Do you know “Christ” is NOT a name for Jesus?
When the angel brings news of a virgin conceiving, He does not call the child Christ. However the child is subsequently called Christ.
“ And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
(Matthew 1:21)
And again,
“And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.”
(Matthew 1:16)
The name “Christ” is from the Greek rendering “Christos” which means “The anointed one”. This is the Jewish Idea of “Mashiach” or “Messiah”, somebody who was going to be anointed by God in order to bring liberation to the captives, as it is written,
“ The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound”
(Isaiah 61:1)
This interestingly is the very portion of scripture Jesus reads in the Synagogue in Luke 4:17–21 and announces has been fulfilled to His listening audience,
“And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
(Luke 4:21)
Mashiach is a title, not a name. Hence the high priest asked Jesus at his trial,
“Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”
(Mark 14:61)
And Peter says to Jesus,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
(Matthew 16:16)
And again,
“ Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
The woman at the well says to Jesus,
“The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
(John 4:25)
And Martha says to Jesus,
“…“Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
(John 11:27)
The Christ was thus an expectation of the Jews. The Old Testament had pointed and foreshadowed a stream of expectations that the Messiah would meet and some criteria that he was to fulfil. What exactly the Messiah was going to do however, tended to, as expected, mirror the current predicament the Jews found themselves and by the first century AD, the expectation was that the Messiah would save them from the Romans.
So Jesus is called (and at His trial also claimed to be) the Christ. How exactly does Jesus fit this description though? Stripping off all the political undertones and weight of expectation, we go back to what the term Mashiach means. It means “anointed”. In the Old Testament, there were three sets of people who had to be anointed to assume office. The first was the priest,
“So you shall put them on Aaron your brother and on his sons with him. You shall anoint them, consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister to Me as priests.”
(Exodus 28:41)
The second, was the king,
“Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head, and kissed him and said: “Is it not because the Lord has anointed you commander over His inheritance?”
(1 Samuel 10:1)
The third was the prophet,
“Then the Lord said to him: “Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place.”
(1 Kings 19:15–16)
So the Mashiach or the Christ had to be “anointed” to function in the office of prophet, king and priest. The Old Testament also bears witness to this in its prophecies regarding the Christ,
To the effect the Christ will be a prophet, God says through Moses,
“And the Lord said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.”
(Deuteronomy 18:17–19)
Jesus’ audience held Him to be a prophet,
“ Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.”
(Luke 7:16)
And again, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus said,
“The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people”
(Luke 24:19)
I have already written extensively on Jesus fulfilling this prophecy elsewhere so would not bother to rehash it here. You can check out my article “Who is the prophet of Deuteronomy 18?” for a fuller discourse on this.
We move to the second office, the Christ as king, God promises David,
“When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.”
(2 Samuel 7:12–16)
And again Micah tells us the exact location this king would be born,
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting.”
(Micah 5:2)
God promises David a king that would come through his loins and establish his throne forever. The gospel of Matthew was written to show how Jesus is the promised king. His star prompted the wise men to ask,
“saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
(Matthew 2:2)
Jesus demonstrated kingship over demons by casting them out with His word,
“When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word…”
(Matthew 8:16)
Remember,
“Where the word of a king is, there is power;
And who may say to him, “What are you doing?”
(Ecclesiastes 8:4)
Jesus Himself did also say He is a king, the twist however is that contrary to the expectation of the Jews, His kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. He says to Pilate,
“My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
(John 18:36)
There is a lot more that could be said both from Old Testament prophecy and New Testament fulfilment but suffice it to say for now that Jesus’ claim to kingship was not just talk, even demons recognized his authority when He spoke to them.
Now to the third office, priest. We go to brother Jerry for this one,
“For thus says the Lord: ‘David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; nor shall the priests, the Levites, lack a man to offer burnt offerings before Me, to kindle grain offerings, and to sacrifice continually.”
(Jeremiah 33:18)
And Zechariah tells us,
“Then speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying:
Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH!
From His place He shall branch out,
And He shall build the temple of the Lord;
Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord.
He shall bear the glory,
And shall sit and rule on His throne;
So He shall be a priest on His throne,
And the counsel of peace shall be between them both”
(Zechariah 6:12–13)
Immediately here, we see something here. This Christ is not an ordinary priest. He is a King-Priest. Jeremiah alludes to the fact that this Man will not just sit on the throne of David, He will also offer sacrifices on behalf of the Levitical priests as well! How does Christ fulfil this though?
Jesus Himself summarizes His mission thus,
“ …just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
(Matthew 20:28)
This language of “serving” calls to mind the suffering servant of Isaiah which is alluded to in a number of chapters most notably in 53. In particular, the suffering servant’s soul is made a sin offering,
“Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.”
(Isaiah 53:10–11)
This ransom or sin offering is for the justification of MANY or in the words of Jesus here, “a ransom for many”.
Jesus exegetes His mission from Old Testament scripture thus,
“…Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem”
(Luke 24:46–47)
The Christ (Mashiach) was to through his death and resurrection bring about the remission of sins. This is a priestly function according to the Torah. It was the priest you went to see with your sacrifice when you sinned and it was the High Priest who once every year on the day of atonement offered sacrifice that covered the people for a year.
The book of Hebrews does a deep dive into the theology around the King-Priestly function of Jesus. In that book, He is also said to be a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Remember the description of Melchizedek we get in Genesis 14?
“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High.”
(Genesis 14:18)
Melchizedek is a King and also a priest. This was a foreshadowing of the Messiah or the Christ.
Now what is the significance of this?
CHRISTIANITY, not Jesusianity. So even the very name of the faith co-opts this very Jewish flavour of a Christ or a Messiah. We who believe in Christ have come into a very Jewish faith, did Jesus Himself not say,
“You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.”
(John 4:22)
So in order to really know and understand the scripture and our faith, we need to recognize the things we read in scripture cannot be divorced from Jewish culture. This means we as Christians really need to have a working knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures. These scriptures built up the expectation of the Christ and Jesus Himself proved He was the Christ with reference to Old Testament scriptures, so how can Christians really understand and have a solid grasp of their faith without wrestling with the Old Testament?
Secondly, it just shows that nobody can really call themselves Christian and hate Jews. “Christ” is literally a Jewish concept. Remember Christianity started out as a very fringe and weird offshoot of Judaism! We as Christians owe the Jews our very faith so Neo-Nazis and Anti-Semites spreading all sorts of conspiracy theories and using the Bible to whip up hatred against Jews just show they do not understand one word of what they read in scripture.
There is a reason all of scripture seems to fit nicely and perfectly in the context of Jesus. This is because all of scripture is about Jesus, every single word of it.
“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.”
(John 5:39)
