The greatest obstacle for the Jews of today concerning Jesus is that they reject the idea that the Messiah was supposed to be killed. They, like the Jews of biblical times, expect the Messiah to come in triumphal glory. They cannot accept the idea that God's plan included two comings of the Messiah nor that the Messiah would be killed. Nevertheless, the Old Testament clearly points out that the Messiah was to be a suffering servant of humanity at some point in time. This chapter will highlight some of those prophecies and show how Jesus fulfilled the role of the suffering Servant. I want to mention that there have been Jews who have accepted Jesus as the Messiah because of the preciseness of these prophecies.
There are several writers of the Old Testament that foretell of the suffering Messiah. We turn first to the Book of Isaiah to start this discussion:
"Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently, He shall be
exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were
astonished at You; His visage was so marred more than
any man, and His form more than the sons of men: So shall
He sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths
at Him: for that which had not been told them shall they
see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of
the LORD revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a
tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He has no
form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is
no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and
rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was
despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne
our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was
wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him;
and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have
gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and
the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was
oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet he opened not His
mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a
sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His
mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and
who shall declare His generation? for He was cut off out of
the land of the living: for the transgression of My people
was He stricken. And He made His grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in His death; because He had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it
pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief:
when You shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall
see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure
of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the
travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His
knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many; for He
shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him a
portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with
the strong; because He has poured out His soul unto death:
and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bore
the sin of many, and made intercession for the
transgressors."
- Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Some Jewish commentators believe that the Servant mentioned in this passage refers to the nation of Israel. They say that the Jewish people are being punished for their sins and that they are to atone for them by suffering affliction and persecution. The problem with this theory is that God required an unblemished creature to be an atoning sacrifice to Him. If the Jewish nation were in sin then it would be blemished. Therefore, the nation of Israel would not be an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord and could not be this suffering Servant.
The New Testament shows that Isaiah's prophetic description of the suffering Servant-Messiah is realized in Jesus Christ.
"Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently, He shall be
exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were
astonished at you; His visage was so marred more than
any man, and His form more than the sons of men: So shall
He sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths
at Him: for that which had not been told them shall they
see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of
the LORD revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a
tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He has no
form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is
no beauty that we should desire Him."
- Isaiah 52:13-53:2
Through the last two millennia Jesus has been exalted and extolled and kings and rulers have been in awe of Him. The French emperor Napoleon reportedly said, "I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His Empire upon love; and at this hour millions of people would die for Him."1 The Fourth Century Roman emperor Constantine changed the course of the Roman Empire and the world when he became a follower of Jesus Christ.
This prophecy goes on to say that the Messiah's appearance would be horribly disfigured: "His visage was so marred more than any man." A controversial movie came out in 2004 called "The Passion of the Christ". It portrays Jesus' body as it probably looked after the Romans had finished with Him during His arrest, scourging, and crucifixion. Some of the movie's critical "experts" said that the Gospels were not explicit in their description of scourging. Therefore, the film's graphic depiction of that flogging may be historically inaccurate. I would like to counter this criticism with the words of the Jewish historian Josephus who lived from 37 A.D. to 100 A.D. He had participated in the Jewish revolt against Rome that started in 66 A.D. After that war ended he wrote a history of it. In that history he described what happened to a Jewish man who had prophesied of the Jewish Temple's destruction a few years before that war began. This man's prophecy had angered the Jewish rulers so they took him to the Romans to be punished:
"Hereupon our rulers, supposing, as the case proved to be, that this was a sort of divine fury in the man, brought him to the Roman procurator, where he was whipped till his bones were laid bare; yet he did not make any supplication for himself, nor shed any tears, but turning his voice to the most lamentable tone possible, at every stroke of the whip his answer was, 'Woe, woe to Jerusalem!'"2
Therefore, the depiction of the scourging of Jesus (which occurred some thirty years before the Jewish revolt) in this movie was probably a fair portrayal of the viciousness of it. I am sure that Jesus' appearance was grotesque after such a physical ordeal as the New Testament would indicate:
"Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged Him. And
the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on His
head, and they put on Him a purple robe, And said, Hail,
King of the Jews! and they smote Him with their hands."3
"He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces
from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not."
