The Learning of the Jews:
Bagels & The Gospel
by Lynn Ridenhour
The history of Bagels and the gospel has a lot in
common.
I know in my midwestern town, Bagels have arrived. We now have Bagel Shops
in Independence, MO! Not New York, Missouri. Even Dunkin Donuts is selling
bagels. Bagels are popular. Look in your local foodstore; you’ll find a
bagel section in the frozen food section. Bagel shops are the fourth most
popular new business in the country, behind computer-type businesses and
tattoo parlors.
Here’s the point. Although bagels began as a Jewish food, little by
little people stopped associating them with Jews. They’ve become goyische
(Gentile). A few years back, besides plain bagels, maybe there were onion
bagels, garlic bagels, sesame seed bagels, and poppy seed bagels. Not a whole
lot more.
But now! Blueberry bagels, banana bagels, strawberry bagels, and even—chocolate
chip bagels. What once was oh-so-Jewish, is now oh-so Gentile. Bagels have
been assimilated. This is not so different from what happened to the Gospel.
What began as a thoroughly Jewish movement within Judaism is now so far
from its Jewish roots that the Messiah is looked upon as the Gentile god. Jews
can’t follow a Gentile god. The Torah records what happened to the Jews when
they played around with paganism!
But Yeshua—Jesus—is not a Gentile god. He is the Messiah of Israel and
Savior of the world, who came first to his own people. In fact, his primary
service was to bring the chosen people closer to the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. He was the ultimate prophet.
The fact that so many Gentiles joined in is great! God told the Jews to be
a light to the
Gentiles. But what happened over the past 2,000 years is that the Good News
message, once so Jewish, has come to look non-Jewish.
It’s like bagels. The Jews brought bagels to the Gentiles, but now the
Gentiles have taken over and nearly forgotten the source of this delicious,
low-fat roll. That’s not so bad with bagels, but it’s disastrous when
sharing the bread of life with jewish people. The Church needs to put the
Messiah back in his Jewish context. We need to remind ourselves—the Good
News message was brought to the world by the Jews, spread by Jews, and has a
Jew at its core.
We can’t let happen to this message what has happened to bagels. Yes, the
new bagel is tasty, but it’s not Jewish. Christianity is tasty, but it’s
lost its Jewish roots. Restoring its roots will help Jewish people be more
comfortable biting into Yeshua, the bagel of life, and will help Gentiles
receive a great blessing. After all, the Psalmist said, we’re to taste and
see the Lord is good.
"O taste and see that the Lord is good." --Psalms 34:8
Application:
What does this have to do with us as Latter-day Saints? Everything.
Is not our mission in life to help convince "the Jew and Gentile
that Jesus is the Christ" --Book of Mormon Introduction.
I’m convinced, for the most part, we haven’t a clue as to how to
approach a Jew. And that isn’t a criticism; it’s an observation. Where do
we begin, what do we say? It’s been my experience, most Jews don’t want to
hear the gospel anyway.
That’s exactly why I feel constrained by the Spirit of God to learn the
ways and manners of the Jews.
___________________
Bibliography:
You Bring the BAGELS; I’ll bring the GOSPEL, Barry Rubin, Messianic
Jewish Publishers, Baltimore, Maryland, 1997
