Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

QUARTERLY REVIEW, WINTER 1984
the Word of God which tells us what is good: to do justice, to love
kindness and to be humble in going with our God, is trustworthy,
discloses the future, and is a source of hope. When I believe in Jesus as
the Resurrected, I accept this Word of God. I base myself on the basic
assumption and take the stubborn stance, that the image of God
cannot be destroyed—not in any fellow human being (therefore I am
required to come to the defense of those whose human dignity is
denied and in whom the image of God is violated), nor in myself
(therefore I don't sink into despair, when I find the forces of evil and
sin working in myself). The preciousness and inviolability of the
image of God in my fellow human beings and in myself are
proclaimed in the Resurrection of Jesus.
The Resurrection means the vindication of Jesus as a Jew, as a person
who was faithful to the Torah, as a martyr who participated in Jewish
martyrdom for the sanctification of God's name. What else can this
mean than the validation of the Torah and vindication of the Jewish
people as God's beloved people? The Resurrection of Jesus confirms
God's promises as well as God's commandments to the Jewish people.
Nowhere does the New Testament say that Jews by believing in Jesus
Christ would cease to observe the commandments. In the past
Christians have always connected the Jews with the death of Christ:
they were called Christ-killers, or the charge of deicide was thrown at
them. I see the Jewish people in the light of the Resurrection. I see their
survival throughout the centuries in the light of what the Resurrection
means: the affirmation of the Torah, of the people of Israel, and of
Jewish existence. Therefore Christian affirmation of the Jewish people
ought to belong to the very center of the Christian faith. And if in the
present the Jewish people gets a new chance to survive and revive,
particularly through the existence of the State of Israel, I see this in the
light of the Resurrection. Needless to say this does not mean blanket
approval of what the State of Israel does.
But if it is so good, why then is it so bad? How are the bitter
controversy and hate between Jews and Christians to be explained? It
seems that the crucial point of controversy was the Resurrection of
Jesus as the decisive, eschatological act of God, i.e., as the beginning
of the great revolution that would "scatter the proud in the
imagination of their hearts, put down the mighty from their thrones,
exalt those of low degree, fill the hungry with good things and send
the rich empty away" (Luke 1:52 ff.) and would establish the new
order of the kingdom of God governed by justice, peace, and joy
(Rom. 14:7).The followers of Jesus were deeply convinced that the
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