‘Give them less Jesus?’

Give them less Jesus. That is the message that can quietly creep into the church when tensions rise around Israel and the Jewish people. We might never say it out loud, but our actions can begin to whisper it.

We stop praying for Jewish salvation. We neglect the mission. In practice we begin to treat the Jewish people as if they are the one group somehow outside the reach of Jesus. As if the arm of the Lord was suddenly too short to save. But is that really the Christian answer? Over many months I have watched a familiar and ugly ghost re-emerge with renewed strength: Jew-hate. It is a stain that has troubled the world for millennia and, heartbreakingly, one that has sometimes found a foothold even within the walls of the church. I see it on Christian social media. I even sometimes hear it in the prayers of Sunday services.

Yet despite the public square growing more hostile, God is doing His amazing work on the ground. Jewish people are opening to the gospel, interest is increasing, and more are being saved. Jewish missions like ours saw roughly twice as many Jewish people in Israel come to faith last year compared to the year before. We know the Lord uses pressure to bring people to the end of themselves. If we choose this moment to give Jewish people less Jesus, we are pulling back just when the Lord is making the harvest ready.

The power of the gospel is seen in changed Jewish lives. Take Elijah in Tel Aviv. For five years our missionary, Igal, walked alongside him. Elijah was a 50-year-old Jewish man living on the streets, trapped in a cycle of serious alcohol addiction. He had heard the Good News many times but always said he “wasn’t ready”.

Recently the weight of his brokenness became too much. Elijah told Igal that as a Jewish man he finally understood that only God could help him. While studying the Bible together they came to Romans 5v1 – a passage that speaks about having peace with God through Jesus. Elijah broke down in tears. He repented, trusted in Jesus, and now God is rebuilding his life as a follower of Jesus. Elijah wasn’t looking for a political solution. He was looking for the peace of God found only in the Messiah. This hunger for peace is not limited to those living on the streets.

In Jerusalem we met Gennady, a retired neurologist, an immigrant from Russia, and a former atheist. His world was shaken when he lost his wife to cancer. Atheism could not heal the pain he carried. He began attending our evangelistic Bible tours with our missionary Aviel and was amazed to discover that the Messiah is foretold throughout the Hebrew Scriptures he had once ignored.

As he studied passages like Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 with Aviel, the Lord dissolved his arguments against Jesus. This humbled man of medicine knelt before the Great Physician, repenting of his sin and placing his faith in the Messiah Jesus.

I tell you what I am seeing: in the face of the intense pressure of Jew-hate, this same spiritual searching is happening in Jewish hearts all over the world.

In Paris, our missionary Aurel met a man named Charles during one of our summer outreaches. The relationship developed and recently Charles came to a Friday night Shabbat outreach event. Over a piece of Sabbath challah bread the conversation turned to Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement – and the Hebrew concept of averot (sin).

Before long Charles asked the question every believer longs to hear when they are sharing the gospel. He asked Aurel: “How can I be forgiven?” Charles did not need less Jesus. He needed God’s love and forgiveness.

Aurel explained how Jesus took our penalty on the cross. Later, while discussing the story of Purim, Charles suddenly saw the connection: just as Esther went before the king to plead for her people, Jesus went before the Father to plead on our behalf.

Charles has now trusted in the Messiah Jesus and is being discipled as a new believer.

God is just as committed to saving Jewish people today as He was when His Son walked the length of Israel and declared to an exclusively Jewish audience: “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me.” The world may despise. The news may distract. But what the Lord has asked of us has never changed. Not less of Jesus, but more! Together, we must tell Jewish people about Jesus.

If you would like to read more stories of Jewish people coming to faith in the Messiah, you can sign up to receive our magazine at www.imjp.org