- Isaiah 53:3
Jesus is still despised by some people in this day and age. I believe the primary cause of this is because His life and death reminds them of their sinfulness. At the time of His crucifixion, the people mocked Him while He was dying on the cross for the sins of humanity (which included the sins of those who were mocking Him):
"Pilate said unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus
which is called Christ? They all said unto him, Let Him be
crucified."4
"And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads,
And saying, You that destroys the temple, and builds it
in three days, save Thyself. If You be the Son of God,
come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests
mocking Him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved
others; Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel,
let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe
Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He
will have Him: for He said, I am the Son of God."5
"Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:
yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He
was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our
peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every
one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the
iniquity of us all."
- Isaiah 53:4-6
The New Testament states that Jesus died for the sins of the world. He was smitten by God to be acceptable sacrifice on behalf of humanity's sins:
"The next day John [the Baptist] saw Jesus coming unto
him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away
the sin of the world."6
"Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from
our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for our sins, that
He might deliver us from this present evil world, according
to the will of God and our Father."7
"For then must He often have suffered since the foundation
of the world: but now once in the end of the world has He
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And
as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of
many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the
second time without sin unto salvation."8
"He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet he opened not
His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and
as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not
His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment:
And who shall declare His generation?"
- Isaiah 53:7-8a
How many people, falsely accused of breaking the law, would stand quietly by while their enemies prosecuted them? Jesus did exactly that. It was not only because it fulfilled this prophecy but also because it was God's will for Jesus to die a sacrificial death:
"And the high priest arose, and said unto Him, Answerest
thou nothing? What is it which these witness against
Thee? But Jesus held His peace."9
"And when He was accused of the chief priests and elders,
He answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto Him, Hearest
thou not how many things they witness against Thee? And
He answered him to never a word; insomuch that the
governor marveled greatly."10
"And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he
was desirous to see Him of a long season, because he had
heard many things of Him; and He hoped to have seen
some miracle done by Him. Then he questioned with Him
in many words; but He answered him nothing."11
"...for He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the
transgression of My people was He stricken. And He made
His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death;
because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit
in His mouth."
- Isaiah 53:8b-9
By His crucifixion, Jesus was cut off out of the land of the living because of the sins of the world. His death occurred because of the sins of the wicked yet Jesus was buried in the grave of a rich man who believed in Him. Through Jesus' sacrificial death, even the wicked can have their sins forgiven if they choose to repent of their deeds. Not only did Jesus not utter deceitful words, He was truth personified:
"And all things are of God, Who has reconciled us to
Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of
reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them; and has committed unto us the word of
reconciliation."12
"Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no
pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked
turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil
ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?"13
"When the even was come, there came a rich man of
Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus'
disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.
Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And
when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean
linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had
hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the
door of the sepulcher, and departed."14
"For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent
Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and
what I should speak."15
"Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me."16
"Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to
grief: when you shall make His soul an offering for sin, He
shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the
pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall
see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His
knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many; for He
shall bear their iniquities."
- Isaiah 53:10-11
It was the Lord's will to offer up His Son as a sacrifice for the sins of the world so that He could reconcile the world to Himself. The travail or anguish of Jesus' soul was exhibited in the Garden of Gethsemane. Yet He obeyed willingly His Father's plans because He loved humankind:
"So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and
unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second
time without sin unto salvation."17
"For He has made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin;
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."18
"Then came Jesus with them unto a place called
Gethsemane, and said unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while
I go and pray yonder...Then said He unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and
watch with Me. And He went a little further, and fell on His
face, and prayed, saying, O My Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as
You will."19
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son
into the world to condemn the world; but that the world
through Him might be saved."20
"Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and
He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He has
poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered
with the transgressors; and He bore the sin of many, and
made intercession for the transgressors."
- Isaiah 53:12
Jesus did finish the mission His Father had sent Him to do. He was among transgressors when He died and He did make intercession for them on the cross:
"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It
is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the
spirit."21
"For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be
accomplished in Me, And He was reckoned among the
transgressors: for the things concerning Me have an
end."22
"And there were also two other, malefactors, led with Him
to be put to death. And when they were come to the place,
which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the
malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the
left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know
not what they do."23
This entire passage in Isaiah is clearly speaking of a personal Messiah. A Messiah that was not triumphant over the armies of men but a Messiah that was triumphant over the forces of sin by being "cut off out of the land of the living".
There is another prophecy in the Book of Isaiah that has similarities in the description of the suffering Messiah with the passage we just looked at. There are also some added depictions in this prophecy concerning the activities and nature of the Messiah. As will be seen below, this passage is an accurate description of Jesus Christ and His ministry on earth:
"Behold My Servant, whom I uphold; mine Elect, in whom
My soul delights; I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor
lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A
bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall
He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set
judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for His law.
