In our studies on this topic, we examined the idea of a Jewish understanding of the Godhead during the 2nd Temple Period, referencing a series of proof texts to demonstrate that line of thinking. Moving on from that study we will now study the reasons why more Jewish people did not connect Jesus with that thinking and, as part of that process, why the gospel writers and Paul work so hard at hammering home the point that Jesus is the Christ.

A powerful name

In Acts 3, we see Peter healing the lame man at the temple gate. Peter said to him:

“Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”

Peter is very precise in his language. He also used the same language in Acts 2:38, calling the crowd listening to his sermon at the Temple on Pentecost to repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Luke uses this term frequently; indeed, it is a hallmark of his writing – and he is not using it in the sense of the name given to him as a baby. Luke uses it to describe the presence of Jesus, His very real presence. This is a name you believe in, are baptised into, work miracles through, walk in, preach in, and suffer for.

And it is not just Luke. In John 17:6 Jesus says, of God, “I have revealed Your name to them”. Jesus is not bringing a new insight into God’s name, YHWH – He is revealing the nature of God, the way of living in God; He is manifesting God to them. So, when the name Jesus Christ (Iesous Christos in Greek) is used, there is a purpose in it.

This is a name you believe in, are baptised into, work miracles through, walk in, preach in, and suffer for.

Christos is found 531 times in the New Testament and is spread across three primary uses.

A highly significant title

At the most simple level, Christos means ‘anointed’; that can be from a medical perspective and, when applied to a person, it becomes ‘anointed one’ – but is Jesus Christ simply referring to an ‘anointed one’? If it is, then there isn’t anything distinctly special there. Its second application is as a name, though not like a surname.

The third application can be when it is applied as a title, as in Messiah. John 1:41, “We have found the Messiah”, is a good example of this. It is a title, and, as Messiah in the Old Testament it is a highly charged, supernatural deliverer title, it has theological significance. Paul uses ‘Christos’ 383 times, which is pretty remarkable in a relatively small body of work. (270 of them are in letters that even the highest critics would not challenge as being Paul’s work.) It is a central element of Paul’s ministry. But it is not just Paul – the gospels use the title Christ in the same way. We are left with some 180 examples where Jesus and Christ are written together. Paul also uses the combination of Christos and ‘Kurios’ (Lord) twice, in Romans 16:28 and Colossian 3:24.

What I am driving at is that when the name Christ is used, it has a distinct purpose. I would suggest that the purpose is to signal that this is not being used as a proper name, neither is it the title of one who is simply anointed – it is a specific designation for a specific person. The disciples are using Christos to highlight that Jesus is special. He is The Messiah. They are saying JESUS IS THE CHRIST! But they don’t spell out these words each time – the name is enough for them, and it is shorthand for His virgin birth, His sacrificial death, burial and resurrection. It is an unambiguous declaration that Jesus is the Messiah that was foretold.

Driving home the key fact

So, why would Jewish disciples do this over and over again? Why would they major on this point? The answer is buried in Peter’s statement in Acts 3:18 to the crowd following the healing of the lame man: “But this is how God fulfilled what he had announced in advance, when he spoke through all the prophets, namely, that his Messiah was to die.” Peter says this – yet there is not a single ‘proof text’ in the Old Testament. There is not a text that we can go to that says, ‘The Messiah must suffer’. You may be tempted to say, ‘hang on, what about Isaiah 53…?’ Not one mention of Messiah or mashiach in Isaiah 53. Within the surface-reading parameters of the Hebrew Bible, Jesus did not appear to measure up to the criteria for The Messiah. This is why the New Testament writers labour the point they are hammering home: they are emphasising their truth. So, why is Peter making this claim that all the prophets have written about the suffering Messiah? He is playing back what he has learned of the truth about Jesus post-resurrection.

Why does this need spelling out?

The incredible truth is that there is not a single proof text picture of the Messiah. What there is is a multi-faceted mosaic that requires us to join the dots. The Messianic picture is built from multiple elements of the Old Testament that need putting together like a jigsaw. It is this way because God intended it that way. God understood that the Adversary knew that the Messiah was coming and so the provision of a proof text would have been like a primer. It would have given away His plans. But as we know, whilst the Adversary and his cohorts are intelligent, they are not particularly bright – not enough to join all the dots. The picture of the Suffering Messiah comes from a multitude of sources that needed to be put together in the disciples’ mind. That is the process that Jesus went through on the road to Emmaus, and the process He went through with the disciples post-resurrection.

The incredible truth is that there is not a single proof text picture of the Messiah. What there is is a multi-faceted mosaic that requires us to join the dots.

This is the point Paul is alluding to in 1 Corinthians 2:8:

“Not one of this world’s leaders has understood it; because if they had, they would not have executed the Lord from whom this glory flows.”

