A friend of mine recently gave me a tallit as a gift. A tallit, for those who may not know, is a Jewish prayer shall. This particular tallit is of the messianic kind (made by and for cultural and ethnic Jews who believe in Jesus as the Messiah), and therefore often times given to non-Jewish Christians as a reminder of the Jewishness of Jesus and the Gospel.
The tallit is adorned with all sorts of symbolic accents. For example, it has knotted chords (tzitzit) on the four corners of the shawl. This is in compliance with Numbers 15:38 as a reminder of the Torah and the importance of obeying the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) for God’s covenant people. The shawl itself is to be wrapped around the head and shoulders of the believer as they pray. Among many things, this represents being wrapped in the presence of God during prayer.
The tallit, with all its symbolic meaning, is an outward sign of an inward reality. This resonates with the spirit of the commands of the first five books of he Old Testament. That is, the world knows the Jews because of the outwards signs and symbols; things like clothing, dietary laws, and sabbath observance. In other words, the world is able to identify God’s chosen people because of how they dress and what they eat (not that different from groups like the Amish, or more orthodox Muslim women who wear hijab and niqad).
As Christians, how does the world know us a part? Our stance on homosexuality? Whether we vote red or blue? Whether or not we support the state of Israel? What we eat (or don’t eat)? For some people these things are true, but not for all.
Did you know that Jesus teaches very explicitly how the world will know who his disciples are? In John 13:35 Jesus says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (ESV). This is surprisingly simple, if we’re talking about the biblical definition of love (1 Corinthians 13). If there was any question among Jesus’ followers as to what true love looked like, they were all answered the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus says, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13, NLT).
Said in simpler terms, the identifying mark of the Christian is the one who looks like Jesus. It’s not what we wear, it’s not what we eat, or how we vote; rather, it is whether or not we share the character of Christ. Paul sums it up for us with this, “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: who being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death–even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:5–8).
