Messiah Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Messiah - Essay Example There is also the idea of a new Moses found in Deuteronomy, a relatively early work. In Deuteronomy 18 v 15 he tells the Israelites â€Å"The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him.’ Earlier in the scriptures , as far as the arrangement of the Hebrew scriptures is concerned, we have the idea of the messiah as a saviour in Genesis 3 v 15 , where God tells the serpent that the messiah will be a human. In Psalm 2 v 7 we are told however that he will be the Son of God. Christians believe that these apparently ideas were reconciled in the person of Jesus of Nazereth, Jesus Christ, as shown in passages such as Matthew 3 v 17 when God himself declares â€Å"This is my son† a fact declared even by unclean spirits ( Mark 3 v 11) when they cry out to Jesus â€Å"You are the Son of God.† There was also the idea that this messiah would be a sacrifice for the sins of the people, a sacrificial lamb, as in Isaiah 53 v 7. John the Baptist echoes this when he points out Jesus to the crowds near the Jordon â€Å"Look the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.† ( John 1 v 29, Bible , N.I.V.). Right at the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry we read (John 1 v 41, New International Version) :- The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, â€Å"We have found the Messiah† (That is the Christ). Andrew is referring to a long cherished hope for a Messiah, often, but not always thought of as a king in the line of David. Matthew (1 v 1 ) gives the genealogy of Jesus, whom he calls the Christ, and this is traced back through David. As we have already considered there were a number of ideas at the time in... The paper describes some ideas of "messiah" that lived and live nowadays and different points of view by various nations. The idea of a saviour who was also a king is clearly shown in Isaiah, which begins â€Å"See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice.† So the idea of a restored kingship was strongly linked with the restoration of the nation. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church the Spirit of God was at work preparing for the coming of the promised Messiah, during the time covered by the Old Testament period. This it says means that when the church reads the Old Testament Scriptures it should search through it to see what the Spirit is telling us about Christ, who will be â€Å"The consolation of Israel† and the â€Å"Redemption of Jerusalem†.It is believed that these ideas are based upon passages such as Isaiah â€Å"The Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.† Isaiah describes the kind of person this messiah would be, one with the Spirit of the Lord resting upon him. Jesus would later echo this when he stated â€Å"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me†. It is claimed that God speaks in â€Å"the language of promise†. Early Christians see him as priest. This idea is perpetuated in Catholic thought and practice in the idea of the priests as being ‘in persona Christi’. This is said to mean that at ordination, in some mystical way, an ordinary person becomes empowered to do what Christ did , that is to change ordinary bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.