“Look! This one is laid for the fall and the rising again of many in Israel and for a sign to be talked against

(Luke 2:34, 35) Yes, the appearance of Messiah would affect his own people in radically different ways.

As had been pointed to earlier in prophecy, there would be many who would stumble over him, remaining unrepentant and unbelieving. The prophet Isaiah recorded these words: “He must become . . . as a stone to strike against and as a rock over which to stumble to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and as a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them will be certain to stumble and to fall and be broken, and to be snared and caught.” (Isa. 8:14, 15) To unbelievers, Jesus would be as a “sign” or object of contempt, someone to revile and reproach. Others, however, by putting faith in him were to be ‘lifted up’ from a state of being dead in trespasses and sins, to enjoy a righteous standing with God.