Handel's Messiah: The Person and Work of Christ

47. The 'Scandal' of Messiah's Attesting Signs

By Dr. Paul M. Elliott
The very facts that demonstrated Jesus' authenticity as the Messiah were a scandal to many of the Jews - but others understood and believed.

From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part 47 of a series. Read part 46.

The very facts that demonstrated Jesus' authenticity as the Messiah were a scandal to many of the Jews - but others understood and believed.

As Handel's oratorio continues, the alto soloist recites one of the most crucial of all Messianic prophecies:

Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. (Isaiah 35:5-6)

Why is this prophecy so vital? For three reasons: First, Jesus the Messiah read of these great facts in the synagogue at Nazareth as He announced the beginning of His public ministry. Secondly, these verses, and similar passages elsewhere in Old Testament prophecy, speak of the signs that would attest to the Messiah's authenticity. Thirdly, they speak truths that the majority of the Jews, including their religious leaders, would refuse to believe about Jesus. The Pharisees and Sadducees would go to the most desperate lengths to suppress the prophecy-fulfilling evidences of Jesus' Messiahship, culminating in their demand that He be crucified.

Jesus' Prophetic Announcement

Let us first consider Jesus' own announcement as He began His public ministry. In Luke chapter 4 we read that at the very beginning of His earthly ministry Jesus came to the synagogue in Nazareth, and He began to preach. He opened the book of Isaiah and read these words from chapters 49 and 61:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

Jesus the Messiah read about Himself. He read Isaiah's prophecies that the Messiah would come to earth; He would begin to teach and to preach about Himself; He would perform the signs and miracles that prophecy said would bear witness to His authenticity.

Others had claimed to be the Messiah. But Nicodemus, the Pharisee who would later believe on Jesus, was beginning to view His person and work in the light of the great prophetic test:

Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him. (John 3:2)

Those among the Jews who believed on Jesus evinced the same understanding:

And many of the people believed in Him, and said, "When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?" (John 7:31)

Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth, on the day He read the words of Isaiah's prophecy, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." People of Nazareth, the Messiah's earthly ministry has begun. You have seen it with your own eyes. You have heard it with your own ears. The attesting signs are before you.

Even John the Baptist had doubts. In Luke chapter 7 we read that when John was in prison, he sent his own disciples to Jesus to ask Him the crucial question: "Are you in fact the Messiah, or should we be looking for someone else?" Jesus' answer was to point John to the prophetic test:

Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the Gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me. (Luke 7:22-23)

The faith of John, and his ministry in preparing the way of the Lord the forerunner of the Messiah, were thus mightily confirmed.

"To the Jews a Stumbling Block"

"Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me," Jesus said. But in Mark's parallel account of the events of this period, we read that there were many who were offended, especially in Jesus' home town of Nazareth:

Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him.

And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, "Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands!

Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?" So they were offended at Him.

But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house."

Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.

And He marveled because of their unbelief. (Mark 6:1-6)

"So they were offended at Him" - more literally, in the original language, He was a stumbling block to them; they were scandalized by Him. The Apostle Paul, the "Pharisee of the Pharisees" whom the risen Messiah confronted on the road to Damascus, understood the scandal of the Christ and His cross:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." [Here Paul quotes the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 29:14.]

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks [i.e., the Gentiles] foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18-24)

How, and why, would the authentic Messiah be "a stumbling block" to the Jews when He appeared? How could Jesus the Messiah, the God-man, marvel at their unbelief? We shall take up these questions as we continue.

 

Next: The Marvel of Unbelief in the Messiah

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