The Jews of Yeshua's day believed the Messiah would overthrow the Romans and set the people of Israel free. And for a time, many Jews thought that Yeshua might be the Messiah. Every time the Jewish leadership tried to arrest or hurt Yeshua, they could not touch him (see Luke 4:14-28, John 2:13-25, John 7). It was like he was bulletproof. But after he was arrested, he was slapped and beaten (see Matt 26 and John 18). By the time he stood before Pilate, he was already bleeding and bruised. So naturally, when Yeshua stood before the crowd, they thought he could not be the Messiah because they could see the beating he had taken. In this way, the prophecies of Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and many others were fulfilled.
So why did the Jewish leadership try to have Yeshua arrested in the first place? He told the people that they should observe the laws given to them through Moses.
‘Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you.”’ (The Gospel According to Matthew, 23:1-3a)
Why did so many of the Jewish religious leaders hate Yeshua? It's because he told them things they did not want to hear. Matthew 23 continues with these words:
“But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.”
Hypocrisy is not unique to the Jewish religious leaders of Yeshua's day, there are many hypocrites in the church today.1 (Evil people who seek positions of power often pretend to be good. Those who misrepresent God will have much to answer for.)
Religious leaders, whether Jewish or Christian, often make God look like a monster. The God of the Bible is always just and is always merciful. Everything he does is motivated by love (no matter how it may appear). When we see what God is like we cannot help but love him.
“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
“We are not made for law, we are made for love.” ~ George MacDonald
“It needs a clean heart to have pure hands, all the power of a live soul to keep the law—a power of life, not of struggle; the strength of love, not the effort of duty.” ~ George MacDonald
Christians believe that Yeshua was innocent, and that we (Jews and gentiles) are guilty. The innocent died for the guilty. This is clearly what the New Testament teaches. But some Christians take Yeshua's death a step further, they believe that he was literally punished by God in our place. Isaiah 53:4b says:
“we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted”
Being considered "punished by God" is not the same thing as actually being punished by God. God allowed a miscarriage of justice, he did not punish Yeshua in our place.2 Yeshua did not die on the cross to change our Heavenly Father's attitude toward us, but to change our attitude to him.
“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds, as shown by your evil behaviour.” Col 1:21
Just because some Christians have attached a false meaning to Jesus death and resurrection, it does not follow that he did not die and rise from the dead, and it does not mean Yeshua is not the Messiah, it just means many Christians have misinterpreted what they have read in the scriptures (as have many Jews). To say that God punished the innocent in place of the guilty, not only contradicts a biblical view of justice, it also makes God look like a monster.
“Strange that in a Christian land it should need to be said, that to punish the innocent and let the guilty go free is unjust!” - George MacDonald (From “Justice” in Unspoken Sermons. The text is available on the CCEL website ).
We must love truth more than what we believe. If we don’t love truth more than our beliefs, no amount of evidence will change our minds because we’ve already decided what we are going to believe. (Many religious leaders are heavily invested in what they have believed and taught. It takes a lot of humility to admit being wrong after so many years. Christian and Jewish leaders are guilty of this. See The Problem with Penal Substitutionary Atonement and the video "Christian Prince exposes Rabbi Tovia Singer Folly !")
If you are a Jew, what do you think would have happened if after Jesus was crucified, the Jewish leaders realised that they had asked the Romans to put an innocent man to death, repented of that sin, embraced Jesus' teaching, and encouraged the Jewish people to treat the Roman occupiers kindly? Unfortunately, most of the Jewish religious leaders—thinking they were righteous—were not that concerned with being saved from their sins. They were more concerned with being saved from the Romans. (See Why Don't Jews Believe in Jesus: A Jewish-Christian Unfolds the Great Mystery by Eitan Bar, and The Hope of the Gospel by George MacDonald.)
But don't the rabbis say that the Messiah will be a political leader? Many do. And yes he will be. When he returns, he will rule the world from Jerusalem (see "The Hidden Prophecy of Israel No One Talks About | Matt 24:30" on Rewire with Adam Finlay).
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1. It's important to note that many of the Jewish religious leaders were honest men who did not hate Yeshua. They were well aware of the hypocrisy within their midst. Many of the priests would eventually became followers of Yeshua, see the book of Acts ).
2. Isaiah 53:4 is a prophecy about how many Jews and Christians would view Yeshua's death. It should be noted that not all Christians believed Yeshua was punished by God. The Orthodox and Catholic Churches do not believe God literally punished Yeshua in our place. And many protestants do not believe that either (see Lamb of the Free: Recovering the Varied Sacrificial Understandings of Jesus's Death by Andrew Remington Rillera, and The “Gospel” of Divine Abuse by Eitan Bar. False doctrines have led to many probelms in the Church, see “A Legacy of Fear and Persecution” in Thomas Talbott's book, The Inescapable Love of God.)
How should unbelievers be treated?
According to the Rabbis, who is the Messiah?