In the previous post, we demonstrated that Torah was focused on preventing the men of Israel from being emasculated. Indeed, we saw that the Law was addressed to men and was designed to protect their status, honor, and prerogatives within Israelite society. Conversely, we also observed that women were assigned an inferior and submissive role within that society, and that it was considered taboo for a man to assume any role associated with womankind.
Likewise, in past posts on this blog, we have noted how Jesus Christ came to this earth to fulfill Torah and the Prophets. Moreover, we have demonstrated in many of those posts that he did exactly that. Hence, it is only natural that we would feel compelled to examine exactly how this particular aspect of the Law pointed to him. In other words, how did this preoccupation with men and their proper role in society point to Jesus Christ?
We are told in the New Testament that Jesus was God's own Son, and that "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power." (Hebrews 1:1-3, ESV) In the Gospel of John, we read that "the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men." (John 1:1-4, ESV) In other words, Jesus Christ was the perfect man/God!
Even so, the New Testament also makes very plain that Jesus was the antithesis of the male role protected by the commandments of Torah! When some of his disciples expressed a desire to be in leadership positions, Christ told them: "You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:42-45, ESV) A man acting in the capacity of a servant? Christ came to fulfill Torah and the Prophets? Weren't the children of Israel looking for a powerful Messiah to overthrow Roman rule and restore the Davidic Kingdom?
In the book of Isaiah, we read: "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors." (Isaiah 53:2-12, ESV)
Jesus, the Son of God, the One through whom Father God created and sustains the universe, submitted himself to the Jewish religious authorities and the Roman overlords of Judaea. The armies of Heaven were at his command, but he never summoned them to fight on his behalf! Moreover, he taught his disciples that the poor in spirit would inherit the Kingdom, that the meek would inherit the earth, and that peacemakers would be called God's sons. He instructed those disciples "if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." (See the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, ESV) He told them to "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." He declared: "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 7:12, ESV) And, wonder of wonders, he even interacted with women and treated them as co-heirs of the Kingdom (see Mark 5:24-33, Luke 7:36-50, 10:38-42, John 4:1-42, 11:1-44, 12:1-8, etc.)!
In short, Christ turned the traditional view of Israelite masculinity upside down! Indeed, the Apostle Paul was compelled to write: "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28, ESV) Now, I defy anyone to tell me that a Torah observant Jewish male could have written such a statement prior to the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth!
So, YES, Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the Law and the Prophets. He also transformed the patriarchy of the Hebrew Bible. He was dishonored, abused, falsely accused, beaten, emasculated FOR US. Now, that is LOVE. He willingly submitted himself to the most humiliating and painful execution which the Romans could devise. Moreover, Torah declared that anyone who was hung on a tree was cursed. Once again, Jesus was the antithesis of the children of Israel's notion of masculinity and the rights and privileges which they believed were attached to that gender! This is the message of the New Testament.
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