The Light In The Desert Is The Light On The Hill

What follows are a few thoughts I had while reading and preparing for Sunday school this week.

Why was Jesus rejected by many Jews in 1st century Judea who earnestly and desperately sought the promised Messiah? These were people whose national identity was tied to possessing and ruling over a land promised to them by God. They had lost the favor of God, had been captured, exiled, and some had returned, but they still lived under the regime of a foreign nation that was, at best, indifferent to their beliefs, and claims. Its pretty reasonable to assume some/many were desperately seeking the Messiah. Why then, when someone showed up performing miracles would he be rejected? The honest answer is I don’t know. I bet there as many reasons as there are individuals who encountered him and failed to recognize him as the Messiah.

However one thought that occurred to me is that Jesus’s life and ministry were not what was expected of the Messiah. The Old Testament is full of prophecies about who the Messiah would be, and what he would do, and in many respects the mortal ministry of Jesus either fails to fulfill those prophecies, or fulfills them in ways that one might not expect if robbed of the text of the New Testament and 2000 years of Christian tradition.  As Christians we are in the same boat as expectant Jews in that we anticipate a second coming of the Messiah in which the remainder of these Old Testament and many subsequent prophesies will be fulfilled.

There are challenges that come with awaiting the fulfillment of prophecy. Will the prophesy be fulfilled literally? Will it be fulfilled multiple times? Will it be fulfilled at a time that seems obvious and appropriate? The bottom line is that a careful reading of scripture shows that humans are not particularly adept at anticipating how prophecy will be fulfilled. I think one charitable interpretation of the rejection of Jesus as the Messiah is that 1st century Jews simply had an entirely different Messiah in mind. Not one they’d imagined or made up, but one they had a clear picture of from a very straight forward reading of their own scripture. It just so happens that God didn’t deliver on these promises in such a straight forward or obvious way. When Jesus showed up he wasn’t the Messiah they expected, and so rejection feels kind of inevitable. I think this is pretty reasonable and offers an important lesson(s) for all those who actively anticipate the fulfillment of prophesy.

Its generally accepted the Gospel of Matthew has the goal of convincing it’s readers that Jesus of Nazareth was in fact the promised Messiah. It’s chapters are littered with statements of “that it might be fulfilled”. Over the past few weeks I think among all these statements explicitly pointing out the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy there are signals that I’d previously overlooked that appear to be Jesus fulfilling and adapting Old Testament prophesies and commandments in unexpected ways.

Who was the Messiah “supposed” to be? – A VERY cursory discussion.

I wouldn’t presume to speak for 1st century Jews or Jews of any century for that matter. From a few brief Google searches it appears the conception of The Messiah has been discussed and debated and revised over time. However, these same google searches tend to consistently emphasize certain scriptures and attributes, and I could imagine these are some of the same scriptures and attributes 1st century Jews would have anticipated in their Messiah.

Isaiah 11:1, Jeremiah 23:5-6, Ezekiel 34:11-31, Hosea 3:4-5 He would be a descendant of David (Israel’s greatest king)

Isaiah 11:12-16 He would restore the lost 10 tribes, and expand the borders of Israel by conquering surrounding kingdoms.

Isaiah 2:2-4, Amos 9:13-15, Micah 4:1-4, Zechariah 8:23, Jeremiah 31:33-34, 33: 15-18. He will build a temple, restore “the law”, and the nations of the world would seek his wisdom and judgement and the world would be at peace

Most Christians would agree that Jesus didn’t fulfill most of these apparently core requirements for The Messiah. I think most of us would say “yes, those have been reserved for the second coming”. In this sense the Messiah we await IS the Messiah Jews were/are waiting for. It stands to reason then if you are looking for this very real, very literal Davidic king to rule the world Jesus of Nazareth was not (at that time) who you were waiting for. I don’t say this to cast doubt of Jesus as The Christ, but to point out that accepting Jesus in real time during his mortal ministry is in fact a tall order if you expected The Messiah to be a complete, literal fulfillment of the scriptures. I suspect his closest disciples had a difficult time reconciling their preconceived notions with reality and this accounts for some of the incongruous questions about “being first in the kingdom” and collecting weapons as He entered Jerusalem prior to his crucifixion.

Jesus as Messianic wild card

Matthew consistently makes the case that, despite the fact that he didn’t do EVERYTHING prophesied in scripture, Jesus literally fulfilled many scriptural requirements of The Messiah. Look he says: He’s literally descended from David (1:1-17), he was born of a virgin (1:22-23), he was ‘called out of Egypt’ (2:13-15), but also came from Nazareth (2:23),  despite the devastation in ‘Rama’ (2:17-18). That’s 5 times in the first 2 chapters. I won’t belabor the point, the author of the Gospel of Matthew had a very clear agenda. He expected his readers were familiar with these prophecies as evidenced by the fact he doesn’t always offer scriptural references for these statements. This is nothing new to any Christian who has been paid the slightest attention in Sunday School. Here’s what’s new to me. I’m no Old Testament expert or scholar. I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve still not read the entire thing. However as I’ve grown older I’ve become far more interested and appreciative of its contents and consequently I’ve begun to see the life and ministry of Jesus and the contents of the New Testament in a new and surprising ways.

