Why did Israel reject Jesus as their Messiah?
Israel rejected Jesus because they could not understand that He was the promised Messiah. They saw Him as merely a carpenter's son from Nazareth and did not recognize His miracles as validating who He was. Their expectations could not reconcile the promised Messiah with such a humble origin.
Les explains that when John the Baptist introduced Christ and His earthly ministry, everything was directed to the Jew. There was no mention of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection or the power of the shed blood to forgive; Israel was only to recognize who He was. Les illustrates this with a class discussion where a retired Presbyterian pastor said Jesus performed miracle after miracle “to validate who He was.” Les says that was the whole problem with Israel's rejecting Him: they couldn't understand that He was the promised Messiah. They asked, “A carpenter's son? Out of Nazareth?” Nathanael even said, “Has any good thing ever come out of Nazareth?”