Concepts of the Expected Messiah 

Messiah, (from Hebrew mashiaḥ, “anointed”), in Judaism, is the expected king of the Davidic line who would deliver Israel from foreign bondage and restore the glories of its golden age. The Greek New Testament’s translation of the term, Christos, became the accepted Christian designation and title of Jesus of Nazareth, indicative of the principal character and function of his ministry. More loosely, the term messiah denotes any redeemer figure; and the adjective messianic is used in a broad sense to refer to beliefs or theories about an improvement of the state of humanity or the ultimate destiny of mankind and the world.

Was Jesus the expected Jewish Messiah? The expectations of the Jewish people for the coming of the Messiah were varied. Some expected a spiritual reawakening, while many hoped for a material ruler who would come in power and cast off the chains of oppression they felt under the Roman yoke. The Jews devoutly believed that, as Moses had delivered their fathers from Egyptian bondage by miraculous wonders, so would the coming Messiah deliver the Jewish people from Roman domination by even greater miracles of power and marvels of racial triumph. They were particularly hoping for a Messiah who would provide them with the long-awaited ideal of “the land flowing with milk and honey.”

There were differing views as to whether or not the Messiah would be human with supernatural powers or a divine visitation on earth. Little did they expect the combination of human and divine natures incarnated in one man, Jesus. Their rigid dogma caused them to stumble over his divinity, accusing him of blasphemy, and yet they balked at his humble beginnings from Nazareth as the carpenter’s son, asking: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Even Jesus’ own parents differed in their opinions of the Messiah.

From Jesus’ youth, he knew that he was not the Messiah from the prophet Daniel’s vision, arriving from heaven on the clouds and in glory. Interestingly, in later years at his baptism, he was shown an expanded vision of his heavenly kingdom and his former self as the Son of God. Early on, he rejected the term Messiah, but later on realizing that his followers would not abandon that concept, he sought to lead them to a spiritual interpretation of the Messiah.

While the Jews differed greatly in their estimates of the nature of the coming kingdom in the era of Jesus’ life,, they were alike in their belief that the event was impending and near at hand. Many who read the Old Testament looked expectantly for a new king in Palestine, for a regenerated Jewish nation delivered from its enemies and presided over by the successor of King David, the Messiah who would quickly be acknowledged as the rightful and righteous ruler of all the world.

A smaller group held a different view. They taught that the coming kingdom was not of this world, that the world was approaching its certain end, and that “a new heaven and a new earth” were to usher in the establishment of the kingdom of God. This kingdom was to be an everlasting dominion, that sin was to be ended, and that the citizens of the new kingdom were to become immortal in their enjoyment of this endless bliss.

All were agreed that some drastic purging or purifying discipline would precede the establishment of the new kingdom on earth. The literalists taught that a world-wide war would ensue which would destroy all unbelievers, while the faithful would sweep on to universal and eternal victory. The spiritists taught that the kingdom would be ushered in by the great judgment of God which would relegate the unrighteous to their well-deserved judgment of punishment and final destruction, at the same time elevating the believing saints of the chosen people to high seats of honor and authority with the Son of Man, who would rule over the redeemed nations in God’s name. And this latter group even believed that many devout gentiles might be admitted to the fellowship of the new kingdom.

Some of the Jews held to the opinion that God might possibly establish this new kingdom by direct and divine intervention, but the vast majority believed that he would interpose a Messiah as a representative intermediary. Thus, the term Messiah could not possibly refer to one who merely taught God’s will or proclaimed the necessity for righteous living. To all such holy persons, the Jews gave the title of prophet. The Messiah was to be more than a prophet; the Messiah was to bring in the establishment of the new kingdom, the kingdom of God. Anyone who failed to do this could not be the Messiah in the traditional Jewish sense.

In modern times, other faiths share the concept of an awaited spiritual leader who is a "restorer of the faith" or "rightly guided one," but the belief in a messiah and a messianic age is so deeply rooted in Jewish tradition that a statement concerning the Messiah became the most famous of Maimonides's Thirteen Principles of Faith: "And Ma'amin, I believe with a full heart in the coming of the Messiah, and even though he may tarry, I will wait for him on any day that he may come." In the concentration camps of WWII, it is reported that many Jews sang the Ani Ma'amin while walking to the gas chambers.