The first time I noticed Jesus make a pretty clear statement that the role of Messiah may not be exactly who one might expect was in Matthew Chapter 4. In the second recorded temptation Jesus is set on the pinnacle of the Temple and asked to prove his relationship to God by jumping off and having angels save him. This is a case when Matthew doesn’t bother to give us a reference, but a quick check shows this is a description of The Messiah put forth in Psalm 91:11-12. Clearly this is a challenge to Jesus’s identity as The Messiah. But how is it a temptation? Is it a temptation to literally fulfill scripture? Doesn’t sound like much of a temptation to me. The temptation is to prove his role in front of everyone. The Almighty isn’t gong to let harm befall THIS son of David. The temptation is to give the people exactly what they’re looking for. Jesus doesn’t respond with a rebuke about how seeing isn’t really believing or that such a stunt would rob the world of a chance to develop faith without miracles. Coming from a future serial miracle worker this pretty standard modern rebuke of sign seeking wouldn’t sound quite right. He responds by citing more scripture in a new way.  As I understand it not tempting God generally means don’t incur his wrath with disobedience. In one sense this matches the situation well: he’s been asked to do something by the adversary of good, and giving into that would be a form of disobedience. On the other hand, his actions would have allowed a fulfillment of scripture how could that be ‘tempting God’? I think this rebuke and what’s to come in Jesus’ ministry tell us one of his messages is that who The Messiah is “supposed” to be, and who he is are not always the same. He’s a wild card, the unexpected ace up the sleeve of the Almighty.

Following this sojourn in the wilderness and the calling of disciples Matthew takes us to The Sermon on The Mount.

We are the light on the hill – The part with a few subsections

The Sermon on the Mount is not only a lovely and compelling set of principles, that if universally adopted would lead to personal and collective peace and happiness; it seems to be a fairly clear rebuke of a rigid, legalistic, and selective reading of scripture. Also it appears to be a preview of the concept that Jesus teaches more explicitly in John 14-17. His disciples are to change the world in order to fulfill parts of the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.

The Beatitudes

I love the beatitudes. No matter how privileged we all feel like outcasts or rejects searching for help and peace at some point. Jesus reassures all that the marginalized, those that serve, and those who seek will be blessed and granted their righteous desires. How great is that? It’s not new. We often think of the Old Testament focusing on compliance with complex dietary and hygiene rules and detailed ritual worship, and the consequences of failures of righteousness. This is absolutely true. At least from what I’ve read. However, there are also a lot of injunctions about how to treat widows, orphans and the poor, and prophets don’t mind pointing out that failures in these aspects of justice anger the Almighty plenty. Compliance with ritual doesn’t excuse these failures. A few references from my own, incomplete, reading: Isaiah 1:11, 1:16, 1:23, 1:27, 25:4, 58:2-4, Hosea 6:6, Amos 5:14-15, Ezekiel 45:9, Micah 2:2, 2:9-10, 3:10-12, 4:6. The Almighty is NOT messing around about this social justice thing. Several of these are Messianic prophesies, so there’s that too.  I love these ideas. As someone who struggles with faith it is these ideas that give me hope. As someone who has aggressively pursued the sciences my entire life; belief without data is not really in my wheelhouse. I’m not the guy at church who testifies to “knowing” a lot of things. My faith has been, and remains pretty simple. I hope for a better world. One that looks like what Christ describes here. I hope by living a certain way I will not only be allowed to inhabit such a place in the future, but that we can collectively create such a place. This is my hope, and the life I live is my faith garnered from that hope. But that’s not what I want to talk about today.

The insight I’ve had recently is that these simple statements are a more glaring signal than a first reading would imply, and that Jesus is very much about challenging our understanding of scripture. He is speaking to Jews. The idea of being a ‘blessed’ people is their national identity. In Genesis 14:18-20 Melchizedek pronounces ” Blessed be Abram by the Most High God”. In Genesis 27 Isaac blesses Jacob (Israel) “May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. You will be lord over your brothers, and the sons of your mother will bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed, and those who bless you be blessed.” These are the blessings given to and by the patriarchs of their family/country. This “blessed be”, and “blessed are” business is the language of the covenant made with the Almighty himself. Jesus is saying the blessings of these covenants are reserved not for a nation or people, not for the names all history knows, but for the humble, meek, and mourning seekers of comfort, peace, and righteousness. The Almighty is NOT messing around.

