Thursday, December 2, 2010
Matthew 11:4-5 Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them."
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT OF THE MESSIAH?
There are certain traits that we can and should expect of the Messiah. In the Old Testament the Lord drew up certain parameters so that people could readily identify Him when He came to the earth. One such marker was the great miracles that He would do. When Jesus was asked by the messengers of John the Baptist whether or not He was the Christ (Messiah), Jesus replied, "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up." Quite a bit of this was prophesied in Isaiah 35, but Jesus adds even more, namely the lepers being cleansed and the dead being raised up.
Certainly other people in the Bible had done miracles. We think especially of Elijah and Elisha and the remarkable things that God did through them. But they were quite limited. At no other time, in no other person ever came the quantity and quality of the miracles that Jesus did. His fame was so widespread because of these signs, that at times He had to withdraw Himself from the crowds.
We dare not treat the Scriptures like a book of mythology and think that these miracles of Jesus are exaggerations or mere stories and object lessons. Jesus truly did all of the signs and wonders that were attributed to Him. It is noted in John that there are even more miracles that are not recorded in Scripture. Such signs are a marker for the Messiah predicted by God. It is to be expected.
Jesus also showed His office as the Messiah by the fact that through Him the poor have the gospel preached to them. It was not only His works that identified Him as the Christ. It was His words. We're told that He taught as one who had authority. No one had ever heard a man say such things as Jesus did. He had the right words because He proclaimed the truth. He explained that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and die. That was the very purpose for which He came to the earth. He explained how righteousness is not available within people, but that the Christ would be bruised for our iniquities.
