As we discussed last week Jesus was being born into a Jewish world that was divided in any number of ways. It was divided on the basis of class, wealth, political allegiance and religious orientation. The community in Judea was therefore not a monolithic Jewish nation in which all of God's people got along or even had the same political or social aims for their nation. The divisions within the Jews of the Second Temple Period were much deeper and more antagonistic that anything we experience today. While we can pull together as "Americans" they could not and ultimately would not pull together even in the face of ultimate national annihilation. The divisions were simply too deep.
One of the places where these divisions were too deep was the concept of the messiah. While we take it for granted that the scriptures speak clearly of a messiah and we have been led to believe that all Jews were expecting a messiah to save them, this is not quite true. The idea of a messiah as we conceive it was not actually a clearly defined Old Testament concept. The only Old Testament use of the term as would recognize it is in relation to Cyrus the Great of Persia. Isaiah refers to Cyrus as the messiah because Cyrus not only allowed the Jews to return home from Babylon but helped them rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. While there are references to leadership figures in the Torah and in the books of Isaiah, Haggai and Zechariah they are leadership figures who rule after God has completed God's work of defeating the enemies of God's people. The main focus of the scriptures was always on God's actions of restoration rather than those of human agency.
Where did the idea of messiah as we know it come from? The idea first begins to take shape in the period between the last of the prophets and coming of Jesus. During this time there arose three great figures in the Jewish religious writing. There was the Davidic King, the ideal priest and the final great prophet. Each of these three persons was to play a role in the restoration of the Jewish nation. This can be seen clearly in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in early Christianity where Jesus plays all three roles. The Davidic messianic concept began to gain prominence when the Maccabees gained the kingship, thus displacing the Davidic lineage as well as during the time of Roman rule. This was so because many Jews believed that God would raise up the new Davidic king in order to throw out the imposter kings. In addition, books written during this period, such as the Psalms of Solomon, IV Ezra and the Syrian Apocalypse of Baruch focused solely on the Davidic king as the savior of the people. These newer writings thus allowed Jews and later the Christians to return to their older scriptures and find numerous "references" to this messianic figure.
Were the people of Jesus' day actually looking for a messiah? The answer is yes and no. There were many who believed in the concept of the messiah and thus were ready to follow anyone who would claim the title. The Book of Acts mentions Theudas and Judas the Galilean as two would-be messiahs. Josephus mentions others. The most famous Jewish messiah/rebel was Bar Kokhba who led the final Jewish rebellion from 132-136 BCE. There were however many Jews of Jesus' day and beyond who had no need of a messiah. These Jews were more than content to fight a war of independence without a messiah (any old leader would do), to follow a Jewish King (such as Herod had been), to get along with the Romans or to live in religious isolation (the Dead Sea Scroll sect). While much rabbinic literature and popular imagination sought a king like messiah, the Jewish people were not of one mind on the subject.
What this meant for Jesus was that just as he was entering a religiously and politically divided nation, he was also entering a nation divided on the person and role of the king/prophet/priest/messiah. We will witness the impact of these divisions on Jesus' ministry as he juggles the hopes, dreams, fears and expectations of the people with his own vision of ministry.
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