In our previous lesson, we noticed that the Qur’an as well as the Bible use the term “Messiah” in speaking of Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary. “Messiah” comes from a Hebrew word which means “the one who is anointed.” “Christ” comes from a Greek word that means the same thing. Many servants of God were called “prophets,” but Jesus alone is designated as being the Messiah.
His Mission
What, then, was the mission of the Messiah, the one whose coming was announced by God centuries before his birth? We have already seen that the Christ, like the other prophets, came to make known the truth about God and His will. We have also seen that the ministry of Jesus signaled an important change in the relationship between God and mankind, for Jesus came to “fulfill” the law of Moses and the prophets. The prophecies and the symbols of the Old Testament were fulfilled in Him. These were the shadows which had to take the place of the reality. Jesus said to the Jews, “You search the scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about me” (John 5:39). But the mission of the Messiah does not stop there.
Coming for a Judgment
We often say that Jesus came to bless people, and that is true. He said in John 10:10, “I have come so they may have life and have it in abundance.” But Jesus surprises us with the following words:
“‘I came into this world for judgment in order that those who do not see may see and those who do see may become blind.’
Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and asked Him, ‘We are not blind too, are we?’
‘If you were blind,’ Jesus told them, ‘you would have no sin. But now that you say, “We see,” your sin remains.’” (John 9:39-41)
Those who claim to know Jesus and do not attach any importance to his teachings and his warnings because they have already decided what they want to believe are the blind. Those, on the other hand, who seek, those who suffer from not knowing the true meaning of their lives and from having no hope, those who confess their ignorance, these are ready to receive the true light. By the coming of Christ into the world, a distinction among people is introduced—actually, a reversal of roles. Too often, it is the religious leaders—very respected men like the Pharisees—who are the ones who refuse to examine the words and life of Jesus objectively. They thus deprive themselves of the blessings he brings and find themselves condemned because of a voluntary and fiercely maintained blindness.
To Save the Sinners
But one aspect of the mission of the Messiah is mentioned more often than all the others. In Luke 19, Jesus was responding to the criticism of those who accused him for have accepted the hospitality of Zaccheus, a publican whom everyone recognized as a sinful man. Jesus said in verse 10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost.” This fits well with what the angel said about Jesus at his birth: “You are to name him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
But in what way was the prophesied Messiah to accomplish this mission? The prophet Isaiah gave the answer seven centuries before Christ’s arrival:
“He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him… His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.” (Isaiah 53:3-6,9,10)
Jesus understood very well that this prophecy, like the others, spoke of Him. He said in Matthew 20:28, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.” Jesus also understood the manner in which He would give His life. In the Gospel according to Luke we read:
Then He took the twelve aside and told them, “Listen. We are going up to Jerusalem. Everything that was written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be handed over to the Gentiles and He will mocked, insulted, spit on, and after they flog Him, they will kill Him and He will rise on the third day” (Luke 18:31-33).
But knowing in what manner he would die did not make it easy. When the moment of his arrest was very near, Jesus said, “Now my soul is troubled. What should I say?—Father, save me from this hour? But that is why I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name” (John 12:27,28). Jesus did not come just to preach. He came above all to die, and to die a terribly painful death. But far from a meaningless death, it was the method chosen by God to remove the sins of those who believe in Him.
The Importance of What We Believe About Jesus
In these last lessons, we have seen that among all the persons who are mentioned in both the Qur’an and the Bible, many things set Jesus apart and clearly distinguish Him from all the others sent by God. His coming was carefully prepared over thousands of years and announced in great detail by the prophets who preceded Him. He led a life without any sin; holiness of life is certainly a characteristic of other prophets, at least after they receive their call from God. But no other man of God was presented in Scripture as having lived his whole life on earth without having committed sin. Jesus is also unique in the fact that he claimed to have existed consciously long before his birth as a human being. He said that He had known Abraham who had preceded Him on earth by nearly two thousand years! To these shocking words he added His claim to have the power to forgive sins. To support His words, Jesus did miracles of every kind, confirmed by the Qur’an as well as by the Gospel.
To these wonders is added a miracle par excellence: just as He had promised, Jesus was resurrected from among the dead—a miracle that no other prophet had done. In all these extraordinary things, we recognize that the Bible and the Qur’an attribute to Him a very, very special title—He was the Messiah, the one who was anointed by God and whose mission would be the salvation of sinful man.
Having seen all these facts, we must highlight the absolute necessity of drawing the correct conclusion concerning the identity of Jesus. It was Jesus Himself who insisted on this. In the Gospel of John 8:23,24, he said, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” Actually, all through the Gospel of John, Jesus clearly said that if we want to have life, we must come to Him (John 5:40). He uses many images to communicate this reality. In John 6:47-51, He says:
“I assure you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
In chapter 7:37,38, Jesus declared: “If anyone is thirsty, he should come to Me and drink. The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” In John 11:25, Jesus is about to resurrect His friend, Lazarus, and speaks with Martha, the sister of the deceased. During their conversation, Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live.” Later, in chapter 14:6, He answers a question from his apostle Thomas. He tells him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Jesus spoke, of course, of faith in God, but no other prophet emphasized as he did the importance of his own identity and the need to believe in Him. Jesus dared to say that the eternal destiny of each of us depends on the conclusion we draw concerning His identity and on our faith in Him. Surely he was much more than a prophet? Perhaps the greatest danger for us, whether we be readers of the Bible or the Qur’an, would be to adopt the attitude of the inhabitants of Nazareth. When Jesus, having begun His ministry, returned to the village where he had grown up, the people were amazed. They said:
“‘How did this wisdom and these miracles come to Him? Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t His mother called Mary, and His brothers James, Joses, Simon and Judas? And His sisters, aren’t they all with us? So where does He get all these things?’ And they were offended by Him… And Jesus did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.” (Matthew 13:54-58)
These people thought they already knew who Jesus was. But their concept of Him was too limited. They did not discover His true identity because they had too many preconceived ideas about Him. Their prejudices prevented them from benefitting from what Jesus could have done for them.
According to Surah 3:55, Al-Imran, “Allah said, ‘O Jesus, I shall take you to Me and will raise You up to Me and shall clear you (of the calumnies) of the disbelievers, and shall place those who follow You above those who deny the truth until the Day of Judgment; then to Me shall all return and I will judge between you regarding your disputes.’” Of all the Bible characters mentioned in the pages of the Qur’an, none are as important as Jesus, the Christ. If you have not already done so, procure for yourself a copy of the Gospel and discover this Jesus.