Three short years… That is all Jesus needed to carry out His ministry on earth.
During those years, Jesus’ ministry was focused on loving and interacting with the people around him,
who came from all walks of life. He spent time with people whom society thought were important
such as Pharisees and teachers of the law, but he also spent a great deal of time with ordinary
people like fishermen, farmers, tax collectors, and people their society labelled as ‘sinners’.
No matter if they were rich or poor, powerful or peasants, they all asked the same question
about Jesus, “Who is this?” To some thoughtful Jewish contemporaries, Jesus seemed like he was
the promised Messiah; to others, he seemed to fall short. Why the difference of opinion? To
understand this, we need to look at a bit of Jewish history, and how it shaped the culture,
mindset, and expectations held by many Jews in the first century.
Throughout the Scriptures, God demonstrates his goodness. About two thousand years before Jesus
was born, God promised Abraham that he would make his descendants into a great nation,
and that they would in turn become a blessing to other peoples: they were blessed to be a blessing.
From there God continued to show his faithfulness as their great rescuer.
He liberated His people from slavery in Egypt, and rescued them time and again from oppression.
Likewise, through God’s law He showed them His holiness and lovingkindness,
with a desire to deliver them from an even greater oppressor: their sin. God chose to
dwell in the midst of His people with His glory filling the Temple. All God asked for
in return was that they would be a faithful kingdom set apart to represent Him on earth.
But, according to their own stories, too many times the ancient Hebrews did not live up to
this responsibility. Many disregarded God’s laws, taking Him for granted,
and even honoring other gods instead of, and sometimes alongside the Holy One of Israel.
Through the prophets God called them to turn their hearts and minds back to Him
and warned them of the consequences of their actions, but they chose to ignore His pleas.
Finally, after generations of warning, in the year 586BC God allowed the independent Hebrew kingdom
to be overthrown and taken captive to Babylon, leaving Jerusalem and their Temple in ruins.
But a generation later, Persia overthrew Babylon and allowed the exiled Hebrews
to return to their land. Yet, things were different from before in two important ways.
First, instead of having their own king descended from David on the throne, a pagan king from a
foreign nation ruled over them. And second, after rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem they quickly
realized that the glory of the Lord never came down to dwell among them as it had in the past.
For these reasons they began to understand that although some of
the Hebrews had had returned to their land from Babylon, an aspect of their exile continued.
As the centuries dragged on, many Jews yearned for a time when God would fully restore them from
their exile. When they searched the scriptures they discovered that, just like the great rescues
that God had performed for their ancestors, He had also promised another great rescue to come.
The prophet Daniel spoke of a time when God would once again rescue them from their oppressors,
and restore His Kingdom through someone referred to as “the Son of Man”.
Isaiah also described this deliverer, promising that he would re-establish the fallen throne
of David. His kingdom would not stop with Israel, but would expand over all the nations.
Likewise, the prophet Ezekiel envisioned a future where righteous worship of God would be restored,
and God’s Spirit would again dwell in His Temple.
In light of such passages, some dared to hope that one day another grand rescue — like the
exodus — would come. They looked forward to this promised deliverer, the Messiah who would put an
end to their exile from God, restore His people and usher in the ‘Kingdom of God’.
Some Jews mistakenly expected this kingdom to be ushered in by not one, but two different messiahs.
One, a kingly military leader, descended from David who would deliver them from their
oppressors, and the other a priestly leader who would purify the temple and restore the
people to righteousness, allowing God to again dwell in their midst.
Anticipating this rescue from God, most Jews realized that it was of the utmost importance that
they learn from the mistakes of their ancestors, and live faithfully as the People of God, being
obedient to His Law. They were careful to pay their required tithes, observe the annual feasts,
avoid unclean foods, and refrain from working on the Sabbath.
The last thing they wanted was to suffer the fate of their ancestors.
Some religious leaders even began to create what is sometimes referred to as ‘a fence around the
law’. These are a series of oral traditions that were meant to keep them from even coming close to
breaking God’s Law, and were highly valued by a religious sect called the Pharisees.
However, these human-made traditions often served to give an illusion of holiness, while
obscuring their view of God and His character, resulting in a greater distance from God.
In the year 63BC, over 500 years after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and
took them to exile, control of the land of Israel passed to the mighty Roman Empire.
Much of the land that had once belonged to Israel, was now inhabited by foreigners.
Jewish communities were mainly relegated to the regions of Galilee in the North,
Judea in the South, and Perea on the East side of the Jordan.
Being in the Roman Empire meant that the Jews received many extraordinary privileges,
including Rome’s peace and protection, but this came at a tremendous cost. They were
deprived of their independence and subjected to Roman elitism, pagan traditions and taxation.
Some of the Jewish elites, like the chief priests and a sect called the Sadducees, did not share the
optimism or Messianic hopes of their fellow Jews, believing instead that this life was all they had
to look forward to. For this reason some of them sought to collaborate with Rome to gain status
and power for their own personal benefit. As a result, most Jews became increasingly resentful
toward both their own priestly leaders and their Roman overlords. While a small minority of Jews
urged rebellion against Rome, most preferred to make the best of a challenging situation
and to wait peaceably for God to finally put an end to their exile and restore His kingdom.
Little did they know that, in the tiny town of Bethlehem,
through a young couple of low social status, God launched His greatest rescue yet.
Not in the dramatic way that many were expecting, but a way much more remarkable.
With the birth of a baby, the long-anticipated Kingdom of God broke through.