Is Jesus the Messiah?

What the Bible says

"Messiah" comes from the Hebrew mashiach, "anointed one." Its Greek equivalent is christos, "Christ." They are one word. John makes this explicit: Andrew tells his brother Simon, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated as Christ) (John 1:41). So "Jesus Christ" is not a first name and surname. It is the confession that Jesus is the Messiah.

In the Old Testament, anointing set kings, priests and prophets apart for God's work. Then David was promised a throne that would last forever (2 Sam 7:12-13), and the prophets spoke of an ideal king to come, so that hope for "the anointed one" grew. In Jesus' day Jewish expectations were not uniform.

The turning point in the Gospels is at Caesarea Philippi. Jesus asks his disciples:

"But what about you?" Jesus asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ."

Mark 8:29

Matthew adds "the Son of the living God" (Matt 16:16). Yet Jesus immediately warns them not to tell anyone, and begins to teach that the Son of Man must suffer, be killed, and rise (Mark 8:30-31). Peter could not accept this: for him the Messiah wins, not suffers. Many interpreters think Jesus was careful with the title because it could be heard as that of a political liberator.

After the resurrection Jesus meets two disciples on the road to Emmaus and untangles the same problem.

Then Jesus said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then to enter His glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself.

Luke 24:25-27

The apostles took up this reading. In Thessalonica, Luke says, Paul reasoned from the Scriptures for three Sabbaths, "explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead" (Acts 17:2-3). Four passages stand out.

Isaiah 53 portrays a suffering servant.

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

Isa 53:5

Micah 5:2 names the place of the ruler's origin.

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel— One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.

Mic 5:2

Asked where the Christ would be born, the scribes cited this verse (Matt 2:4-6).

Psalm 22 opens with the cry of a righteous man forsaken, words Jesus took up on the cross (Ps 22:1).

Psalm 110 was used by Jesus himself. If David calls the Christ "Lord," he asks, how can the Christ be only David's son? (Matt 22:41-45)

The LORD said to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet."

Ps 110:1

The church's witness

The Apostles' Creed confesses Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord Apostles' Creed, and the Nicene Creed confesses one Lord, Jesus Christ Nicene Creed. From the start the church carried "Christ" inside his name, so confessing him as the promised Messiah was where faith began.

Bede says why Jesus first asked what people were saying: "lest their confession should appear to be founded on the common opinion." Bede The disciples' faith had to be their own.

Matthew Henry sees the whole Old Testament in Jesus' lesson on the Emmaus road: "A golden thread of gospel grace runs through the whole web of the Old Testament." Matthew Henry Of Micah 5:2 he says, "This is, perhaps, the most important single prophecy in the Old Testament." Matthew Henry

In the original languages

Mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ) means "one smeared with oil." In the Old Testament it is used most often of kings, but also of priests and even of the foreign king Cyrus. Many scholars hold that after the exile it settled into the name of the final king of David's line. Its Greek form in the New Testament is Messias (Μεσσίας), and the Greek translation of it is christos (Χριστός).

Anointing was an appointment to an office. When Jesus read Isaiah 61 in the Nazareth synagogue and said, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:18-21), he was declaring himself the anointed one.

Common objections

"When the Messiah comes, there will be peace, and the world is still at war." This is one of the main reasons many Jews have not accepted Jesus, and it is a weighty objection. Isaiah pictured the age of the Messiah this way: "Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor train anymore for war" (Isa 2:4). That has not happened. Christians do not deny it. Their answer is that the Messiah comes twice: first as the suffering servant to bear sin, then as king to judge and renew. Hebrews says:

so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.

Heb 9:28

The disciples themselves asked the risen Jesus, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" and he answered that the times are fixed by the Father (Acts 1:6-7). It is understandable that this does not persuade everyone, since the Old Testament alone does not plainly separate two comings. Christians say that Jesus' coming began the kingdom and that its completion is awaited. They, too, are still waiting.

"A suffering, dying Messiah is a contradiction, and the servant of Isaiah 53 is Israel." A crucified man could be seen as cursed by God (Deut 21:23), and Paul admits that a crucified Christ was a stumbling block to Jews (1 Cor 1:23). Reading the servant as Israel is also an old Jewish tradition, and deserves respect. Yet an ancient Aramaic paraphrase of Isaiah (the Targum) calls the servant the Messiah, though it assigns most of the suffering to others; Christians read in it one person bearing others' sins. If, as Jesus said, the Christ had to suffer and enter his glory (Luke 24:26), the cross does not deny his messiahship but is its manner. The apostles proclaimed the resurrection as the vindication (Acts 2:36).

"The Gospel writers shaped Jesus' life to fit prophecy." This is a serious objection. Some quotations referred to other events in their original setting, and the Gospel writers did read them as applying to Jesus. But some distinctions matter. A Messiah put to death was not a story the disciples wanted to invent, and Peter in fact rejected it. The Gospels also report that Jesus himself explained his mission from the Scriptures. What counts most is not any one verse but the whole pattern: king, servant, priest and suffering righteous one meet in one person. Honestly put, this is not proof from a single verse but a way of reading the whole story of Scripture.

Going further

Christians do not think of Jesus as Messiah apart from Jewish history. Jesus was a Jew, and Christians stand on Israel's Scriptures. That the church for long centuries despised and even persecuted Jews is shameful, and conversation on this subject should be humble and respectful.

You might ask yourself: What kind of Messiah am I hoping for? One who fixes my problems at once, or one who stays with me in suffering and in the end wins? Have I, like Peter, named Jesus rightly yet found his way hard to accept? John gives his purpose in writing: "But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:31).

To read further, see Who is Jesus?, Has biblical prophecy been fulfilled? and Will Jesus return?. Reading Isaiah 52:13-53:12 aloud is a good place to begin.