As we sang (or prepared to sing) our carols, evil men were shooting Jewish people.
Christians love Jewish people. Christianity and anti-Semitism (seeing ‘Jews’ as a problem) are completely incompatible. The Christian attitude toward Jews is in Romans 9.4-5; 10.1-4:
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ [Messiah], who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. […] Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ [Messiah] is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
You hate Jews, you hate Jesus. I think that’s behind the sheer irrationality of anti-semitism. Jewish people haven’t earned anything like the hostility they’ve faced for millennia. The only sense I can make of it is that (like Christians in many places) they are hated because of their connection to the God who is irrationally hated by all sinners.
That’s not to say Jewish people can’t do wrong (see: the Bible). Nor to affirm the heresy that there are two peoples of God, Jews and Christians (see: Ephesians 2.11-22). Precisely because we love Jewish people, we want them to be reconciled to their God is trusting in their Messiah, Jesus. And in any case, we can’t abide the murder of any people, least of all the people from whom our saviour was born.
People are discussing ‘what must be done’. Most of us can’t do much directly to make Australia more safe for Jewish people. Although if we believe the Bible, one way to help is prayer (1 Timothy 2.1-4).
I’m slightly hopeful that Bondi will shake some leaders into doing something that helps. I’m slightly more hopeful that it will shake some people into realising that moving away from Jesus has not helped. Maybe we’ll see one or two of them on Sunday.
This is what Christmas (and Hanukkah) is about! The Messiah didn’t come into a good world. He came into a bad world. There’s something every Australian (including every Jew) needs more than anti-semitism policies, immigration controls or ‘thoughts and prayers’. They need this (Hebrew) Gospel:
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone. […]
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9.2, 6