A co-worker of mine was campaigning for the belief in Jesus as the Messiah. I wasn’t sure what to say to him. How is it that Jesus can’t be the Messiah? Is there something concise that I could say to him?
Very briefly I would suggest that traditional Judaism has several tasks that the Messiah has to fulfill in order to be considered the Messiah (this is all based on Maimonides at the end of the Laws of Kings). The Messiah will build the Temple, destroy the nation of Amalek and bring all the Jews back to Israel. In addition Maimonides says that he must be pious and observant and learn Torah like King David in addition to spreading the word of Judaism throughout the world (although these last things only make him potentially the Messiah. Until he has completed the entire set he is not the Messiah). If the potential Messiah is killed or dies before completing these tasks we know for sure that he is not the Messiah.
It seems to me (and Maimonides ) that Jesus did none of the above. In fact, the opposite things have been done in his name. Jews have been persecuted, Torah learning and observance have been banned at different times under Christian rule, the Temple has not been rebuilt and the Jews have not returned to Israel.
In Jewish tradition there is no concept of returning from the dead to complete the tasks. If the Messiah does not succeed, (like Bar Kochba for example) we know that he is not the Messiah. However, even if you do want to concede the possibility of the Messiah having a second go at things, we have no evidence to think that it would be Jesus any more than hundreds, if not thousands, of other candidates.
Finally, since they would claim that we can’t know whether they are right or we are right, and since our basic argument is whether when the Messiah comes he will be here for the first time or the second, why don’t we wait and ask him when he shows up. In the mean time, since we are Jewish and have to keep the dictates of the Torah, we’ll keep doing what we do, and they’ll keep doing what they do.
Rabbi David Sedley
PS Here is a link to an english translation of the relevant sections of Maimonides. I think they speak for themselves.