Must Messiah suffer and die?

Recently, a very dear friend of mine, an Orthodox Rabbi of many years, related to me a conversation he once had with a pastor of an extremely large Christian congregation. The two of them intensely debated over the identity of the Mashiach. Is He the Messiah of the Christians, the Mashiach of the Jews who will He be? Finally, after much discussion, the Pastor tried to bring the debate to a close: "When the Messiah comes, we'll see once and for all if He's your guy or our guy." The Rabbi shot back with the last word: "You're wrong Pastor! Either way, He's still our guy!" Ultimately, the question of Messiah is a Jewish question. He is to be a descendent of David and a scholar of the Hebrew Scriptures. He is a teacher of Torah to His people and a purveyor of Torah to the nations. He will lead His army against the enemies of Israel and usher in an era of peace for all nations. Is Yeshua [Jesus] the one we are looking for? Or is He "okay for the Christians but not for us?" Can we indeed reconcile our fidelity to the covenant of Torah and Judaism with the belief that Yeshua is our Mashiach? Here, I offer some brief thoughts for your consideration from a Messianic perspective. Must Messiah suffer and die? If you're looking for the shortest, most concise answer, then I encourage you to jump right into chapter 53 of Isaiah, the entire chapter. Contextually, this well-known passage has application to both Israel and the Messiah. But a word of caution: The rabbinic commentators, beginning with Rashi, have effectively defined the Messiah out of this passage, applying its meaning to the suffering of the Jewish people alone. In fairness, this retooling of the passage may have been in reaction to the horrific persecution of Jewish communities by grossly misguided Christian mobs during the time of the crusades. Tragedy after tragedy, horror after horror these moments in our history never leave our collective memory and do help to shape our thinking. Even so, our revered Rabbis would never intentionally alter the meaning of any text. Nevertheless, the interpretation and application has certainly changed. Hence, we must be courageous in acknowledging that the Talmud itself, published long before Rashi, is replete with wise sages linking Isaiah 53 to the suffering and death of Messiah on behalf of His people. Of course, anyone may exercise their right to disagree with the opinions of our Talmudic sages, but the fact that they consistently linked Isaiah 53 to the Mashiach, with no apparent need to defend their position, is quite clear. For a more developed, conceptual understanding of why the Messiah laid down His life, let s first look to the Torah, to the covenants established between God and Israel. For well over 3000 years, we as a people have affirmed that the Torah offers blessing and life for those who 1 / 5

receive it [Proverbs 3:18; Deuteronomy 28:2, 32:47]. It is our daily affirmation in the Sh ma: If you will obediently listen to My commandments which I command you today [De varim 11:13-22]. Tragically, we are compelled by our history to question why calamity and destruction have been so prevalent? Where is the fulfillment of our covenant promises ultimate redemption? Where is the blessing and life we so long for? Is the Torah to blame? Perhaps, as many of our Christian friends assert, the Torah itself is the problem? Is it inadequate, deficient, unable to bring about the necessary change within our hearts and souls? Torat Adonai t mimah; m shivat nafesh [Psalm 19:7-8]. The Torah of the Lord is complete (sufficient, without blemish), restoring the soul. The next verse adds that the Torah (instruction) rejoices our hearts and even makes wise the one who is unlearned in the ways of God. Perhaps the problem is not with the Torah after all. To the contrary, It is a tree of life to those who receive it [Proverbs 3:18]. Following this line of reasoning, didn't we receive the Torah as a community some 3400 years ago? Was our collective receiving of Torah sincere? Is God's commitment to us sincere, faithful, eternal? From the initial covenant promises given to Avraham to the expansion of the covenant to an emerging nation at Sinai, God has affirmed his commitment to bring to pass what He has promised, despite our shortcomings. In short, we as a people have sincerely received the eternal Torah and yet still await many of its promises? One of the distinctions our Rabbis make is between the words give and receive. God gave us His Torah at Mt. Sinai in one brief span of time where we gladly and fearfully received it once and for all but we are also instructed to receive it daily [Psalms 1:2]. Moreover, we must continually receive it as a people not only as individuals, but as a community of Israel. Knowing all this, we arrive at the real question: Are we even capable of receiving the Torah in such a way that is sufficient for sustained life and blessing? Our ultimate hope is not simply for some of the promises some of the time but for all of the blessings 2 / 5

