Jesus' view on the Messiah

Through the Prophet Nathan, God promised David an eternal kingdom.
"... I will establish his throne forever." (2 Samuel 7:13)
God's promise never fails. But in reality, Israel was conquered by Assyrians and Judah Babylonians. When the Jews returned from the Babylonian Exile, they pondered on how God's promise would fulfill. Thus, they developed a Messianic expectation. God would raise a Messiah from the line of David to restore the kingdom of David. This Messianic kingdom would last forever. Since the Babylonian Exile, Judah only managed to achieve a brief independence for a brief period of less than a century when the Greek Empire fell into in-fighting. Then the Romans appeared and colonized Judah once more in 63 B.C. It was during this Roman colonization time that Jesus was born.

Under the Roman rule, self proclaimed Messiahs arose to lead the Jews to fight for independence. For example, Theudas and then Judas the Galilean. They rose and were crushed (Acts 5:36-37). The same uprisings repeated in 70 A.D. and 132 A.D. From these events, we could understand that during the Roman rule, Jews expected the Messiah to be a military leader to liberate them. Jesus refused to be cast a military Messiah. So, today we read of Jesus' answer to the Baptist's question: Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another? (Matthew 11:3)
Here is Jesus' reply.
And Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see:
the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them." (Matthew 11:4-5)
Jesus the long awaited Messiah came to liberate the lowly and afflicted. He did not come to restore the kingdom of Israel. Instead, he came to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. God, not the rulers of the earth, stands up for the blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf, the dead and the poor etc. So, these are the people whom God wants to gather into His Kingdom.

What Jesus has started, he delegates to his Church to continue his mission. Jesus taught. The Church continues to teach. Jesus sanctified. The Church continues to sanctify. Jesus acted. The Church continues to act in Jesus' manner. Jesus was political. Therefore the Church cannot be apolitical. How could Jesus be apolitical when it came to the allocation of resources? He needed to recover what was due the exploited and the outcasts. The Church needs to continue Jesus' mission to stand up for the exploited and the poor to recover what is due them. No wonder Jesus is deemed a revolutionary by some. The Church cannot avoid to be revolutionary when the situation demands. When the society is structured in such a way as to discriminate and marginalize the disadvantaged, the Church must act to deconstruct the injustice to make the world a better place for all, including the rich and the poor, the powerful and the lowly to live in. Jesus is meek and mild. So must the Church be. She is to fight injustice in a meek and mild way. How do you fight a powerful injustice with a meek and mild force? Here lies the paradox and demands prudence.

Dear Lord, the HKSAR government has started consultation on universal suffrage. I pray that we may contribute to make this initiative a success, to bring about a society with more justice. Amen.