Reb Mike Kaufman
Transcript(from the video captions)
Well, Shabbat shalom everyone. I've entitled this message the weight of love. The weight of love. Accepting the Messiah's burden. Nobody likes a burden. In our culture, we even have a word for bothersome. We call it schleing. Say it after me. Schleing. Right? Nobody wants to shup, especially if the bags belong to somebody else. We spend our lives trying to shed weight. We seek convenience. We seek peace. And the idea of taking on another's struggle is just plain uncomfortable. And Lord knows we don't naturally take on a burden. Uh there's a an old story about a wealthy merchant who arrived at a train station with four massive trunks and he spotted a bent over old man and shouted, "Porter, come and take these to my inn." Well, the old man hoisted the heavy trunks, one on each shoulder and two in his hands. And he walked a mile to the inn without a single complaint. And when they arrived, the merchant offered him a small coin. And the old man refused it. He said, "I'm not a porter. I'm the local rabbi." Well, the merchant was horrified. Rabbi, why didn't you tell me why did you carry such a a heavy burden for a stranger?"
And the rabbi smiled and replied, "Because I didn't see four trunks. I saw a traveler in need of a home." When you see a person, the weight disappears. So what's the point? Left to our own flesh, we see trunks. But the Lord is calling us to see the traveler. Well, the same contrast appears in this week's parish. We should know now that there were 10 of the 12 spies who looked at the promised land and they saw only trunks, giants, walled cities, impossible weight. They reported, "We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers." But Caleb and Joshua looked at the same land, and they saw the traveler, the living God, who promised to go before them. Caleb silenced the assembly and declared, "We should go up at once and take possession, for we are able." The 10 spies had no masa, no masa, no holy burden for the people. So when the weight looked heavy, they put it down. Consider Ezekiel's burden for Israel, the people of Israel. It wasn't a fleeting emotion or a mere message for the community. It was a masa, a heavy prophetic oracle that pressed down on his very soul. In Hebrew mindset, amasa isn't just a
message you give, it's a weight you bear. In Ezekiel 4:es 4-8, God commands Ezekiel to enact a symbolic 430day siege that represented the punishment of Israel in Judah. Now you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you, engrave on it a city, Jerusalem. Then you are to lie on your left side and set on it the punishment of the house of Israel 390 days. And when you've completed these, you will lie on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days. And behold, I will put ropes on you. You will not be able to turn from side to side until you've completed the days of your siege. The Lord had directed Ezekiel's life so that his body became a living map of Israel's condition. His life was no longer his own. Consider the physical toll. He lay on his left side for more than a year to bear the sins of the house of Israel and was commanded to shave his head and beard with a sword and to scatter the hair into the wind as a sign of judgment. Every ache in Ezekiel's joints, every cramped muscle, every morning spent staring at the dust, these were physical manifestations of God's grief for his
people. Ezekiel didn't just preach the message. He embodied it in every breath and action. Notice specifically what the Lord says in verse 8. Behold, I will put ropes on you. You will not be able to turn from side to side until you've completed the days of your siege. You see, Ezekiel wasn't just tied with ropes. Wasn't just tied with ropes. He was bound to his mission. This is the nature of a God-given burden. It's a holy tether that prevents us from simply turning away when the schle becomes uncomfortable. It binds us to the destiny of our people until the work is complete. First question for you. Are you bold enough to ask for a God-given, supernaturally inspired burden like that? one that binds you to the heart of Israel. I want to ask you another question. It may be an uncomfortable one. How do you view the Jewish people? How do you view the Jewish people? If you pray for this burden we've been discussing, be prepared because the Lord will answer you. But his answer won't just give you a new prayer point. It will dismantle your old way of thinking and transform you. When this burden of love takes hold,
stop seeing you will stop seeing Jewish people as prospects or targets for a ministry report. Instead, you'll begin to see them as mishka, as family. You know, there's a world of difference between a salesman seeking a target and a brother seeking his lost sibling. A salesman can walk away if the deal falls through. A brother cannot walk away from his own family. This burden of love is so deep that it pulls you out of your fleshly comfort zone and supernaturally renews your body and your mind and your soul. Now, where does this newly found burden lead? It leads you to the same dangerous spiritual ground that our greatest intercessors occupy. Consider Moshe Rabinu, Moses, our teacher. When Israel stood at the base of the mountain having aposticized by making a golden calf, the Lord's anger burned. But Moses didn't say at a save theological distance. He threw himself into the gap. He prayed, "This people has sinned a great sin. Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray, out of your book which you have written." This is the ultimate Jewish heart. Moses was willing to perish if he if it
