Jun

24

Jesus: the radical Messiah - Jewish ideals

June 24, 2008 |

Posted by ben hind · Filed Under Christology, Theology 

Wikipedia article on ‘Messiah’: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah

Many Jewish leaders throughout history have claimed to be the Messiah (click here for quite a long list). Most notably Simon bar Kokhba (here), who lead a revolt against the Roman occupation of Israel in 132AD. Which by some twist of fate succeeded, becoming it’s prince. And ruled for 3 years… before being dethroned 2 years later. But none quite like Jesus.

The main belief among Jews, especially during the time of Jesus, was that the Messiah was to be the King of Israel (Messiah meaning ‘anointed one’, as Jewish kings were anointed with oil at their coronation). A King of Davidic descent to be exact. Who would come to rule from Jerusalem, overthrow the Roman rule over Israel, judge the world, and bring about the ‘Messianic age’ of peace and prosperity. This would all be done, obviously, through force, violence and a lot of fighting. This doesn’t sound like the Jesus of the gospels.

Culminating in the gospels as Jesus walks towards Jerusalem, Jesus needs to break the news to His disciples. You can understand why the disciples didn’t understand Jesus speaking of His future death. But surely the Messiah was to be King, not crucified? And even in the garden as Peter draws his sword to cut a guards ear off (not a very good swordsman, obviously) you sense that the disciples still haven’t ‘got’ it yet. And neither has anyone else.

Just as Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling yet another Messianic prophecy (Zechariah 9:9), the crowds hail Him as King of the Jews. And King of the Jews He is, but not in the way they expect. The mood changes quickly as Jesus is arrested and taken before the Sanhedrin and Pilate to be judged. Quite the opposite of being the ‘judge of the world’, don’t you think? The one who was once hailed as the Messiah is given a crown of thorns, a mock purple robe, is bowed before in ridicule, and is sign posted ‘King of the Jews’ at His defeat.

You can understand why the disciples ran away afterwards, and why the Gentiles seemed far more ready to receive Jesus as Christ than Jews as Messiah. Jesus didn’t seem to fit the bill for the Jews of His day, or many Jews of this day for that matter. This all makes one wonder, what is Jesus trying to accomplish by all this? Was He not the promised Messiah that would restore Israel and judge the world? Why didn’t He take the opportunity to be King when He had so many who would willingly follow Him to battle?

To be continued…


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