Reading The Bible With Rabbi Jesus By Lois TverbergSample

Day Four: God's Chosen King

Over and over I discovered that when I read the Bible through the eyes of a first-century listener, the earth-shattering ideas I found in the New Testament had deep and winding roots in the ancient soil of the Scriptures that Jesus read. 

For example, consider that the most prominent idea within the title “Christ” is that of a king. In simple terms, we could say that “Jesus Christ” means, “Jesus, God’s chosen King.”

Some of us may resist the idea of kingship. Living in a safe society, we can’t relate to this widespread longing for protection and justice. While we celebrate the tenets of democracy, many in the world long for a powerful and just ruler to protect them. As the Psalmist writes, “May he defend the cause of the poor of the people…. For he delivers the needy when he calls” (Psalm 72: 4, 12). 

Understanding that Christ is God’s chosen King also helps us understand the word gospel throughout the New Testament. Before I started digging deeper into the connection between the New Testament and the Old Testament, I knew that gospel meant “good news.” Like most, I assumed that the good news is that we have forgiveness of sins because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross.

But, in fact, the Greek word for gospel, euanggelion (literally, “good news”), in the New Testament also comes from terminology that was used in regards to kings and their dominions. When a new king was crowned, the euanggelion was the announcement that the monarch had taken the throne, that a new kingdom had taken power. 

Why is this called “good news”? Because an announcement of euanggelion was good news to the empire and its cheering citizens, even though enemies and dissidents would find it quite terrible. 

Strictly speaking, the gospel, the euanggelion, is simply that God had appointed Jesus as his chosen King. This was why Paul was utterly focused on preaching the “euanggelion of Christ” and spoke of himself as his “ambassador” to the Gentile world.

We see throughout the Old Testament—in the Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, all the way back to Genesis—these references to Christ as King that Paul and his listeners would have known. 

What do you think of when you think of the role of “king”? What influences your perception of kingship?