Good News of Great Joy!

Well, it’s a couple of weeks after Christmas. Even though we’re a little behind the church calendar, we’re going to finally arrive Jesus’ birth narrative. But first let’s review where we are in this Gospel blog series. 1) The book of Genesis describes how God created mankind to be his image bearers. They were given authority to exercise God’s rule and reign over the created order, so that the world could function and flourish as God intends. 2) Humanity rejects God’s wisdom, bringing misery and death rather than life and flourishing. 3) Faced with humankind’s failure, God launches a grand rescue plan. However, the rescue plan has very humble beginnings. God chooses a man named Abraham, and promises to restore blessing to the whole world through his family. 4) The family of Abraham (the nation of Israel) makes a contract, or covenant, with God. Through proper worship and obedience, Israel can bring blessing upon herself. 5) But just as importantly, Israel is also called by God to be a light to the nations. In other words, God wants all nations to look at Israel and say, “Yes! Now we see what human life is supposed to look like!” 6) In order for Israel to accomplish her task, she needs a king like David who will lead her in righteousness. 7) To this end, God promises King David that one of his descendants will be the righteous king who will allow Israel to fulfill her vital role. 8) Despite a few notable exceptions, Israel’s kings fail to lead her in covenant faithfulness, and Israel thereby fails to be a light to the nations. 9) Because of Israel’s wickedness and rebellion, she brings upon herself the covenant curses, with the final curse of exile.

You might at this point be saying to yourself, “Whew! This is simply just too much stuff to hold in my head at one time! Can we please just go back and draw the gospel sketch with God on one side, me on the other, and Jesus’ cross between?” Well, I agree that that would be much simpler. But if you really want to understand the fullness of the gospel, please stick with me. Think of this like climbing a mountain. We’ve worked very hard to scale some steep slopes and we’re pretty near the top. Don’t give up now, because the view from the peak is too good to pass up!

We’ve now worked our way through much of the Old Testament, but there’s one last theme we need to tackle: the Messiah. At this point, God’s rescue vehicle (the nation of Israel) has crashed into the ditch. But we know that God has promised to rescue and bless the whole world through Israel, and God does not go back on his promises. How can God get the vehicle out of the ditch and back on the road?

Well, lots of ancient Jews were asking themselves this very question. They knew that God had irrevocably called Israel to play the lead role in his rescue plan. They also knew that in order for Israel to serve God with all her heart, she needed the right king. And this king was called the Messiah. Our English word “Messiah”, comes from a Hebrew word mashiach meaning “anointed one.” Anointing refers to the practice of pouring oil upon a man, thereby designating him as the one chosen by God to be king over Israel. For example: “So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed [David] in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power.” (I Samuel 16:13) As this passage indicates, anointing also symbolized God’s promise to pour out his Spirit upon the chosen king in order to give him the wisdom and strength he needed to administer justice.

The New Testament, of course, is written in Greek, and the Greek equivalent for Messiah is Christos. In many English bibles, this Greek term is not translated to “Messiah”, but is instead transliterated to “Christ.” (Transliterated means that a word is brought more or less straight from the alphabet of one language to another.) This is how we arrive at the well known designation “Jesus Christ.” It’s really important to keep in mind that this is not a name, but a title for Jesus. If we use the term Christ, it would be better to remind ourselves of this by to adding the definite article: “Jesus the Christ.” Better yet, the Greek should be translated into the phrase “Jesus the Messiah” in order to get our minds in the right place. Finally, we should note that the title of Messiah should not be used vaguely to mean simply “chosen one” or “great rescuer” or “savior”, as if God could have selected anybody for the job. The whole point is that the Messiah is the king of Israel. If we don’t have this clearly in our minds, then the entire train of logic we’ve discussed above breaks down. Israel must play the key role in God’s rescue plan. The Messiah must be the king of Israel, who will lead her in righteousness.

