Messiah

Do you pray? Do you pray to Jesus? How do you address Him? We know that Jesus, since the time of His incarnate ministry, was known as Jesus Christ. The latter is the Greek Word for Messiah. Whenever we pray or confess or sing we call Him the Messiah. In Advent, the four weeks preceding Christmas, we devote ouselves to the expectation of HIS coming again. We hope for His coming as merciful judge and inaugurator of the new age. And we call him "Messiah". So what does it mean to do so? We take a Jewish notion of God's activity for granted, don't we? I mena have you ever stopped to think about Jesus Christ? Half of the time we say it without any thought at all, sometimes in disdain or anger as a kind of curse. But what does it mean to give this title to that man named Jesus?

Today, with my talk about Messiah, bible study was challenging. But this is a good time to think about what we say and believe about Jesus the Christ---the Messiah, the anointed one. It is no small leap to say that Jesus was the Messiah of Israel, rejected by His own. Its an even bigger leap to say that said Messiah was also GOD in the flesh. Adonai, the LORD. Emmanuel, God-with-us. This was, in Judaism, a blasphemous claim of self-idolatry. It leads to His execution.
Although a Messianic eschatology, a belief in a redeemr King ushering in a new age of peace and joy, unity and prosperity for God's people, was a widespread belief, Jesus did not fit the criteria for this Messiah. Many Rabbis in the time of Jesus taught that Messiah would come to rescue them from the hands of the Roman occupiers. Messiah would usher in a golden age, a return to the days of King David, the ideal King. messiah would embody the ideal and His reign would not end. Messiah was also a priestly or prophetic character who would stand between God and Israel forever as their chief defender and seeker of mercy. he wuold also be judge of the nations, the gentiles, and the unrighteous Jew. His judgment would be harsh and weed out the bad seeds.
There were multiple strands of thought in Judaism about Messiah at the time of Jesus. The gospel writers claimed that Jesus, in many ways, embodied the Messiah foretold in the prophets. But students of the hebrew Scriptures would disagree or at least struggle with agreement.
I have been doing a little basic study of Judaism's messianic thought. I have discovered that the claim of Jesus' Messiahship and the subsequent eschatology of the church are tied into Judaism more integrally than I knew. One cannot understand the title or Jesus' expression of it, nor know how to live as those who follow this Messiah, without understanding Judaism better. Our future hope is not unlike Jewish eschatology. We believe in an ultimate time of divine promissory fulfillment. God will vindicate, bring justice, healing, peace, a new rule and a new life. This is a shared hope of Jews and Christians. We, however, come at it from two different points of theological departure. Christians begin and end with the Christ event---the life,death, and resurrection of Jesus. Jews come at it from their understanding of the Torah and the Prophets.
Anyway, what I have come to believe is that Jesus was the Messiah of Israel and the savior of the world (a title that also shows opposition to the dominant powers of Rome). I have come to believe this and I understand that Jesus and His storytellers were influenced by Jewish Messianic thought. He is portrayed in such a way as to bolster these titular claims. And yet, something compelled the story to take life in the lives of so many others. Even though Jesus was not the kind of Messiah they thought they were watching for. Not the kind of savior they thought they needed. I think it is clear evidence in favor of His resurrection from the dead. What else would have prompted the radical leaps of faith His followers took to identify Him as Messiah, savior, Son of God. God in the flesh.