New Covenant Implications
by Michael J. Rudolph
How to use traditional Jewish liturgy in Messianic Jewish congregations has been debated
since the beginning of the modern Messianic Jewish movement. While some congregations
employ it only sparingly to provide an ambiance of "Jewishness" to their
services, others use it extensively as their preferred mode of prayer. Messianic Jewish
believers generally believe there is value in traditional Jewish prayer, but perceive that
some of it is less spiritually satisfying than modern musical (and particularly
charismatic) forms of praise and worship; those who perceive this often don't know why.
Whichever way Jewish liturgy is used, it is indeed the rare Messianic Jewish congregation
that has not, and does not still, wrestle with "why", "which",
"when", and "how much".
I have heard several theories which attempt to explain this difficulty; they include (a) cultural foreignness, (b) language difficulties, (c) extra biblical influences, (d) rabbinical spirits, and (e) composers who rejected Yeshua. While these have varying degrees of merit, I should like to put forth still another thesis, to-wit:
Any liturgy which is frozen in the Old (Mosaic) Covenant, cannot easily minister to Messianic believers who are New Covenant in nature.
The discussion which follows applies only to liturgical prayers for which this description is accurate.
Let us understand how liturgy can be "frozen" in the Old Covenant.
"In that He says, 'A new covenant', He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away." (Hebrews 8:13)
Practices rooted in the Old Covenant are connected to the law. Although New Covenant Scripture teaches that the law is holy and good (Romans 7:12; 1 Timothy 1:8), it also teaches that the law is but a shadow of good things -- not the image itself.
"For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, ..." (Hebrews 10:1).
Shadows have less substance than those things toward which they point, but they are important in providing greater depth of understanding than is possible without them.
"Therefore, let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is Messiah." (Colossians 2:16-17, explained in Galatians 2:13-14).
"But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Messiah, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor." (Galatians 3:23-25).
Of course, Jewish liturgy is not the law, but as it is rooted in the Old Covenant, much of it focuses on the same shadows as the law. For example, the traditional Sabbath service emphasizes lifting up of the Sabbath day, keeping it holy, and remembering the creation (Genesis 1:31-2:3; Exodus 20:8-11, 31:12-17; Deuteronomy 5:12-15). This is wonderful in itself, and if we do this and nothing more, God promises to bless (Isaiah 56). But we are New Covenant worshipers, and the law in our minds and on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10), evokes in us a yearning to move past the shadow and into the fulfillment which is Messiah. Consequently, any Messianic Jewish service which does not focus on Yeshua being "lord of the Sabbath" and our Sabbath "rest" is covenantally inadequate, and will not be completely fulfilling to the New Covenant spirit (Matthew 11:28-29, 12:8; John 1:1-14; Hebrews 4:1-11).
Through liturgy as in other ways, Messianic Jews are entrusted with understanding the Old Covenant shadows and proclaiming their value in leading us to their fulfillment in Messiah (Romans 3:1-2; Galatians 3:23-25). Jewish liturgy also serves to connect us to the Jewish people and to our biblical roots in antiquity -- promoting awareness of God's calendar, and illuminating parts of the Bible which many New Covenant "churches" ignore. All this not withstanding, if we stop at the shadows or pursue them more diligently than their fulfillment, we miss the New Covenant essence.
"For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things." (Hebrews 8:4-5)
But we are New Covenant priests, and in the likeness of Yeshua, must serve the heavenly things.
© Michael Rudolph
January 26, 1996