Ever since He walked the dusty roads in Israel 2000 years ago, no one has had more impact, created more controversy, and given more hope than this Man. Most will agree that He was a great Man and they respect His teachings. Many have worshipped Him and died for Him; others have scorned and ridiculed Him. But just who is Jesus? Two of the world’s latest and greatest hits have been concerned with this very question: The Passion of the Christ and Da Vinci’s Code. The former is well intentioned, but lacking; the latter is ill-advised blasphemy; and neither one can answer the question: Who is Jesus?

By far the best place to answer this question is to read the words and teachings of Jesus Himself, as recorded in the gospel accounts. Why should we try to impose our own opinions about Jesus’ identity onto Him when we can hear it from His own mouth! The following discussion is a humble attempt to explore just a little bit of who Jesus is as found in the names by which He identifies Himself. First, I would like to take a brief look into the background and religious climate of Jesus’ times; and secondly I would like to look at the names of Jesus as He claims to be the suffering Saviour and the victorious King.

The Long-Awaited Messiah

The Jews knew the stories of their father Abraham very well. Even the young Jewish children learned of how God, 2000 thousand years before Jesus was born, had promised to give Abraham the land of Canaan, to make him the father of a great nation, and to bless all nations of the earth through him (Genesis 12:1-3). God had been faithful to His promise, despite the stubborn and disobedient hearts of Abraham’s descendants, He had given them the land of Canaan and, under the reigns of David and Solomon, had made them a great and powerful nation, complete with impressive palace grounds and a beautiful temple, a symbol of the presence and blessing of Almighty God.

But the Israelites forgot God, turned away from His law and worshipped idols made of wood and stone. Despite the warnings of God’s prophets the land of Israel became a house of injustice, idolatry, sexual immorality, and lawlessness. As punishment, God sent the Assyrian Empire (722 BC) and the Babylonian Empire (587 BC) to destroy the kingdom of Israel, the palaces, the temple, and sent the people into exile.

By the time of Christ’s birth, the Jewish nation had suffered over 700 devastating years of defeat and suppression at the hands of six different kingdoms. After the Assyrians and Babylonians, the Persian Empire swept over Babylon in 539. Under the reign of the Persian king, Cyrus, the Israelites were permitted to return to their land and to rebuild the temple. This was a hopeful sign for the future, but their return was far from glorious: the new temple seemed shabby compared to Solomon’s temple, only a small remnant of the people actually returned from exile, and Jewish rule was still under the watchful eyes of the Persians.

In the 4th century BC came the whirlwind conquest of Alexander the Great and his campaign to “Hellenise” the culture of his dominion – a development that threatened to compromise the Jew’s distinctive culture and religion. Upon Alexander’s death in 323 BC, Israel was divided between the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires. Israel experienced a period of independence under the Hasmonean Empire (167-63 BC), which was established after the successful revolt of Judas Maccabeus, but the reign of the Maccabees was plagued by the relentless advance of Greek culture and came to an end with the Roman conquest under Pompey the Great in 63 BC.

Every Jew of Jesus’ day longed for deliverance from their foreign oppressors and the restoration of the kingdom they once knew and had been promised to them. The Jewish nation was united in anticipation of the coming of the promised deliverer, the Messiah, who would redeem them from oppression, renew His creation that had come under the power of sin and death, and establish His rule of peace over all the nations of the earth. There were a variety of opinions as to what this Messiah would look like. Some insisted that he would be a mighty warrior who would liberate Israel by going to war against the Romans; others thought that he would first establish pure and true worship; and still others thought that there would be more than one Messiah.[1]

Very few would have expected a poor and simple man, the son of a lowly carpenter from the nobody-town of Nazareth, to be the Messiah! But Jesus claimed to be that One who had come to restore the long-awaited kingdom, and His claims were unmistakable: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). This was a startling announcement and all Jews of Galilee who heard Him say it would have understood its Messianic implications.

The most recorded name in the Gospels that Christ identifies Himself as is “Son of Man.” Although this may sound like a curious name to us living 2000 years later, the Jews would have known exactly what He was referring to -- the prophecy of the “Son of Man” in the book of Daniel:

I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed (Daniel 7: 13,14).

This prophecy of Daniel is the only place in the Old Testament scriptures where the name “Son of Man” occurs. It would have been obvious to the Jews that Jesus was claiming to be this “Son of Man,” the Messiah. Imagine meeting someone today who claimed that he would come “with the clouds of heaven” and establish an eternal kingdom over the entire earth! We would probably admit him to the local psychiatric ward!

Yet Jesus, the most humble and meek man ever to walk the earth, did not back down from this claim of universal authority. Instead He proved His authority by casting out demons, healing the sick and the lame, giving sight to the blind, forgiving sins, calming the wind and waves, and raising the dead. Yet the Jews refused to accept Him as the Messiah. The Gospel of Mark records that the Jewish leaders condemned Jesus to death for the very reason of His claim to be the Messiah. They wanted a Messiah of prestige and military might, not a humble, suffering servant man who proclaimed a kingdom of love and suffering. For this reason they cried with hatred: “Crucify Him!” (Mark 15:13,14).

