Why Don't Messianic Jews Wear Crosses?

My wife was recently asked why she didn’t wear a cross necklace. The person seemed distraught and maybe even a bit offended that she chose not to do so. To understand why Messianic Jews do not display Christian symbols such as this requires understanding of the power of symbols and the history of Jewish-Christian relations.

It is important for us to realize that people have different reactions to the same symbol. For example, white Southerners may look at a confederate flag and take pride in their heritage. It may generate memories of hearth and home, good southern cooking, the friendliness that the South is known for, and so forth.  To an African-American, however, it is a symbol of slavery, oppression, and suffering. Two very different reactions to the same symbol.

In like manner, members of the LGBTQ+ community see a rainbow flag and may feel joy, pride, and a feeling of security. People who disagree with that lifestyle can react much differently. They may feel that their religious and family values are threatened. Again, two different reactions to the same symbol.

So it is with crosses. When a Christian looks at a cross, it invokes warm feelings about God’s mercy, sacrificial love, and salvation for the world. For a Jew, it is more akin to the confederate flag for an African-American; it can denote oppression, a history of pogroms, forced conversions, and anti-Semitism.  

This reaction is due to the long and dark history of relations between Jews and Christians; a history that many modern Christians are unaware of. When the movie “The Passion of the Christ” came out, I was telling a good friend of mine about the negative reaction to the movie by the Jewish Community. She, as a devout Christian, couldn’t understand why. She blurted out “It is about sacrificial love, how can that be seen negatively?!” I then proceeded to explain to her that this is a movie version of an Easter Passion Play. In the Middle Ages, Christians put on these plays that quite often erupted into mobs going after the “Christ-killers” raining death and destruction upon their Jewish neighbors. The concern of the Jewish community, even here in America, was that this movie might lead to acts of anti-Semitic violence.

This conversation led me to create a lecture called “The Passion About the Passion” where I detailed the long and sad history of persecution of Jews by Christians in the name of Christ. I was invited to speak at a church and decided to present this material. I talked about the forced conversions, expulsions from countries, the Inquisition, and the like. Their reaction was stunned silence. As they somberly filed out of the sanctuary, one person came up to me and whispered, “We had no idea”. She was nearly in tears.

So while the cross is a symbol of love and sacrifice for a Christian, it can mean something entirely different to a Jewish person. Some Christians, wanting to express their love for Israel, will wear a Star of David with a cross on it. Wanting to display love and respect, instead they are unknowingly displaying something that can be quite offensive.

A foundational tenet of Messianic Judaism is that although we are followers of Yeshua (Jesus) we are still very much a part of the Jewish people; we are still Jews. This is our message. Faith in Israel’s Messiah does not require Jews to quit being Jews, as the church has so often taught throughout the last two thousand years. In fact, we believe that faith in Yeshua enhances our Judaism and drives us to be more faithful to the covenant that God established between Himself and Israel through Moses. How can we, as members of that community, wear a symbol that invokes such negative feelings and memories? We cannot. It would send a message to our fellow Jews that we identify with that dark history, and that we see ourselves not as Jews, but as Christians who used to be Jews. In short, we would denote ourselves as Hebrew Christians rather than Messianic Jews.

In fact, Messianic Jews, as members of the Jewish people and co-heirs of this dark history of Jewish-Christian relations, should themselves feel a bit uneasy and ambivalent with the symbol of the cross. This statement may be seen as shocking to some, but I hope that this article has helped to explain why I can make such a statement.

We love Messiah Yeshua. We seek to faithfully follow his teachings as any Christian does. Choosing not to wear a cross in no way undermines our devotion and commitment to him.  And we know that our Christian brothers and sisters do not intend for the cross to denote oppression and suffering, but in fact the opposite; sacrificial love and mercy. But we are also Jews, and because of the horrific twisting of the Yeshua’s message by the Enemy throughout the ages, we cannot in good conscience wear a symbol that is so beloved by the church.

Does this mean that we feel Christians should also not wear crosses? By no means! It is a meaningful and beloved symbol of God’s love and Jesus’ sacrifice for the world. The cross is as much a part of their identity as the Star of David is for Jews. Messianic Jews should encourage Christians to use and display their symbols, as they bolster their faith and devotion to God and His Messiah.