LENT BLOG SERIES: Preparing Jesus
Lent 4: 10th March: PREPARING JESUS - As was written in the scriptures
The New Wine Leadership Conference has just finished and the words of the prophets are ringing in our ears. “This is not a dress rehearsal; the time is now!” (Rich Johnson, National Leader), “declare God’s ways as King’ (for he is the King of Kings) and break your heart for the millions who are headed to a place they were not made to go” (Pastor Agu, Jesus House) , “re-ach(e) for Jesus, put miracles in your Mission Action Plan” (Bishop Ruth Bushyage, Bishop of Horsham).
I could go on, there were many more.
Prophecy is God’s word for God’s people. It is delivered through prophets who hear from God and share with others.
The prophecy gig was a hard one, especially for the Old Testament prophets. Given the task of delivering hard messages to errant kings and people. Some ran away (Jonah 1), some thought themselves unworthy (Isaiah 6), some thought themselves too young (Jeremiah 1), some thought themselves not good with words (Moses, Exodus 3), some lived their message (Hosea 1) and some were just weird (Ezekiel and John the Baptist come to mind!)
Prophecy is sometimes categorised as telling forth and forth telling. The first being a word in season to build up or warn the people now. But sometimes the prophet has a word that looks forward to what is to come. One of the ways that Deuteronomy suggests identifying false prophets from true ones was whether their prophecies came true (Deut 18:22).
We know that God’s word is always fulfilled, it never “returns empty” (Isa 55). But as a test it is not always that easy with forthtelling because God’s timing may be a very long way in the future.
Particularly when the subject is Jesus.
We have been considering Jesus’ preparation for ministry during this time of Lent. We considered his eternal existence and posited how that may have prepared him for his mission to save the world but not condemn it. We then considered his lineage and the implications of being in the Royal line of the House of David.
That the Messiah would come from David’s line, from the root of Jesse (Isa 11) is an intersection with prophecy because it was foretold 600 years before his birth.
Jesus is said to fulfil over 300 Old Testament prophecies.
Let me say that again - Gods word was spoken over Jesus’ earthly ministry as the anointed one over 300 times, and that is just the ones recorded in the written books of the Bible.
Some of these prophecies were general statements of the nature of his coming and presence and others were very specific details such as his lineage, his place of birth, what would happen to him at his death etc
The phrase “as it is written” is a very important part of the New Testament narrative and is key to the importance of seeing the Christian Bible as one book with a consistent story. Any attempts to ditch, dismiss or disregard the Hebrew Scriptures when reading and speaking of the New Testament is half a Gospel because, as John Ortberg wrote in his book about the subject, the Old Testament is “The Bible Jesus Read”.
To illustrate this let’s look at three aspects - his birth, his death and Jesus’ own use of the scriptures.
The birth of Jesus was foretold. Isaiah looked forward to a sign, “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel”. Matthew records the fulfilment of this word (Matt 1:21) including the title of the new born (Matthew 1:23) “and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’).” We also recall at that time of year the prediction in Isaiah 9:
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
This prophecy goes on to recognise his position on the throne through the line of David (see last week) and that this is an eternal government brought about by the “zeal of the Lord”. The greatness of Jesus was predicted from hundreds of years before. This informed the people’s expectations of a Messiah – a mighty King and warrior who would release them from their oppression. He would, but not how they expected.
The place of the birth was also foretold. The “ruler who will shepherd my people Israel” would, in Micah’s words from the Lord, come out of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) and Matthew records that place of birth, the place of Joseph’s census, through his Davidic lineage (Matt 2:3). Later, Herod’s edict that boys be slaughtered (Matt 2:18) mirrors the words of Jeremiah about “Rachel weeping for her children” (Jer 31:15). The exilic deportations to Babylon, now being repeated in response to the coming of the threat of a Messiah that would disrupt the status quo.
Joseph responded to the word from the Lord to escape and they flee, with his new family, to Egypt. By this Hosea’s prophecy is fulfilled when Herod dies and it is safe to return – “Out of Egypt I called my Son” (Hosea 11:1) – is fulfilled in the narrative we find in Matthew 2.
The nature, place and significance of Jesus’ birth and early years were spoken of by the prophets hundreds of years before they happened, in God’s good timing. I can barely plan for the weekend (!), but God sees the beginning from the end and Jesus was prepared even hundreds of years before his birth, for his mission on earth.
His final week is similarly portentous. He entered the city of Jerusalem on a donkey’s cost (Zechariah 9:9) not in a conquering warriors chariot. He was betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9) for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12) and the money used to buy a potter’s field (Zechariah 11:13). He would die a sacrificial death, was silent in his defence and “he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5).
The very significance of the cross was captured through the words of the prophet, words spoken over his life and his death.
Psalm 22 looks forward to certain key details, the crucified death “they pierced my hands and my feet” (v16) and the casting of lots for his clothes (v18). Even the fact that Jesus’ bones were not broken (as they were mercifully to others, to end their suffering) was in line with the edict about the Passover lamb in Exodus 12:46, repeated in Psalm 34.
God’s prophets spoke into a centuries long arc of fulfilment, even to the smallest vital detail.
Even his glorious resurrection was foreseen, “you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead” (Psalm 16:10).
Holy week, when we enter it, is pregnant with God’s word being fulfilled, in his time, in his way. And Jesus’ enters our story with these words having been spoken over his life, preparing him for all that would conspire to usher in God’s rescue and his Kingdom.
Finally, Jesus used the words captured in what to him was “the scriptures”, and we call the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 6 and 8 were weapons against the temptations of the devil in the wilderness, the ten commandments informed the sermon on the mount and interactions with the rich young ruler, he read Isaiah 61 in the synagogue and got in trouble for claiming that it was fulfilled in him, he quoted Hosea, Isaiah, Genesis and Deuteronomy in debate with the religious leaders, he quoted Malachai, Psalms 8, 118, 10 35 and 69. And fatefully, he used the words of Psalm 22 on the cross “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?)” Only the first part is recorded in the Gospels, but having recited it many times before, the parenthetical words may well have resonated in his mind as he hung on the cross, abandoned to his fate.
Amongst the stories of old that Jesus refers to are Adam and Eve, Abel, Noah, Lot, Lots wife, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, Elijah, Naaman, Zechariah, Daniel and Jonah. Many of the Old Testament’s greatest hits of old were used, well known as they were to his Jewish followers and opponents alike.
“As it was written” is no small thing in the life of Jesus. Scripture captured the law and the prophets. They were two elements of God’s arsenal directed towards the defeat of evil and restoration to the new creation. But the greatest weapon in this war was a person. The one that was sent, in love, to defeat death, to usher in a Kingdom and to sit on the throne and through whom we are called back to where we belong, through faith in him.
“They will be my people, and I will be their God.” (Jer 32:38)
So, let it be….
Doug
LENT BLOG SERIES: Preparing Jesus
Lent 3: 3rd March:
2. In the line of David