In the light of Mel Gibson's new film "The Passion of the Christ", many people are asking the question why the Jews were so angry with Jesus, why did they reject Him, why did they not accept Him as their Messiah? The following article may offer some helpful insights.
Why did the Jews reject Jesus as their Messiah?
By Brendan MunroI believe one of the keys to recognising Jesus as the promised Messiah lies in your expectation. Jesus wasn't what they expected. I was once waiting for a bus but didn't recognise it when it came - because whereas it was normally a single decker, that day it had been replaced by a double decker.
The name Messiah or Christ means "Anointed One" and denotes one who has been specifically chosen, called, commissioned and equipped by God to do a specific task. The name Messiah is actually used only twice in the Old Testament, both times in Daniel 9. But the concept of a God anointed and appointed Saviour runs throughout the Old Testament. Back in Deuteronomy 18:15 Moses prophesied that God would raise up a special prophet to whom they would all have to look and listen. Indeed, immediately after the fall in Eden the Lord says that the "seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent". (Genesis 3:15)
But the Old Testament revelation of the coming Messiah is clouded by telescopic vision. In hindsight we know and understand that there was to be a first AND second coming of Messiah. But in the Old Testament that difference was not so clear, and consequently the Jews were, I believe, harbouring expectations of Messiah at His first coming, that would only be fulfilled at His Second Coming. They didn't recognise Him when He came because they were expecting something different.
Look at Isaiah 9:6, 11:1-3a, and then onwards through the rest of the chapter. These passages and later chapters of Isaiah resound with the exciting description of the Kingdom of God that Messiah would establish on earth at His coming. At the time of Jesus, Israel was under Roman rule and oppression, and Jews hoped, longed and yearned for the days when the Messiah would come and bring the promised deliverance from that oppression, as well as nationhood, God's righteous reign and so on. The difficulty was how the 53rd chapter of Isaiah fitted in, for it too speaks of this Messiah, but in terms of a "suffering servant", one who would be rejected, despised, crushed for our iniquities. How could Messiah come and do all the glorious bits, but also be despised and rejected? And why?
The mistake was to think that all of Messianic prophecy would be fulfilled at once or at one coming, not realising that there would be two comings and at least a couple of thousand years in between. Such passages as "For unto us a son is born, unto us a child is given" (Isaiah 9:6) obviously refer to Messiah at His first coming. But verse 7 goes on to say "Of the increase of His government there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His Kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgement and justice, from that time forward, even forever." It's obvious in hindsight that that will only happen at the Messiah's 2nd Coming. Hebrews 9:28 (in the New Testament) says: "So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him." ("Christ" is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew "Messiah")
Messiah had to come first and deal with the problem of sin. Scripture said in Isaiah 59:2 that our sins had separated us from God, caused God to hide His face from us. The prophecy about Messiah in Daniel 9 says clearly that He would come and put an end to sin, make reconciliation for iniquity and bring in everlasting righteousness. Just how God planned to deal with sin was indicated in the prophecy in Isaiah 53 which says Messiah had to come and be "wounded for our transgressions…bruised for our iniquities" and that "the punishment for our sins was upon Him…by His stripes we are healed…He poured out His soul unto death….bore the sin of many…made intercession for the transgressors."
Jesus "put an end to sin" - not that people have stopped sinning, but because He offered Himself as a substitute for us - His righteous life as a sacrifice for our sins - we can receive God's forgiveness. The power of sin to drag us into death and hell was broken at the Cross. Jesus has brought in "everlasting righteousness". You see, under Old Testament law you had to live perfectly to be righteous - to have a "right standing" before God. And every time you made a mistake, you lost that right standing and had to take blood sacrifices to the Temple for your sin. But when Jesus died on the Cross, He was taking His own righteous blood to the "temple" as an offering to pay for our sin. So when we put our faith in Jesus, when we trust in what He has done for us, His "right standing" is transferred to us. So now our right standing with God depends on Jesus, not on ourselves. That's why the prophecy says Messiah will bring in "everlasting righteousness".
Mankind's biggest problem was not Roman oppression of the Jews, but the sin in all our hearts. It is this sin that separated us from God and as much as the Jews might have wanted the Messiah to set up an earthly kingdom straight away, God's priority had to be to send Messiah first to deliver us from the separation, oppression and death caused by sin. And going to the Cross on our behalf was the only way. This is not to say that all the wonderful prophecies about Messiah coming and establishing God's Kingdom rule on earth will not be fulfilled - they will - but at His 2nd Coming! The second part could not be accomplished without the first.
Why could the Jews not recognise Jesus as the Messiah? Because, I believe, they had and still have, a confused expectation. In his gospel, John tells us (6:15) that at one point the people wanted to take Jesus by force to make Him King, and Jesus had to slip away knowing that "now" wasn't the time. It's interesting to note in Gibson's film how Herod asks somewhat mockingly of Jesus if He is the one whose birth and coming was foretold in prophecy, and Pilate asks Jesus " Are you their King?". The Gospels tell us that even poor John the Baptist was struggling to piece it all together, and asks at one point "Are you the Messiah, or should we expect another?"
Knowing about this dichotomy and dilemma of expectation among the Jews helps us to understand their apparent capriciousness. On what we know as "Palm Sunday" the crowds give a euphoric welcome to Jesus as He enters Jerusalem riding upon a donkey. "Hosanna to the Son of David" they cry. Can this be the same crowd that five days later are screaming and baying for the crucifixion of Jesus? What happened?
It's obvious that when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey, they thought He was coming to overthrow the Roman oppressors and King Herod and set Israel free. They were perhaps nurturing a wrong interpretation and expectation of the Messianic prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 which says: "Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey."
Their hopes and expectations were dashed when just five days later it was obvious that Jesus wasn't doing anything to overthrow the Romans, and even worse, was meekly allowing Himself to be arrested, tried and flogged. When He stood before Pilate, a pitiful sight having been whipped to within an inch of His life, their dreams of a Messianic champion and King seemed to crumble and their previous euphoria turned to explosive hate and resentment. But as we have already seen, their hopes and expectations concerning Messiah were at best, confused.
By way of an interesting postscript to this crucial issue of confused expectations, take a look at the 8th chapter of Acts in the New Testament. An official from the treasury of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, had been to Jerusalem to worship. The city is obviously buzzing with the news of all that has happened. By this time, Jesus has risen, appeared to His disciples, and ascended into heaven. The Romans and the Jews have no answer to the empty tomb, and there is the niggling mystery of the torn veil in the Temple. Followers of Jesus are springing up everywhere, working miracles in His name, preaching and teaching that He was and is the Messiah. The Sanhedrin has tried threatening them to stop and it's made matters "worse". In the midst of this, the Ethiopian eunuch is travelling home in his chariot, no doubt pondering and considering all these things. The Lord instructs Philip the Evangelist to go and talk to this man, and he finds him sitting in his chariot reading the prophet Isaiah.
Do you understand what you're reading, asks Philip. How can I, unless someone helps me, he replies. And which bit of Isaiah is he reading? What we know as chapter 53 - the amazing prophecy of how Messiah would come, be despised, rejected and killed for us. "Who is the prophet talking about?" asks the Ethiopian. It is no coincidence, I believe, that he should be reading that passage. Indeed we're even told which verse he's reading: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away. And who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth."
With all that had happened in Jerusalem concerning Jesus, the burning issue for the Jews would have been whether He was or wasn't the Messiah, and the critical passage they would have been struggling with would have been Isaiah 53. Acts tells us that that's the passage the Ethiopian is reading, and Philip began at that very passage, and preached Jesus to him.