Anointed? For What?

Congregation,

          Only a few more weeks until Christmas.  We lit the third advent candle today.  As we go through, lighting all the different candles, I hope you can think about what we have heard through God’s word in each of the services of Advent.  This season we are paying special attention to getting back to the basics of who this Jesus really was.  Who is this baby in the manger that has created such a fuss in billions of peoples lives for two thousand years?

          The first week of advent we talked about how Jesus use the terms I AM when talking about himself.  He is alluding to the fact that he is the fullness of God.  And the other part of that mystery is that Jesus isn’t just a god who looked human.  He is God and Human.  He was the Son of Man.  God-man.  Its what Christ claimed to be.  It’s the message that the Bible gives us him.  It is impossible to understand completely, but that is the difficult to understand baby in the manger. 

          As if this isn’t enough to think about and be amazed at throughout the all of advent and even wrestle with for our whole lives, Jesus Christ is so much more than just a God-Man on earth.  Don’t let him be your mascot, let him be your God and brother.

          Across the board, most people believe in Jesus.  I have been told more than once by a person I have been talking to that they know Jesus, they believe in Jesus, but there is no way they could believe in the Jesus of the Bible or that we teach in the church.  My first reaction to that sort of comment is, wait a second.  You believe in Jesus, but not the one that was written about in the Bible?  How could you ever get to know Jesus without the Bible. 

          But, in some ways, what these people say hits on what we all deal with in our life of faith.  We believe in Jesus, but because we can’t always grasp the depth of Jesus, we default into the simplified Jesus of Sunday school felt boards, and melodramatic movies and programs about Jesus.  We default into some easier, more comfortable Jesus.

          One example of a way that we default into a simpler Jesus is when we call him Christ.

          What is Jesus’ last name?  Some of us might naturally say his last name is Christ. Would a telemarketer call Jesus’ phone number.  Hello is Mr. Geezoos Cherist there?  Jesus Christ.  The one just follows right after the other.  Of course, Jesus didn’t have a last name.  His name is just Jesus.  The Christ part is more about what he was doing when he came to earth for us.  His name isn’t Christ, he is the Christ.

          We can’t be too critical of this.  We started calling Jesus, Christ for good reasons.  The best reason is that in the new testament Paul, Peter and John started just using the name Christ, not the Christ, or Jesus Christ.  Christ.

          But if we are really getting back to the basics of who Jesus is as we wait for his coming, don’t you think we should have some idea what we mean when we say Christ?

          We really shouldn’t be clueless about one of the most basic things we call our savior should we?

          So where do we start?  Well we can’t understand what Christ means without realizing, its not an English word.  It’s a Greek word.  And it means. . .  well, actually Christ isn’t the most important word to know the meaning of.  The word Christ was used by greek Christians to replace a word that they used to use in the Old Testament, when God’s people spoke Hebrew instead.  You will probably recognize that word.  It’s the word MESSIAH.  Meshiach.

          That’s the word that the lady actually uses in the passage in John 4.  If you have heard this passage preached on before, it probably was preached on the nature of worship.  Worship God in spirit and in truth.  But the passage is so much richer than that.  It gives us a glimpse into who Jesus really was, what he was going to be doing in his ministry on earth.  And most importantly of all, it tells us something that should make a lasting impression on our relationship with Christ, and our celebration of that little baby coming on Christmas.

          John 4:19-20.  The woman sees there is something special about Jesus.  First of all, he is speaking to a Samaratian.  That’s a big, no no as far as the Jews in Jesus’ day.  And Jesus is speaking to a woman.  The legalism of the day would have said that was pretty close to sleeping with her and she could be guilty of breaking their marriage covenant.  There is something different to Jesus.  His mission in the world is so different from any other person who was considered a good teacher.  He speaks with the lowest of the low.  A Samaritan Woman.

          But what he says astounds her also.  Maybe part of the reason he isn’t afraid of her being is because he doesn’t need for her to tell her life story to him.  He knows that she has had five husbands and is with a guy she isn’t married to.  She doesn’t care about the marriage covenant anyway.

          Since Jesus recognizes this she says, “19“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

          He can see what is going on without ever being told.  That sounds like a prophet, or the Son of God.  Whatever you think.