Thus saith God the LORD, He that created the heavens,
and stretched them out; He that spread forth the earth, and
that which cometh out of it; He that gives breath unto the
people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: I the
LORD have called Thee in righteousness, and will hold
Your hand, and will keep You, and give You for a covenant
of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; To open the blind
eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them
that sit in darkness out of the prison house."
- Isaiah 42:1-7
"Behold My Servant, whom I uphold; mine Elect, in whom
My soul delights; I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles."
- Isaiah 42:1
Here again, this Servant of God is to have God's Spirit upon Him and God will delight in Him:
"And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out
of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him,
and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and
lighting upon Him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying,
This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased."24
"He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in
the street. A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking
flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto
truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set
judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for His law."
- Isaiah 42:2-4
We have already seen how Jesus did not cry out before His accusers. It is noteworthy that in this prophecy God calls His Servant-Messiah a "bruised reed". This hearkens back to the first Messianic prophecy in the Bible:
"And I will put enmity between you [i.e., the Devil] and the
woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall
bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."25
As mentioned earlier in this book, the "bruise" was the crucifixion of Jesus.
Jesus did bring forth the truth of God during His ministry. God will judge humanity against the standard of His perfection through Jesus Christ. This perfection is only attainable through a person accepting the sacrificial death of Jesus as atonement for their sins. Jesus will set His judgment upon the earth and issue His laws to "the isles" at His second coming.
"Thus saith God the LORD, He that created the heavens,
and stretched them out; He that spread forth the earth, and
that which cometh out of it; He that gives breath unto the
people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: I the
LORD have called Thee in righteousness, and will hold
Your hand, and will keep You, and give You for a covenant
of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;"
- Isaiah 42:5-6
God declared that He was going to give His Servant "for a covenant of the people" and "for a light of the Gentiles". I find it interesting that here in the Old Testament, which is written primarily about God's relationship with the Jewish people, He includes the Gentiles in this Messianic covenant. The Jewish prophet Jeremiah speaks of this same covenant in his prophetic book:
"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house
of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to
bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant
they broke, although I was an husband unto them, saith the
LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will
put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their
hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My
people."26
The Old Testament teaches that the first covenant between God and the Jewish people required the Jews to keep and obey the Laws of God. The Jews were required to circumcise their males eight days after they were born as a sign that their children would be under this covenant. Jeremiah prophesied here that a new covenant between God and His people would require, not an outward keeping of God's Laws, but that they would allow the "spirit" of His Law to be written upon their hearts. This new "circumcision of their hearts" would be the basis of a relationship between God and all humans.
The New Testament declares that Jesus is this new covenant that God promised to both the Jews and the Gentiles:
"And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it,
and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take,
eat; this is My body. And He took the cup, and gave thanks,
and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is
My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for
the remission of sins."27
"And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of
Abel."28
"Now the God of peace, which brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through
the blood of the everlasting covenant"29
"Wherefore remember, that you being in time past Gentiles
in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which
is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That
at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants
of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off
are made near by the blood of Christ."30
"To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the
prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house."
- Isaiah 42:7
Lastly, according to this prophecy of Isaiah's the Messiah would open the eyes of the blind. The New Testament Gospels relate several miracles where Jesus healed blind people:
"And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when
they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have
mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David...And Jesus stood
still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do
unto you? They said unto Him, Lord, that our eyes may be
opened. So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched
their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and
they followed Him."31
"Then was brought unto Him one possessed with a devil,
blind, and dumb: and He healed him, insomuch that the
blind and dumb both spoke and saw."32
Jesus used these prophetic passages in Isaiah chapters 52-53 and 42 to identify Himself as the Messiah to John the Baptist. John had been thrown into prison by King Herod Antipas.33 While he was lying in prison John began to question whether Jesus was indeed the Messiah. It seems that he, like so many other Jews, was expecting a triumphant Messiah to come in order to overthrow the Roman government:
"Now when John had heard in the prison the works of
Christ, he sent two of his disciples, And said unto Him, Are
you He [i.e., the Messiah] that should come, or do we look
for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and
show John again those things which you do hear and see:
The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up,
and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And
blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me."34
When Isaiah uttered these prophecies, it was as though He was describing Jesus' life as if he had personally witnessed it taking place. The amazing part of this is that Isaiah spoke these prophecies seven hundred years before Jesus came to earth.
