It continues to amaze when I read the gospels, how many people completely miss or out rightly reject Jesus, despite all they see and hear. It seems odd that in the midst of such miracles that Jesus would be doubted so completely by the time he reached the cross. I understand some of his words were difficult, well lets face it, all of his word were difficult. It may be hard to understand what Jesus is talking about, we still fight about that today, but you would think that there would still be a pretty large crowd sticking around just because of the realization that he must be from God to do such things. But instead by the time Jesus reaches the cross he is alone.
It was not the signs of Jesus or his words that were at fault, but rather it was the image that the people held of what it meant to be messiah. I believe that the Jewish people were so overcome by the misunderstanding of what Jesus role was as king and savior that they did not even listen to the words he spoke, but rather they waited for his hammer to come down on those the Jews had decided it should come down on. Israel was not looking for a compassionate, loving, forgiving, and merciful savior. Certainly not one that would die on a cross, but rather a messiah that would avenge and reign, overthrow and destroy, not a messiah who would right wrongs, but one who would punish injustice. They craved for a messiah who would reverse the roles and make Israel to be the new Rome, while Rome and all others quivered under their iron fists. Since this is what it meant to be messiah, when Jesus was taken to the cross, it was the proof that he was simply a fraud. No king can be crucified, no savior a peace maker. No messiah can love his enemies as much as his own people.
Throughout Jesus ministry the people and the disciples all held out hope with lofty expectation of this militaristic messiah. In John 6 when Jesus fed the 5000 verse 15 reads, “Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” To make him king is in direct opposition to Rome and would have amounted to declaring independence and war on Rome. They were not desiring to declare him king, but conquering general. In Luke 19, during Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, a whole multitude of his disciples gathered and began to rejoice and chant, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” The people praised him because he would bring them the blood of their oppressors and the Pharisees feared him because they believed he would bring them the blood of their own people in a failed rebellion against Rome/ In the end all rejected him because the only blood he brought was his own.
Even the disciples misunderstood Jesus purpose. Turn to Luke 9:51-56.
When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 And they went on to another village.
Jesus these men have profaned and rejected you, let’s cast fire down upon them and have our vengeance, just as we will do to Rome. They saw the miracles of Jesus and instead of seeing the potential for love and healing, they saw the potential for devastation and destruction. This is what it meant for the messiah to come. But this was not Jesus.
Now the people of Israel did not just create this story out of nowhere. No they had a pattern to follow. Jesus was not the first person to be thought to be the messiah. They had an image of messiah that these others fit much better than Jesus. The one we know best is Judas Maccabeus. Maccabeus literally means the hammer. Judas the Hammer fit perfectly the pattern for what Israel believed a good messiah should look like.
Around 312 BC Israel is conquered by the Greeks. Shortly after their conquering Alexander the Great dies and his empire is divided amongst his generals. In 245 BC the Greeks started to out rightly persecute the Jewish people. They should down the temple and worship in it. They desecrated the altar and outlawed the practice of Judaism. Children who were circumcised were strangled and their mothers killed. It was a time of great tragedy for the Jewish people. As with any time of tragedy like this there was bound to arise some form of resistance. The Greeks were making their way around Judea forcing the people to sacrifice to the Greek gods. The officer’s of the Greek King Antiochus Epiphanies came to the town of Modin and commanded Mattathias to be the first to offer a sacrifice. When he refused another Jew arose and was about to offer sacrifice when as it records in the Apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees, Mattathias was “very properly roused to anger” and he killed the Jew offering the sacrifice and then proceeded to kill the king’s officers. Mattathias started a revolt against the Greeks that day. When he died but a year later he left these dying words to his sons, “Avenge the wrong done to your people. Pay back the gentiles in full.” Then Mattathias’ third son, Judas Maccabees arose and became the leader of the war against the Greek Seleucids.
Judas then pursued and hunted out those who disobeyed the Law, and those who harassed his people he consumed. He went about tearing down altars and forcibly circumcising all the uncircumcised children he found within Israel. 1 Maccabees says, “They rescued the Law from the hands of the heathen and their kings, and would not let the sinner triumph.” Judas continued to go forth and fight his wars. He was known as a brilliant tactician. He would continually win victories he had no business winning. Enough so that Antiochus Epiphanies ran out of resources and was forced to ransake not only the temple of Jerusalem but to leave Judea altogether and head east to collect tribute from his other holdings. While he was gone he left his empire in the hands of Lysias. Judas eventually would meet Lysias and send him retreating home. Judas even took back part of Jerusalem, all but the citadel. He brought back the temple into the possession of the Jews. Judas then came to the rescue of any and all who would call out for his help as the Greeks sought to oppress the Jews further. As it reads in 1 Maccabees, “So the fear of Judas and his brothers and the dread of them began to fall upon the heathen around them, and his fame reached even the king and the heathen talked of the tactics of Judas.”
