Why do you think not all the Jews accepted our lord as the messiah? Was it because he didn’t observe the sabbath or did he speak against Moses and things the Jews believed in?
There are a lot of reasons, one of the big ones is that Jesus didn't exactly fit the messianic expectations of the time. People were looking for--and wanting--a great warrior messiah that would drive out the foreign occupiers (the Romans), reclaim the crown of Israel as the son of David, and unite all the Jewish people from all the tribes of Israel scattered throughout the world and bring them all together to Israel.
In the 1st century there were several self-claimed messiahs. In fact when our Lord was still a child a man by the name of Judas, also from Galilee, rose up and led a Jewish uprising against the Roman occupation--and he was proclaimed the messiah. The uprising failed, Judas and his followers were killed. Another messianic uprising happened yet again later on, under Theudas, several decades later. Both men and there movements are mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, as well as other historical sources.
In the Gospel accounts themselves, we frequently see that people, and Jesus' own followers, are consistently wondering when Jesus is going to announce Himself the Messiah and take back Israel away from the Romans. No doubt, on that Palm Sunday, when the Lord came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, and the crowds laid down palm leaves and sang "Hosanna to the Son of David!" many thought this was it, this is when Jesus is finally going to make His strike against Rome.
So when Jesus was arrested, betrayed by the kiss of a close friend, and then condemned by both Sanhedrin and then made to suffer under Pontius Pilate, who put Him to death by crucifixion--the result was a startling shocking horror to Jesus' followers. As Jesus said, strike the Shepherd and the sheep scatter--we are told only the women, including the Lord's mother, as well as one male disciple (usually believed to be John).
So think about this from the perspective of Jews living in the first century: Someone going around teaching, supposedly performing miracles, with people whispering rumors about "the Messiah" somewhere out there in the Judean desert was not uncommon. A single generation of Jewish people experienced a number of messianic movements and messianic claimants.
If you're a first century Jewish person and you hear about yet another self-proclaimed messiah being put to death by Pontius Pilate, well that's just par for the course. And people going around saying this Jesus, though crucified, was raised on the third day? Well that sounded just as crazy two thousand years ago as it does today. People don't just stop being dead. For first century Jews a crucified messiah is no messiah at all.
It's why St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1 that the Cross is a "stumbling block" for the Jews, and "foolishness" for the Greeks. Jews want signs, Greeks want wisdom; but God chose the weak and foolish things in order to confound the strong and the wise.
To confess that the Jesus who died, rose again, and is the Lord and King Messiah, and indeed the very Son of God--well that's not something people can arrive at by reason, or signs, or proofs. But only by faith.
Faith which comes, Paul says in Romans 10:17, by the hearing of the Gospel.
-CryptoLutheran
