The Gospel Coalition

Today, I am interviewing Derek Leman, author of a new LifeWay Threads Bible Study called Feast: Finding Your Place at the Table of Tradition. Derek is a rabbi and serves at Tikvat David (Hope of David) in Roswell, Georgia. Derek hopes to bring the vision of Moses and the prophets where it belongs into New Testament theology. He believes that a Judaism not centered on Jesus is like a tree without life. But Christianity without its Hebrew foundation is like a tree without roots. 

Trevin Wax: In Feast, you come across as strongly pro-tradition. Why do you think that keeping ancient traditions can help strengthen us spiritually?

Derek Leman: When I was in high school, I asked my teacher why I should prefer to read a classic rather than a contemporary novel. Her answer was that the classics have been proven by the test of time.

The kind of traditions that interest me must pass three tests:

1. They were widely used by a community of like faith to mine
2. They are strongly tied to biblical practices and truths
3. They have endured and are being used in present communities.

I’m not saying I would completely rule out a tradition that didn’t meet all these tests, but these are guidelines. Jewish traditions frequently meet these criteria. When I keep Jewish traditions, in many cases I can see that I am living in a manner similar to people at the time of Scripture. I think that many Christian traditions meet these criteria also, provided pagan worship and gnostic ideas do not lie behind them.

Trevin Wax: What do you do with Jesus, who spoke very negatively about the Pharisees who were elevating tradition to the same level as God’s revelation? In Feast, you argue that Jesus was not against all tradition. Having learned from Jesus’ example, what are the promises and dangers of keeping ancient Jewish traditions today?

Derek Leman: I think we should be more nuanced in how we say Jesus responded to tradition.

• Jesus objected to tradition that overruled divine command (Mark 7:11, when giving to the temple became an excuse to neglect duties to parents).
• He objected to traditions that reversed divine priorities (Matthew 23:24, tithing on garden herbs while neglecting love).
• He objected to traditions being pushed as commands without the wide acceptance of the community (Mark 7:5, hand-washing was not yet a widely accepted tradition).

Yet notice that some of Jesus’ disciples and Jesus himself apparently practiced this tradition (Mark 7:2 says that “some of” Jesus’ disciples did not do it). For a modern Christian wanting to incorporate some Jewish traditions in worship and lifestyle, the key is to get information from reliable Jewish sources. The best source is a person who lives in the Jewish community.

Trevin Wax: You write that the Jewish Passover was a meal with ceremony, not a ceremony without a meal, as the Lord’s Supper has become in contemporary days. What are ways that we as Christians can revitalize our observance of the Lord’s Supper?

Derek Leman: It would be radical, but I would love to see Christian communities consider eliminating the juice-and-cracker communion. Jude and perhaps 1 Corinthians 11 mention agape feasts. Remembering Jesus’ body and blood might not fit in a church auditorium, but could be moved into the dining hall or even into homes.

Trevin Wax: You write that on the night of Passover, the Israelites “needed faith and obedience, to believe God’s Word and act on it. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world calls for action as well as faith.” Are you saying that salvation in some sense depends upon our obedience to Christ?

Derek Leman: Absolutely. I believe (and so did the Reformers) that there is no salvation apart from obedience. There is a classic popular religion myth that faith apart from works has any value. Not only would James disagree, but so would Paul and Luther and Calvin. Paul said, “God will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life” (Rom. 2:6-7).

Biblical faith is transforming faith, always. Calvin said, in Institutes of Religion, “Still, however, though the whole of Scripture is against them, they dogmatically give the name of faith to a persuasion devoid of the fear of God.”

Trevin Wax: You write that “the traditions of Judaism have mysterious shadows of Messiah in them.” What are some of these foreshadowings of Christ? How can we be better trained to see Christ in the Old Testament feasts?

Derek Leman: Both the Old Testament and later Jewish tradition have shadows of Messiah in them. There is a rather complex theological argument I could make for Messiah being in Jewish tradition, but here I will simply assert: Jesus has not been absent from his people from the time of the cross until now. Examples from Jewish tradition are too numerous to catalogue.

One of my favorites is the liturgy we recite after reading from Torah, “You implanted eternal life within us.” How true that within the Jewish people eternal life was implanted: his name is Jesus. Of course examples from the Old Testament must number in the thousands as well.

My basic advice to people is to read the Bible in its correct order, studying the Old Testament and understanding the New in light of the Old (instead of the all-too-common reverse). This will lead to the discovery of numerous glorious shadows.

Trevin Wax: You write about worship being about “survival,” not just attending weekly services, since the people’s survival depended on a good harvest. How can we restore that sense of total dependence on God in our day and age where food and necessities are so accessible?

Derek Leman: The only way I can think of for relatively prosperous Westerners to regain a sense of worship-for-survival is to be involved heavily in the plight of less prosperous people. If we are frequently made aware of and link communities with people who struggle to fill their bellies even though they worship the same God, then we will begin to understand.

Trevin Wax: What is the greatest lesson that Christians can learn from Messianic Jewish congregations?

Derek Leman: The greatest lesson is that God still has a people, the descendants of Jacob, and is at work fulfilling his promises to and through these Jewish people. Jews must remain Jews in Messiah. In Acts, the intention was not for Jews and Gentiles to join in such a way as to eliminate identities. Jewish followers of Jesus need to be allowed to form communities in union with, but separate from churches. Unity is not uniformity.

Check out Derek Leman’s Threads Bible Study here.

Interview with Derek Leman © 2008 Kingdom People blog