He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 16:16-17)
Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” (Mk 14:61-2)
[Jesus] said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Lk 24:25-6)
The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” (Jn 4:25-26)
Father, you have sent your Son, foretold through the prophets, to be the long-awaited Messiah of the Jewish people, and thus, to be their king and mine.
Jesus was a Jew. Peter was a Jew. Paul was a Jew. James, John, Thomas, Phillip and Silas were all Jews. Almost all of Jesus’ first followers were Jews. Jesus came to the Jewish people with a distinctly Jewish message, and the entire New Testament oozes Judaism. There can be no question that faith in Jesus is Jewish.
I know. It sounds weird. Some people think I am contradicting myself — trying to pass off some religious version of a round square. But they do not understand Jesus. The babe in Bethlehem is not chapter one of the story. It is the continuation of a story that had been going on for thousands of years. And that story is distinctly Jewish. Even the very word “Christ” is merely the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah” or Anointed One, the long-awaited Hebrew king. Whenever you say that so-and-so is a Christian, what you are really saying is that she is part of something distinctly Jewish.
Jesus was a Jew who came to the Jews. He gave them a completely Jewish message and claimed for Himself a uniquely Jewish identity. When He did so, He divided His own people. Some loved Him and gave their lives to follow Him; some bitterly opposed Him. Many came to see a miracle; many came to hear Him teach; but some came to trap Him. Few who heard Him were neutral. He inspired adoration and anger. A Jew living in Galilee or Judea in AD 30 had an opinion one way or the other about the rabbi Yeshua.
To the Jewish people, certainly the central question surrounding the identity of this new rabbi was this: “Is he the promised Messiah?” The squabble over that question was an entirely internal Jewish affair. It was like a great big family disagreement. Have you ever seen family argue?
“Sam, why did you stay home when I needed you to come? You don’t love me.”
“Of course I love you, Mandy. That’s why I didn’t come. My presence would not have helped you. It’s time to grow up.”
The family may argue over whether Sam loves Mandy, but much of the argument centers on this question: “How do you define love?” Sam and Mandy disagree on that definition, but it is the key to whether or not Sam shows love to his sister. Something like this is going on between Jesus and the Jewish people of his day. On the surface, the question looks like “Is he the Messiah?” In reality, the question is “What defines Messiah?”
To the Jewish people, Messiah could mean different things, but perhaps the most popular concept of Messiah in Jesus’ day was that of a conquering political or military leader who would deliver his people from the oppression of pagan nations. He would be a king, the son of David.
Any plain reading of the gospels shows that this rabbi Jesus considered Himself to be Messiah. But his concept of Messiah was bigger than the popular concept. To Jesus, Messiah had to suffer. This idea was foreign to the popular notion and understandably so. Conquering kings are not generally portrayed as suffering and dying. But to Jesus, the idea of a suffering Messiah came from the Jewish Scriptures. Isaiah 53 speaks of a suffering servant who brings peace and healing to Israel through his suffering, a man who bears the sorrows and sins of the people and who is crushed as a guilt offering. Though he is rejected, he will be called great. To Jesus, this man is Messianic. To Jesus, this suffering does not negate the fact that the Messiah is a conquering king. To Jesus, Messiah is big enough to encompass both categories. That is why he can call himself Messiah and still say that he will die.
To many first century Jews, Jesus’ crucifixion was evidence enough that he could not have been Messiah. No Messiah would ever die such a death. To Jesus and his followers, however, the crucifixion was part of the evidence that he was Messiah. Through His death He delivered his people from a bondage greater than that of Rome. And his Resurrection from the dead conquers a foe much stronger and more significant than any king could ever imagine. Jesus went through death in order to vanquish it. This is not the popular Jewish concept of Messiah. It is much more surprising. It is also greater.
But the suffering that Jesus said Messiah would endure is not the only problem that many Jews had with him. To Jesus and his followers, Messiah was also the Son of God (Mt 16:16). At one level, this claim is more compatible with common Jewish ideas, for many Jews believed that Messiah would have supernatural origins. In fact, Psalm 2 expressly identifies Messiah as God’s Son. But the Jewish people did not imagine anything like Jesus’ claim to be God in the flesh. That idea would have been foreign to most Jewish thinking. In this sense, Messiah is more exalted than the popular Jewish notions.
Thus, the picture that Jesus paints of Messiah is of a servant who suffers and dies (Mt 16:13-23) and of a glorious figure coming on the clouds of heaven (Mk 14:61-2). To Jesus, Messiah is at the same time lower and higher than the most popular Jewish notions of him. Jesus took the idea of Messiah to a new level, or perhaps I should say to multiple levels. But he certainly did not fit the box. In fact, when certain Jews tried to make him king by force, he rejected the attempt (Jn 6:15). He was not that type of king.
Indeed, even his followers did not fully understand. They saw his miracles, heard his teachings and believed on that basis, but that did not mean that they comprehended what they believed. The claim of the New Testament is that the real Messiah transcended all human expectations of him. Jesus was much more humble and glorious than anyone ever thought Messiah could be.
Thus, Christianity is Jewish. But it is more than Jewish. It is for the world. The promised Messiah was to be a light to the Gentiles (Is 49:6). The God that the Jews worshipped has revealed himself to all peoples, but he has done so in a distinctly Jewish way. We bow before the king of the Jews.
