The June 2020 issue of Faith Is Action (FIA) featured Brother Hardy’s classic message “Abba Father”—one of the most encouraging sermons he has ever preached. Underscoring our relationship with God as not only our Heavenly Father, but our “Abba—Daddy”—it elevates us to the status Jesus shared with His Father during His 33 plus years on earth as a man. It breaks down all walls between Jew and Gentile, male and female, socio-economic status, and so on. We are all one in Christ Jesus! (Gal.3:29). And as such, we are “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom.8:17).
But more than this, we have access and intimacy with our Abba—we can come right into His presence and cry, “Abba-Father!” (Rom.8:15, Gal.4:6). This term of endearment was only spoken by the children of the home—never by servants.
Beautiful, don’t you think?
Well, not everyone thinks so. Last week we received a copy of June FIA returned by the reader with the picture of Jesus on the cover colored over in black. They were offended by the “white” Jesus, and wanted their name removed from the mailing list.
Another of Brother Hardy’s classic messages that we can never keep in stock is “How Much Does God Love You?” Again, it overflows with the love of God for people—saved and unsaved, red, yellow, brown, black, and white—God loved you and I so much that He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all! (Rom.8:32). Every summer they are distributed by the Street Meeting Team, by the hundreds over the years.
But last summer I was told by one of the team captains that it would be better if the next time we print them, we remove the “white Jesus” on the cover. People were refusing to take them or threw them down when they saw a white Jesus.
I said, “I’m sorry, but I won’t do that,” and here’s why:
Jesus did not come as a European with a Roman nose, fair hair and blue eyes. He did not come as an African black man. He came as a Middle Eastern JEW.
I know that most paintings of Jesus were created by Christian European artists hundreds of years ago, and they painted Him with their European filters on. Today, you can purchase photos depicting Jesus from iStock and similar online outlets, and many of them feature European-looking white males, which the photo on our June cover did. I chose it, not because of the ethnic features, but the pose and look on the model’s face captured the essence of “Abba.” I try whenever possible to choose photos with Middle Eastern looking males (which the one on the cover of the other message had).
But we all must understand, if we are going to make an issue of this, then we must stick to the facts and not fantasy. The fact is, Jesus was of “the seed of Abraham” who was from “Ur of the Chaldees,” which was in modern Iraq. Abraham is in the line of Noah’s son Shem, from whom comes the Jews—the Semites. (Hence the derogatory term anti-semitism).
“For truly he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham” (Heb.2:16). In the Gospels, He was called “the Son of David,” because King David is in his ancestral line (Matt.1:1, 12:23, 21:9, Luke 3:31). David and Jesus and Mary are in the line of Judah, son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham.
Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day of life like all Jewish boy babies (Luke 2:21). In His earthly life, He fulfilled over 300 prophecies of the coming of the Jewish Messiah. His Jewish name is yeshua which means “The Lord’s salvation.” “Jesus” is the anglicized pronunciation.
I personally believe Jesus probably looked like the man’s face that is supernaturally imprinted on the Shroud of Turin, which has distinct Middle Eastern features. He was neither European white nor African black. He was a Jew, one of the most hated groups of people on the face of the earth for thousands of years unto this day. There is a reason why Satan hates the Jewish people so vehemently and has sought to destroy them again and again. From their slavery days in Egypt, to their captures by and exiles to various conquerors, including the Romans, to the slaughter of male babies in Bethlehem after Jesus’ birth, to the Holocaust last century when 6 million were slain, Satan has sought to annihilate them. And we know why:
In His sovereignty, God chose the people of Israel, the seed of Abraham, to be His covenant people, to give to them His Holy Word, and through them to send His Son as Messiah, Savior, and Lamb of God. He declared:
“But you, Israel, are my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham, My friend. You, whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called you from the chief men thereof, and said unto you, You are my servant; I have chosen you, and not cast you away” (Isaiah 41:8-9).
In His discourse with the woman at the well of Samaria, Jesus said: “Salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). Without the Jews, we would have no biblical patriarchs, Old Testament prophets, New Testaments apostles, no Bible, no Messiah, no Savior, and no salvation.
Without the Jews, we would have no yeshua—Jesus, Son of God. As John penned in the book of Revelation, written over 50 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jesus is described as “The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David” (Rev.5:5). In the last chapter, 22:16, Jesus Himself declared:
“I Jesus have sent my angel to testify unto you, these things in the churches. I am the Root and the offspring of David, and the Bright and Morning Star.” Even in His eternally-restored Glory, Jesus identifies Himself with His Jewish people.
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