How should Christians who have been saved by a Jewish Messiah look upon the Jewish people who have endured so much suffering down through history? Isaiah prophesies our role: "Comfort, yes, comfort My people!" says your God. "Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins" (Is. 40:1, 2).
Basilea Schlink, in her book, Israel, My Chosen People, shows how Jesus identifies with His people, how His suffering on the cross is a prophetic picture of the suffering of the Jews in history, especially during the Holocaust. As part of the German Evangelical Church during World War II, Mother Basilea led a movement of repentance for Germany's national crime against the Jews. Her words from over 50 years ago are still very timely: "Now is the time for the New Testament people to awaken - now before the last hour comes, and with it judgment. Today let us take our place at Jesus' side and look upon His people with His eyes, full of love and mercy. Then our hearts would ache to see this chosen people of God wandering through the centuries, wretched, despised, shunned, ostracized and afflicted with pain like the suffering Servant of God in Isaiah 53. Then, looking on them, we would be reminded of Him.
"Israel, unintentionally and unwittingly, has become a spectacle before heaven and mankind, because she bears the features of the Servant of God. The sight of her should continually remind Christians of Jesus, despised, destitute, covered with bruises, afflicted, hated, persecuted, tormented, and hounded to death. Even if these marks borne by the people of God also betoken the chastening hand of God stretched out in judgment upon sinners, the fact remains that by these very dealings God proclaims Himself to be the Holy One of Israel.
"We as Christians are to hold in high esteem this people who bears such a close resemblance to Jesus. The sight of the Jews as an oppressed and afflicted people crossing the face of the earth, despised and rejected, should make us think of those words of Jesus about the destitute and needy: 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me' (Matt. 25:40). Who matches so accurately our Lord's description 'the least of these my brethren' as His people Israel? Who has suffered so much contempt from all nations down through the ages? Who has been so rejected? From whom did men turn away their faces? Who has been persecuted and tormented with such burning hatred? Who has been wounded and tortured to death so often as this His people? Here, indeed, are the brethren of the Lord Jesus."
This dear Christian sister's message of repentance made an impact on the Christian conscience in Germany, changing age-old anti-Semitic prejudices. Unfortunately, not all came to repentance. It is a documented fact that many Catholic priests gave aid to some Nazis fleeing Europe to start their lives over with new identities. Nazis evaded justice with the help of the Vatican and the Red Cross! Monasteries were used as safe havens for them. Read about it here: Nazis on the Run. TRUE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS HID THE JEWS, NOT THE NAZIS!
Israel will mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, tomorrow, April 28, with a two-minute siren and ceremonies at the Yad VaShem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. The focus is "1944: From Extermination to Liberation, the Jews' Situation Exactly 70 Years Ago." See details: Holocaust Memorial Day
[Basilea Schlink, Israel, My Chosen People (Old Tappan, NJ: Chosen Books, 1987), pp. 33-34.]
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