The Jewishness of Jesus

A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, June 2nd, 2024:
Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

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Mark
14.12-16, 22-26

On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, the disciples said to Jesus, “Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?”

So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”

So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my Body.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, “This is my Blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

​Looking back over the years, I can recall joining in more than one conversation about whether or not Jesus and the disciples were Jewish. Now, to clarify, everyone participating agreed that Jesus and His disciples were Jewish before Jesus’ public ministry began, but the point of debate was whether they became Christians at some point after Jesus began His public ministry.

I must confess that these conversations were high on wondering and low on knowledge – we made lots of comments like, “Well, surely the twelve were the first Christians because they believed that Jesus was the Christ,” but none of us was sufficiently committed to go to a library and actually research the topic. 

A book I was reading recently dedicates an entire chapter to the Jewishness of Jesus and so, at long last, I began to read up on the matter. Suffice it to say, a great deal of ink has been spilled on the topic itself, as well as on the biases informing proponents for and against. I won’t be getting into any of that here. I raise the matter of the Jewishness of Jesus simply because, in the Gospel for this Sunday, we encounter Jesus and His disciples on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when Jesus is instructing His disciples on preparations for the Passover meal, which strikes me as a very Jewish thing to do. Catholics remember this as the Liturgy of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, but our remembrance is different from the Jewish practice.

I’ve mentioned in earlier reflections how much I’ve enjoyed conversations about faith with my Jewish friends, the loving respect we have for each other’s traditions, and the delightful welcome they’ve extended to Catholics at our local synagogue. I treasure the warmth of these relationships and the opportunity to learn and build community among Christians and Jews, whom St. John Paul II referred to explicitly as “our brothers and sisters.”

The Jewishness of Jesus recalls for me the Jewishness of my friends, the Catholicism of me, and how those two worlds are brought together so perfectly in the person of Jesus.




Donna Davis

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