“Before Jesus arrived, the idea of a Suffering Servant was on no one’s messianic radar. The Messiah might cause his enemies to suffer, sure. But he himself? He would be too powerful to be harmed. If you look for evidence of a Suffering Servant in the Old Testament, you’ll find only two passages that predicted a Messiah touched by pain. Both predictions were so unexpected that the early rabbis actually rewrote them.”- Kyle Idleman and Mark E. Moore
“I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child.”- Zechariah 12:10 (NIV)
In Chapter 8 (“The Messiah No One Saw Coming”) of The Missing Messiah, Kyle Idleman and Mark E. Moore begin with the story of Chuck Feeney. When he flew, he sat in the coach section. Furthermore, Mr. Feeney lived in a rented apartment and carried his belongings in plastic bag. Also, he rode public transportation.
Above all, the man everyone overlooked on economy flights spent a lifetime looking after the overlooked in this world. In a similar manner — but on a much larger scale — Jesus the Messiah is far more than what meets the eye.
Consequently, in this chapter, Kyle and Mark explore five more jaw-dropping surprises. Surprises that reveal Jesus as much greater than anyone imagined. Today the authors look at the third surprise.
Surprise #3: Jesus suffers for the nation. Before Jesus arrived, no one’s messianic radar picked up the idea of a Suffering Servant. Because such a Messiah would be too powerful to be harmed.
As a result, early rabbis found such predictions unthinkable. So, the translators of the Septuagint replaced the word pierced in Zechariah 12:10 with a similar sounding Hebrew word. A word that meant “danced.” Therefore, they depicted God’s enemies as dancing in derision. A much more palatable viewpoint.
Today’s question: How do you respond to people who shut down their messianic radar? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “We avoid pain – Jesus embraced it”