Luke 11

The Man just raised someone who had been dead four days. In the last three years He had made blind people see, lame people walk, cast out demons, healed leprosy, fed thousands, and controlled the weather. He even said He was the One the prophets had told them about, and He taught them with more authority than they had ever heard before.

But the Pharisees rejected Him anyway. All the evidence pointed to the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, but Jesus was not who they pictured in that role. Jesus wasn’t rallying an army to defeat the Romans, He wasn’t taking steps to make Himself king. Not only that, He never once patted the Pharisees on the back for their knowledge of the Law, or their leadership skills.

Their response to Jesus’ raising Lazarus was to say: We’ve got to shut Him down. If He keeps doing those things people are going to follow Him and we might lose our place in society. The people will like Him better than they like us, and where will that leave us?

The Pharisees had a picture in mind of what their messiah would look like. He’d be a commanding leader who would appoint them to positions of power in a kingdom without Roman rule. He’d be one of them. He’d at least be from a good home.

Let’s not make the same mistake the Pharisees made. Let’s not reject Jesus because we are going through a battle with cancer, and we think our messiah ought to heal us. Let’s not reject Him because we are struggling with a dead-end job, and we think our messiah ought to make us successful. Let’s not reject Him because people who have wronged us are living the high-life, and we think our messiah would just burn down their houses because they were mean to us. Let’s not reject Him because we’ve decided our messiah would be tolerant of multiple ways to heaven, would not object to homosexuality, would pat us on our backs for being good people.

I don’t know what you’ve pictured your messiah to be. But I can say with confidence that the person of Jesus is so much better than you can dream up. The truth is, Jesus IS the Messiah. He IS God’s Son. He IS God in the flesh. And He died because you are a sinner.

Jesus’ goal was not to make you happy or healthy or wealthy. Get that picture out of your mind once and for all. Jesus’ goal was to save your soul so that you could live with him forever. Jesus’ goal was to forgive you so He could walk with you in this life, in every circumstance.

Jesus is my Messiah. Jesus is THE Messiah.