A Simple Argument for Jesus as the Jewish Messiah

As soon as I announced that Pints With Aquinas would begin streaming on The Daily Wire, I knew what a certain small but loud and unserious corner of the internet would start saying. That I’d “sold out to the Jews.” That the podcast would suddenly become political. That the show would no longer retain the same full-throated proclamation of, and invitation to, Catholicism it always has.

None of that was true. And I think I’ve demonstrated that pretty clearly. The very first episode we released, the official Christmas special for The Daily Wire, was about why Christ is the long-awaited Messiah. The second episode also delved deeply into this. The third was about why all Jews need Christ and why the Catholic Church is the fulfillment of Israel.

I’m grateful to the many of you who, unlike those mentioned above, didn’t immediately crash out and start hurling accusations, even if my collaboration with The Daily Wire made you nervous.

Today I’d like to offer a simple, but often overlooked argument for why Jews (and everyone else) should agree that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. For many people the answer depends in part on what they already believe about the Hebrew Scriptures.

If one already accepts the authority of the Old Testament, then the discussion naturally turns to prophecy. Christians have long argued that Jesus fulfills the messianic hopes and expectations found throughout Israel’s Scriptures. Daniel foretold the coming of an anointed ruler during the period of the Second Temple before its destruction (Dan. 9:24–27). Micah predicted that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2). Isaiah spoke of the servant who would suffer for the sins of the people (Isa. 53). And Psalm 22 remarkably describes a righteous sufferer whose hands and feet are pierced and whose garments are divided by casting lots. Christians believe these and many other passages converge in Jesus of Nazareth.

Of course, Jewish interpretations of the Messiah have varied across history, and no short article can address every prophecy or every objection. If we had the time, we could examine many more examples in detail. But there is another line of evidence, one my mate Jimmy Akin once pointed out to me, that is so simple and obvious we can easily fail to appreciate how remarkable it really is.

Here’s the argument in a nutshell, and then I’ll explain why I think it’s compelling.

1. The Hebrew prophets foretold that, in the age of the Messiah, the nations would come to know the God of Israel.

2. Jesus of Nazareth is the one through whom the nations came to know the God of Israel.

3. Therefore, Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah foretold by the prophets.

Of course, that first premise only works if the prophets really did connect the coming Messiah with the gathering of the nations. But this theme appears again and again in the prophetic writings. They envisioned a future in which the nations of the earth would come to know and worship the God of Israel.

Isaiah writes:

“The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:9).

Habakkuk echoes the same promise:

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14).

At the time of the prophets, belief in the God of Abraham was confined to a relatively small people group in the ancient Near East. The overwhelming majority of humanity worshipped pagan gods, tribal deities, emperors, spirits, or idols. Entire civilizations existed without the slightest knowledge of the God of Israel.

Yet today, billions of people across the globe worship the God first revealed to Abraham.

The strange thing is that this has become so familiar to us that we hardly notice how astonishing it really is.

The God of a tiny and often oppressed people became known throughout the earth. His name is invoked on every continent. Nations ancient Israel never even knew existed now worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And this didn’t happen because Judaism became a military or political empire. It happened through Jesus of Nazareth. Through Him, the nations came to know the God of Israel.

Whatever else one thinks about Christianity, this much is difficult to deny historically: Jesus stands at the center of the global spread of belief in the God of Israel.

But the prophets didn’t merely predict that the knowledge of God would spread throughout the earth. They repeatedly associated this worldwide gathering of the nations with the coming of the Messiah and the messianic age.

Isaiah says of the Messiah:

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob... I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).

Again:

“In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal for the peoples, of him shall the nations inquire” (Isa. 11:10).

And again:

“Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising” (Isa. 60:3).

The prophets envisioned a figure through whom the nations themselves would come to know the true God.

That is exactly what happened through Jesus Christ.

History has seen many messianic claimants. Most are forgotten. Some gathered small followings before disappearing into obscurity. But Jesus transformed the world.

Through Him, countless Gentiles abandoned idols and came to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is precisely the sort of thing the prophets said would happen in the age of the Messiah.

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