8 Feb 09

In the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), it is observed that there are Jews that opposed and refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, or Messiah.

Firstly, Jesus is born in a lower-to-middle class family (A carpenter). Therefore, people couldn't accept that their anticipated Messiah is someone who is from a low social class.

Secondly, the Jews believed that their coming Messiah is someone who is powerful, who will deliver them from the oppression and rule of the Roman Empire. The Jews have been under the control of various rulers and kingdoms ever since the Kingdom of Judah fell to Babylon.

• The Kingdom of Judah fell to the Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar, as seen in 2 Kings.
  
• The Babylonian Empire fell later to the Persian Empire, under Cyrus who allowed the Jews to return to their homeland to rebuild the Temple of God. (Book of Ezra, Nehemiah)
  
• The Persian Empire, in turn, fell to Alexander the Great. When Alexander died, the land he conquered was divided into mainly 2 parts. The Seleucid Empire ruled Israel from then on until the Roman Empire came into power.

With continuous conquests of the Jewish people in Israel by different kingdoms, the Jews longed for their Messiah to rescue and deliver them from the Roman Empire. Therefore, they had conjured an impression among themselves that their Messiah would be a warrior-king, someone who would overthrow the Roman Empire and bring them under no foreign authority, when by then they could rule their own land with their own people.

This impression caused them to be "blinded" when Jesus came into this world, and offered salvation to all people by dying for our sins on the cross. He is the sacrifice that redeemed us from the ransom of sin. However, the people were too obsessed with their own image of their Messiah that they missed out on the One when He was already there. They were too focused on their own physical slavery that they failed to see their spiritual starvation.

Therefore, it is important to know God as who God really is, not knowing the god whom we conjured up in our own mind and understanding; lest we are blinded just like the ancient people, and miss the chance to recognise our Saviour.