all of the time ultimate redemption! Are we truly capable? After 3400 years, it sure doesn t seem like it. On the other hand, does it make sense that He who made us would require of us something we are incapable of accomplishing? The blessings are earned? Throughout the Torah, we are taught that blessing is dependent upon our repentance and righteousness. Put another way, it s earned! Our challenge since the time of Avraham has been to merit the fulfillment of the covenant promises. Those promises include ownership of the full boundaries of the Land, peace from our enemies, countless descendants, and success in bringing Torah and blessing to all other nations. However, knowing we have continually come up short of earning or meriting these coveted promises, what is the answer? Happily, those of us who look for the coming of Mashiach believe that all these promises will come to fruition at His appearing, that He will usher in a time of unparalleled limitless peace and blessing. Until that time, lasting peace will continue to be elusive. Continuing in this line of thought, we come to an even greater question: If we are the ones responsible to merit all of this, and if the Messiah is the object of our hope, then aren t we, by extension, also responsible to merit the very coming of our King Messiah? Our Siddur, in fact, guides us to pray that God would "make us worthy of the days of Messiah." Great! We've now arrived back at the original question of how! How do we earn or merit the fulfillment of our covenant promises and the appearance of Mashiach himself? Despite the difficulties inherent in this question, we as a people have been relentless in our hope for over 3400 years. To our credit, we never give up no matter the obstacles, the calamities or bleak circumstances we maintain our hope! But the challenge to me rit God s favor is before us to this day! So, why have we yet to merit the era of Messiah and full blessing. It certainly hasn t been for lack of trying! Thankfully, as we would expect, the Tanach has the answer. In Jeremiah 31, we read that God has had a plan all along, a remedy for our inability to merit the full life offered by the Torah a new covenant. The prophet informs us that God Himself will place His Torah in our hearts where it will be embraced and lived out [Jeremiah 31:31-34]. Put another way, God is committed to helping us merit life and blessing; He is literally taking the responsibility upon Himself to ensure that we are up to our end of the agreement(s). How will He do it? And what role will the Messiah have in bringing about this new covenant for our benefit? First, let's reference a passage from the Gemara, Sanhedrin 98a, which offers an 3 / 5

insightful reconciling of two disparate views regarding the Messiah's arrival Daniel's account of Messiah coming with clouds of the heavens (Dan 7:13) and Zechariah's account of Messiah arriving as a pauper riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). The Gemara contends that only when the repentance of Israel is sufficient to merit the Kingdom of Messiah would he come as Daniel described, in great glory. However, by sending us the Mashiach first in the manner of Zechariah s description, lowly and riding on a donkey, God was clearly indicating that our repentance was insufficient for the immediate ushering in of the Messianic era. A price had to be paid first. For that, God, in His infinite wisdom and compassion, prepared His Messiah for the suffering described throughout the entire chapter of Isaiah 53, rendering Himself a guilt offering for us, in Hebrew, an asham [verse 10]. While Judaism soundly rejects the concept of human sacrifice, having first learned this lesson through the account of the akedah (binding) of Isaac [Gen 22], we embrace the notion that the innocent suffering or death of a Tzadik (a righteous person) can have a meritorious, atoning effect upon the community. Thus, through Yeshua, the ultimate tzadik, God has fulfilled His New Covenant commitment to provide us lasting atonement and the righteousness necessary to merit the promises and the life eternal depicted in the Torah. We want Mashiach now! While our repentance and Torah observance has fallen short to this point, unable to merit the Messianic era, the righteousness of the One who willingly gave up His own life for us has prevailed already. The righteousness of the ultimate tzadik (righteous person) merited our blessings and even life from the dead! In a sense, He even merited His own return as King! So, must we wait until Messiah has returned before benefitting from His righteousness? Perhaps not! Yeshua has earned His place as king. At some point in history, He will be received with the collective cry of our people, Baruch haba b shem Adonai [Psalm 118:26] and will assume His role as Messiah King. Until then, we are invited individually to receive the righteousness that He merited on our behalf. Yes, we pray directly to God as we always have, but now, we may pray in the merit and righteousness of Yeshua. Through the righteousness of God, all things are possible. Our love for God is more intense than ever. We demonstrate our love for Him by our love for others and our love for His mitzvot. We will seek to live by His Word [Yo chanan 5:3], since it is the expression of God s own love, righteousness and character. Ohr hatorah, the Light of the Torah is brightest when we walk in the righteousness and merit of our Mashiach! Does Mashiach deliver us from our enemies or not? When Yeshua returns to Israel, it will be as King. He will come in the manner described by Daniel hanavi (the prophet), with the clouds of heaven [Daniel 7:13]. He will bring peace and national deliverance, ending some 2600 years of complete or partial exile, dating back to the 4 / 5

Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. In addition, as Isaiah wrote, It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations, so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth. [Isaiah 49:6] Concerning the Mashiach, Daniel hanavi wrote the following: He [Messiah] was given dominion, honor and kingship, so that all peoples, nations and languages would serve him; his dominion would be an everlasting dominion that would never pass away, and his kingship would never be destroyed. [Daniel 7:14] And in the Ketuvei hashlichim (the Writings of the Emissaries): Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Master and Mashiach... [Acts 2:36]. Through his own suffering and death, Yeshua has already merited final redemption for Israel and life for all who willingly receive the gift of righteousness for which He paid. Long ago, Yeshua affirmed to our Jewish forefathers that He will be seen again in Israel when we cry out together, Baruch haba b Shem Adonai, Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! [Matityahu 23:29]. May the coming of Mashiach be soon and in our day! 5 / 5