Jesus' Messianic Claim - The Cut Off

Daniel 9:26 "And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself..."

Zechariah 12:10 "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they have pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn."

Not For Himself...

The Messiah was destined to die. This was the whole purpose of His life. The Old Testament is very clear on this; He came to bear our sin. He was cut off, but not for Himself.

This was the great mystery of the messianic prophecies:

On the one hand, He was prophesied to be a king that would reign on David's throne forever.

On the other hand, He was prophesied to be a sacrifice that would make many righteous by His death.

(This dilema is only solved when you consider the Messiah's first coming as a Savior, and His second coming as the King.)

Perhaps the clearest Old Testament proclamation of the Gospel can be read in Isaiah 53:3-8. Let these words sink into your heart...this is what the Messiah did for you.

   "He [the Messiah] is despised and rejected by men,

   A Man of sorrows and aquainted with grief.

   And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;

   He was despised and we did not esteem Him.

   Surely He has borne our griefs

   And carried our sorrows;

   Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

   Smitten by God, and afflicted.

   But He was wounded for our transgressions,

   He was bruised for our iniquities;

   The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

   And by His stripes we are healed.

   All we like sheep have gone astray;

   We have turned, every one, to his own way;

   And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

   He was oppressed and He was afflicted,

   Yet He opened not His mouth;

   He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,

   And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

   So He opened not His mouth.

   He was taken from prison and from judgment,

   And who will declare His generation?

   For He was cut off from the land of the living;

   For the transgressions of My people He was stricken."

It's amazing to think that Isaiah wrote this passage hundreds of years before Jesus fulfilled it in His death.

A Sacrifice Fulfilled In Detail

Not only did the Old Testament prophets declare that the Messiah would die, bearing the sins of the world...but they were also very specific about the way that He would die. Here's a list of prophecies that the Messiah had to fulfill in His death. As you read these, keep this in mind; the fulfillment of all of these prophecies would have been outside of Jesus' control (naturally-speaking) during His crucifixion.

He would be betrayed by a friend.

Psalm 41:9 "Even My own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate My bread, has lifted up his heel against Me."

Of course, we know this prophecy was fulfilled in Judas, one of Jesus' own friends.

He wouldn't respond to His accusers.

Isaiah 53:7 "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth."

Matthew 26:62-63 "And the high priest arose and said to Him, 'Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?' But Jesus kept silent."

He was to be lifted up like the bronze serpent.

Numbers 21:9 "So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived."

John 3:14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up."

Thousands of years before the Roman Empire existed, God prophesied that His salvation was going to be hung on a tree...crucified.

He was to be pierced through the hands and feet.

Psalm 22:16 "My enemies surrounded me like a pack of dogs; and evil gang closes in on Me. They have pierced my hands and feet."

This is now a well-known fact of crucifixion. The Romans would literally nail their victims to the cross. But when David spoke in Psalm 22, the Roman empire didn't even exist.

He would be considered a criminal

Isaiah 53:12 "...because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors..."

Mark 15:27 "With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left."

Did you ever stop to think about the sacrifice this was? Jesus, the sinless and spotless Messiah, was executed like a criminal. People walking by this crucifixion would've shook their head at these three criminals, dying for their crimes...

He would be mocked with very specific words.

Psalm 22:7-8 "All those who see Me ridicule Me; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying 'He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!'"

Matthew 27:39-43 "And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads...Likewise the chief priests...said, 'He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said "I am the Son of God."'"

I wonder if these "experts of the Scriptures" realized that they were directly quoting the prophets as they mocked their Messiah?

Not one of His bones were broken.

Psalm 34:20 "He guards all his bones; not one of them is broken."

John 19:32-33 "Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs."

He would be given gall and vinegar to drink.

Psalm 69:21 "They also gave Me gall for My food, and for My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink."

Matthew 27:34 "...they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink."

His attackers would divide His clothes and gamble for them.

Psalm 22:18 "They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots."

Mark 15:24 "And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take."

He was buried in a rich man's grave.

Isaiah 53:9 "And they made His grave with the wicked - but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.

John 19:38 "After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus."

Joseph, a rich council member and a ruler in Israel, buried Jesus in his own tomb.

None of these could've been faked, because this was the most closely-watched crucifixion in Israel. None of this could've been done to give Jesus more of a claim to the Messianic throne, because this execution was under the control of the Roman government.

No, there is only one explanation...these prophets clearly saw the day Jesus was crucified!

Three Days Later

The Messiah's death on the cross and His burial in a rich man's tomb was in direct fulfillment of prophecy. As powerful as these details of His death are, they were sealed by the fulfillment of one more passage:

Psalm 16:9-10 "Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol [the grave], nor will you allow Your Holy One to see corruption [decay]". 

According to the Scriptures, the Messiah would die for the sins of His people...but He would not stay dead! He would not remain in the grave, and His body wouldn't see decay. Glory to God! The Messiah would rise again!

On the third day, early in the morning, the earth began to shake. The heavy stone in front of Joseph's tomb was rolled away by an angel. And then Jesus, the resurrected Messiah, walked right out of the grave, exactly as the Scriptures foretold!

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that the Messiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures..."

We serve a living Messiah, Who died for our sins and then rose again!