God chose King David to be the ruler over the nation of Israel because he was a "man after [My] own heart."35 God gave David many gifts of talent, one of which was the gift of prophetic utterance. There are several psalms written by him that pertain to the Messiah. I want to focus on one of them. As you read this psalm, you will see that he is plainly describing a crucifixion, a form of capital punishment that would not be invented until three hundred years after the death of King David:
"My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are
You so far from helping me, and from the words of my
roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but You hear
not; and in the night season, and am not silent. But You
are holy, O You that inhabits the praises of Israel. Our
fathers trusted in You: they trusted, and You did deliver
them. They cried unto You, and were delivered: they
trusted in You, and were not confounded. But I am a
worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the
people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot
out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the
Lord that He would deliver him: let Him deliver him,
seeing He delighted in him. But You are He that took me
out of the womb: You did make me hope when I was upon
my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb:
You are my God from my mother's womb. Be not far from
me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. Many
bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have
beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as
a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is
melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up
like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and
You have brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have
compassed me: the assembly of the wicked has enclosed
me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my
bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my
garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. But
be not You far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste You
to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling
from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth:
for You have heard me from the horns of the wild oxen.
I will declare Your name unto my brethren: in the midst of
the congregation will I praise You. You that fear the Lord,
praise Him; all you the seed of Jacob, glorify Him; and
fear Him, all you the seed of Israel. For He has not
despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither
has He hid His face from him; but when he cried unto Him,
He heard. My praise shall be of You in the great
congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear
Him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise
the Lord that seek Him: your heart shall live for ever. All
the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the
Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship
before You. For the kingdom is the Lord's: and He is the
Governor among the nations. All they that are fat upon
earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the
dust shall bow before Him: and none can keep alive his
own soul. A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to
the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall
declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born,
that He has done this."
- Psalm 22:1-31
I will not take the time to discuss each of these verses as they pertain to Jesus. I do want to highlight the prophetic references in this passage as they relate to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
The most obvious allusion to crucifixion is the phrase, "they pierced my hands and my feet". The act of crucifying a man involved driving spikes through the hands (or wrists) and feet of a person. The crucifixion of Jesus is a central theme in the New Testament:
"And they crucified [Jesus]."36
"But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not
with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore
said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto
them, Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails,
and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my
hand into His side, I will not believe. And after eight days
again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them:
then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the
midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then said He to
Thomas, Reach here your finger, and behold My hands;
and reach here your hand, and thrust it into My side: and
be not faithless, but believing."37
There is another crucifixion reference in the Old Testament that refers to the second coming of the Messiah. It describes what the world will see when Jesus comes as the triumphant Messiah: "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."38 The mourning in this verse refers to when the world will finally understand at Jesus' second coming that they crucified God's Son.
David in this psalm quotes this crucified man saying, "All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him: let Him deliver him, seeing He delighted in him." The Gospel writers testified that this is exactly what happened while Jesus was hanging on the cross:
"And they that passed by railed on Him, shaking their
heads, and saying, Ah, You that destroys the temple, and
builds it in three days, Save Yourself, and come down from
the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking said
among themselves with the scribes, He saved others;
Himself He cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel
descend now from the cross that we may see and believe.
And they that were crucified with Him reviled him."39
This prophetic psalm of a crucified man elaborates on the physical condition he would be in during this execution: "I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint: My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of My bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and My tongue cleaves to my jaws."
The weight of a man's body while hanging on a cross could dislocate his bones during the crucifixion process. Though this happened to Jesus, none of His bones was broken:
"The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that
the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the
Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day,) asked
Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might
Be taken away. Then came the soldiers, and broke the legs
Of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.
But when they came to Jesus, and saw that He was dead
already, they broke not His legs."40
The psalmist prophesies that this man's tormenters would "part My garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." This is precisely what the Roman soldiers did to Jesus' clothes while they were crucifying Him:
"Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His
garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and
also His coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from
the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves,
Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that
the scripture might be fulfilled, which said, They parted my
raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots.
These things therefore the soldiers did."41
Lastly and most importantly, I want to point out that Jesus understood this psalm of David as referring to the death of Messiah. The first line of Psalm 22 says: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Jesus cried out these exact words while hanging on the cross:
"And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying,
Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted,
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"42
As written here in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus actually spoke these words in the Aramaic language. This was clearly a fulfillment by Jesus of the Messianic prophecy concerning His crucifixion.
There is one other aspect concerning Jesus' utterance of these words that I wish to discuss. Why did Jesus feel forsaken by God on the cross?
