The Jewish Jesus And Senior Christians

The Jewish Jesus supported respect for those who are elderly. He followed the Laws of Moses where it is clearly said:

Honor thy father and thy mother (Exo 29:12). Of course for the children their respect is rooted in the love and care they received from parents. Being parents and who will indeed grow older, these children are at no time excused from honoring and respecting their father or mother. The Jewish Jesus did not change this practice and conduct of righteousness.

As to others outside the immediate family circle, respect was to be given as a matter of one's esteem of age (see Lev 19:32). There is nothing here that says we have to agree with anything in the life of those who are older, but we are told to rise up and honor the face of an old man. I hold this to also mean for senior women as well. I cannot find a single place where Jesus or the Apostles mistreated the elderly.

Honor and respect is indeed something earned. I remember some time back I met a person who received an award. I had nothing to do with the award. But I found myself thinking how this person deserved it. And because I had this attitude, I was respectful to the person and praised him getting it. I was not jealous. I had no desire to belittle the award to make it nothing of value. And I had nothing in me to find fault that he had no right to get it. It was given by someone who valued his contribution to community service. It was here my heart was in union with the person who presented it. I also respect the time, money, effort, and service rendered. While he did not earn the award from me, I respected and honored him for his own achievement. And thus, I have learned that the Jewish Jesus wants us to honor and respect the elderly who have done so much to love, to sooth hurts, to bandage wounds, to comfort those who are dying, and who spend a lot of hours just being there. One thing the elderly have learned, is that the time they have left they want to be a help some way to others. I can honor and respect that.

It is because of the teachings of the Jewish Jesus that the Apostles respected the elderly. Here is what the Apostle said:

"The elderly women, as mothers" (1Tim 5:2).

Then we have Paul who deal with widows and how they were to be treated. This was not just a Christian thing. It was Jewish practice for Jews to honor the elderly and widows. God hated abuse of the elderly widows (1Sam 10:2). Jesus rebuked the money-hungry reprobates who took the houses of widows (Mat. 23:14). And when the Church was infant, many elderly widows could no longer look to the Temple cults for sympathy for their daily needs, they gathered to obtain food from the Believers. It was here in Acts 6:1, that these elderly came together and were ministered to daily by the Church. Paul talks about honoring widows who are widows indeed (1Tim 5:3). Pure religion has for one of its great conducts the care of the widows (James 1:27).

The Jewish Jesus would never accept elderly abuse. He would never agree with treating them with disrespect. At the heart of elderly mistreatment are people who have little love for anyone they do not want to be bothered with. Families don't want to be bothered by an ageing mother or father and so send them off to care centers where they seldom or ever visit. They can't wait until they die to get the estate settled and they get their portion. They do not go and sit and talk, read, or do things with them. And God forbid they become invalid, they are no more a person loved but baggage, a nuisance, or a waste.

The Jewish Jesus loves old people. Now how would I know this?

He loved Adam and Eve and they died in their 900s.

He loved Noah and he was about 500 yrs old.

He loved Moses who was 80 years old.

And how can we forget the two old men, Nicodemus and Joseph, who begged the body of Jesus and took him down from the Cross. And wonder if you ever thought about it, how Joseph put him in his own tomb where in a few years as his old age ended, he would have been buried. Yes, Jesus was buried in the tomb of an old man who knew he would soon die.

And here we have the elderly giving respect to Jesus.

What of Rufus, who carried the Cross of Jesus. He was likely an older man as well. And there in the most important day of human history, the elderly were present to show the world there is plenty of love in them, they just need a way to let it out.

As I visited the nursing home some time back, I saw a young grandaughter leaving her grandmother. My what a bond there was between them. The grandmother in the most tender words a mouth could speak told her, " I love you." The granddaugher returned the love with a hug and a reply: " I love you too."

It is quite obvious to me that when God appears in the book of Revelation as the ancient of days, he does so as an elderly person with white hair (). And to me, this indicates not only wisdom and longevity, but that being seen as elderly is only a way we observe age. But when we observe a person as a person, we do not look at hair color, age, but at them for who and what they are in our life.

The Jewish Jesus still has open arms for all the elderly. He wants all of them to be saved. He has offered to all salvation as we find in Acts 2:38.

The church has a ministry for the youth, but where is it for the elderly?

The Jewish Jesus I know loves senior Believers because I am finding myself to be one more and more. And I hope he does not stop loving me because my hair is getting grey, or I walk with a limp, or I tire easily, or I have need sometimes for others to minister to me.

The Jewish Jesus and Senior Christians, I want to see this in heaven.