What was the decision of the
nation’s leaders to the messianic claim of Jesus?
The third stage of investigating a Messianic Claim is the
stage of decision and declaration. To repeat, the Pharisaic Sanhedrists decided
to reject the Messianic claimant because:
(1) He
would not protect their position in the nation.
(2) He opposed their doctrine.
(3) He
condemned their lifestyle.
If He were not stopped, they would
(1) Lose
the adulation of the population.
(2) Lose the power they held
as interpreters of the oral law.
(3) Lose
the wealth that their position in the nation provided.
The Sadducean Sanhedrists decided to reject the Messianic
claimant because:
(1) He opposed their moneymaking
ventures.
(2) He opposed their doctrine.
(3) He
condemned their lifestyle.
If He were not stopped they would:
(1) Lose
their political power with Rome
(2) Lose their influence over
the nation as intermediaries between Israelites and God.
(3) Lose
the wealth generated by the monopolies they controlled.
Nevertheless, these reasons for the rejection of the
prophet of Nazareth
Although in the T’nach exorcisms are almost
unknown, at the time of the Messiah, Jewish exorcists were having some success.
Their pattern of exorcism was to establish communication with the demon,
ascertain its name and then addressing it directly, command it in the name of a
higher authority to leave. The disciples of the Lord also used this pattern.
For example, the seventy returned from their mission saying, “Lord, even the demons
are subject unto us in Your name”.[1] Another
example, though not typical, is recorded in Acts: “Then some of the itinerant
Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus
over those who had evil spirits, saying, We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul
preaches”.[2] However, with a dumb demon this
communication is difficult, in most cases, impossible. The Lord Himself acknowledged the extra
difficulty when the disciples confessed they could not cast out such a demon in
the name of the Messiah.[3] Because, in the Jewish mind, only Messiah
would be able to heal these extreme cases, here was a decisive test for
Jesus. In this case, because the man was
also sightless, the degree of difficulty was increased, yet “He healed him, so
that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw”.[4] The onlookers immediately understood the significance
of this Messianic miracle: “… all the multitudes were amazed and said, Could
this be the Son of David?”[5]
The Sanhedrists were ready with an explanation.
Wishing to discredit the sign, they repeated their previously published opinion
that Jesus was demon possessed.[6] “This
fellow does not cast out demons
except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons”.[7] The Sanhedrists’ accused Jesus of being in
league with Satan, and that Satan gave Him His power. Their
position, whether they understood it or not, was that the temptation in the
wilderness had been successful. Jesus had taken the bribes offered and was now
a follower of Satan and a sinner like the rest of Adam’s ‘fallen race’. Since Satan had failed to make Jesus the
‘cast down’ one, he was now getting the population to treat Him as such, by
this insidious lie. The lie became the accepted opinion of the population. The
Sanhedrists never disputed that Jesus performed miracles, but the Talmud reiterates
the reason for His rejection - he did it by sorcery, expanding it further by
saying He brought magical charms back from Egypt (Egypt was regarded as the
special home of magic, an opinion expressed
in the Talmud).[8] The
Pharisees rejected Jesus as Messiah because He would not endorse the oral law,
and support their position in the nation.
The Sadducees rejected Jesus as Messiah because He opposed their unholy
practices in the Temple Israel
No comments:
Post a Comment