Let’s continue to unpack the idea of the Messiah by taking a close look at Psalm 2: “¹ Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? ² The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. ³ ‘Let us break their chains,’ they say, ‘and throw off their fetters.’ ⁴ The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the LORD scoffs at them. ⁵ Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, ⁶ ‘I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.’ ⁷ I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father. ⁸ Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. ⁹ You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.’ ¹⁰ Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. ¹¹ Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. ¹² Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

This key Psalm covers many of the themes we’ve just touched on. It begins with the nations conspiring in rebellion against God and his Anointed One, the Messiah. Humanity does not want to live according to God’s wisdom, which they regard as only “chains” and “fetters.” They instead wish to reject God’s authority and pursue their own ruinous path. God responds by declaring that he has installed the Messiah as the reigning king. This is clearly the king of Israel, who is enthroned on “Zion”, referring to Jerusalem. In verse 7, the voice of the Psalm changes to that of the Messiah himself. He affirms that God has given him the Messianic title, “God’s son.” The Messiah also celebrates God’s assurance that he will rule over all the earth. Again, this makes perfect sense in the scheme of thought we’ve studied: Israel needs a righteous king to lead her in covenant faithfulness. When that happens, all the nations will come under the joyful, wise, abundant reign of God. In verse 9, the Messiah proclaims that God will firmly establish his rule, (“you will rule them with an iron scepter”) and that God will ultimately destroy all resistance to his kingdom. (“you will dash them to pieces like pottery”) In the last three verses the voice returns to the psalmist. In light of God’s determination to establish his kingdom through his chosen king, the only wise and reasonable response is to submit. Further resistance will bring only anger and destruction, rather than blessing.

Psalm 2 gives us great insight into the Jewish Messianic expectations. With these thoughts fresh in our minds, let’s take our first baby steps into the New Testament. We’ll begin with the angel Gabriel’s visitation to Mary in Luke 1. Gabriel announces to Mary, “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:31-33) Granted, we do not find the actual Greek word for “good news” in this particular passage, but from all we’ve studied, we can be certain that the angel is indeed announcing the good news. First, the child to be born will be called “the Son of the Most High.” For most Christians, the term “Son of God” basically indicates that Jesus will be “divine,” as in the second person of the trinity. I would certainly agree that Jesus was and is God incarnate. But as we’ve seen in Psalm 2 and II Samuel 7:14, ancient Jews did not use the phrase “Son of God” in this way. The term was quite simply another way of saying “the Messiah.” This makes much better sense of the entire passage, which is all about Jesus’ royalty. God promises that he will give Jesus “the throne of his father David.” Of course, we know that Jews were expecting the Messiah to be a descendant of the great king David. We know, too, that when the Messiah takes the throne of Israel, his kingdom will extend over all the nations as well. When this happens, it will signify the coming of the kingdom of God. All things will be set right again. The world will finally have justice, peace, and flourishing.

Finally, let’s join the shepherds in their fields outside of Bethlehem. The angel of the Lord appears to them and declares, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a savior has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord.” Here we explicitly find the Greek word for good news, attached to the same content we noted above. The baby born is the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed king, the descendant of David who will assume the throne of Israel. Although not explicitly stated, we should be able to fill in the broader sequence of thought: 1) the Messiah born today will take the throne of Israel. 2) This king will lead Israel in proper worship of God. (This is why the Messiah was expected to rebuild or cleanse the temple.) 3) The Messiah will turn the hearts of Israel fully back to her God; she will at last be obedient to the covenant. 4) When the Messiah sets Israel right again, she will at last be a light to the nations. All the nations will come under the wise and joyful reign of God and his Messiah. 5) God’s original purpose for humanity will at last be accomplished. God’s image bearing humans will finally properly exercise his authority of the entire created order.

Yes, I know. This way of thinking might feel quite foreign to many Christians. But this way of approaching the gospel is thoroughly Jewish and completely Biblical. In the next blog, we’ll learn more by looking at what John the Baptist had so say about the “good news.”