Rosh HaShanah: The Perfect King

The King of Rosh HaShanah

What a wonderful weekend of celebration we have had! Listening to the raw and piercing blast of the Shofar we remembered. We remembered creation. Remembered deliverance. The blast calls us to stop, reflect, rejoice! Rosh HaShanah is a time of renewal. Rabbi puts it plainly: "Rosh HaShanah announces the reign of the Perfect King—the King who does not remain distant but enters the lives of His people."

This season reveals a King who reigns and draws near. He descends and enters into our suffering. He sits in the hospital room. He waits in the jail cell. He stands in the food line. Recall the parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew’s gospel (Matt 25). “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You? Or thirsty and give You something to drink? (Matt 25;37). And the King will say to them, “Amen, I tell you, whatever you did to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Matt 25;40).

Turns out, the King (our King) is hidden among the vulnerable and needy! And on that final Day of Judgment, He doesn’t ask, "Did you recognize Me?" But "Did you feed Me? Did you visit Me? Did you welcome Me? Significantly, in Matthew 25, neither group recognizes the King among the vulnerable. But the sheep serve him without realizing it—and inherit the Kingdom. The goats pass him by without realizing it—and are sent away. But the invisible King has been there all along—not watching from a distant throne, but present within human frailty, participating in our anguish.

My faith is proven not by claiming to recognize him but by concretely caring for the hungry, the stranger, and the imprisoned. In faithfulness, hunger gives way to nourishment, a stranger is welcomed, dignity is restored. The forgotten are remembered. And Messiah counts it as righteousness! Faith is not built on “correct answers” but open hands. Faith is revealed in how I live.

Jewish New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine makes a fascinating observation—the sheep and goats in Matthew 25 aren't separated by whether they worshiped Yeshua—they're separated by whether their Emunah, their faith, "had legs." Belief that never leaves the synagogue isn't belief the King recognizes. It's just noise before the throne. To be clear, it is not the work, the action that saves me, but rather, the action reveals. In John 14;6, Yeshua says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life! No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Messiah occupies the throne of HaShem. In weakness, trouble, hardship, persecution, hunger, poverty, danger, and war—we are waiting. But we are not alone. It’s tempting to quote all of Romans 8 right here, but in these Days of Awe, hold on to this truth, “If God is for us, who can be against us? Who will bring a charge against G-d’s [chosen people]?” (Rom. 8;31,33). If our King is for us, the only faithful response is to be for someone else.