meant the nation might live. He wasn't checking a box. who was offering his very soul. Now this posture was not a single act but it was a pattern of life and that's important. Also in our parish we see Moses again in the same stance this time after the spies faithless report when the Lord threatens to destroy the people and raise up a new nation through Moses alone. Moses refuses the offer. He throws himself into the gap a second time, pleading for Israel on behalf of God's, hear this, on behalf of God's own character and the covenant that he made with them. Again and again, Moses stands between Israel and judgment. This is the nature of Ezekiel's ropes. Moses was bound to Israel's fate, unable to turn away until the work was complete. Centuries later, we hear the echo of these in the footsteps of Rav Shaul, the Apostle Paul. Listen to the anguish, his anguish in Romans nine. My grief is so great. The pain in my heart so constant that I wish myself actually under God's curse and separated from the Messiah if it would help my brothers, my own flesh and blood, the people of Israel. They were made God's children. The
shikana has been with them. The covenants are theirs. Likewise, the giving of the Torah, the temple, the services, and the promises. The patriarchs are theirs. And from them, as far as physical descent is concerned, came the Messiah who is over all. Praise be Adonai forever. Amen. Shaul looks at the Jewish people and he sees their glory, their covenants, their Torah, and their promises. He's so overwhelmed by the beauty of the people, his people, that he breaks into a hal, a song of praise right in the middle of his grief. Praise be Adonai forever. Amen. Like Shaul, after him, Moshe was willing to go under God's curse if it would help his fellow Jews. Now that's a real masa. That's a real burden. Yet carrying the weight of an entire nation's destiny is a heavy load. One that humanity was never to bear alone. The profound weight of intercession serves as a perfect backdrop for the understanding of true spiritual rest. It's a shift from a crushing weight of human effort to a divine partnership. We often think of rest as the absence of work. I need to rest right now. You all know what that means. But in Matthew 11,
Yeshua offers rest through a different kind of weight. He says, "Come to me all who are struggling and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. You can picture a haknasat sephrra that beautiful dancing celebration when a community welcomes a new Torah scroll lifting while we the instruments of his love share in his joy. When the tamadim his disciples asked, "Where do you live, Rabbi?" Yeshua said, "Come and see." He invited them into the rhythm of his life. He broke bread with the ones he loved both before the execution and after his resurrection. And right now, Yeshua is in the Father's house preparing rooms. But he expects us to eat and live among the lost. Now the body of Messiah functions properly when we form a tightlyknit circle facing outward. Tightlyk knit circle facing outward. And when we are obedient to the Jew first, the nations catch fire. This partnership is rooted in Romans 11 where gentile believers are depicted as branches grafted into the olive tree and are mandated mandated to support the root Israel rather than boast about it.
Gentiles are called to be guardians of Israel, provoking Israel to jealousy through the love of Messiah while recognizing that the root supports you. And as you bless Israel, according to Genesis 12:3, you actively participate in God's redemptive plan to bring spiritual blessing to the entire world. Every disciple of Yeshua has a simple role, a simple one. We are to provide direction pointing and movement assistance. Direction pointing and movement assistance. We are to point to Messiah in every relationship and assist others to move toward him. This is the goal of Torah and it is the heart of the great commission. As we go, as we live, as we eat, as we teach, we share the bases, the good news. Yeshua has always had a burden for a Jewish family. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. We pray and we sang. Barooabonai. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And when we do so, we are echoing the heartbeat of Messiah who longs to hear these words from his own kin. It's his heart heartfelt desire. And
when we take on his yoke, guess what? It becomes ours as well. Now we get to the heart of the matter. The place where the burden meets the pavement. The place, the very place is your front door. If we're honest, it's much safer to hand out a track to a stranger on a street corner than to invite a Jewish neighbor to your Shabbat table. Why? Because a Bible tract is anonymous, but a table, well, that's intimate. No relationship requires three things that we often try to avoid. Intimacy, vulnerability, and transparency. Intimacy, vulnerability, and transparency. When you invite someone into your home, you leave neutral ground. O, now they'll see the real you. They'll see the messy kitchen you didn't have time to scrub. They hear the kids arguing in the hallway. They see that you are a human being struggling just as they are. And we fear this. We fear that if they see our weaknesses, they won't want our Messiah. But we have it backward. I think of a story I heard about a family who spent weeks building a suka. It was Pinterest perfect. The fruit was hung just so. The lights were straight.
