An honest Messiah

The telling of hard truths only reinforces Jesus' credibility | Andrée Seu

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

I appreciate Jesus' honesty with us.

Most Messiahs (and every age has them—Acts 5:36-37), especially Messiahs who have had a successful miracle-filled career, would have predicted peaceful and prosperous days ahead as far as the eye can see.

First of all, they would have believed it themselves. The seduction of happy times is always to imagine that they are the beginning of more happy times, ad infinitum. The Messiah, no less than his disciples, would have been swept up into the heady fantasy that his popular triumph would issue in a swift mop-up of all evil. Had he not "disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame" (Colossians 2:15)?

Furthermore, if you're the Messiah, why not tell the people that good times are on the horizon? They've seen the healings and exorcisms. Who could prove you wrong? It's non-disprovable. By the time the future arrives, you're outahere. Or, if things do start unraveling while you're still in town, you can always get on TV and say it was due to "unforeseen events" or "forces outside our control."