2000 years later many things have changed, but one thing remains the same as that of Jesus’ day: men still refuse to acknowledge Jesus’ for who He says He is, stubbornly fashioning Him into the man they want Him to be. Many call Jesus their Saviour but refuse to acknowledge Him as Lord; that is, they like to have someone who forgives their sins and brings them to heaven but they don’t want to obey His commands. Others acknowledge Jesus to be a good man and a wise religious teacher, but not the Son of God or the only way of salvation. Still others, similar to the Jews of Jesus’ day recognize Jesus as a great prophet but reject His path of love and suffering.

There are a multitude of opinions on Jesus within every religion, but very few accept Jesus at face value. Boldly and clearly Jesus revealed Himself as the Son of Man, the Messiah who was to redeem all of creation from Satan, sin, and death, and usher in the eternal kingdom of life and peace. Jesus various names and teachings identify Him as the Messiah who was both the deliverer and king, the suffering Saviour and victorious Lord.

The Suffering Saviour

The very name “Jesus” indicates just who He is. Jesus, which is a form of the Hebrew name, “Joshua,” literally means “Yahweh (God) is salvation” or “Yahweh saves.” Matthew records that God told Joseph in a dream, “you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, our first parents, enjoyed a life of perfect happiness and communion with God. But the moment they disobeyed God and followed their own desires their relationship with God was broken. They had cut themselves off from their source of life, peace, and happiness and were now subject to sin, death, and misery. This was the sin that the Messiah was to save His people from. 700 years before Jesus, the prophet Isaiah, who was ministering to an Israelite nation that had become wicked and corrupt, prophesied:

He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by 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 was looking forward to the coming of the Messiah who would forgive the sins of His people by taking the punishment for them upon Himself. With this in mind hear the names that Jesus gives Himself:

The good shepherd

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep…I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. (John 10:11,14-15)

The living bread

I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. (John 6:51)

The resurrection and the life

I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25,26)

What bold words these must have seemed to Jesus’ listeners! Here was the poor son of a carpenter claiming to be the One who would sacrifice His life, His flesh, in order to give life to those who believed in Him. He did not claim merely a martyr’s death. A martyr might lay down His life in order to extend the life of another, but Jesus claims to give life to the entire world and to give life that shall never end! There have been and will be many martyrs and wise religious teachers in this world, but none can make this exclusive claim as Saviour:

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)

The Victorious Lord

If Jesus was merely a sinful man like the rest of us then His claim to be the way to the Father would be arrogant and insubstantial, but Jesus could make this exclusive claim because He is also God, the universal Lord. We have already looked at the implications of His claim to be the “Son of Man”, to whom was given an “everlasting dominion.” The significance of this title was certainly not lost on the first century Jews. Mark records the following exchange, which took place when Jesus stood on trial in the Jewish Sanhedrin:

Again the high priest asked Him, say to Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”

Jesus said, “I am. And you will see the Son of Man at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?”

And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death (Mark 14:61-62).

Both of these names, “Christ” and “Son of Man,” were too outrageous for the Jewish leaders to accept. Here was a poor and simple man, the son of a carpenter, claiming to be the Messiah and the Son of God!

The name Christ, meaning “anointed one,” was a very well known name. In Old Testament history men were anointed to be either a prophet, priest, or king. The “Christ” became to be known as that individual who would usher in the restored kingdom. Usually this name was understood in terms of a political or military leader[2], certainly not a meek and lowly man like Jesus! Even His closest disciples did not understand that as the Christ, His path to victory was not one of military might or political manoeuvres; His path to victory was a harsh and merciless road of death and suffering. After His resurrection Jesus fully explains Himself to His disciples:

Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:25,26)

Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24: 46,47)

Jesus Christ first paid the penalty for our sin as the suffering Saviour in order to defeat the power of sin and death and rise from the grave, the victorious King – king of a universal and everlasting kingdom!

Who is Jesus? Let Him speak for Himself! This man from Galilee claimed to be the Messiah, the deliverer and king of the Jews. But He claimed far more than just that: He claimed to be the Saviour and King of the entire world, of all nations. This exclusive claim may be tough for us to swallow in this day and age of “open-mindedness” and “tolerance,” but Jesus does not leave Himself open to differing opinions. C.S. Lewis, one of the greatest Christian authors of the twentieth century said it well: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else He would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.”[3]

REFERENCES

1. Bartholomew, Craig G. and Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture, Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, Michigan. 2004. (pp. 123-124)

2. Ibid, 150

3. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Fount Paperbacks: Glasgow. 1977. p. 52.


Copyright ©2006 Gary Zekveld.