          Then after Jesus tells her more she says this in verse 25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

          She sees in this crazy man Jesus, that will break all these customs and rules and say that Jerusalem isn’t going the greatest place on earth to worship.  She see that he is something like she has heard about from the pastor at her church.  Actually what has been talked about by the priest in the synagogue and on the streets.  They are waiting for a person called the Messiah. 

          You have to just love Jesus’ answer.  If you remember a couple of weeks ago, Christ got into this habit of saying, I am, using the name of God, I am.  Well Christ’s response to the woman say this in our translation of the Bible.  “26Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”

          But a better translation is in the New Living Translation.  26Then Jesus told her, “I Am the Messiah!”  Again he says I AM.  He is God.  And now he says, He is the Messiah.

          But that still doesn’t tell us anything.  Who cares that Jesus is called the Christ.  And that means messiah.  What is the big deal?

          Well you can tell it’s a big deal to the woman in the passage.  Look at verse 28 28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

          Have you ever had it where you were busy working hard on something, then the phone rings.  You get some sort of news that makes you drop everything to tells someone else or send some emails or something.  You totally forget what you are doing.  This woman at the well has that.  What do you do at a well?  You get water.  It says the woman left the jar beside the well and ran back to the village to tell everyone.

          Could this be the Messiah?

          Well, what is a messiah?  Obviously from this ladies reaction, since Jesus is the Messiah, it is the biggest news she has heard in a while.  Its life giving news to her.  She runs off with out the jar of water.  Who cares about physical water, when you have the Messiah offering living water?

          The reason she is so excited is because the people in Jesus’ day had been expecting a messiah for hundreds of years.  God promised he would send his anointed one.  That’s what Messiah and Christ mean.  They mean anointed one.

          But its not that they are anointed that is important.  Its what the anointed one is anointed for that makes all the difference.  What is the Christ, the Messiah going to be doing since he is anointed?

          Let’s look at what the Old Testament says should be expected of the anointed one.  Anointing from early on in Exodus is all about giving a special blessing to.  The priests, and kings were anointed.  Even the altar that they used for offerings to God was anointed.  Anointed means dedicated to the service and praise of God.

          But there has to be more too it, don’t you think?  This Samaritan woman wouldn’t go crazy just because she met an anointed prophet, would she?

          There’s a lot more to it.  They were waiting for a certain messiah.  A certain Christ, or anointed one.  Not just anyone.  This Christ would do things that no other ruler or prophet had succeeded at doing before, and that is found in Isaiah 42.  1“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. 2He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. 3A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; 4he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope.”

          The whole point of Jesus being the Christ is that he is going to bring justice and rescue the broken and oppressed.

          The Jews thought they were oppressed.  They thought the Christ would come in and change their government.  They thought he would give the Jews power over the Romans again.

          But who did Jesus really come for?  Did he come for the people who have it all together?  Well yes… he is a savior to all.  But at the heart of his mission on the earth, it is to be a rescuer to the oppressed.  He is hope for the oppressed.

          So where does that leave us today?  Should it change anything in our faith or our life to know that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah?  You know the answer to that already.  Absolutely.  But perhaps, if Jesus is too much our mascot we haven’t made him the promised messiah.

          If we work to make Jesus the Messiah in our lives, he will take on a dimension for us that is way bigger than what we could have expected.  As God he is magnificent.  As true man, he is our brother in all suffering.

          If we except that Jesus is the Christ, don’t you think it might make us more pateint in waiting for the plan of God to unfold.  Afterall it took 400 years for the Promised messiah to come.

          And if we accept that Jesus is the Christ, don’t you think we would get over ourselves, and our faith?  Don’t you think if we accepted that Christ came for those who are oppressed, we would stop focussing on “personal Lord, and Savior” and think a whole lot more about rescuing the people who have no help, and are ruined by others every day.  Don’t you think we should find in our culture who the oppressed samaritans are and who the ignored women are.  Christ talked to the Samaritan woman.  How will we show that Jesus is not just for me, but my Jesus is for the blessing of all that are oppressed.

          So congregation.  Let’s get back to the basics.  Realize that Jesus Christ is way more than can be held in that little wooden manger.  He is the promised messiah and Christ.  He is the one who is bringing justice unlike we have ever even thought about before.  He will shower it on even the most unlikely people. 

          If we are following, our God and brother Jesus Christ, where is he calling you to be more justice in your treatment of people?  Remember the baby didn’t just come for you, but came so that you could represent him to the world as well.  This is God’s will for us from his word.  And all God’s people say,  AMEN.