Some Christians are surprised that I went down the liturgical path of Christianity, considering my Jewish background. “Why not be a Messianic Jew?” they ask. There are many reasons I started Anglican, and ultimately came home to the Catholic Church. But long before that came to pass, I dabbled a bit in the Messianic world.
I can’t say that my limited experiences there speak for the entire MJ movement. But if there’s one thing that stood out to me as a deal-breaker – and ultimately, my deal-breaker with Protestantism – it was a lack of historic connection.
Replacing the word “Jesus” with “Yeshua” in contemporary worship songs doesn’t make them Jewish. Neither does donning a prayer shawl or yarmulke while conducting an otherwise typical evangelical church service. Perhaps more emphasis was given to the Hebrew scriptures in sermons than you’d typically find elsewhere, but “Jewish like Jesus” it simply is not.
These “church-agogues” would also host Passover seders during Holy Week, but even these are not historically accurate.
So how does one truly understand the Jewishness of Jesus? I found the answer in the Catholic mass. Perhaps this is not more obvious because participants don’t typically wear the recognizably Jewish garb. There is no Torah kept in the Ark. But the Eucharist – the fulfillment of temple sacrifices – is deeply rooted in the Old Testament.
The connections between mass and the Old Testament are found in the following themes:
- Passover and the Lamb: The book of Exodus tells us of the sacrificial lamb. In the Eucharist, Jesus is recognized as the “Lamb of God,” and becomes the memorial meal.
- Offering of Bread and Wine: In Genesis 14:18, King Melchizedek offered a sacrifice of bread and wine. Today, Catholics offer bread and wine on the altar.
- The Covenant Sacrifice: Moses seals the covenant he made with God by sprinkling the blood of sacrificed animals over people. We see this ritual fulfilled by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross as the ultimate sacrifice, re-presented by the Eucharist.
- Priesthood: The concept of priesthood is modeled on the ancient Levitical priesthood.
This is just scratching the surface of connections between Catholic mass and Hebrew scripture.
One common critique of Catholic practice from Protestants is that our traditions are “man made” and “unbiblical.” The only way this is true is if one reads scripture at surface level, without doing a deeper dive into how it was first understood by the audiences who wrote and preached it. Even Marian doctrines, the ones most commonly called “unbiblical,” have Hebrew roots as well.
The Jewishness I discovered in the Catholic mass was baked in as a necessary ingredient, rather than sprinkled on top like a decoration.
Messianic Jews aren’t a monolith. Some keep kosher; some continue to observe Jewish feasts and use ritual objects like tefillin. If there’s one thing that unites them, it’s an emphasis on shared ethnicity. This kind of community is needed in a world still plagued by antisemitism, but at times it feels to me like a violation of Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
The Catholic Church encompasses many countries, cultures, and people groups. But in receiving the sacrament of the Eucharist, we declare unity. We participate in worship as one family in the body of Christ, and I don’t wish to stand out as “that Jewish Catholic.” I’m just a child of God, as are those receiving next to me.