The lattice was flawless. They invited their non- MMsianic Jewish neighbors over, hoping to impress them with the joy of the Lord. But that night, the wind began to howl, and it blew across the decorations. The soup went cold when the hot plate failed, and the kids were tired and cranky, and the host was mortified. He felt like a failure. But as they were cleaning up the mess, the neighbor turned to him and said, 'You know, I I always thought you religious people were perfect and plastic. But seeing you laugh and keep going even when the suka was falling down. Well, that made me think that your God, your Messiah, might actually be real. You know, Yeshua didn't say, "Come and see my trophy room." He said, "Come and see my life." And when you love a Jew as a Jew, love a Jew as a Jew, you don't desire to make him into another race or religion. No, my friends, you want this Jewish brother to be a Jew who knows the King of the Jews, Yeshua Hamashiach. And in doing so, you are fulfilling biblical prophecy. When God gave me a burden to love my Jewish brethren, he also amazingly expanded my heart for the nations. Isn't
God generous? But don't be fooled. This burdened stuff will cost you. You might not sleep as well. Your heart may break. Your home reveals what you truly value and whom you truly trust. Yeshua felt no discomfort about the way he lived. He was not a hypoc. I'm a disciple of Yeshua today because of a series of loving relationships that created an environment of safety and commitment. Let us give our Aba Father praise for his ability to woo the lost sheep of Israel through our messy, vulnerable act of opening our homes. Now, we've just moved past the season of Shàuot, the feast of the harvest. We remember Ruth, the Gentile, who took on a burden for her mother-in-law, Naomi. Now, she didn't just join a religion. She joined a family. She said, "Your people will be my people." She was willing to slept through the fields of Bethlehem. Because her heart was bound to a Jewish woman. Our Hoff Torah from Joshua 2 gives us one more portrait of that same burden. Rahab, a Canaanite woman living in Jericho, takes in the two Israelite spies at the risk of her own life. She tells them, "I know that the Lord has
given you this land." She didn't have to do this. No obligation bound her to these strangers. But she was moved by a burden, a holy conviction that overrode self-preservation. She is the mirror image of the 10 faithless spies. They looked at the same land and they fled. She looked at the same God and trusted. Rahab then hangs a scarlet cord from her window as a sign of her covenant commitment, making her burden visible. Her home became her testimony. That scarlet thread declared, "My house stands with Israel." Ruth said, "Your people shall be my people." And Rahab said the same thing with a thread of scarlet. Someone loved the Jewish people into the kingdom. Let your home like Rahabs, be that sign. Now, do not enter this challenge lightly. The power of love will change you. You cannot rely on your own strength, but only on Adonai's spirit. Stop. Repent. Rejoice. Stop. Repent and rejoice. And you will love a Jew. Someone did the same for you. Someone loved you into the kingdom. Scripture has challenged us to give sacrificially. Can we also love sacrificially? This will mess you up. Will mess with
your plans. It'll mess with your heart. It messed with Rav Shaul. It made him both earthbound and heavenly focused and the world was changed forever. Remember when God wanted to place Joseph in the palace, he did not give him favor overnight. He gave him betrayal, a pit and prison first. The burden may cost you before it bears fruit. But the delay, hear this, the delay is not rejection. Your detour may be divine. They will know you by your love. It says in John 13:34, it's a mitzvot. It's a command because Yeshua knew that we did not naturally love one another. If we commit to a supernatural love in our homes, those around us will see and know Yeshua. At 12, my brother Howie, my mother and I were the only Jews for miles. Lost in the dust of our surroundings. Then a neighbor shared her masa, her burden for Howie and me. Soon after, a Navy chaplain son felt the same weight. And finally, a Gideon standing outside my college dorm handed me a Bible. These happily burdened, grafted in branches saw a natural branch lying neglected on the ground.
I feel you. Through sacrificial love, they gathered me up and pointed me to the heart of God's grace. I believe this summer is a divine appointment for you. As the fields grow white for harvest, are you bold enough to ask for the heart of the harvester? Pray with me.
God [snorts] of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, give us Yeshua's heart. Give us the burden that carries us. Help us love your people until they cry out.