The Messiah That Could’ve Been – Part 1
NOTE: The previous post was really an Introduction and I should have really labeled it that way. And incidently, I plan to post a Summary at the end of my presentation so that you may view the key points without having to trudge through the dross of these infernally exhaustive posts. 
In the thread I referenced, If Christ’s death God’s will, then His killers are heros…, one of the OP’s concerns is whether we ought to be thankful to those who played a direct part in Christ’s crucifixion, namely the Jewish leadership and the Romans, seeing it was all God’s plan to begin with, since it was prophetically foretold by the OT prophets. But as james.goetz’s timely input in the Eschatology section titled Conditional Futurism: New Perspective of End-Time Prophesy contends, a good portion the prophesies foretold in the OT are conditional. (I can assure you that James’ input and this ongoing discussion have been arrived at independently).
My investigation begins with an examination of the four Gospels. But we will start by collectively examining the three Synoptic Gospels since the sequence of events tends to follow the same pattern. (John is a bit stickier in that it is structured much differently that the others, does not nearly share the same material or timeline as the other three, and it has certain idiosyncrasies that must be addressed, which I will get to in a later post).
Specifically, I would like to map out in all the Synoptics the points in which a) Jesus first predicts or announces to the disciples that He will be delivered up to be crucified and b) the point at which the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees first plot to kill Jesus. Then we will examine events before these pronoucements and see the sequence of events leading up to them. (I will also note certain earlier statements that would appear to suggest that the idea of Jesus’ death before the one’s listed)
Matthew
Christ’ prediction – Matthew 16:21 – “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.”
Chief priest’s plot – Matthew 26:3-4 – *“Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.” *
Note: Matthew 12:14 (see also Mark 3:6, Mark 11:18, and Luke 19:47-48) – “Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.” I don’t think in context that the Pharisees sought to kill Jesus at this point, rather they wanted to ruin his reputation. Some definitions in the Strong’s renders ‘destroy’ as ‘to put out of the way entirely, abolish, put an end to ruin’, ‘render useless’. It is clear in later chapters, like Matt. 22:15, that the Pharisees increasingly sought to trip Jesus up in His words, in order to discredit Him. Usually when one sees ‘destroy in association with the Pharisees, some attempts are made to trap Jesus as in Luke 20 and the discussion about paying tribute to Caesar. Or likewise in Matthew 22, where the Pharisees commissions the Herodians and the Sadducees to test Jesus, before sending one of their own to approach Jesus (one, two, three strikes…Yer Out!, I say).
Mark
Christ’ prediction – Mark 8:31 – “And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
Chief priest’s plot – Mark 14:1 – “After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.”
Luke
Christ’ prediction – Luke 18:32 – *“Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.” *
Chief priest’s plot – Luke 22:1-2 – *“Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people.” *
Note: Luke 4:28-30 – “And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way…” The early incident did not involve the Jewish leadership, but rather folks in His own hometown.
Luke 13:31 – “The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee.” I thought this was of interest since it has some Pharisees actually protecting Jesus from Herod’s threat.
To appreciate the significance of these comparisons we should note that these statements come fairly late in the Gospel accounts, keeping in mind, for example, that Mark is the shortest book (16 chapters, so chapter 8 is halfway) and that the latter bulk of the chapters of each gospel deal with events of the Passion Week. So it wouldn’t be incorrect to say that these sayings occurred during the latter half of Jesus’ ministry. Another marker is that Jesus’ predictions in each of the Synoptics come at the time of Peter’s revelation that Jesus is the Christ, something Jesus took great pains to conceal during the first part of His ministry (more on this later).
Now that we can pinpoint the time in which these threats are made, we can now go back and move forward from the beginning and examine the mindsets of the principle figures involved. We will start in Luke 1, and the birth of John the Baptist.
I mentioned in the other thread that when Jesus said that John the Baptist could be Elias (Elijah) to come, if they accepted it, then the kingdom could have been ushered in at that time. Jesus would be made King and Messiah, and all power would be at His discretion to rule the nations. In a verse in Luke 1:17, an angel of the Lord, speaking to Zacharias, gives this prophesy concerning John:
“And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
This is a direct reference to Malachi 4:5-6. But there is a condition, or rather a warning, in Malachi for this to be accomplished, ‘lest I come and smite the earth with a curse’. This tells us that there is a possibility that things could go wrong in the ministry of Elijah (or in this case John) when he comes. It is conditional.
Later, after John is born and his father becomes unmated, Zacharias give this prophesy:
*Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,
Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,
To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” – Luke 68-79 *
So it would appear that the extent of John the Baptist’s ministry is to prepare the way to usher in the deliverance of Israel from their enemies through the Holy One. At it would come in that present generation. John’s (and Jesus’, for that matter) message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The term ‘hand’ according to this verse in Strong’s states ‘to bring near, to join one thing to another and ‘to draw or come near to, to approach’. There is every reason to believe that it would occur very soon. This is why John preached repentance to Israel through the baptism for remission of sins. The water represents cleansing one’s soul to receive the things of God. Why was Jesus baptized? To fulfill all righteousness. Jesus didn’t need to be cleansed. But by partaking in baptism, He identified with us as sinners need repentance and is working in solidarity with Israel (and us), to descend down to us from heaven and ascend to God with us with Him and present us to God in righteousness. And this is why the heaven’s opened, the Holy Spirit as a dove descended , and the Voice from heaven saying, “This is my believed Son, in whom I am well pleased” Not only does this testify to the Trinity, but in His Baptism, the operation of the Spirit opened up for Jesus in His ministry to us to bring us near to God. God was saying that in Christ, we can rise up to God, though our sins are as scarlet, and we may have access to God through the Holy Spirit.
Repentance is always necessary before God can work in the hearts of His Children, in this case Israel. It was hoped that the message of John and the message of Jesus would bring the nation to repentance, and thus Redemption right then and there during the time of Christ’s earthly ministry, ‘lest I smite the earth with a curse’. Well, we know what happened, right?
It is a common believe among Jews today that the Messiah will appear when the nation of Israel is prepared to receive Him. It was available then, but Israel rejected Him. But it will be available contingent on Israel today.
Now when Jesus was in the Temple at age 12 with the doctor’s of the Law, who were amazed at His understanding and answers, and Jesus’ parents came looking for Him, He said, “wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” I personally believe that the Father’s business referred to here is that Jesus was teaching the doctors of the Law and not the other way around. He was attempting to pre-empt the thinking of the teachers for when He would return years later to begin His ministry.
Next, staying with the Synoptic Gospels for now, we will look at Jesus’ ministry and see how in the beginning He taught the kingdom of God as being in the present, contemporary time of 1st century Palestine.
For those who don’t know or don’t remember, I’m rather not in favor of this idea.)