We kind of get the picture, when the disciples who couldn’t quite figure out how the OT square with what Saw, a Messiah who is a servant-king would cometo “annihilate” his enemies... Yet instead, it was through the suffering of the Cross. It’s so perplexing, yet for us today, it is so rich.
- Amen!
- But then again, it depends on how you define "militant and political." I think Gospels defined that quite clearly. Cf. John 18:36-19:11.
- I have read the passage that you posted (John 18:36 through John 19:11), and they really do not give a clear definition on what a "military" or "political" Messiahship ought to be, as envisaged by the Jews until these days. The LORD Jesus Christ did not just come down here from heaven in order to just be here: He was here on a mission, sent by His Father, God the Father, and that mission is to suffer and to die on the cross, and then to be buried and to be resurrected. None of that mission includes the physical political and military confrontation and defeating of the political and military enemies of Israel and of the Jews (the then Roman Empire, and prior to that the Seleucid Empire, and their other enemies who oppress them). Until now, the Jews are still waiting for that Messiah who will accomplish that physical political and military act of victory for them and restoration of the entire Palestine and Jerusalem to their full and exclusive sovereignty: that Messiah who will defeat the modern enemies of Israel and the Jews (Islamism, Hamas, Palestinians, Iran, Hezbollah, and others). Personally, I believe that the LORD Jesus Christ will accomplish that expectation of Israel and the Jews, when He will come again at His Second Coming, where in He will come truely as the King of kings and Lord of lords; in deed, as one who has full political as well as military powers, not just spiritual and super natural powers.