The King of the Jews

An icon is something or someone who represents something bigger than what they at first glance appear to be. An icon would be a model of perfection, something or someone that holds conviction or values. Although, an icon can also be controversial to one or more groups of people, causing the icon to be both loved and hated by many people. In many cases an icon can personify something a mass quantity of people would want to be or strive to be. I believe that Jesus Christ is not only my personal icon but an icon of Godly perfection and sacrifice for many. In today’s society, there are millions of churches around the world that do their best to live the gospel and uphold the Messiah’s teachings. However back in the Roman days, when the Lord did walk upon the earth, He was not accepted by his own people, the Jewish people, particularly those of authority. I believe it is far easier to see why Jesus is an icon in our current world but I seek to explain why He was an icon in the time that He lived and walked upon the earth.

“One Sabbath (holy day) [Jesus] went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, ‘Get up and stand in front of everyone.’ So he got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?’ He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ The man did so, and his hand was completely restored. But [the Pharisees and teachers of the law] were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.” (Luke 6:6-11).

In the above passage, Jesus miraculously heals a man on the Sabbath and the leaders of the Jewish people seek to kill Him because of it. The Sabbath (most commonly considered a Sunday, or day of rest in our present world) was upheld to the highest degree. In the old law no Jewish person was allowed to carry anything, even a needle in their pocket, do any work or eat on the Sabbath day. This law would include healing because it was considered to be work to heal someone. Therefore, in the most controversial way, Jesus says that the laws of the people are not the laws of God and their definition of ‘keeping the Sabbath holy’ is faulty. He also claimed that He, as God, was Lord of the Sabbath in Luke 6:5, which was possibly one of the main reasons the Pharisees want him dead; because Jesus claimed Himself to be Lord. In the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John the Jewish leaders are angrily trying to find fault with Jesus so that they can put Him to death.

Throughout the Old Testament, many prophets spoke of the coming of God’s Messiah for the Jewish people and for all man kind. Many prophets foretold that this Messiah would come with power causing “all mankind to see God’s salvation” (Isaiah 50:5). Because of this passage and others similar to it, the Jewish people expected a military leader or great king to be their Messiah, not a simple carpenter. “The scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David [and other prophets]…” Luke tells us in Acts 1:16. According to the Old Testament, and the prophets, the coming Messiah was an icon of salvation and hope to the Jewish people. However, when He came, the Jewish leaders thought that Jesus was trying to destroy the laws they had set up, but Jesus clearly states in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Therefore, Jesus understood that the scriptures needed to be fulfilled with His death and resurrection for the assurance of salvation for all people.

However, Jesus tells us, “No prophet is accepted in his hometown” (Luke 4:24). Thus when his own people, the Jewish people of Israel, hate Jesus for his miracles and teachings, it is not hard for us to accept that He became an icon of His time because He not only did extraordinary things but he also taught and spoke with extraordinary authority and went against the “norm.” Jesus’ miracles and teachings were different than anything the Jewish people had seen or heard before. The Bible also informs us that He had many followers and crowds of people came to see Him as Mark 6:33-34 explains; many people saw Jesus, recognized Him and ran to reach the towns ahead of Him so that He could speak and teach them. Later in that same chapter of Mark, people believed and again recognized Jesus and “ran throughout that whole region, bringing their sick to Him wherever they heard that He was.”

In the same way, the Pharisees and teachers of the law knew who Jesus was and, in vain, tried to find fault with His teachings and words. Though they asked Jesus many questions and tried to find fault with Him, the Lord always saw into their hearts, knowing their ways were evil; He always found a way to answer their deceiving questions that left all the people, including the Jewish leaders amazed. In the way that Jesus was hated, loved, and known by many in the Roman days it is easy to see that He was an icon of His time because there was hardly an ear who had not heard His name spoken. The elders, rabbis, and chief priests of the Jewish people feared Jesus’ teachings because they thought he would lead a revolt against them through the people. Not to mention that these important Jewish leaders were only important because of the laws they upheld and without these laws they would not have the authority over the people that they currently held. “Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest…and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him. ‘But not during the [Passover],’ they said, ‘or there may be a riot among the people.’” (Matthew 26:3-5).

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity states that Jesus must have either been the Lord, a lunatic or the devil. “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would have been a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else He would have been the devil of Hell. You must make the choice. Either this man was the Son of God: or else a mad man or something worse.” Yet, in the time that Jesus walked the earth, He was considered Lord by those who loved him and a lunatic and upstart trying to overthrow the old laws and the ways of the Jewish people by those who hated Him. In Matthew 16: 15-16 “[Jesus] asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” Agreeing that Jesus was the Son of God and the Messiah, other than just a mere man would once again prove that Jesus was an icon because He was more than He appeared to be at first glance. Yet the people replied that surely Jesus must be, “John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets,” in Matthew 16:14. Clearly people knew of Jesus and His teachings and miracles and people would travel great distances to see Him and hear him preach. Therefore, the people clearly saw him as a figure of importance. Because Jesus taught on controversial issues of his time, not to mention that he healed on the Sabbath, He was indeed someone who held higher value on the things of life, thus proving that He was an icon in the days the Roman Empire was in control.

C.S. Lewis later adds in his book, “You can either shut [Jesus] up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at feet and call Him Lord and God. But let none of us come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” As C.S. Lewis stated earlier, “You need to make the choice.” I believe that Jesus Christ was an icon of hope and salvation for all people, not just the Jewish people. In truth, Jesus remains an icon of perfection, sacrifice, salvation and hope to many people in the world.

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* Please note that all scripture comes from the New International Version of the Holy Bible. All quotes from C.S. Lewis are from Mere Christianity (NewYork: MacMillan Company, 1960), p. 40-41.