Luke 23:38, The King of the Jews. The placard that the Romans placed on the cross just above the head of Yeshua reflected the Jewish people’s prevailing politically correct view concerning their Messianic expectations. Their expectations of who they wanted the Messiah to be were not in accordance with heaven’s plan, which is why some denied him and others yelled, “Crucify him!”
The Tanakh (Old Testament) reveals that two Messiahs were to come: the Conquering King Messiah or Mashiach ben David and the Suffering Servant Messiah or Mashiach ben Yosef. Because the boot of Roman tyranny had been resting heavily on the neck of the Jewish people for some 150 years, the Jews were hoping for and, therefore, were placing their confidence in the Conquering King Messiah, who would, in their eyes, miraculously deliver them from Roman rule and oppression. This prevailing notion was even the mindset of Yeshua’s closest disciples. This is why when Yeshua predicted his death in Jerusalem at the hand of the Jews, Peter vehemently declared that this would not happen (Matt 16:21–23). Then when Yeshua failed to fulfill the people’s expectation of a Conquering King Messiah, this is when Judas betrayed his Master as a false messianic figure. This is probably why Peter denied Yeshua at the eleventh hour; because his deepest expectation of the Messiah’s mission as the Conquering King were not being met, and thus doubts about Yeshua’s Messianic claims rose to the surface in Peter’s mind at that critical hour and in confused discouragement he turned his back on the Messiah. This is why the Jewish people insisted that the Romans crucify Yeshua—he had failed to meet their expectations.
The Roman placard that was nailed to the cross, therefore, was simply a Roman mockery of the Jewish people’s prevailing misguided messianic expectations. Their conquering king was being pitilessly crucified as Rome’s sovereignty over the Jewish people remained concretely intact.
Sadly, the Jews’ expectations were not lined up with heaven’s divine will. In reality, the Jews, and even to some degree, Yeshua’s disciples, had created a Messiah in their own image—a caricaturized or cartoon Messiah that, to one degree or another, had become an idol in their minds replacing the true Messiah.
What are our hopes and expectations concerning Yeshua the Messiah? What cartoon view of the Messiah have we created in our minds? Were Yeshua to return today, would most Christians even recognize and accept him? The biblical reality of a first century, Torah-teaching and Torah-observant Jewish rabbi hardly fits with the stereotypical westernized, Greco-Roman caricature of the Christian Jesus.
Moreover, when Yeshua, just before his return, sends his two witnesses to preach the gospel in Jerusalem (Rev 11:7–12), will people, including mainstream Christians, accept their message, likely a Hebraic one, if it does not line up exactly with traditional Greco-Roman Christian theology? How about when Yeshua shortly thereafter sends an angelic messenger to preach “the everlasting gospel” to those who dwell on the earth (Rev 14:6–7)? Will mainstream Christians accept this message—likely a Hebraic-centric one that will contain overtones of Torah in it? It is hard to say. Some will and some will probably not, since it may not line up with “the historic Christian faith,” as most Christians have been taught, which, to one degree or another, is ambivalent if not outright antagonistic toward YHVH’s Torah-law.
Whatever may be our views and expectations concerning the Messiah and his return, we would be wise to be certain that they are grounded in the full counsel of YHVH’s Word from Genesis to Revelation, which is intensely Hebraic in context. Moreover, it would also behoove us to hold in a loose grip our expectations on how we think end time events will roll out. If we are expecting one thing to happen and something else happens, we may find ourselves, at the very least confused and our faith shaken, or at the most, we may even deny Yeshua as Judas and Peter did. He who thinks that he stands, take heed lest he fall (1 Cor 10:12).
To be sure, if one stays in a close, daily and intimate relationship with Yeshua the Hebraic Messiah, and follows the Lamb of Elohim wherever he leads day-by-day, one will have nothing to be concerned about.