Maybe I’m reading too much into that. I mean how else are you supposed to talk about blessings? There’s only so many ways to say it, so by definition they’ll sound pretty similar. Maybe, but those promised blessings are pretty profound, and I think there’s enough in the remainder of his life and ministry to back up that Jesus was all about overturning a corrupted and stale take on Yahweh and his covenants. There’s also more in the sermon at hand.

The Light of the World

I feel like saying The Messiah was supposed to be a light to the world is a bit of an understatement. I mean the whole world comes knocking at Israel’s door to get laws and receive judgement while world peace sets in and weapons are destroyed (Isaiah 2:2-5). Here’s the thing. There’s at least one other place where Isaiah describes this light to the world out of Israel. In Ch 8:23-9:5 Isaiah describes a light that shines on oppressed Israel right before the “for unto us a child is born …”. Interestingly he names off the geography of where this light comes from. Contemporary to Isaiah this appears to have been about  territory captured by the Assyrian empire, but its maybe worth noting. “In earlier times he humiliated the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali; but now he brings honor to the way of the sea, the region beyond the Jordan, and Galilee of the nations. 2 (9:1) The people walking in darkness see a bright light; light shines on those who live in a land of deep darkness”

In Matthew Chapter 4:25 “And large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan River” So there he is walking and teaching in Galilee and beyond the Jordan river and he’s just made pronouncements about how the meek and lowly are blessed in the same ways the Patriarchs were blessed in their covenants and then he says “Ye are the light of the world”. The Messiah was supposed to be the light of the world. It says so right there in Isaiah. I don’t think Matthew includes a blurb about geography right before quoting a sermon where the person he’s presenting as The Messiah talks about the light of the world is an accident. Don’t let modern chapter and verse markings fool you.

At this point what follows the Beatitudes suddenly makes much more sense to me than it ever has before. Remember all those prescribed rituals, and dietary and hygienic proscriptions? The Messiah isn’t here to destroy them (how could he? it’s pretty clear in the OT that’s not how this works) his message gives clarity to their meaning and intent. In his letter to the Christians in Rome Paul further clarifies how his vision of “the law” and its purpose has radically changed because of Jesus. My own understanding has been greatly aided by Adam S. Miller’s short books “Grace is Not God’s Back-up plan”, and “An Early Resurrection”.

Ye Have Heard

If you were to ask someone to name off Old Testament commandments my guess is that they would start listing the 10 commandments. I bet they’d skip the Sabbath day, and one God, and idol worship ones and jump straight to big ones. Lying, Cheating, Stealing, and Murdering. True crime has ALWAYS been a crowd-pleaser. Jesus knows what he’s about. Matthew Chapter 5 verses 21-42 hit Murder, Adultery, Lying and Revenge. He quotes pretty directly from Torah, and then straight away gives a radically different vision of how to live those laws.

Then he drives the point home.

Most of us eventually join a tribe and learn to love people in our tribe. Loving our neighbor as ourselves is hard, but we understand it has value. As tribal humans we have an advantageous distrust of the unknown and strangers. The world is a dangerous place. If someone proves unworthy of trust and becomes an enemy cursing and violence are customary. It is not an accident I included Isaac’s blessing to Jacob above “May those who curse you be cursed, and those who bless you be blessed”. That injunction predates Moses. It was there at the founding of Israel. Jesus has news for you “But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be like your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors do the same, don’t they? And if you only greet your brothers, what more do you do? Even the Gentiles do the same, don’t they? So then, be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This Jesus fellow is NOT messing around.

I was going to add in a bit about fasting and how Jesus’s discussion of fasting was actually an admonition to return to the prescribed observance of fasting as laid out in Leviticus specifically about Yom Kippur the Day of Atonement, and how its not all radically new, but a reconciliation with God’s will and truth, but I’ve been at this far too long and I’m running out of steam, and I’d be WAY out of my depth.

Here’s the point

Returning back to where I started. Why did the 1st century Jews reject Jesus? I’m still sure I don’t know the whole truth on this point. But this Jesus of Nazareth wasn’t exactly who they expected and he teaches some radical ideas. To modern Christians the words and concepts aren’t so radical so we may miss it. Living them remains a radical proposition. As a Mormon (Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) I have at my disposal a bit larger scriptural cannon than the average bear. There’s a verse that has always struck me as being  both a warning and an invitation that we don’t talk about nearly enough. Doctrine and Covenants Section 1 verse 16 “They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god” There is the god we want, and hope for, and look for based on our own desires, prejudices, foibles, and limited human understanding. And there’s the God that is. They are not the same. A person can read scripture and come to a very fair-minded conclusion that God is a harsh, genocidal, dictator who expects us to never enjoy a ham and swiss Hot Pocket. We can make lists derived directly from prophesy outlining who the Messiah is “supposed” to be. The lesson I learned these past few weeks reading the Sermon on the Mount is that we can be outlandishly wrong, and if we aren’t open to the unexpected we might seriously miss out.