18) Were there Old Testament tools that helped Christians deal with Jesus' death?

Since we have entered into Holy Week it is an opportune time to take you back in time to the days of the first generation of Christians and the ways they made sense of the death of Jesus. St Paul in the letter to the Corinthians expressed succinctly the enormous challenge they faced: " For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles " 1 Cor. 1:22-23. Jesus' brutal death was seen as a punishment by Rome for a failed attempt to set up an alternate ruler to the Emperor. Jesus was killed under the charge of sedition. While that may not have been a problem for those Jewish circles that opposed Roman rule, such as the Zealots and Essenes, it was a problem for the ruling elite made up of the Herodians and the Sadducees. Jesus, and those who followed him, were naturally seen to be subversive and viewed with suspicion. 

One resource that lay readily at hand from the Old Testament was that of the suffering of the righteous a theme often explored in the Old Testament, particularly in the Wisdom literature and the martyr tradition that developed in the inter-testamental period.

Psa. 94:21 They band together against the life of the righteous,
and condemn the innocent to death. 
Psa. 37:32   The wicked watch for the righteous,
and seek to kill them. 

Wis. 2:12 “Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,
because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;
he reproaches us for sins against the law"

Wis. 3:5 -6 Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good,
because God tested them and found them worthy of himself; 
 like gold in the furnace he tried them,
and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them. 

This rich tradition helps us to understand that when Jesus dies in Luke 23:47 the centurion will not declare Jesus to be the Son of God, as in Mark 15:39, but one who is just and innocent. In this Luke refers to the well developed tradition of the suffering and vindication of the righteous.

We are all used to the moving and powerful text from Isa 52:13-53:12 that has shaped the imagination of countless Christians over the centuries that speaks of the mysterious figure called the suffering servant who carries the burdens of others. Matthew makes use of this figure to unpack the meaning of the ministry and the death of Jesus as having a saving power for others “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases” Matt 8:17. 

The Passover also provides a rich background in which early Christians could see the death of Jesus, particularly with Jesus identifying his sacrifice of self  in Matt 26:28 as a new covenant in his blood that is poured out for the forgiveness of sins. The death of Jesus is then a means used to bring humanity into right relationship with God. Both Mark 10:45 and Matt 20:28 preserve the saying of  Jesus as the Son of Man who comes to give his life as a ransom for others.

It was only to be expected that Jewish Christians would delve deep into their own tradition to provide a frame of reference in which the death of Jesus could be appreciated, and its deeper meaning in God's saving plan be understood and then communicated to others. Their creative re-reading of their own tradition provided them with a means to convey their profound belief that the death of Jesus was no accident, on either God's part or by Jesus himself. As Gal 2:20 expresses it "the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."