Jesus Who? November 11, 12, & 15, 2007
Jesus The Christ
Jesus the Messiah
It may be surprising, but “Christ” is not Jesus’ last name. It is a title, and a description. “Christ” is from the Greek word that translated the Hebrew word “Messiah:” They both mean “Anointed One.” In Jesus’ day, people were anointed with oil – it was poured on the tops of their head to signify that they were set apart and approved for leadership – usually this was done for kings and Priests.
But the title “Anointed One,” or “Messiah,” or “Christ” is different than just any king or priest being anointed. The title was reserved for “The One.” For centuries the Jews believed that God was going to send them a leader who would restore Israel’s relationship with God, renew the nation to it’s former glory and bring in the Kingdom or “reign” of God. The question is, “Is Jesus this Messiah?”
If you are looking for the Messiah that the Jews expected, the answer would have to be no. It could be argued that this is why he was killed – he looked enough like their Messiah to get them excited, but different enough to dash their hopes. But, along the lines that God often gives us what we need rather than what we want or expect; Jesus is the Christ.
NT Wright, in his book “The Challenge of Jesus,” argues that any Messiah would have to do two things to be considered the true Messiah: he would have to fight a great battle against the forces of evil, and he would have to rebuild or renew the temple. Wright says that you cannot be the Messiah without these two aspects. If you look at Jesus, he never took up arms against to oppressor, and when he died, the Temple was just as it was before he began his ministry. The closest he got to renewing the temple was to drive out the merchants, money changers, and chachka sellers from the courtyard of the nations. In A.D. 70 the temple was completely destroyed by the Romans, never to be built again.
Was he at best a failed Messiah?
When the John the Baptist first encountered Jesus in his ministry, he proclaimed loud and clear that Jesus is the Messiah. John is out in the wilderness preaching, and baptizing people who want to ready themselves for the coming Christ, he sees Jesus and in a prophetic outburst, proclaims "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ’A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel."
In a relatively short time, Herod has John arrested, John is languishing in prison and he is getting reports bout what Jesus is doing – he is not preparing for a great battle, and he has not paid much attention to the Temple. Instead he is walking around the countryside telling cryptic stories about God’s Kingdom and healing people. Instead of gathering an army, he sends his disciples out to tell the people that the Kingdom is here, and to heal those who are sick. This is not the way things were supposed to go. John sends some of his followers to Jesus to ask “"Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"
4 Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me."
7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. 9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written:
" ’I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’
Jesus seems to find a way to say yes he is the Messiah without using the word yes.
God was not in the whirlwind… clip from The Nativity Story - God seldom works the way we expect.
God isn’t trying to trick us, but he does make us pay attention. The people were waiting for a great warrior king, and God sent them a suffering servant.
Wright says that Jesus completely redefines the two main aspects of the Messiah and then he fulfills them. In redefining them, he doesn’t make it easier, he goes beyond everyone’s dreams and imaginations
The temple: -
In John’s Gospel after Jesus drives the moneychangers out of the temple, the rulers are a little ticked, and they ask him;
"What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"
19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
20 They replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
- John 2
This was one of those very important, but cryptic statements that Jesus would make. He would restore the temple – but not the way that was expected: all that the temple represented – the presence of God, forgiveness through sacrifice, would reside in himself
This is what Wright says: p 65
“He would not rebuild the Temple in a physical sense. He would become the place, and the means, whereby that for which the Temple stood would become a reality. He would be the reality to which the sacrificial system pointed. He had regularly, throughout his ministry, acted in such a way as to bypass the Temple and its system, offering forgiveness to all and sundry on his own authority. He now went to his death, indicating in his last great symbolic praxis that a way was being opened through which that which was normally obtained by the sacrificial system was now to be obtained through him.”
God’s plan in Jesus is much bigger than the temple in Jerusalem could ever be. It is not about redeeming a nation, it is about redeeming creation.
The great deciding Battle
Not with the Romans – with evil itself, once again because the plan is not just for Israel, but for the cosmos – the problem is not the Romans, the problem is a broken relationship: Our broken relationship with God, which has meant that the whole world is broken.
