The Jewish Messiah

It was a short time later I saw a sign on a bulletin board advertising an upcoming meeting. It read, “Why do some Jews believe Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah?” Oh yeah, I thought. There’s the connection! Of course. Jesus is Jewish. I was looking for a place to worship, so I went to the meeting. The Jewish history of my faith gave me roots.

I started to attend a Jewish congregation of believers, some Gentiles and some Jews who had a shared belief in Jesus the Messiah. It met in an old building that had at one time been an Orthodox synagogue, then a Baptist church, and finally this Messianic congregation. I loved the history of the building, the architecture, the peeling paint on the old ceiling, and the creaking staircases that seemed to lead everywhere. Somehow the age of it gave it depth, like my new roots.

I celebrated Passover for the first time and learned about the symbolism of the lamb. The Last Supper, the subject of one of the most famous paintings in the world, was not just a supper. It was a Passover Seder, the Jewish celebration and remembrance of the deliverance of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt.

As the Seder begins, the question is asked, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” The answer, “because once we were slaves and now we are free.”

If you’ve ever felt that freedom you know the joy of salvation. Jesus and his disciples were gathered together for Passover, during which a lamb bone symbolizes the blood of the lamb that was dabbed on the doorposts in Egypt.

John 1:29 says of Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

John’s Jewish audience would have understood the significance of that. Now I did too. So that’s what Lamb of God means. God as a plan, I realized, though it sounds ridiculous to say it like that. Of course God has a plan. But I was still amazed.

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
There is the Virgin Mary in Isaiah, 700 years before Jesus was born.

Matthew 1:20-23 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”  All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” –which means, “God with us.”

But the plan of God for the Messiah includes the whole world. That’s where we come in.

Isaiah 49:6 he [the Lord] says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will

also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

Isaiah 42: 6 “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand.  I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles.

John the Baptist point blank asked Jesus if he was the promised Messiah.
Luke 7:20-22 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, `Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’” At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”

In other words:
Isaiah 29:18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
Isaiah 35:5-6 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.

So they were expecting him. They were watching and waiting. Then when he showed up and did what the Messiah was said to do, many believed (John 8:30). And though many of the Jewish people of his day accepted him as Messiah, many did not. The faith in Jesus spread to the Gentiles. Why?
Does that mean the Gentiles get the Messiah and the Jews do not? I don’t think so. To me Romans 11 has the answer spelled out. The plan of God, I think, was this all along.