The biblical Old Testament never speaks of an eschatological messiah, and even the "messianic" passages that contain prophecies of a future golden age under an ideal king never use the term messiah. Nevertheless, many modern scholars believe that Israelite messianism grew out of beliefs that were connected with their nation's kingship. When actual reality and the careers of particular historical Israelite kings proved more and more disappointing, the "messianic" kingship ideology was projected on the future.

Jesus did not usher in world peace as Isaiah had prophesied. Knowing that he had arrived much earlier than mankind was spiritually ready to receive him, Jesus told his followers, “Think not that I have come to bring peace.” He realized that it would be many years before true peace came to the world. Jesus did not help bring about Jewish political sovereignty or protection from their enemies. Jesus had no interest in political affairs, as he often repeated: "My kingdom is not of this world." He also said, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” His mission was spiritual, to reveal the Universal Father’s loving nature to his children.

The Roman destruction of Jerusalem's Second Temple and the Jews' subsequent exile, persecution, and suffering only intensified their messianism, which continued to develop theologically and to express itself in messianic movements. Even today, the Jewish people find hope in the eventual visitation of the Messiah. In modern times, there are some Jewish people who recognize Jesus as their Messiah, discovering him and the beauty of his matchless teachings a full 2,000 years after he lived on earth. His Spirit of Truth dwells among us, his message is timeless, and he still draws all of mankind to himself.

The messianic idea has long elevated Jewish life, and prompted Jews to work for tikkun olam (perfection of the world), but whenever the Messiah's arrival seemed to be imminent, the potential for the concept to shape political decisions was real, and it became inspiring but potentially dangerous

There were two heralds of the Messiah, one divine and one human. The first being Gabriel when he announced the impending birth of John and Jesus to each of their mothers. The second was the life of John the Baptist who became the forerunner of Jesus when he grew up to full maturity. John preached and baptized, saving many souls while all the while saying, “One who is greater than me is yet to come.” John was solemnly impressed by both of his parents that he was chosen to make way for the coming of the Messiah. His parents, Elizabeth and Zacharias, both believed Jesus was the intended Messiah, and they raised John on those stories. Both of the fathers, Joseph and Zacharias, received vivid dreams which helped to convince them they were about to be parents to special sons. John had a loyal following that grew to love Jesus, and even some of John's disciples became apostles of Jesus.

Most of the so-called Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament were made to apply to Jesus long after his life had been lived on earth. For centuries, the Hebrew prophets had proclaimed the coming of a deliverer, and these promises had been construed by successive generations as referring to a new Jewish ruler who would sit upon the throne of David and, by the reputed miraculous methods of Moses, proceed to establish the Jews in Palestine as a powerful nation and free from all foreign domination.

Many figurative passages found throughout the Hebrew scriptures were subsequently misapplied to the life mission of Jesus. And many Old Testament sayings were so distorted as to appear to fit some episode of the Master’s earth life. Jesus himself once publicly denied any connection with the royal house of David. Mary’s ancestry went back to Bathsheba and was closer than Joseph’s family was. Even the passage, “a maiden shall bear a son,” was made to read, “a virgin shall bear a son.”

Mary and Joseph were married, and Jesus came into the world the same way all babies do, except he was the incarnated Son of God. The genealogies of both Joseph and Mary were constructed after Jesus’ death and, on the whole, may not be depended upon as factual. The early followers of Jesus all too often succumbed to the temptation to make all the olden prophetic utterances appear to find fulfillment in the life of their Lord and Master.

The larger part of Joseph’s family became believers in the teachings of Jesus, but very few of Mary’s people ever believed in him until after he departed from this world. Joseph leaned more toward the spiritual concept of the expected Messiah, but Mary and her family, especially her father, held to the idea of the Messiah as a temporal deliverer and political ruler. Joseph held vigorously to the Eastern, or Babylonian, views of the Jewish religion; Mary leaned strongly toward the more liberal and broader Western, or Hellenistic, interpretation of the law and the prophets.

