Evangelical's Bad Jewish Joke

I recently heard an evangelical tell a joke that really puts a twist in my knickers. To spare myself the agita of relating it word for word, I offer the following synopsis:

Two Jewish men bemoan their sons becoming Christians and go to their rabbi who , it turns out, has the same problem. They all fall on their knees to exhort God on this subject when God of course says he has the same problem. You can read a smarmy version verbatim at an equally smarmy Christian jewelry website which is probably one of many websites schlepping such tripe over the Internet.

While Jewish parental sentiment probably often runs along these lines (relax Jewish parents - garden variety Christianity will ultimately leave them wanting and then they will become Buddhists) the bit about God's son becoming a Christian is what really pisses me off.

The telling and retelling of this joke by evangelicals proves they don't get that Jesus and his disciples ( he probably would have referred to them as his Talmidim and not used a foreign word) weren't Christians but rather Jews. While this may seem a small matter, it is really huge. It begs the question when did we start using the term Christian and why?

More importantly, it should force us to ask ourselves why a culturally Jewish phenomenon morphed into something so un-Jewish. Then we need to examine what was lost in this transmogrification. And, finding ourselves so caught up in heavy questions, we should open a bottle of wine and settle in for a lot of soul searching.

Those who find themselves surprised to discover that Jesus was Jewish shouldn't feel too bad. James Carroll, in his book Constantine's Sword, cites an unnamed college professor who routinely asks his incoming freshman students "What Religion Was Jesus?" The majority say one or another flavor of Christianity.

What have we lost through such ignorance? Many would probably say very little. I will beg to differ.