in his name. For those who investigate with an open mind, belief is possible. Yeshua is Messiah and G-d become one of us.