We and Israel needed a better deliverer than Samson. We needed a saviour who would do what was right in God’s eyes. We needed a saviour who chose us not for our beauty. Jesus Christ chose for himself a bride who was unholy, very ugly to the eye. A bride full of sin, disease, rebellion, death!

But, Jesus of Nazareth? We like to come down very hard on the Jews of his day for their unbelief. But is their unbelief so surprising, when we break down his life into isolated events and circumstances? We have the bigger picture, like we do in Judges 14; the Jews didn’t. Salvation coming from a baby in a manger? From someone who was nothing special to look at? Someone from Nazareth? Salvation to come from someone whose closest friends don’t even get it? Salvation from a crucified one? Is it really so surprising to us that it is only after Christ’s resurrection that people finally really get it, (John 2:22), that he really is the Saviour set apart by God for delivering God’s people, that everything he did in his life finally made sense?

This is the Saviour we need. He came not because God was looking for a way to initiate conflict with the enemy. He came to decisively crush the enemy. He shed truly innocent blood—his own—so that he could clothe his friends not with stolen garments but with robes of righteousness. He has given us life! This is God’s great love revealed in the clearest way.