Temptation in the wilderness and Jesus’ encounters with the demonic are early skirmishes that lead up to the decisive battle that is the Cross. The church got the deep irony and years after his death would use the symbol of a defeated Messiah to proclaim the victory of Jesus.
This is what Wright says of that battle: p 65
“More especially, he would fight the messianic battle. He had already laid down its terms: he who saves his life will lose it, but he who loses his life will gain it. Instead of the insults and threats that the martyrs had hurled at their accusers, Jesus, as the entire many-sided early Christian tradition bears witness, suffered in silence, except for words of forgiveness and hope. This is so remarkable an innovation into the martyr-tradition that it is quite inexplicable unless it is true to the historical facts. Having been known for his remarkable compassion throughout his public work, Jesus’ last great act drew into one that giving of himself for others to which the early Church referred so regularly and with such awe.”
So Jesus fulfills the role that the Messiah must fulfill, but in ways that no one would have ever imagined. This is one of the reasons that I believe in Jesus the Christ – no one could make this stuff up!
Peter’s declaration
In the story that we have been using as a structure for this course, Jesus asks his disciples "Who do the crowds say I am?"
19 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life."
20 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Peter answered, "God’s Messiah." – Luke 9
This is one place where I’m pretty impressed with Peter – against all the signs he knows that Jesus is the Messiah. Even after living and traveling with him for close to three years, he still thinks that Jesus is the Messiah. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never thought that anyone that I’ve lived with or traveled with was anywhere near being the Messiah – you get to know people a little too well to have any illusions about them.
In Matthew’s account, Jesus says, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.”
What Peter and John didn’t have that we have is the hindsight of prophetic fulfillment. If you pick up the Old Testament and start to read it looking for prophetic words about the coming Messiah, even from a simple reading, and then comparison with Jesus’ life you’ll be amazed at how he fulfills the prophesies regarding the Messiah. Matthew’s Gospel just seems to love the word “fulfill.” Matthew will tell a story, and then talk about how it fulfills a specific prophecy. He does this at least 16 times, the other Gospels bring the number up to 37 times. There are some Bible scholars that count 300 prophesies that Jesus fulfills. It would be impossible to arrange your life to do all of this. I would be particularly hard to arrange the 29 major prophesies fulfilled in his trials and death, impossible to plan to fulfill the prophesies around his birth!
All of this tells me, that yes Jesus is the Messiah.
But what does that have to do with me, a 21st century non-Jew?
Back to the cleansing of the Temple – The temple had at its core a place called the holy of holies – the holiest place where one priest would enter into the presence of God one a year to make atonement. Outside of that was the priests’ court, where the priests could come to worship, outside of that was the court of Israel, for the Jewish men, outside that the woman’s court, and then outside of that, and down some stairs was the Gentiles court. In this place, even if you were not Jewish, you could come and Worship God. This was because the Jews believed that God was not just the God of Israel, and if you left Israel you would move out of his territory. No, they believed that the God that they worshiped was the creator of all things and the God of all gods. And they knew that God had called them to be a light to the Gentiles, calling everyone back to worship the one true God. – a pretty audacious claim for such a small little country! They had the court of the Gentiles, so that when we Gentiles saw the light, we would have a pace to come and worship the one true God. It was in the court of the Gentiles that the moneychangers and sellers of animals for sacrifice had set up their booths. It meant that if you or I went there to worship, we would have to do so in the middle of an open market! It pointed to the total disregard that the people had to their call to be a light to the nations. (compare church) By driving out the sellers, Jesus was making room for you and I to worship. – a symbolic act – in that the whole temple system would be replaced by Jesus himself.
Now by taking the place of the temple himself, he is welcoming people of all times and places, races and gender to come and worship through him. He allows us to live reconciled lives with our creator and father.
Go figure – God, wanting to restore his creation back to the good he created it would choose a little nation to reveal himself, and in that little nation, that wasn’t even a nation anymore he would send a Messiah who would win creation back through love, sacrifice and goodness.