Eventually Epiphanies would die while searching for resources to wage war and another king, Demetrius would arise. Through much trickery and deceit his general Nicanor continued to make war on them. But Judas soundly defeated Nicanor and appealed for peace with Rome. Rome wrote to Demetrius, but to no avail as allegiance with Rome did not end the war. Demetrius sent more men and generals and took back many towns on route to direct confrontation with Judas himself. Surrounded by insurmountable forces Judas fell in battle. It says, “Israel lamented him greatly and mourned for a long time, saying, ‘What a hero is fallen, the Savior of Israel!”
This is the shadow into which Jesus emerges into. Israel was not looking for a suffering servants, but for the next Judas the Hammer. In John 4:42 it reads, “They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this indeed is the savior of the world.’” The same exact word in the Greek used to describe the role of Judas the hammer is used to describe Jesus. They did not desire a messiah who died for the sins of all mankind. They desired a messiah that possessed the attributes of Judas the Hammer. 1 Maccabees further describes him a brutal warrior known not for his mercy, kindness, or love, but rather instead for his fierceness and his love of war. Many Jews thought he could be the messiah, in fact they hoped he was the messiah, because this was a messiah they could be proud of. Instead Judas failed them and they instead came under the oppression the Romans instead of the Greeks. Israel longed for a second coming of Judas the Hammer.
Jesus did not fit the prototype of an avenging messiah though. Jesus wasn’t the hammer of God but was the Lamb of God. Israel desired so much to be the ones on top. They did not wish an end to oppression and cruelty. There was no desire for peace, mercy, or love, but rather there was a desire for revenge. Because Jesus did not fit their image they could not hear the words he said. Rather they tried to place meaning upon the savior rather than take it from him. The people attempted to force their message on Christ instead of receiving his. They forgot that God is not mad ein the image of man, but man in the image of God. When they tried to make Jesus fit into their theology and desires they became deaf to words of His theology and desires. Instead of crying out the mercy and grace of God, they sought the revenge and violence of man. I am going to read an excerpt written by Brian Zahnd as he engages this misguided image of Christ. It reads,
If Jesus had satisfied the lust for vengeance present in Israel’s nationalistic agenda by becoming a militant messiah like Judas Maccabees, nothing really would have changed. No doubt Jesus could have led Israel to a military victory over its Roman oppressors, but that would have only perpetuated the bloody cycle of vengeance. Instead of Babylon, Persia, Greece, or Rome being the monstrous oppressor, Israel would have had its turn at ruling the world with the sword. But what would have changed? Nothing really- just the name of the latest ruling empire: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” Jesus didn’t come to conquer the world with a sword; he came to save the world with the cross. Jesus didn’t come to perpetuate the system of revenge; he came to end the bloody and vicious cycle of paybacks by absorbing the blow and forgiving enemies. He came to reconcile Jews and Gentiles into one new humanity, a new humanity formed at the cross.
They wanted Jesus the Hammer of God, not Jesus the Lamb of God. One thing that bothers me a lot about 1 Maccabees and our perception of Christ is that I think often times I would prefer the hammer of God to the lamb of God. I would much rather bash my enemies than to love them. That passage where it talks about them forcibly circumcising them all is easier to practice than the pouring out of mercy and grace. 1 Maccabees cries out, “They rescued the Law from the hands of the heathen and their kings, and would not let the sinners triumph.” My deepest desire wants to shout amen, but this is the complete opposite of who the true messiah is. Jesus’ victory was in fact in the sinners triumph. When the sinner put the messiah to death and crucified the savior that is when grace and mercy truly conquered and saved. Jesus became the savior when he allowed the sinner to triumph over him. The ultimate act of forgiveness was the triumph of the sinner over Christ. Jesus the lamb overcame Israel the hammer.
This is why I believe Israel missed their messiah. They were so caught up in the image of Christ being the savior of their desires and craving that they couldn’t see the Lamb of God. We need to as the church and individuals not implant our desires and ambitions onto Christ. We cannot make him into our personal vending machine of selfish desire. Jesus didn’t come to conquer the world and neither did his church, he came to save it. We need to find Jesus and his teachings. We need to read his words and his commands to love, not implant our wishes onto him. If we are unwilling to hear what Christ has to say then when all is said and done we will find ourselves running from the cross just as his followers did. Isn’t it odd how he enters Jerusalem with a triumphant procession and leaves 7 days later on a cross with none but those who would deride him? It is easy to follow Jesus when he is the hammer to everything we don’t like, but when he becomes the lamb where will we be found. We need to receive Jesus as he is. Hear him as he speaks. We need to let Jesus tell us who Jesus is, otherwise we might forget the cross altogether. We need as Jesus said, ears to hear and eyes to see, so that we might truly so the great Messiah, savior of the world.
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