Christ

I recently realised that I have stopped using the word “Christ”. The reason for this is that the word has no meaningful content in the modern world.

When people talk of Jesus Christ, the word is said as if “Christ” was a surname. When people call him “Christ, it is like the school teachers at the high school that I attended calling their students by their surname. “Stand up, Smith”.

Christ is not a surname. It is a transliteration of the Greek word “Christos”, which means anointed. Ascribing this word to Jesus was a way of saying that he was the “anointed one” that God had promised.

The Jews were looking for a promised Messiah. The Hebrew word was “Meshiach”, which means “anointed”. It refers to the anointing of a person who would be the saviour, rescuer of God’s people. The expected Messiah was often referred to as “Melekh Meshiach” which means the Messiah King.

The Greek Testament calls Jesus “Messias” and “Christos”.

The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ) (John 1:41).

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming: (John 4:25).

John makes it clear that Jesus was Christ and Messiah.

The reason for calling Jesus Christ is that it is a way of acknowledging him as the messiah/rescuer, but that does not work these days, when the word Christ has become expletive.

I refer to Jesus as Jesus, because most people still know who he is. If I want to express his role as the messiah, I would refer to him as Jesus the rescuer, or Jesus the Messiah, as these words better convey a sense of who he is and what he has done. I wonder if I should be referring to him more as “Jesus, the rescuing king”.