Monday, April 10, 2017

The Missing Message of the Messiah

The poor and oppressed of Palestine seemed to get the message of Palm Sunday; the religious rich leaders also got the message, but they didn't like it, they flatly rejected not only the message but also the Messenger.

As usual on Palm Sunday, the justice message was missing.  In my 90 years, I have heard only one sermon that included the theme of justice; justice is the repeated theme in Isaiah's six Messianic passages---chapters 9, 11, 16, 28, 41, 61.  Also from Zechariah 9:9:

"Behold your King [Messiah] is coming to you; he is just and having salvation."  Any salvation message that doesn't include justice for the oppressed is biblically deficient.

Read Luke 19:41-47.  Jesus predicts the judgment coming to Jerusalem and the Temple.  It actually happened a few years later when Roman soldiers looted and destroyed the Sacred Temple.  Why?  The chief priests did not repent; instead they turned the Temple into a den of theives.  Or a religiously legitimated system of oppression.

When there is no repentance, no justice, sooner or later God initiates judgment.

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