There are those who reject Jesus as Messiah and count Him as another person who tried to overthrow Rome and failed. However the facts of His case brought out at trial tell a different story.
The accusation certainly came up as Jesus was hauled before the Roman governor.
Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people made their plans how to have Jesus executed. So they bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate the governor.
Mark 15:1-2
Jewish leaders wanted Jesus put to death, and tried for years to entrap Jesus. Some leaders expressed concerns that the Roman government could view Jesus as a revolutionary and come in and take away their position in the governing hierarchy. After years of teaching in public across Israel, and amongst many tens of thousands of witnesses of Jesus’ words and miraculous signs, the leaders could not produce any evidence or witnesses that could agree that Jesus plotted and desired to overthrow the Roman government. Pilate knew their strategy. He knew the implications of making a wreckless decision and had something to say:
Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.”
Luke 23:13-16
So Jesus was not (ultimately) put to death because the governor (representing Rome) believed He deserved death, but for some other reason. The governor instead listened to the crowd who was chanting “Crucify him! Crucify him!”, and the crowd was listening to the religious leaders who were still saying that Jesus should be crucified.
Why would the religious leaders want Jesus killed? Jesus said all along that He didn’t come to destroy the law and the prophets but to fulfill them. What could Jesus possibly do that would infuriate the Jewish leaders? To answer that, we must first look at some of the promises of God.
Why did the religious leaders of the day fear Jesus and seek to have Him killed?
Did you know that there is a prophecy that says a child will be born who will be called God?
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah’s 9:6
Who could fulfill this title to be called “Mighty God” except God Himself? If a mere man were to claim the title of “Mighty God”, and attempt to usurp God’s authority, one say it is blasphemy! The only way this scripture could be fulfilled without creating a blasphemous situation would be for God Himself to become man.
Furthermore, we note that this person is both God and man at the same time, and in being God the scripture refers to him as “Mighty God” collectively, but also the three persons of the godhead: the “Everlasting Father,” the “Wonderful Counselor,” (the Holy Spirit) and the “Prince of Peace” (the Son).
The prophecy continued:
Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
Isaiah 9:7
So according to this prophecy, the child, a human, born and called God, will carry the fullness of the godhead, be a descendent of David, and rule as king forever.
Jesus would sometimes debate or explore difficult topics. He brought this point up by asking about Psalms 110. He asked “how could David refer to him as ‘Lord’ when he is his son?”
A psalm of David
The LORD says to my lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
Psalm 110
The answer to Jesus’ question of course is what we found in Isaiah 9:6.
There are those whose would argue that Jesus is not the messiah because he did not overthrow the Roman empire. But didn’t He? Christianity spread throughout the then-known world, and was famously successful in Europe. So much so, that the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. Jesus, now seated at the right hand of the Father, received worship from kings and emperors around the world. Some of the people who claim Jesus “cannot be the Messiah” because He “did not conquer” Europe also claim that Christianity is a “white man’s religion.” They forget that Jesus was a Jew, all of His disciples were Jews, and his ministry was primarily to Israel. But, God is not finished. History marches on, and Jesus promised to return. When He returns, He will forcibly establish His kingdom by defeating the armies of evil in the world who have rallied against Israel.
In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man (human) coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.
He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed
Daniel 7:13-14
Note that this “ son of man” (this “human”) dwelt with the Ancient of Days ( the Father) and was God himself for He received worship.
When the High Priest questioned Jesus, the trial went like this:
The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” “You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” “He is worthy of death,” they answered.
Mathew 26:63-66
The Jewish leaders knew full well the reference Jesus made to Daniel and the Son of man coming in the clouds of glory. Jesus was killed for claiming that that God would keep His word in the fulfillment of prophecy, and that He was doing so now.
There are hundreds of prophecies in the Bible that specify everything from where the messiah would be born and how He would He would die.
Even the disbelief was prophesied (“who has believed our report?”) Jesus fulfilled that aspect too.
Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Matthew 12:37-40
Yet when it came down to it, while Jesus was on the cross, the religious leaders expressed their disbelief that Jesus was God, and asked for a sign. They asked that He save Himself from death. (But Jesus had already determined that the sign He would give was the sign of the prophet Jonah).
… the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
Matthew 27:41-44
This mocking, this ridicule, this rejection, the beatings, the whipping, even His death was predicted in prophecy. Isaiah 53 speaks of God’s suffering servant.
Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 53
Only Isaiah can explain why Jesus was put to death. It was part of God’s plan to provide true atonement for sin. The religious leaders, while steeped in unbelief, were wrong to reject and mistreat Jesus. Yet, it was in fulfillment of prophecy. Jesus came (from Heaven to Earth) not to do away with the law and prophets but to fulfill them. He “bore the sin of many.” He fulfilled the “sacrificial lamb” prototype set forth in Genesis.
Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
Genesis 22:7-8
The blood of the lamb was also a central theme in the Passover.
Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
Exodus 12:21-23
The symbol of blood sacrifice was further repeated as a lesson for Israel to learn with the practice of animal sacrifice set up in temple worship. There were many different kinds of offerings (a sin offering, a fellowship offering, an offering for the firstborn, etc.). Many sacrifices were brought by individuals as the situation called for it. Many other sacrifices were made on behalf of the people of Israel corporately as a whole by the priests. These were made routinely every morning and evening. All of these sacrifices pointed to and found their fulfillment in Jesus’ death on the cross. They all forcibly came to an end with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem after Jesus’ death in 63AD. Jesus’ sacrifice was the fulfillment of centuries of sacrifices which pointed to something that only God could provide. Only God could provide a perfect sacrifice — a perfect person without sin — God Himself.
But, having completed this mission from the Father, Jesus returned from whence He came. He returned to sit at the right hand of the Father. He returned to Heaven to make intercession for us (also explained in Isaiah 53), and so that the Holy Spirit would come to Earth to empower believers (as promised in Joel 2:28).
What is next? Jesus explained what is next and it infuriated the corrupt religious leaders of the day. Daniel 7:13 says to look for the Son of man to come in the clouds of Heaven and defeat Israel’s enemies. When He comes again, Israel will be glad to see Him. (Zechariah 12:10)
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