Jesus Died in Zapata?

Quick note: I started this blog in 2007. I lost track of it a while back, but thought I'd give it a try again with a little more structure towards the topics (read below). Feel free to leave feedback, even if you don't agree. Also, ask questions, etc., etc. Enjoy.



When I was a boy growing up in Edinburg, Texas, Dad worked for a local construction company that was hired for a job in Zapata, a town two counties over and 100 miles away. Every so often, Mom would pack everyone up into the Oldsmobile and we would drive over to visit Dad for the weekend. As we drove, the land would become more and more hilly. At one point towards the end of the drive, there were a series of very tall hills, and on top of the tallest was a large crucifix. I used to wonder if that was the cross where Jesus was crucified. As an adult, I think about the child-like honesty of an inquiry like that and I smile. It sounds like a question that my four-year-old son would ask me today.

Let’s be honest. We continue to do the same thing as adults. We have grown up thinking that Christianity is a Western religion. Christianity is so engrained into our culture that it doesn’t occur to us that it wasn't born here. I(This can cause issues when we share the Gospel with others who aren't Westerners, but that's another issue for another time). Before Jesus was “translated,” if you will, into the Western culture, He was Eastern. More specifically, He was Middle Eastern. The Book that tells us about Jesus and His Father comes through a Jewish worldview. If we read it only through Western-shaded lenses, we understand the major teachings just fine. Yet at the same time, there is so much we miss.

My intent for this blog is to look at Scripture from a Jewish perspective so as to point out some of the things that we as Westerners might otherwise miss. I think I'm going to take a look at the book of Matthew.