Seeing Is Believing

Seeing is Believing

Luke 7:18-23

Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Luke 7:18 -23 The disciples of John also reported to him about all these things. 19 And after summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are You the Coming One, or are we to look for another?” 20 When the men came to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, to ask, ‘Are You the Coming One, or are we to look for another?’” 21 At that very time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits; and He gave sight to many who were blind. 22 And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: people who were blind receive sight, people who limped walk, people with leprosy are cleansed and people who were deaf hear, dead people are raised up, and people who are poor have the gospel preached to them. 23 “And blessed is 1anyone who does not take offense at Me.”

Seeing is believing. In the first trilogy of Star Wars, in the last movie titled return of the Jedi, at the very end, when Darth Vader was about to die, he said to his son Luke “remove my mask so I can see you with my own eyes.” When I read the passage in Luke chapter 7 verses 18 to 23 that scene immediately came into my mind. What we have two of John the Baptist disciples coming to Jesus and asking him if he is the one that they should expect. It is an interesting question, and it assumes that the reader knows what was to be expected.

So, what was to be expected? What was it that John was looking for? Of course, the answer is God’s Messiah. What was all the confusion then? Well, that’s a lot of questions to ask isn’t it, so let’s take a look them together. Why would I put them together because they are asking the same thing just in different ways. The problem during Jesus’s time was that the messianic tradition of what was going to happen when the Messiah showed up is not what happened when Jesus was on earth.

The messianic tradition in Jesus’ day was that the people were expecting the Messiah to come from God who would then kick out the oppressive Romans. He would then reestablish the kingdom of David, the physical kingdom on earth, with the power and the national pride that David had at the time. It would be a time of prosperity, a golden age that occurred when David was king and would recur when the Messiah came. The Jewish people than could be gathered back into their land which would’ve been in the time of Jesus Judea and the Galilee. The 10 lost tribes that got scattered from the Assyrian invasion hundreds of years ago would be brought back into the holy land.

A group called the Zealots that existed during Jesus’s time were so strong in this belief that they were ready at any time to pull out their swords and fight the Romans to the death. It is believed that the Zealots had stashes of military weapons in different places in Judea and the Galilee and all they were waiting for was for the Messiah to give them the word. When we read the Gospels and we concentrate on Judas Iscariot, who was a Zealot, we can see that he wanted this fight to start. He was so convinced that the Messiah was going to bring an end to Roman rule that he was ready to do anything to make that happen. A view of what Judas did by turning Jesus in was that he believed that when the Roman showed up in the garden of Gethsemane and grabbed Jesus that the Zealot revolt would’ve started.

If you remember the story from the garden of Gethsemane Peter pulled out a sword and cut off the ear of one of the servants who was in the party coming to pick up Jesus and arrest him. Judas would have been ecstatic thinking here we go the revolt will begin. Judas also would’ve known where the stash of weapons was which were hidden in the garden of Gethsemane. And then Jesus stopped the whole thing to remind them that he did not come to create a military revolt.

It took Jesus’ disciples time, but they eventually figured out that the Messiah Jesus came to restore the spirituality and belief of the people in God. The mystical books of Judaism, called the Zohar, tell us that there was going to be two appearances of the Messiah. It comes from Zachariah chapter nine verse nine. The mystical belief is that the Messiah would come for the first time and would restore the spirituality of the kingdom. That’s exactly what Jesus was trying to do. The second time the Messiah will come the military takeover of the world for God and the reestablishment of the kingdom of David. We can see that when we read the book of the Revelation.