“PHLLIP”

(As told by Mimi Finesilver)

For a summer I had opportunity to participate in the “1-800-Messiah Line Project.” On a Monday evening, I answered and in a very hushed voice I heard, “Tell me about Messiah.” After asking the voice at the other end of the phone a few questions, although he was guarded in his answers, it became clear that this was a man who was being drawn by our Lord. I began sharing with him from the Jewish Bible (The “Tanakh”). He spoke little, but when I finished reading Isaiah 53, I asked him if he would like to hear something from one of the gospels regarding Jesus, who claimed to be Messiah. Given permission, I began reading from the beginning of John’s Gospel. The telephone conversation ended quite abruptly. He did thank me, but then he was gone.

However, on Tuesday evening, at approximately the same time I again answered, “1-800-Messiah - this is Mimi, can I help you?” In the same hushed voice I heard, “Tell me about Messiah.” After about ten minutes of reading from the New Testament, I said, “Okay, you know my name – what’s yours?” “Phillip.” From the point of disclosure with his name, Phillip began sharing more regarding his identity. He was an Hasidic Jewish man living in Crown Heights. This is a very cloistered community, with the men dressed in traditional long black coats, black hats, and wearing side curls (called payos), based on their traditional interpretation of Leviticus 19:27.

Phillip was so immersed in the Hasidic community that he needed to secretly enter a pharmacy outside of his community and use their pay phone to call me. When he phoned again on Wednesday, quite quickly into our conversation, I asked Phillip if he believed Jesus to truly be the Messiah promised to the Jewish people. He unequivocally acknowledged belief, and when I questioned him further, he also acknowledged belief that Jesus had died for his sins. We then prayed over the phone, Phillip in a drugstore somewhere in Brooklyn and me in an office in midtown Manhattan.

Phillip, the next afternoon, presented himself to our headquarters. Yes, he looked nervous and tentative, but he did walk in – dressed in his traditional Hasidic garb and into a building that proclaimed inside were Jews who believed in Jesus. That day we learned that Phillip was a diamond cutter, again in an environment comprised exclusively of Hasidic Jews. Yet from within this insulated community, the irresistible voice of Jesus had been calling to Philip. He also shared with us that while cutting diamonds with his fellow Hasidim, Phillip wore earphones and had his radio tuned to a Christian station coming out of New Jersey! Also during his lunch hour, he went to a Barnes & Noble, went over to the religion section, picked up a New Testament, and then hurriedly moved to the science fiction section. For the next 45 minutes or so Phillip would read about the One who was drawing him.

I wish I knew where Phillip is today. Yet the Bible does not tell us what became of Nicodemus either . . . it is my prayer that Phillip is enjoying the liberty only Christ can provide.

“I am the good shepherd and I know My sheep . .

My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me.”