The New Testament states that when Jesus was on the cross, God laid the sins of the world upon Him.43 The apostle Paul declares that not only did Jesus have the world's sins upon Him at His crucifixion but that Jesus actually became sin.44 This means that when the Father looked at Jesus on the cross He saw a murderer, a thief, a rapist, a child molester, a drunkard, a liar, a blasphemer, an idolater, a sexually immoral person, and every other sin that humans have ever committed.
As a human being, I know the guilt feelings that I have had when I committed a sin. I cannot imagine what Jesus felt when God laid every sin that humanity has committed or will commit upon Him while He was hanging on the cross. Since Jesus had never committed a sin, this feeling was something He had never experienced before. Just as the Bible declares that our sins separate us from God,45 our sins separated Jesus from His Father.
In the garden of Gethsemane, did Jesus dread the physical suffering He knew that He was about to endure or was there more to it than that? While Jesus was totally God, He was also totally a human being and therefore suffered physical pain.46 However, I believe the reason Jesus asked His Heavenly Father to use His will to find another way to save mankind was not because Jesus was afraid of the flogging and the excruciating pain of the crucifixion that He was about to experience. Rather it was because Jesus knew that for the first time in eternity He would not feel the Father's presence. What I really find amazing about this is that Jesus knew after three days the presence of His Father would be restored to Him. Yet He did not want to be away from His Father's presence for even that short period of time. But we know that on the cross Jesus could not sense the presence of His Father because He said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?"
There is one last prophecy that I want to mention now although it really has a connection to the prophecy that I will be discussing in the next chapter. It is an obvious prophetic reference to the Messiah given by the prophet Zechariah:
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of
Jerusalem: behold, your King comes unto you: He is just,
and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an donkey,
and upon a colt the foal of an donkey".
- Zechariah 9:9
Kings and rulers at that time did not ride donkeys. They rode horses as a sign of their power. Yet in this prophecy we see that the Messiah rides a donkey. This would be the equivalent of the President of the United States arriving at a meeting of the world's leaders in a Volkswagen Beetle automobile. The dignity of his office demands that he arrive in a Limousine.
This is another sign that at a certain time, the Messiah would come, not in glorious triumph, but rather in a lowly and humble manner.
"And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come
to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two
disciples, Saying unto them, Go into the village over
against you, and straightway you shall find a donkey tied,
and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them to Me ...
And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,
And brought the donkey, and the colt, and put on them
their clothes, and they set Him thereon. And a very great
multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut
down branches from the trees, and spread them in the way.
And the multitudes that went before, and that followed,
cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is He
that comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the
highest."47
There are many other prophecies written in the Old Testament that Jesus fulfilled with His first coming. However, the ones that I have listed in the first few chapters of this book illustrate that a humble, suffering Messiah was going to come to the earth at some point in time. These prophecies have answered what the Messiah would be like and what He would do when He did come.
In the next chapter, I am going to discuss the most precise prophecy given in the entire Old Testament. Unlike Jesus' second coming of which "that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only", 48 God did tell the Jews the exact day that the Messiah would appear at His first coming.
1 Napoleon Bonaparte, quoted in Bertrand's Memoirs (Paris, 1844).
2 ["Wars of the Jews", Book VI, Ch. V, Sec. 3].
3 John 19:1-3
4 Matthew 27:22
5 Matthew 27:39-43
6 John 1:29
7 Galatians 1:3-4
8 Hebrews 9:26-28
9 Matthew 27:62-63
10 Matthew 27:12-14
11 Luke 23:8-9
12 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
13 Ezekiel 33:11
14 Matthew 27:57-60
15 John 12:49
16 John 14:6
17 Hebrews 9:28
18 2 Corinthians 5:21
19 Matthew 26:36, 38-39
20 John 3:16-17
21 John 19:30
22 Luke 22:37
23 Luke 23:32-34
24 Matthew3:16-17
25 Genesis 3:15
26 Jeremiah 31:31-33
27 Matthew 26:26-28
28 Hebrews 12:24
29 Hebrews 13:20
30 Ephesians 2:11-13
31 Matthew 20:30, 32-34
32 Matthew 12:22
33 Matthew 14:1-12
34 Matthew 11:2-6
35 1 Samuel 13:14
36 Matthew 27:35
37 John 20:24-27
38 Zechariah 12:10
39 Mark 15:29-32
40 John 19:31-33
41 John 19:23-24
42 Mark 15:34
43 John 1:29
44 II Corinthians 5:14-21
45 Isaiah 59:2
46 John 1:1-3, 14
47 Matthew 21:1-2, 6-9
48 Matthew 24:36
