"King, the Messiah"
For the last decade, we’ve increasingly heard many Christians say, “Jesus is coming! Soon! This year even!”
I’ve never been one to jump on that bandwagon. We’re closer, but it’s not near. Too many things in Scripture have yet to happen.
Heck, one of Yeshua’s disciples, a devout religious Jew by the name of Paul, told the assembly at Thessalonica that before the Messiah comes, the man of lawlessness would first set himself up as god in the Temple:
Concerning the coming of our Master Yeshua the Messiah and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
I don’t believe that’s happened yet. If it hasn’t happened yet, then we’re certainly a long ways away, since the Temple is still in ruins, replaced with an Islamic mosque.
Jews, too, are waiting for Messiah
It surprises many Christians to find that religious Jews are waiting for Messiah, too. Did you know they’re as anxiously awaitng Messiah, just as we are?
I'd like to think that many religious Jews, especially among the Orthodox and Chassidic, are Messianic Jews. That is, they look forward to Messiah and are very Messiah-oriented, even in written prayers and songs. If they are Messianic, then perhaps we should clarify and call ourselves “Yeshuatian Messianic Jews”. That is, we believe Yeshua, called Jesus by the Christians, was and is the Jewish Messiah, and that he promised to return and vindicate Israel.
Whether in traditional prayers, or in popular Jewish culture, you have religious Jews talking about Messiah.
For example, popular Orthodox Jewish reggae artist, Matisyahu, writes in one of his songs, King Without a Crown,
I sing to my God, songs of love and healing
I want Moshiach now, time it starts revealing
What's this feeling?
My love will rip a hole in the ceiling
I give myself to You from the essence of my being
And I sing to my God, songs of love and healing
I want Moshiach now
And another popular Orthodox Jewish folk music writer, Simcha Kanter, sings the song Ashreinu,
Am Yisrael [people of Israel] have no fear
Moshiach will be here this year
We want Moshiach now
Even in Jewish ritual prayer we find instances of Jewish Messiah-gazing. In the 15th blessing of the Amidah, we find the Birkat David prayer:
The offspring of Thy servant David,
Quickly cause to flourish,
And lift up his power by Thy deliverance
For Thy deliverance do we constantly hope.
Blessed art Thou, L-rd, who makes the glory of deliverance to flourish.
In the book To Pray as a Jew, Hayim Halevy Donin comments on the Birkat David prayer,
According to tradition, the Messiah will be a descendant of the royal House of David. The “offspring of David” means the Messiah, whose coming will bring to pass the physical and spiritual redemption of the Jewish people.
In another instance, professor at the University of Maryland and contributing editor to Wellsprings magazine, Susan Handelman interviews rabbi Manis Friedman regarding the coming of Messiah and how we’ll know him to be Messiah:
HANDELMAN: The Lubavitch movement has recently created quite a stir with its renewed emphasis on the coming of Moshiach. What does it really mean to say that "Moshiach will come"?
FRIEDMAN: The ultimate authority on that is Maimonides. Maimonides says that there will be a Jewish leader who will be a descendant of King David who will bring Jews back to Judaism, and who will fight G-d's battle. If he does so, we can assume that he is Moshiach. If he then goes on to build the Temple and gather all Jews back to Israel, then we will know for sure that he is Moshiach.
Now this means that Moshiach comes not by introducing himself as Moshiach. Moshiach is a Jewish leader who does his work diligently and accomplishes these things. So Moshiach comes through his accomplishments and not through his pedigree.
HANDELMAN: In other words, does the coming of Moshiach mean that we make this "assumption" about a certain person, but the person doesn't himself declare it - and then one day this person finally says, "It's me"? Or does the candidate actually have to go and build the Temple in Jerusalem?
FRIEDMAN: Maimonides says that once he builds the Temple and gathers Jews back to Israel, then we know for sure he is Moshiach. He doesn't have to say anything. He will accept the role, but we will give it to him. He won't take it to himself. And his coming, the moment of his coming, in the literal sense, would mean the moment when the whole world recognizes him as Moshiach.
HANDELMAN: What specifically does that mean?
FRIEDMAN: That both Jew and non-Jew recognize that he is the responsible for all these wonderful improvements in the world.
HANDELMAN: What will those wonderful improvements in the world be?
FRIEDMAN: An end to war, an end to hunger, an end to suffering, a change in attitude.
We see the concept of Messiah is very much real and active in the Jewish religion. And rightfully so, as the prophets of Scripture certainly tell of an descendant of David anointed to restore Israel to its former glory, spiritually and physically, and be its king. (Sound familiar? King of the Jews, indeed!)
When is the Messiah coming, according to Jewish belief?
Like Christianity, Judaism contains a million and one opinions regarding the coming of Messiah. But the Jewish predictions are often very different than Christian predictions of Messiah’s coming. While most Christians find obscure Scriptural passages, bend them a bit, and build elaborate timelines while throwing in some strange rapture doctrines, by contrast, many Jews look to the dreams, visions, and predictions of modern rabbis.
Here’s an example:
In 2004 at a funeral of a Rebbe of Mirrer Yeshiva, Rabbi Elya Svei said that Moshiach is coming in 2009. He said its was told to him and calculated by his Rebbe, Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, who was the top student of the Chofetz Chaim. Incidentally Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman wrote books and spoke about that the timing of Moschiach is comparable to a pregnant lady in her 9th month, which at any moment can give birth. Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman was murdered in the Holocaust, over 70 years ago, so in his times if Moshiach was so close, how much more so in our times more than 70 years later.
And another:
Rabbi Elya Ber Wachtfogel said this past Yom Kippur 2008, was the last Yom Kippur. He’s been telling everyone to do Teshuva [repentance] before Moshiach comes.
Still other Jews look to sources most Christians and Messianics would find very strange, such as prophetic messages from the autistic.
In 1991, the influential chasidic rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson told his disciples, “I have done everything I can, now I am handing over to you; do everything you can to bring Moshiach!” His disciples obeyed with a campaign to usher in the Messianic age through "acts of goodness and kindness," even placing advertisements in the mass media, urging people to prepare for and hasten the Moshiach's imminent arrival by increasing their good deeds.
The popular Jewish Lubavitcher blog, TheCoolJew, has compiled a list of why Moshiach is coming in 2009. Additionally, there’s the Jewish Moshiach Blog Network. A distinct few believe the Messiah has already come in the form of the late Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who passed away in the late 1990s. (A view we will discuss in a future post.)
These are interesting reads, if only for a glimpse into how a different religion views the coming of Messiah, a concept original to Judaism but now adopted as a central theology by Christianity.
We, as members of the commonwealth of Israel, grafted-in through Messiah whether Jew or gentile, look forward to the time when all our Jewish brothers see Messiah; they are as anxious for him as we are.
However, I suspect mass Jewish belief in Yeshua-as-Messiah won’t happen until He shows up. And I don’t think it’s going to happen within the next 10 years. What do you fine blog readers think?