| Suffering
Servant and King Messiah’s Two Roles Paul Mali Many have said Jesus is the torch for enlightening existing civilizations. But few have seen him as the torch for starting a new civilization. Jesus so often asked that his miracles and mission be kept secret. He also insisted to his disciples not to reveal he was the Messiah. Several reasons exist for this Messianic secret. For one, the miracles would overshadow and obscure his redemptive mission. For another, the miracles were to demonstrate qualities of kindness and mercy. The time had not come for these qualities to be for all people. For still another, the teachings and messages given by Jesus were more important than the miracles since miracles were temporary and teachings were permanent. Finally, the first part of the mission of Jesus was as servant. The second part of the mission of Jesus was as a king. Both parts had to be completed. The coming of the Messiah with his mission, had been foretold in the Hebrew scriptures. The terms Messiah and Christ derive repeatedly from the Hebrew and Greek words meaning "the anointed one." Messianism was and still is a Jewish expectation. It was and still is a Christian expectation. It is the Messianic theme that binds the Old and New Testaments. Views of the nature and timing of the arrival of the Messiah varied among the prophets as well as the people. The Jews longed for the Messiah at the time of Jesus since the Jews were finding the Roman rule intolerable. They longed for the advent of a great national leader to reestablish Israel as an independent and prosperous state. When Jesus said "love your enemies" and "give the Caesar what belongs to Caesar," major disappointments resulted over Jesus being the Messiah. He did not sound like a conquering, military hero. Christian theology has never been able to explain completely why Jesus, a Jew, should have come out of Judaism, unless of course, originally he was to be the Jewish Messiah, first for the Jews and later for the Gentiles. His rejection by the Jews has also been a rejection of the many Hebrew scriptures that foretold his arrival. We summarize here from the Hebrew scriptures a consistent and chronologically progressive series of texts which define the concept of the expected Messiah. Whoever would match the criteria of these scriptural texts would easily qualify as the Messiah.
Additional Old Testament scriptures give strong evidence of the fulfillment of the Judaic Messianic expectations. He was to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2); He was to be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14); He would make a flight to Egypt (Hosea 11:1); He would make his appearance in the second temple (Haggi 2:7-9); He would work miracles (Isaiah 35:4-6); He would make a triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding upon an ass (Zechariah 9:9); He would be betrayed (Psalm 41:9); He would give a silent defense (Isaiah 53:7); He would be numbered with transgressors (Isaiah 53:12); He would have his hands and feet pierced (Psalm 22:16); They would gamble for his garment (Psalm 22:18); He would die without broken bones (Psalm 34:20). The above Old Testament scriptural passages reveal three outstanding observations about the expected Messiah: 1. The Messiah is to be genealogically connected with the lineage of the Davidic monarch both physically and spiritually. This implies all the promise given to the Davidic lineage would be carried to and through the Messiah. 2. The Messiah is to be humiliated, mocked, rejected and killed. The Messiah, when he appears, would lose his life. But he would live his life as a suffering servant, preacher, teacher and miracle worker. He would be falsely accused, smitten and rejected by those whom he intended to serve. 3. The Messiah is to bring in a new age, an age of salvation and blessings both materially and spiritually for Jews and Gentiles. He is to be a ruler and king during this period for both Jew and Gentile. This Messiah would be a conciliatory means between God and mankind functioning as a priest and mediator. The above observations of the Old Testament texts lead to the conclusion of a two-fold mission of the Messiah. The political (a king) and the spiritual (a suffering servant). These two different Messianic personalities have been a mystery for both Jews and Gentiles. There are those who only want to see their Messiah as a king and reject him as a suffering servant. There are others who only want to see him as a suffering servant and reject him as a king. Then there are those who see both functions. They see one person with two missions, a suffering servant and a reigning king, but contexted in two different periods of time. Thus, the criteria of the Messiah is clear. Summarily, only one person in history both past and present fits the above criteria in exactitude. This is Jesus of Nazareth. He would be one person with two comings. In his first advent, he came as the suffering servant to provide the redemptive price for a lost and dying world. In this period, he would teach the principles and precepts for moral and spiritual living. In his second advent, he would come as reigning king of a new era to usher in the age of peace, prosperity and spiritual regeneration. |