Joseph and Mary pondered the nature of their expected child before he was born. Joseph leaned towards a spiritual teacher, while Mary clung to the idea of a Jewish Messiah. Both Elizabeth and Zacharias believed Jesus was to become the Jewish deliverer and that their son John was to be his chief aide and right-hand man. And since Mary held these same ideas, it was not difficult to prevail upon Joseph to remain in Bethlehem, the City of David, so that Jesus might grow up to become the successor of David on the throne of all Israel. Accordingly, they remained in Bethlehem more than a year, while Joseph continued working some at his carpenter’s trade.

As he grew older, Jesus’ pity and love for the Jewish people deepened along with a righteous resentment of the presence in his Father’s temple of the politically appointed priests. Jesus had great respect for the sincere Pharisees and the honest scribes, but he held the hypocritical Pharisees and the dishonest theologians in great contempt. When he scrutinized the leadership of Israel, he was sometimes tempted with the possibility of becoming the Messiah of Jewish expectation, but he never yielded to such a temptation.

The Jews expected a Messiah who could perform even greater miracles than Moses, who was said to have brought water from a rock and fed their ancestors with manna. Jesus saw the Messiah his fellow citizens expected and had the powers and prerogatives to meet their hopes, but he rejected such a grand plan. Jesus saw such expected miracles as a return to ignorant magic and savage medicine men. He might accelerate natural law for the salvation of his creatures, but he would not transcend his own laws for his own benefit or the overawing of his fellow men. The Master's decision was final.

Jesus sorrowed for his people; he fully understood how they had been led up to the expectation of the coming Messiah. The Jews believed the Messiah would usher in an era of miraculous plenty and they long nurtured traditions of miracles and legends of wonders. However, he came not to minister to temporal needs only; he came to reveal his Father in heaven to his children on earth, while he sought to lead his earth children to join him in a sincere effort so as to live to do the will of the Father in heaven.

The feeding of the five thousand by supernatural energy was a case where human pity plus creative power resulted in a miraculous event. The multitude was ready to make Jesus king, but he would not consent, reminding them that he had said many times that his kingdom was not of this world. These words of Jesus sent the multitude away stunned and disheartened. Many of those who had believed in him abandoned him on that fateful day. The apostles were speechless; they stood in silence gathered about the twelve baskets of the fragments of food; only the chore boy, the Mark lad, spoke, “And he refused to be our king.”

Jesus had sought to live his life on earth and complete his bestowal mission as the Son of Man. His followers were disposed to regard him as the expected Messiah. Knowing that he could never fulfill their Messianic expectations, he endeavored to effect such a modification of their concept of the Messiah as would enable him partially to meet their expectations. But he now recognized that such a plan could hardly be carried through successfully. He therefore elected boldly to disclose the third plan – openly to announce his divinity, acknowledge the truthfulness of Peter’s confession, and directly proclaim to the twelve that he was a Son of God.

For three years, Jesus had been proclaiming that he was the “Son of Man,” while for these same three years the apostles had been increasingly insistent that he was the expected Jewish Messiah. He then disclosed that he was the Son of God, and upon the concept of the combined nature of the Son of Man and the Son of God, he was determined to build the kingdom of heaven. He had decided to refrain from further efforts to convince them that he was not the Messiah.

Jesus had sincerely endeavored to lead his followers into the spiritual kingdom as a teacher, then as a teacher-healer, but they would not have it. He knew that his mission could not possibly fulfill the Messianic expectations of the Jewish people. Jesus, seeing this, decided to meet his believers part way and prepared openly to assume the role of the bestowal Son of God.

Jesus realized that the rejection of the spiritual concept of the Messiah would bring the Jews in direct conflict with the powerful Roman armies, and that such a contest could only result in the final and complete overthrow of the Jewish nation. Even the Jewish leaders subsequently recognized that it was this secular idea of the Messiah which directly led to the turbulence which eventually brought about their destruction by the Roman Empire.