My Jewish Brethren,
Do you believe historically Jesus performed miracles and rose from the dead? If so, why don’t you believe he is the Messiah?
First of all, some Jews do believe Jesus to be the Messiah. I am one of them. My family, both sides of which are Jews, have believed in Christ and been members of the Catholic Church for centuries. We survived being expelled from Rome, Spain, Portugal, Mexico—and (while we are still studying the facts) we may have had family members among the first century Christians in Jerusalem!
Belief in a “messiah” is Jewish thing. The word, the concept, the promises, the Davidic dynasty—all of it is Jewish in nature. Accepting a “messiah,” whoever that messiah may be, is first and foremost adopting a very Jewish concept. For Jews accepting the Messiah means preservation of their nation, but as history has sadly shown in the past many Christians have demanded nothing but total assimilation and destruction of their culture, sometimes calling for the death of the Jews themselves. So when Jews hear the name “Christ” they don’t immediately see their salvation as a people connected to it. The behavior of Christians who have proved false to the name of Christ has not been a very good witness to the Jews over the years.
Another reason some Jews don’t accept Jesus is because they had preconceived ideas on what the arrival of the Messiah was supposed to bring. The future world of “new heavens and a new earth” promised in Revelation 21 are generally expected to arrive concurrently with the Messiah’s appearance by most Jews. Isaiah 65:17-21, a messianic prophecy, is expected to occur upon the Messiah’s advent, not after his death. Because Jesus taught this was still in the future (see Acts 1:6, 7), Jews who hold on to this interpretation have a hard time reconciling it with a Messiah who came, died for our sins, was resurrected, and left the planet some 2,000 years ago.
Christians also see Jesus as God incarnate. If this concept is difficult even for Christians to comprehend, imagine how difficult it is to the Jew who doesn’t look to the Church for religious instruction. Without the Church and its Apostolic Tradition to guide us it is pretty much impossible to come to an understanding and acceptance of the Trinity. Believing that a Human was God sounds foreign to everything Jews know and understand religiously, so it is difficult to accept a Human Messiah who is at the same time completely and fully God.
However, it should be noted that not all Jews have the same idea of what the Messiah is or should be. Some believe other individuals were the promised Messiah. Others believe the Messiah is not an individual but a concept. I’ve even heard some suggest that the Messiah is an ideal being fulfilled in the new state of Israel. And there are even some reform Jews who have dropped the entire Messiah concept altogether.
Others like the great Jewish teacher Maimonides, while not fully embracing Christianity, see God at work in Jesus. Maimonides taught that God uses Jesus to teach important truths to the Gentiles for their salvation.
But there are many of us Jews who, before any of you Gentiles saw it, embraced Jesus as the Messiah. Jews laid the foundation for what many Christians now freely embrace. Gentile Christians have made the words “Messiah” and the concept of the Christ their own. They daily rely on the Scriptures and some of the traditions from the Jewish people. The deepest respect is therefore owed them, for as St. Paul wrote, “in respect to election, they are beloved because of the patriarchs. For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:28, 29) God will not fail to preserve that which He has called into being.
But many Jews were converted to Christ at that time, this is true.