The Messiah

Jesus said to the Pharisees: "I am going away, and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come." So, the Jews said, "He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, 'Where I am going you cannot come'?" 

He said to them, "You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins."

So, they said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "What I told you from the beginning. I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world." They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.

So, Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him." Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him. (John 8:21-30)

Again, John is speaking to “the Jews” who do not believe Jesus is the Christ.  John quotes Jesus as saying about “the Jews:” “You belong to what is below…For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins…I have much to say about you in condemnation…”  No wonder we have had centuries of Christians misguidedly denouncing those of the Jewish faith.  John said Jesus claimed to be “I AM” – a claim infuriating those who waited for the Messiah to come.   

According to Wikipedia, (begin) The Messiah in Judaism (Hebrew: מָשִׁיחַ, romanized: māšīaḥ) is a savior and liberator figure in Jewish eschatology, who is believed to be the future redeemer of the Jewish people. The concept of messianism originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible a messiah is a king or High Priest of Israel traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil. However, messiahs were not exclusively Jewish, as the Hebrew Bible refers to Cyrus the Great, king of the first Persian empire, as a messiah for his decree to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple.

In Jewish eschatology, the Messiah is a future Jewish king from the Davidic line, who is expected to be anointed with holy anointing oil and rule the Jewish people during the Messianic Age and world to come. According to Jewish tradition, the Messianic Era will be one of global peace and harmony; an era free of strife and hardship, conducive to the furtherment of the knowledge of the Creator. 

The theme of the Messiah ushering in an era of global peace is encapsulated in two of the most famous scriptural passages from the Book of Isaiah: They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not lift sword against nation and they will no longer study warfare (Isaiah 2:4) and “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9).

It’s important for us understand: "We all belong to what is above.” Setting ourselves apart from other religions is hubris and dangerous.  The fact that we Christians and Jews are so obviously related by faith – with some important differences and distinctions – should convince us to respect and honor the other. For this reason and others, antisemitism is a cancerous growth that muddles our brains and corrupts our souls.  

I AM wouldn’t want us to die in our sins, so let’s refuse to belong to what is below.

Deacon David Pierce