TK Torah Keepers

And he came to Capernaum: and being in the house he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? ³⁴ But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest. (Mark 9:33-34 KJV)

 I can only image what it would be like if the Messiah showed up at one of our Messianic conferences, synagogues or church meetings, or home fellowships.  The doors to the auditorium, conference center, sanctuary, or living room open and in walks our Master, Yeshua the Messiah.   All eyes turn and greet him with looks of awe and amazement.  The Master smiles and nods in acknowledgement of the participants’ admiration. All music, worship, teaching, and conversation comes to a profound stop.  Pregnant silence fills the room as everyone waits for the Master to speak……..then he speaks.  “So, what were you discussing?” he asks.  Again the room is filled with stunned silence.  Only this time the silence is a contemplative one.  Instantly every teacher begins evaluating the theological and biblical correctness of the position taken in the last teaching given. As for the members of the audience, congregation, or fellowship, everything the speakers, teachers, or leaders have ever said vanishes from memory….the Master is present.  Whatever the topic was that was being so passionately presented, so ardently defended, so decisively debated, suddenly is forgotten. No can even remember what they were discussing or arguing about.  Somehow everything that seemed to be a doctrinal foundation stone and an uncompromisable dogma of truth now seems but an irrelevant and trivial intellectual exercise that pails in the presence of the Master.  Disagreements, for which we have proudly divided the body of Messiah into a million micro denominations and sects of one or two people each, now seem to be a source of shame and embarrassment in the presence of the Master. But as the pain and discomfort of the unrelenting silence builds within the room some poor soul breaks under the conviction of the silence and speaks… “We were debating why our understanding is correct and everyone else is wrong,” or “We were debating why this ministry is better than that ministry,” or “We were discussing who the best Torah teacher is,” or “We were discussing why we don’t associate with that group.” A slow blush covers the face of the crowd as a wave of shame and humiliation fills the room in silence.

 What were we thinking?  What were we doing?  What were we talking about?  Was there even a need for words? What have we been doing all of these years?  We have been talking and teaching as if the Master (the resurrected and living Messiah) is not the head of the body or even present in our meetings, conferences and fellowships. We have been listening to men who have appointed themselves as temporary heads over the body in the absence of the Master.  We have been following men and their opinions about YHWH, Moses, the Torah, and the Master Yeshua, while at the same time living seperate from our our head (our Master Yeshua). We have been debating, defending and dividing the body of Messiah over who is the greatest, who is right, who is best, who is wrong, who is worst, who is to be welcomed and who is to be avoided.  We have been arguing over trivia and speculative prophecy.  We have been warning about the imagined dangers of the end times while at the same time neglecting the very real and experienced needs and dangers of the present.  We have been spouting and spewing our own interpretations, translations, understandings, beliefs, and guesses about the Creator, the Messiah, and the Torah.  We have been teaching about Yeshua—but not as Yeshua.  Somehow, we have missed the idea that we are to be empty vessels, sanctified and set apart for YHWH to pour out himself through. Instead we have filled ourselves with so much self understanding, and intellectual fluff. Somehow our heads have been inflated while our hearts, like the Grinch, have grown small.  We have embraced all of the stimulating debate about the Messiah but have not truly embraced the Messiah as our Master and head.

 Finally at the right moment the Master speaks,

 “If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. (Mark 9:35 KJV)

 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. (Luke 9:23 KJV)

 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (Matthew 11:29 KJV)

 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. (John 13:34 KJV)

 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. ³⁵ By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. (John 13:34-35 KJV)

 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. (John 15:12 KJV)

 These things I command you, that ye love one another. (John 15:17 KJV)

 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. (1 John 3:11 KJV)

 It becomes immediately clear that the Master’s teachings are not about doctrine and dogma and intellectual concepts, but about relationships, serving, caring, helping, and loving one another.  The Master’s teachings are not primarily about thinking but doing that which the Father has commanded.  This is not to say that we are free to believe whatever we want, or that we need not engage our brains, but it is saying that we need to re-evaluate what we are teaching, how we are teaching, and what we are doing or not doing.  While we all have thoughts, ideas, and insights, we must remember that our primary purpose for following the Master, is to become his body and to manifest his teachings not our own.  The question is not “what do I believe?” but “what does the Master believe?”  To be a genuine disciple and member of the body of Messiah we must submit ourselves wholly to the Master’s teachings—our own personal concepts, insights, and understandings, we are to take to the cross. Instead of our own understanding we seek the Master’s knowledge, wisdom, understanding, beliefs, and heart.  The object for the disciples is to bring his or her own understanding into submission, conformity and alignment with the Master’s understanding.  Everything we know should flow from the Head (i.e. the Master) not our own limited intellect.  What we learn should be learned from the Spirit of the Messiah and confirmed in the written word of God.  What we hear from the Spirit of the Master, confirm by the testimony of the scriptures, we are to manifest in our lives.   It really is that simple.