It's funny (but not funny haha) how conservative Christians manage to almost completely overlook the central themes of the teachings of Jesus that have come down to us.

Jesus was a Jewish mystic and reformer who taught that Jewish lovingkindness ideals were being overlooked by contemporary leaders among both the Pharasee and Saducee sects.

Ironically, and not because of Jesus's teachings, which did not have an impact, Judaism itself evolved to further embrace lovingkindness as its central theme. The Pharasees were responsible for centering that theme after the Roman conquest and destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Rabbinic Judaism as it exists today grew from the Pharasee sect. The Sadducees, centered around the Temple cult, ceased to exist.

Jewish teachings today (and historically) much more resemble Jesus's teachings about loving neighbors as self, while conservative Christian teachings much more resemble the religious judgementalism Jesus denounced by word and deed.

Michael Brown is a Jew who converted to Evangelical Christianity. I don't think there's anything wrong with that in principle, although most Jews take great offense at Christians like Brown who called themselves Messianic Jews. (Most so-called Messianic Jews in North America, by the way, are not converts from Judaism like Brown is. Most do not have Jewish roots at all. They are simply participating in a sect of Christianity that they prefer over other sects of Christianity.)

My point, though, is that I find it highly ironic that Messianic Jews, who are among the most conservative of evangelical Christians, manage, like Brown, to mostly reject Jesus's actual teachings about lovingkindness — even while contemporary Judaism strongly embraces those values, even though they didn't get them from Jesus.

I think if Jesus were alive today, he would not be urging reform in Judaism; he would be urging reform in Christianity.