Book Report: Finding Messiah by Jennifer M. Rosner

Dr. Rosner’s memoir is a signal contribution to the ongoing development of Messianic Judaism in the popular consciousness of God’s covenant-keeping people. My only difficulty in this review is the conflict that I experience in wanting you to go buy the book while also wanting to tell you all about it right now! When it comes to the place of the Messianic Jew among God’s people, whether you have found yourself vehemently opposed to their existence, enthusiastically in support of their story, marginally intrigued by their potentialities, or patently ignorant of any of the implications - this book is for you to engage and learn and grow as a result.

Truly, I can think of no better starting point to enter into the difficult discussions of this space than Jen’s book, Finding Messiah. If you are brand new to these ideas, then you will find Jen standing before you with open hands and heart, inviting you into friendship alongside of her, to explore the gamut of our Father’s covenantal story in the world all the way from the epics of the Scriptures to the perils of Church History to her own exciting narrative. If you are someone who is staunch in their position regarding Israel and Judaism, whatever side of the spectrum you hold to, then I guarantee - you will be challenged here. And I believe that you would be softened as well… if you would allow it.

As you have observed, I have referred to the author as Jen as well as Dr. Rosner. I think when you read the story, you will understand why. You cannot help but feel authentic companionship in the way that she relates the incisive elements of her account, from the hope-giving to the heart-breaking. Then she also has the tender ability to diffuse high scholarly considerations into everyday language, which is rare given the typical parlance of an academic. You will encounter the professor as a friend; you will find yourself sitting with “just Jen” right there at your reading table.

For all the accolades that I could bestow upon this book and the author, the single most amazing quality that she evokes throughout the work is compassion. In the most classical sense of the word, you discover Jen’s suffering right in the midst of the plight of Jews throughout history. Yet she does not vilify the Church even as she stares unflinching into the abyss of Jewish persecution. Rather, Dr. Rosner invites both sides, Jew and Christian, to reckon with the good that each community has exemplified and to consider, at least for a moment, how things might have gone had the early believers not found themselves sundered from each other during the first few centuries following the Advent of our Messiah. From that perspective, you begin to feel the improbable yet phenomenal station that the Messianic Jew inhabits this very day. Reading this book will enliven your compassion too, because you simply cannot help but to feel the grittiness and the tenderness all the way through.

Messianic Judaism is a necessary bridge between God’s people; Finding Messiah is an electrical synapse in the Body of the Master; Dr. Rosner is a gifted and worthy beacon among His emissaries.