The Messianic hope was a burning conviction held with fanatical zeal, shaped under pressure of tyranny and persecution, and inspired by deep religious faith….
There is abundant evidence not only in Jewish sources, but also in the New Testament itself, that devotion to the cause of Israel was the dominant factor in the common life of Palestinian Jews before, during, and after the ministry of Jesus….
Any thinking Jew in this period might quite reasonably look upon armed revolt against the foreigner not merely as a patriotic act, but also as a religious protest against insult offered to Almighty God. A war for Jewish freedom was also a holy war, a war for the kingdom of God….
It is of the essence of the matter that the Messiah is thought of as an irresistible, wise and just ruler, who is "mighty in his works and strong in the fear of God": and the central violent contradiction between the primitive Christian kerygma (see footnote) and the Jewish Messianic hope is that which sets the crucified Messiah of Christian experience over against the triumphant hero of Jewish fancy. Now it is easy to see that the notion of a crucified Messiah is a stumbling block to the Jews (I Cor. 1:23): to complete the picture we have also to realize that the Jewish hope of a successful Messiah was equally a stumbling block to Jesus. It is from this point of view of the fundamental contradictions between the Jewish Messianic hope and Jesus’ convictions concerning his own Ministry that the Gospel story becomes, in its main lines, an intelligible piece of history.
The Jewish expectation was then that the kingdom of God must triumph. In terms of history and experience that meant the vindication of all that is connoted by the word "Israel." The Messiah is the agent of this triumph of God: he comes forth conquering and to conquer by divine power. And the immediate beneficiaries of this God-given Messianic victory are the people of Israel, the children of Abraham, the heirs of the promises made to the Fathers. It was all simple and straightforward.
From Look at the Man, Copyright 1989, Tim Woodroof and Glen Gray, Lincoln Church of Christ, 820 N. 56th Street, Lincoln, NE 68504 - Used by permission
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kerygma - the apostolic proclamation of salvation through Jesus Christ