The adversary and cohorts knew who Jesus was, they knew He was here and they knew His mission, in general terms. What they didn’t know is what set the whole thing running. They did not know what it was that would undo the sin of the Fall and The Fallen Ones. They didn’t know because God did not spell it out.

Piecing together God’s plan

The Jewish expectation was shaped by the shock of the exile, the shock of the loss of the throne and kingdom. The Jewish teachers believed they were looking for a King from the line of David who would liberate the nation and restore the kingdom as was promised in 2 Samuel 7. Jesus is asked about this very thing.

But when you systematically work through the Old Testament you begin to pick up the various pieces:

• The King the Jewish sages were expecting would be God’s Son;
  
• Scripture reveals that God’s Son is Israel; as detailed in Exodus;
  
• Also within Exodus we learn that God’s rule comes in and through the redemption of His people.

It is here that I believe questions begin to arise: Is Israel a person or a people?

• If Israel is a people, then it is the nation – as it is in Isaiah 53, where the nation of Israel is described as a servant.
  
• However, Isaiah 53 also describes an individual servant who ministers to the nation’s needs.
  
• Therefore we can extrapolate that the Bible reveals to us both a corporate and an individual servant.
  
• It is this individual servant who is described as a prophet. Indeed, in Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses declares “Adonai will raise up for you a prophet like me from among yourselves, from your own kinsmen. You are to pay attention to him”.

It is through this mosaic of concepts and ideas that we build to the realisation or recognition that it is this individual servant, a servant who is a prophet, but more than a prophet, is a king, and yet more than a king, who is actually somehow God’s son and who, as God’s son, in Isaiah 53 suffers on behalf of the people.

So yes, Messiah is found in Isaiah 53, and in Isaiah 53 Messiah is the suffering servant.

However, this is not clearly spelled out in any single text. Rather, this great truth is found in a collage of ideas that come together to point to the truth that the servant is an individual – an individual who represents the nation of Israel, or maybe better put God’s covenant community, an individual who is the son of God who, as God, is the ruler of all things, and that in this Son of God is the destiny of God’s covenant community.

This is why you get, in the later chapters of Isaiah, the idea of the kingdom of God extending over all the other nations. These are dozens of biblical theological points scattered throughout the Old Testament about one individual who is related to a corporate entity called the people of God in some way. And thus we have this whole profile that comes together, this whole picture, that is what Peter was talking about in Acts 3:18, when he says God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, and Jesus fulfilled that. He’s not saying that there’s this verse that only he knows about that the Messiah was suffering. No, it’s that the Christos, the Messiah, is only one title for this guy. There are other titles for this guy, and the Jews are only looking at one aspect. They're only looking at one thing. Why? Because they desperately wanted to be delivered and because they're looking back in their Tanakh and they're thinking that ‘anointing’ means anointing someone to be the king. They’re looking for a king, and of course kings have kingdoms which are not ruled by anyone else.

Provoking the enemy

Most Jewish people missed Jesus because they were looking in the wrong place. Peter is saying ‘guys, you missed it, you missed the truth!’ Internally, he is saying ‘I missed it too, I just had to have my mind opened by Jesus and now I am sharing this glorious message with you’.

But Jesus knows he has provoked the enemy – that’s why He rebukes Satan, not Peter.

So God made it this way to blindside the adversary, just as Paul writes, as we saw before in 1 Corinthians 2:8. God did it this way because when Jesus shows up reversing the impacts of the sin of humans and fallen angels’ sin, when he is exorcising demons, rolling back the adversary, He is provoking them, He is challenging them. This hits the peak at Caesarea Philippi when Peter makes his great declaration, when Jesus acknowledges this spiritual truth, and Jesus is transfigured . Jesus then begins to teach about His death, but the disciples don’t get it, Peter even rebukes Him. But Jesus knows he has provoked the enemy – that’s why He rebukes Satan, not Peter.

Before you know it, Jesus is walking with the disciples to raise Lazarus, He is entering Jerusalem on Nisan 10 in the wake of the Passover lambs, He is engaging the Sadducean priestly families, threatening their cosy, self-indulgent existences and the adversary sees an opportunity. The plan goes into action.

All about Jesus

The disciples didn’t get it at the time. So, are we smarter than the disciples? No. We are simply dwarves standing on the shoulders of giants who had their minds opened by Jesus to understand this incredible truth.

This is why the name Christos is hammered home throughout the gospels and Acts, and Paul’s letters to the emerging churches. They are saying we are here because of Him, these healings are because of Him, we are speaking new languages because of Him and if what we are saying isn’t true, then why are these things happening? Why are we here witnessing to Him?

Godfearers, gentiles who liked the idea of One God but didn’t want to go to the lengths of circumcision, responded to this message because it made them full citizens of the people of God. They then, alongside Paul and others, took the message out to their fellow gentiles, a message of adoption and coming home. It turned the world upside down and it still is doing so today.