The Starting Point...by Linden Malki

                   

Jesus had an advantage when He talked to Jews--some things were already part of the culture; Moses had covered some of the ground that the Gentiles were not familiar with. (However, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah and Zechariah, and Daniel--at least! had challenged their countrymen with the idea that part of their calling was to acquaint the rest of the world with their God.) The writer of the epistle to the "Hebrews" starts at the beginning: "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see...By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible...
 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." (Hebrews 11:1,3,6)  This is where it has to start! Anyone who does not believe in the existence of God is not going to pay attention to the rest of the story. Then, when we are willing to accept the idea that there is a God that created everything, and that He actually cares who we are, what we do, and that it is worth the time and effort to not only believe, but to follow what He says.

In the political climate that is currently accusing everybody they don't agree with of being a "Nazi", I ran across a very interesting discussion of why Hitler was aggressively trying to wipe out Jews, as well as Christians and a whole bunch of other people that he didn't think should be allowed to live. One thing that comes out in his writing is that he didn't respect Jews as well as Christians for being committed to an ethic that values all people and forbids the wholesale wiping out or enslaving of anybody and everybody who doesn't agree with his Norse pagan ideals of strength and dominance.  (The total death toll of this attempt is now estimated at 12-20 millions.)

We often hear somebody who doesn't want to pay attention to the traditional morals and ethics justify their opinion by saying "Jesus never said anything about...." , not realizing that He didn't have to say anything about teachings that were already accepted and understood in His culture. For example, He begins His discussion with Nicodemus by recognizing that Nicodemus is already an expert in Jewish law and tradition, and so He just needs to take him to the next step of developing a personal and essential relationship with God.  We have this story because we also need the same thing: to be "born again" as a child of God, committed to a personal relationship at a level higher than the external law and traditions.