Image via Wikipedia
Nowadays when we refer to Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter’s son, as ‘Jesus Christ’ we know exactly who we’re talking about. But I was wondering the other day if we actually realise how significant that title is.
I mean, I know that most Christians recognise the title ‘Christ’ as not being Jesus’ actual name, and that it means the same as the Hebrew title ‘Messiah’, and that it means ‘the Anointed One’, and that Jesus fulfilled all the messianic prophecies, blah blah blah, but just think about it.
The Jews today are still waiting for Messiah to come, much in the same way that the Jews in Jesus’ time were waiting for him. Back then they’d been waiting for a couple of thousand years too. Then this guy showed up, and literally within a generation there were thousands and thousands of people who claimed that this guy from Nazareth was the Messiah. Mental.
If you’re not too sure, just imagine Acts 2 happening today: 3,000 Jews all in one day put their hands up and said, ‘Yep, this Jesus guy is the Messiah we’ve been waiting for!’
All at a time thousands of years before trains, telephones, or Twitter.
Do we actually realise how significant this is? Imagine if tomorrow’s newspapers reported 3,000 Jews all at once saying that they were remaining orthodox Jews but that God had been born a man and had fulfilled all the Messianic prophecies.
Jesus was far more extraordinary than we give him credit for.
It makes casual profanity even worse: using the name of the one anointed to save us for a mild irritation.
Pingback: What we mean when we say ‘Christ’ | Thoughts of Sam Isaacson