Has Your Messiah Come?

The record of the Old Testament flows consistently from the Garden to the Cross. The words of God to the fallen Adam and Eve promised One who would crush the serpent’s head, the serpent who had tempted them to sin, the serpent who would continually tempt God’s people. Knowing what was coming, the serpent, later identified as the devil himself, went to work distorting God’s word as he had in the Garden. From Cain to Caiaphas, God’s sworn enemy set out to darken people’s understanding of who Messiah would be so that they would not recognize Him when He came.

The Gospel of John proves that this undermining tactic worked. John says in the opening of his gospel: “He came to His own [things], but His own [people] did not receive Him.” How could the very people to whom Messiah came after years of expectant waiting and hundreds of prophecies miss the One when He came? The explanation is found in Paul’s words to the Ephesians. He said people were: “Darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.” God’s enemy, the enemy of our souls, had done his job masterfully; the ones who should have known Him best missed His coming because they had been deceived just like their first parents had.

The Herodians and the Sadducees cherry-picked the Scriptures to find a military leader who would put Israel back on the political map. The Pharisees read the prophets differently; they longed for the ultimate law giver – the prophet like Moses who would congratulate them for their artificial obedience. The Zealots elevated anyone who would raise a sword against Rome as their Messiah. Of course, there were a few Jews who studied the Scriptures and waited patiently for God to reveal His Messiah to them. Among these were John’s parents, Mary (of course), Simeon, and Anna who are named in Luke’s Gospel.

Doubtless there were others as evidenced by the willingness of some to drop everything and follow Jesus when He began preaching the Kingdom of Heaven come. However, even these misunderstood what the Messiah had come to do. Judas Iscariot, who may have had Zealot sympathies, perhaps hoped to goad Jesus into action by bringing an armed group to arrest Him. James and John, the Sons of Thunder, wanted Jesus to exact immediate justice on an unbelieving town. Even after His sacrificial death and miraculous resurrection, His closest followers asked Him if He was now going to institute the Kingdom He had been preaching about. Jesus might have replied that He had already, that they misunderstood Him, but He simply told them to wait.

It is not hard to understand why people steeped in Old Testament prophecy would expect a conquering Messiah riding a war horse and wielding the sword of the Lord. There are pictures like that scattered throughout the scrolls of ancient Scripture. There are also images of a lawgiver who would reign in righteousness. Likewise, there are pictures of a Suffering Servant who appears to endure disgraceful treatment. This last picture was ignored in favor of the more exciting, more encouraging one of the conquering hero. What those ancients missed was the fact that both pictures were accurate; they didn’t see that they were separated by a period of time yet to be measured. It is as if they raised their prophetic telescope above the nearer image to focus on the farther one.

There are Christians today who may be suffering from a similar mistaken focus. They see the Suffering Messiah who bore their sin, but they raise the prophetic telescope above what happened within a generation after His resurrection. They may be placing too much emphasis on their own personal escape from judgment and ignoring the judgment God brought on His people Israel. The consistent warning to Israel throughout the prophets was that God would execute judgment against them if they persisted in their disobedience. This judgment was to be followed by the institution of God’s kingdom ruled by His righteous Servant. Few people will argue that what the Romans did in 70 A.D. was not God’s judgment. As He had in the past, God used a secular government to accomplish His will for His people.

The visions of Daniel clearly portray the tromping of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome through the future of the “beautiful land.” The prophets never pulled any punches when describing what the invading nations would do to Israel. Although the apocalyptic language is poetic with mountains tumbling and stars falling, it names the players and starts the game clock which runs right up until Rome makes God’s final statement against apostasy: the final destruction of His physical temple on earth. Those with improperly aimed prophetic telescopes scan right past this obvious culmination of biblical history and look for a messianic coming that is already past.

Does any of this matter? It certainly mattered to the Jews who crucified their Messiah. It mattered to scores of people in the past who declared that Jesus had returned when, apparently, He hadn’t. It matters to believers today who treat Christ’s saving grace as if it was their personal ticket to a future millennial kingdom without considering their responsibilities in the already-not-yet Kingdom of Heaven Jesus announced. It has been said some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good. I would say some people are so millennial kingdom minded they are no good in the present kingdom.

It is no surprise that the vast majority of people who are waiting for a millennial kingdom are Americans. The spirit of rugged individualism and a sense entitlement are so ingrained in our thinking that we imagine God’s cosmic plan is focused on us. In our pampered state, it is easy to forget that the majority of people outside our borders live in extreme poverty. Remember Jesus’ words about the difficulty the rich face entering the Kingdom of Heaven. Remember that it is the poor who inherit the earth. We may miss the real meaning of Messiah’s message that resonates so clearly with the rest of the world. If your Messiah has come, and His kingdom is now-not-later, you should be begging to know what service your King requires. Here! Now!

Related posts: It’s Not All About You; Bringing the Kingdom; Why Heaven Matters; Binding Satan