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a Jewish Christian perspective

Joseph Steinberg

Date posted: 8 Aug 2026

I was recently taken to see a film about a group of people on a long march. It was a bit gruesome for my liking. If a person slowed down too much, they were shot. It reminded me of the Nazi death marches of the Second World War.

One thing from that film made an impression on me that I cannot forget. One of those on the march lost a shoe. As soon as I saw the shoe break apart and come off, I shuddered. “Oh no!”

a Jewish Christian perspective

Joseph Steinberg

Date posted: 8 May 2026

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.

a Jewish Christian perspective

Joseph Steinberg

Date posted: 8 Feb 2026

Romans 11 confronts us with one of Scripture’s great paradoxes: God brings life out of death. Israel’s stumbling became salvation for the nations, and one day Israel’s restoration will mean “life from the dead” for the whole world. This mystery is not a theological puzzle – it is a mission challenge to the church.

Paul writes that God allowed Israel to experience a “spirit of stupor”, and many ask why. Why would the people chosen to be a light to the nations be blinded to the Messiah? Paul gives the answer: “Because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles – to make Israel envious.” Israel’s loss became our gain. Out of their rejection came reconciliation. Out of death came life. It is the pattern of the cross itself.