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So we continue our discovery of Jesus' character through the book of John. Andrew had heard John the Baptist talking about Jesus, and had decided to follow him. He is identified as the 'first evangelist' by many through this verse, John 1:41. 'He [Andrew] first found his own brother Simon [who would be called Peter] and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).'

Now it would, I am sure, be very easy for us to dwell on this verse in terms of being stirred evangelistically, but that is not what we will be looking at today. However life-changing and therefore important preaching the gospel is, I am interested more in the words Andrew used. He describes Jesus as 'the Messiah', which John helpfully translates for us as 'the Christ'...but what does 'Christ' mean?

Simple answer - Christ is the Greek word for the Hebrew word Messiah. So the real question is: 'what does Messiah mean?'

Anointed

The answer in one word is 'anointed'. Unfortunately, our Bibles are not so easy to understand because they were originally written in several languages, and none of them were English, which means that a search on the word 'Messiah' will give two answers, both in the book of John (the other is in John 4, quoted from the Samaritan woman at the well). The word 'anointed', however, gives us over a hundred answers, because that is what Messiah actually means in English and so is translated as such in our Bibles today. So the real question is: 'what does anointed mean?'

There are so many examples we could look at but today we will focus on three Old Testament examples.

Priest (Leviticus)

The book of Leviticus overwhelmingly uses the word anointed to describe the condition of the Priest. We can therefore learn from this that Jesus takes on that role - see the book of Hebrews for more detail of Jesus as 'our great High Priest' but essentially it is of utmost importance to recognise the roles that the Priests in the Old Testament had. Offerings atoning for sin would be slaughtered by the Priests, who would perform the ritual ceremonies and sacrifices. In the same way, Jesus took our sin upon himself when he died (2 Corinthians 5:21).

In addition the Priests were the only ones who could enter the holy of holies, the most intimate part of the Old Testament temple, in which God's presence dwelt. Jesus' role as Messiah is to be our Mediator - to represent us before the Father and bridge the gap, reconciling us back to God.

King (1 Samuel 10)

1 Samuel 10 is a record of David's anointing as King, and I am sure that the connotations of Jesus claiming to be Messiah would not be missed by the Jewish population at the time. In fact, many times Jesus is called upon as 'Son of David' (e.g. Luke 18:38). The characteristics of a king need not be unnecessarilly embellished here, but the respect, power and honour that a king commands, the privilege of being offered entry into his presence and what that means for us as sons and daughters of the King must carry enormous weight for our lives or else we will lose sight of who Jesus really is!

Us (Psalm 84)

The third use of the word 'anointed' I would like to look at is the use describing Christians! Psalm 84:9-10 declare: 'Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed! For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.' God has poured out His anointing on us, which means that Christ, in becoming flesh (John 1:14) identified with us and has brought us to a place where we 'might become the righteousness of God' (2 Corinthians 5:21)! Us as 'the anointed' means that we too have the responsibility of priests, and kings - we are a 'royal priesthood' (1 Peter 2:9)!

So the challenge for us is to recognise what Jesus as Messiah means, and worship him as only he deserves, and recognise the responsibility we have in sharing, although to a lesser extent, in that anointing. God is so gracious to bless us with this amazing privilege!

"Refreshment in Refuge" from Gina Burgess

What's to be thankful for in this?