Grieving on Purpose
Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, begins at sundown on April 27. The Hebrew word “shoah” שׁוֹאָה is used 11 times in 10 verses in the Tanakh (Old Testament Scriptures). It is translated into English as “waste, tempest, destruction, onslaught, devastation, or storm.” Each word is an apt but inadequate descriptor of the carefully orchestrated, systematic murder of six million Jews,[1] perpetrated by the Nazi party between 1933 and 1945.[2]
Imagine six million losses. Calculate the impact of wiping out every living soul in 222 cities the size of Life in Messiah’s “hometown” of Lansing Illinois or the combined populations of Los Angeles and Chicago.
Make it more personal – consider the impact on your family if one third of them (parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins) were killed during that same twelve-year period.[3] Remember, it is not just those killed during the Shoah who are missing from your family; those who might have been born to them are lost as well.
How many branches of your tree would be missing or barren?
Would you even be here?
Numbers alone are only a part of the grief. Over the centuries, millions of people have been lost to war, famine, and ethnic cleansings. But the Shoah’s systematic, science-supported, industrialized mass-destruction of Jewish people made it a new grotesque “gift” to the world, a lethal potion of human depravity and technical ingenuity.
The unmitigated hatred that fueled the Shoah is incomprehensible. Sociological factors of rage over a crumbling economy and political malfeasance cannot explain the murderous violence or just-as-deadly indifference toward neighbors, co-workers, and friends, who just happened to be Jewish. Even among those proudly Christian in identity, few spoke up. Fewer still stood up to say “Stop!” to the aggressors, or “Let me help you” to the victims.
The Shoah is not just history to my people. It is a living memory shaping how we see ourselves in the world and the ever-present growing threats to our existence. We cannot process the current increase of anti-Jewish violence in places such as Brooklyn New York, Paris France, or Tel Aviv Israel without passing it through the lens of the Shoah.
Understanding Yom HaShoah is essential for all who claim a love for Jewish people. Failure to enter into its grief casts doubt on love’s sincerity and dims the light of Messiah Yeshua’s good news.
We at Life in Messiah encourage you to stand with the Jewish people in the commemoration of Yom HaShoah. Not as an expression of personal guilt for past events in which you did not participate, or even out of grief for the church’s past failures. Participate as a loving friend “grieving with those who grieve.” Attend a commemoration service in a local synagogue, Jewish ministry on campus, or Jewish community center. If nothing is offered locally, take part in an online observance.[4] Do not be shy about it – sympathetic Gentiles are welcome!
Above all we encourage you to pray during Yom HaShoah. Pray for God’s beloved Jewish people and Life in Messiah staff serving among them:
For physical protection and wise response as violent antisemitism rises globally.
For spiritual awakening – to see in the Shoah the depth of human sin, and everyone’s need for God’s forgiveness in Messiah.
For Life in Messiah’s frontline workers to lovingly and patiently dismantle the cultural barriers erected to Jesus and “Christianity” in response to the Shoah.
For Messiah’s church around the world to take public, corporate, and practical stands against antisemitism, be it local, national, or international.
Thank you for standing with us and God’s people. May our hearts resonate with Paul’s words:
“I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”[5]
Written by Dan, Board Chair
How might the Lord be calling you to stand with the Jewish people and against antisemitism?
What local event might you be able to attend during this year’s Yom HaShoah to show your support?
Consider watching this Christian apology video and sharing with your Jewish friends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMrNNWmO30M&t=3s.
Endnotes:
[1] The Nazis were responsible for the extermination of approximately 11 million people in total, but their attack on the Jewish people was supported and abetted by many from the nations they conquered.
[2] Adolf Hitler was appointed German Chancellor January 30, 1933. World War II ended in Europe on May 8, 1945.
[3] Approximately 30% of Europe’s Jewish population was destroyed in the Holocaust; in some cases entire families and towns of extended families were annihilated.
[4] Try searching “online Yom HaShoah event 2022” in the search engine of your choice.
[5] The Apostle Paul’s heart for his people as expressed in Romans 9:1-5.