Can this story be told 13 different ways?

Sculpture in Jerusalem, in Church of the Holy Sepulcher 

Is this story the simplest, or the most complex, in history?

See if you can tell the same story from 13 different points of view:

The Crucifixion of Jesus: Tell the story from

1. the point of view of the priests;

2. the point of view of Pilate, the Roman governor;

3. the point of view of King Herod;

4. the point of view of the women mourners;

5. the point of view of disciples who ran away;

6. the point of view of John, the disciple;

7. the point of view of Mary, Jesus' mother;

8. the point of view of the Roman soldiers;

9. the point of view of Barabbas, who had just been pardoned;

10. the point of view of the two criminals also crucified;

11. the point of view of Pilate's wife, who had abad dream the night before;

12. the point of view of Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man;

13. What is your point of view on Jesus' death and resurrection?

To the Jew First - Really?

An amazing thing is happening in our times, mostly not perceived by most of us, and certainly not by the press, national or international.

In the first years after the resurrection of Yeshua Messiah, Jesus Christ, the struggle to define who this carpenter had been turned into a nasty spat between various factions of the Jews. This is clearly seen in Acts 25:1-27 where Festus, the Roman governor, is attempting to explain why Paul should be sent to Rome for trial. He is explaining something "impossible" to King Agrippa: Paul's change of heart, from "terrorist" to "Christian".
Noteworthy in the passage, Paul committed no crime in thinking as he did.

Thirty years after the resurrection, that struggle was mostly confined to the Jews. People of Hebrew descent had to discover who one of their own had been. Jesus was born into a Jewish family, celebrated Jewish holidays, ate Jewish food and almost always kept his ministry to the Jews.

After two thousand years, Christians mostly view Jews as "them". Jews mostly view Christians as "them". For the most part, it's an easy way to keep the walls of separation up, high, secure, and well defined.

With the resurgence of Jewish believers in (mostly) Messianic synagogues, an amazing thing is happening in our day. First, Jewish families are having to go through the struggles of 60 AD, asking, "Who is this Yeshua Messiah? Why is my son or daughter, my son-in-law, or my daughter-in-law now a follower of Yeshua? Surely, he cannot have been our Jewish Messiah!" So, once again, with less than 1% of Jews accepting Yeshua as their Messiah, the debates are beginning to rage, or already have raged, involving many households in conversation - at best, and division - at worst.

Secondly, "Christians" and "Jews" are seeing a remarkable event take place. We see Messianic Jews as our brothers and sisters in Christ. Jews look at us and say, "I never realized that when Christians celebrate the Communion Table, they are remembering a Yeshua Messiah and our Jewish feast, one of the two most important events in our calendar." The walls are coming down. (See Ephesians 2 - and read of God's purposes for humanity.)

I will write about this much more in the future.