Jewish Roots

When I read Luke's account of the birth of John the Baptist, I am struck at the author's highlighting the Jewishness of Zechariah and Elizabeth.  In  the face of developing bitterness between those Jews who followed the way of Jesus and  those who followed the way of the rabbis, Luke wants to make it clear that Christianity has its roots in Judaism.  At the very beginning of his Gospel in this well-told story he gives us a lovely picture of a Jewish neighborhood gathered for the circumcision of this little baby (1:57-66;80.)
It didn't take long for this early bitterness to grow among Christians into a mean anti-Judaism and eventually over centuries to grow into the cruel prejudice of anti-Semitism.  Reading Luke's Gospel is like a racist finding out that his ancestors were black.