The New Testament Witness to Christ and His Kingdom, Student Workbook, SW13

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T H E N E W T E S T A M E N T W I T N E S S T O C H R I S T A N D H I S K I N G D O M

A P P E N D I X 3 9

New Testament Readings

The Problem: Who Precisely Was Jesus of Nazareth?

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn’t be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg–or else he’d be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity . New York: Touchstone by Simon and Schuster, (1943) 1996. p. 52

Tell Us Plainly: Are You the Messiah, or Not?

Always at the center of the Jews’ concern is the question of questions, “Can this Galilean possibly be the Messiah?” On his part, Jesus does not give them the unequivocal answer which they desire, but in a simple parable “drawn from ancient Palestinian tradition,” John 10.1-5, he does make a veiled Messianic claim. “I am no interloper,” he says in effect, “but the rightful shepherd of God’s flock. I need no signs to prove my authority which is self-authenticating: it lies in the fact that my sheep follow my leadership because they recognize in me the accents and actions of Israel’s true shepherd” (see Ezekiel 34).

Archibald M. Hunter, The Work and Words of Jesus . Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, (1950) 1973. p. 134

Why Didn’t Jesus Embrace More Publicly His Identity as Messiah, and Therefore Silence His Adversaries?

Jesus knew himself to be the Messiah, albeit in his own terms, during his ministry. What does this mean? That he was the person through whom God’s rule was being realized and the ancient prophecies fulfilled. Yet when Peter or Caiaphas sought to apply the title to him, Jesus seemed to shy away from it and talk instead of the Son of Man. Why? The only convincing answer is that Jesus conceived his Messiahship in spiritual and eschatological terms, not in nationalist and political ones. One indication of what it means to him comes in his reply to John the Baptist’s questions. “I am,” he replies in effect, “the fulfiller of the great Isaianic prophecies (Isa. 29.18-19; 35.5-6; and 61.1), and come to bring healing, life, and good news to God’s needy children.” Another clue he gives in his mode of entry into the holy city recalls Zechariah’s prince of peace (Zech. 9.9-10). Not the Psalms of Solomon but Servant Songs of Isaiah and the Psalms of the Righteous Sufferer (22, 69, etc.) shaped his thought of the Messiah.”

Archibald M. Hunter, The Work and Words of Jesus . p. 103