Why is the Resurrection of Jesus So Important to Christians?
In a discussion/debate between William Lane Craig and Ben Shapiro about the resurrection of Jesus, Craig provided what seemed like startlingly solid and rational evidence supporting the belief that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. What Christians understand and perhaps Orthodox Jews don’t appreciate, is that the whole of the Christian claims to Jesus’ Divinity, and therefore the validity and binding nature of his words, are hinged upon whether he was actually raised from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion (See 30:50 – 32:42 in the video below).
The obvious question to Craig is as to why God would conceive of sending the Messiah according to a previously completely unheard of set of qualifications. This is made truer given that His primary interest is to be accepted by humanity, as it says in Zechariah 14:9, "And the Lord shall become King over all the earth; on that day shall the Lord be one, and His name one." The whole purpose of the Tanakh’s Messianic prophecies is to make it absolutely clear when he arrives. If true, more plausible is that the Church retroactively sought to fit a failed Messianic candidate into the existing prophecies.
This comes at both a price and a benefit. The price paid for such attempts is the potential stripping away of any sense of meaningfulness in not only the concept of a Messiah, but of God's unchanging nature. The benefit is, as the Rambam (Maimonides) teaches, that such developments prepare the world population for the coming of the real Messiah, a concept that had been previously unknown to them.
We may allow ourselves to imagine what it may look like in that auspicious time. We may visualize great thinkers whose hearts are after God's own, such as Craig, affirming that their expectation of Messianic redemption through Jesus allowed them to accept genuine redemption when it finally occurred.
More importantly, any supernatural occurrence taken as proof of Messianic authority must be scrutinized against the Torah's Messianic expectations. If a supernatural event occurred, regardless of how impressive or inspiring the event was, it cannot be considered as authenticating one as the Messiah if it fails to fulfill Messianic expectations. This is true whether one claimed to be the Messiah doesn't fulfill all said prophecies, or fulfills others that are not included in the set of requirements. It seems that Christians seem to be losing focus of the fact that the Messianic prophecies came right out of God's mouth. If so, then there is no room for attaching extra contributions or justifying missing requirements. For instance, and this speaks directly to the point at hand, the resurrection of Jesus is necessary only because he died.
Why Do Jews Reject Jesus as the Messiah?
The answer is that, as Christians accede, the Jews of Jesus’ day had ample and sufficient reasons to doubt the veracity of his claims. If they were indeed using their Tanakh-based expectations by which to judge the veracity of Jesus’ claims, then it is at least understandable why they would have rejected him. The main set of reasons for which Jews rejected the Messiahship of Jesus has to do to with the Tanakh’s prophecies that describe the changes that would occur in the natural order of the world as a result of the coming of the Messiah. When Jesus was born, lived, and died without the occurrence of these changes, the Jews concluded that Jesus could not have been the Messiah despite his charismatic nature and often cutting criticism of injustices.
The Torah Says to Reject Soothsayers and Miracle-Workers
However, there is good reason for Orthodox Jews to dismiss the appeal to the resurrection of Jesus.
That reason is one which is firmly entrenched in the heart and soul of the Torah, which means that were one to demonstrate so, that Christians would as well have to grapple with the possibility that Orthodox Jews are not unfounded in dismissing the resurrection.
The main reason is based on pivotal narratives found in the Tanakh of which Christians are, for the most part, intimately aware. By the Word of God Himself, the production of miracles is never to be taken as proof for a person’s having been sent by God. Case-in-point, during the Exodus narrative, the Egyptian sorcerers duplicated the first and second plagues that God performed in front of their eyes. They were able to do so through incantations and summoning the dark spiritual forces that made up the basis of their polytheistic religion.
“And the fish that were in the Nile died, and the Nile became putrid; the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile, and there was blood throughout the entire land of Egypt. And the necromancers of Egypt did likewise with their secret rites, and Pharaoh's heart was steadfast, and he did not heed them, as the Lord had spoken.” (Exodus 7:21-22)
“And Aaron stretched forth his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. And the necromancers did likewise with their secret rites, and they brought up the frogs on the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 8:2-3)
In addition to this contextual example of the uselessness of miracles in demonstrating authenticity, God utters a stark warning against believing and following Jewish prophets capable of producing miracles:
“Everything I command you that you shall be careful to do it. You shall neither add to it, nor subtract from it. If there will arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of a dream, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder of which he spoke to you happens, [and he] says, 'Let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us worship them,' you shall not heed the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of a dream; for the Lord, your God, is testing you, to know whether you really love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow the Lord, your God, fear Him, keep His commandments, heed His voice, worship Him, and cleave to Him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of a dream shall be put to death; because he spoke falsehood about the Lord, your God Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and Who redeemed you from the house of bondage, to lead you astray from the way in which the Lord, your God, commanded you to go; so shall you clear away the evil from your midst.'”. (Deuteronomy 13:1-6)
Conclusion
What is perhaps more important to highlight than what has been said above is that Messianic expectations in the Tanakh never describe the Messiah according to the depiction of Jesus in the Christian Bible. The events surrounding Jesus are deeply associated with performing miracles, healing people, and removing unclean spirits (i.e., exorcising people). While miracles will absolutely accompany the coming of the Messiah, it seems clear from the prophetic promises that God will perform them and that the Messiah will be a passive observer. See minutes 10:55-12:27 in the video by Rabbi Tovia Singer below:
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