Did Jesus Have a Resume?

Every professional person who ever has applied for a job needs a resume with references , academic achievements and credentials as well as experience in their particular field of endeavor.  So does Jesus have a resume and why would He need one?  Although He never admitted to being the Messiah directly, everything He did…..the miracles, the healings as well as the words He spoke…. gave Him the authority of God.  We, living in the 21^st century have access to the whole of Scripture.  We can reference and cross reference and  search out the fulfillment of God’s plan for humankind.

Those living in the time of the Lord needed references also. Many men claimed to be the Promised One but they failed to bring about the promise of peace to world, destroying evil and restoring wholeness to the land.  The Romans were still there occupying Israel, which was all part of God’s promise to Abraham.

Many of the early rabbis were unable to accept Jesus. First of all, He had never been to rabbinic school. He didn’t come from a prominent family and in fact was a Galilean not born in Jerusalem.  Worse still, Jesus was by all accounts a mamzer, a child born out of wedlock. This would be blight on his family for ten generations!  It didn’t matter that Isaiah had predicted that a virgin would conceive a child who would be named “God with us” (Immanuel). Virgin birth was rather a pagan concept also and only the stuff of legends and myths about demigods.

Jesus, however, did have a resume. His resume was actually God-given to those early  prophets, and kings.  Jesus said that “The Father who sent me. has testified of me…the works that my Father has given me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about me, that the Father has sent me.” (John 5:36-38).  He told the scribes…. “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; yet it is these that testify of me.” (John 5:39).

It was for this reason that when the disciples of John the Baptizer came to Jesus asking. “Are you the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” Jesus responded by saying, “Go and report to John what you see and hear…. the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. (Matt. 11:4-5).  For John the words were clear.  Jesus was appealing to the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1 to validate his mission.

In Luke (4:18-21) when Jesus is first starting His mission, He reads from Isaiah (61:1)…”The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted: He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.”  The Messianic Resume inscribed in the Hebrew Scriptures……..the Torah, the Prophets and the Sacred Writings…….was the same text that Jesus used to teach the Emmaus Road disciples the truth about himself. (Luke 24:13-27).

The “who, what, where and why” of Jesus’ resume is found solely in the pages of the Holy Scriptures. That is why He taught the words of God with all authority! Even the less educated could understand His parables and relate them to God’s Torah…..how to treat others, how to live according to God’s divine plan for man’s life, how to be a people that are pleasing to God.

No, the Romans still occupied the land, peace and goodwill were elusive and man’s dream of the great “Shalom” had not come…….but something greater was happening.  The cross and resurrection would prove that Jesus had indeed, defeated the forces of sin and death.  A New Age was beginning and will culminate in His return and all the forces of evil will be defeated.  There will be peace on earth and goodwill for all men.

Daniel, one of the greatest prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures predicted, ‘Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms will under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominion will serve and obey Him.  This is the end of the matter” (Daniel 7:27-28)

The credentials of the Master were, impeccable. Those who believe upon Him, as the Scriptures have said, will be blessed of God, receive the gift of Ruach HaKodesh, ( The Holy Spirit) and will be included in God’s everlasting kingdom! How great is that!!