Theology Thursday: Why did the Jews reject Jesus?

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question:
Why did the Jews reject Jesus?

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God come to earth as the human manifestation of the messiah promised to God’s people through the prophets in the Old Testament writings, and that salvation is available through him to anyone who accepts his free offer of forgiveness and grace and comes to saving faith.

But when Jesus arrived on the scene in first century Rome, most of the Jewish people did not believe or accept that he was the one the Father sent to serve as their full and final rescue from sin and rebuild the broken bridge between God’s people and God. Sadly, this remains the case today. While some pockets of ethnically and religiously Jewish communities were/are persuaded by the witness of scripture to Jesus as Christ, most did not and do not.  

The question of why many Jews in the first century (with repercussions down through the ages) rejected Jesus as Messiah is a complex issue with many theological, cultural, historical, and political factors. As a short summary, I think we can understand the majority of Jewish opposition to acceptance of Jesus in the following four ways:  

Jewish Commitment to Monotheism and Misunderstanding of the Trinity
Central to Jewish belief is a committed monotheism (mono means “one,” and theism means “belief in god or God”), encapsulated in the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” The absolute oneness of God was non-negotiable; because it was true and because claiming one God was radically countercultural in a time and place where everyone else worshiped hundreds of different “gods.”

When Jesus claimed divinity—stating, for instance, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30)—many Jews viewed this as blasphemous. To them, Jesus appeared to be a man claiming to be God, which violated their understanding of God's nature and disrupting their entire worldview regarding their belief in the true God verses all the other people groups’ belief in a variety of gods for a variety of reasons.

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity, which holds that God exists in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—was foreign to Jewish theological frameworks. To the average first-century Jew, the idea of God becoming a man was inconceivable. They did not possess the theological categories to grasp how Jesus could be God incarnate while God the Father remained in heaven. This misunderstanding contributed significantly to their rejection of Jesus. They saw him not as a revelation of God, but as a threat to the foundational monotheistic principles of their faith.

Misguided Expectations of the Messiah
Another major reason for the Jewish rejection of Jesus - and this is closely related to the monotheism point - lies in their expectations of what the Messiah would be like. By the time of Jesus, many Jews anticipated a political and military leader who would liberate them from Roman rule and restore the kingdom of Israel to its former glory. This expectation was shaped by scriptures and traditions that emphasized the Messiah as a king in the line of David who would defeat Israel’s enemies and establish a reign of peace and justice.

They wanted and expected a knight in shining armour arriving from heaven with thunderous blasts backed by a massive army ready to execute God’s wrath on all their foes and elevate them, finally, to permanent ruling status over all other tribes and nations.
Jesus, however, presented a very different image of the Messiah. He came as a suffering servant, not a conquering king. He taught humility, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice, and he allowed himself to be crucified—a form of execution reserved for the lowest criminals.

Rather than overthrowing Roman oppressors, he called for loving one’s enemies and turning the other cheek. To many Jews, this was not only disappointing but disqualifying. A crucified Messiah was a contradiction in terms. He couldn’t possibly be a savior if he allowed himself to be killed. Jesus’s life and death just did not align with prevailing messianic expectations.

Jesus’s Claim to Fulfill the Law
The law - as laid out in the first five books of the Bible (called the Torah) - was at the heart of Jewish religious and cultural life. Observance of the commandments was not just a legal duty but a sacred covenantal obligation. When Jesus claimed to fulfill the law rather than abolish it (Matthew 5:17), his words were both revolutionary and controversial. He reinterpreted aspects of the law, emphasized inner purity over ritual observance, and even seemed to challenge certain practices—for instance, healing on the Sabbath or eating with unclean hands.

For many Jewish leaders, this was deeply troubling. They feared that Jesus was undermining the law, which they saw as eternal and unchangeable. While Jesus emphasized the spirit of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness—many Jews felt that he was loosening its requirements and thereby leading people astray. His reinterpretations, no matter how theologically rich, were seen as threats to the continuity of Jewish tradition.

Gentile Inclusion in the Gospel
One of the most radical aspects of Jesus’s ministry and the early Christian movement was the inclusion of Gentiles—non-Jews—into the covenant community. The traditional Jewish view held that Israel was God’s chosen people, set apart by covenant, culture, and law. While there were provisions for Gentile conversion, full inclusion typically required adherence to the law given by God to Moses (called the Mosaic Law), including circumcision and dietary restrictions.

But Jesus came preaching a gospel that transcended ethnic and national boundaries. The early church, especially under the leadership of apostles like Paul, welcomed Gentiles without requiring them to become Jews first. This was scandalous to many Jews, who saw the law as the defining feature of God’s people. The idea that Gentiles could be saved without observing the law seemed to undermine Jewish identity and God’s unique covenant with Israel.

Conclusion
There’s more to it, of course - political pressure against conversion, oppression of believers, false teachers distorting the gospel message, corruption in the ranks of religious leadership - but regardless of the particular causes, the rejection of Jesus by many Jews in the first century and throughout the proceeding history is tragic. This was the chosen family of God, meant to represent him to the world and be a “shining city on a hill” (Matthew 5:14-16), so that all would see and be attracted to the light.

Luke’s gospel records Jesus’s despair that the very people he came to save turned their backs on their savior.

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (Luke 19:41-44)

As Christians, our attitude toward modern-day Jews should be the same as our attitude toward anyone we believe doesn’t have a personal relationship with Christ Jesus: not anger, arrogance, or superiority, but genuine pity combined with an urgent evangelistic desire for them to, like Paul describing his conversion experience to King Agrippa in Acts 26:18, …open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in [the Lord].

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.