A Biblical Vision, Part I: Mastering the Old Testament Witness to Christ

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A B i b l i ca l Vi s i on, Par t I : Mas ter i ng the Ol d Tes tament Wi tnes s to Chr i s t

b. Matt. 12.38-40 – Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” [39] But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. [40] For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

c. Mark 8.31 – And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.

d. Luke 18.33 – And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.

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Jesus’ Broader Meaning of Resurrection: Restoration, God-Style

The Messiah came to usher in the new age. But the new age meant the death of the old age. He came to achieve the restoration of Israel. But that could only come about after the fires of judgment and purging. As Jesus looked at his own society, he saw it heading for that terrifying judgment. So much of his preaching has that urgent note of warning and impending disaster. Like John he saw a ‘wrath to come:’ the wrath of Rome as well as the wrath of God. But the deeper awareness of his own messiahship lay in this, that he believed himself called to take Israel’s judgment on himself at another level. For the Messiah was a representative figure. He was Israel. Their destiny was therefore his, and his theirs. Yes, at one level, national and political Israel was heading for destruction. But at another level Israel, in the Messiah, would suffer judgment and then the restoration that God, not the politicians or the guerillas, planned. That was why as soon as the disciples came to accept that Jesus was the Messiah he immediately began to teach them of his impending violent death and third day resurrection. That was how the Messiah they now haltingly recognized intended to accomplish the restoration they expected of him. It is not really surprising that they could not grasp his meaning until after the events of the cross and resurrection. Even then, it took a seven mile walk from