By Rev. Cariño Casas
Executive Director
Ruhan 1
– a young Jordanian man – had been sitting in the back of the room listening, unbeknownst to most of us. He spoke only Arabic. He had never met anyone from Israel.
A woman from Lebanon had just shared how her small organization was ministering among Syrian refugees despite the bad history between the two nations. The organization had now started a school in Syria and even planted a church. She asked that we pray for the young people of Lebanon who – in the midst of an economy in freefall and a government in a holding pattern – see no future for themselves.
In response, a dozen Israelis – both Jew and Arab – surrounded the Lebanese speaker and began to pray for her.
Ruhan’s heart was moved when he saw all these Israelis. He wanted to bless them.
What does this have to do with Christians and Jews in the United States?
Ruhan has been a follower of Jesus for more than a year. He had been suffering physical and psychological abuse from his family for his Christian faith. He had decided that day that he had to leave Jordan or leave Jesus. He had a ticket to another country, but he came to the At the Crossroads gathering first. He had recently admitted to his pastors that he felt he loved Israel after reading his Bible diligently. He wasn’t sure what to do about it. And now here were all these Israelis in front of him.
After he came up to tell us this testimony, he was surrounded by all the Israelis, who blessed him and prayed the Aaronic blessing over him. Ruhan then blessed them and the whole nation of Israel. The Israelis blessed his family. Then all the fathers present laid hands on Ruhan and prayed for him to know the love of his heavenly Father.
This was one of many scenes of genuine love and brotherhood at the At the Crossroads 2023 gathering. Others involved Israeli Jews and Palestinians praying for one another, hugging, fellowshipping, worshipping in each other’s languages, and repenting of national sins. We also heard how the believers in Turkey and Cyprus have been ministering to those devastated by the February earthquakes.
What does this have to do with Christians and Jews in the United States?
When Christians look at the world, some of us are pricked with compassion for one group while others are moved by the plight of others. Sometimes, good God-fearing Christians find themselves loving people groups on opposite sides of a conflict and so find themselves at odds with other good God-fearing Christians. When we love these conflicted peoples with a soulish or merely human love, we will likely find ourselves hating their enemies.
Frankly, some Christians love Israelis and other Christians love Palestinians. We pick sides. Then we make cliques based on what we think is the right
side. In the process, we hamper fellowship and partnership with one another.
We are called to love with the all-encompassing love of the Messiah. Messiah loves Jew and Gentile, Israeli and Palestinian, Kurd and Turk, Arab and Persian, and so on and so forth.
God chose Abraham in Genesis 12 to bless the nations scattered from Babel in Genesis 11. It is through Abraham’s physical descendants – the nation of Israel – that God has spoken to the world. It is the Jewish people who have safeguarded the Scriptures for us, taught us how to worship, and from whom the Messiah comes physically (Rom 9).
The blessing of the lands that Abraham walked has begun. The reconciliation of these ancient enemies is in process. We are seeing what Paul wrote about in Ephesians 2 as those foreign to the covenants of God are brought into the Commonwealth of Israel. Jesus himself “is our shalom, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph 2:14).
I’ve had the privilege of hearing Isaiah 19 stories of reconciliation for more than a decade. I’ve seen men and women that the world considers mortal enemies together laughing and weeping, singing and dancing, breaking bread and praying together. ... These sights and sounds ... are true glimpses of heaven.
At the Crossroads began in 2012 at Christ Church Jerusalem, inspired by the worship alliance found in Isaiah 19:23-25. From the annual At the Crossroads gatherings has grown the Derech Avraham Initiative , which “brings together Muslim-background believers in Jesus, Messianic Jews, Middle-Eastern Christians, and internationals for the specific purpose of encouraging believing communities beyond the strategy of survival and the nationalist church mentality to a view of the region that reflects the Isaiah 19 highway and the Kingdom of God.”
I’ve had the privilege of hearing Isaiah 19 stories of reconciliation for more than a decade. I’ve seen men and women that the world considers mortal enemies together laughing and weeping, singing and dancing, breaking bread and praying together. I’ve also seen these relationships started in worship mature into conduits of practical aid when war and disaster tear across the Middle East. These sights and sounds are evidence that Yeshua is alive and the Kingdom of God is really at hand. They are true glimpses of heaven.
Yes, the people of Israel continue to be chosen by God to speak of his faithfulness to all humanity. Yes, all his gifts and promises to them are irrevocable. Yet, they will only come into full maturity when they acknowledge their Messiah and, by his power, partner in love and worship with their ancient enemies. Then the world will hear, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”
The Rev. Cariño Casas is the Executive Director of CMJ USA. She joined the CMJ family in 2014 as the media coordinator of Christ Church Jerusalem. She has a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies from Trinity School for Ministry and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Texas A&M University. She is the deacon at Grace Anglican Church in Edgeworth, Pennsylvania.
[1] His name was changed for his protection.
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