\n<\/p>\n
Did you know that Christ isn\u2019t Jesus\u2019s last name?<\/strong><\/p>\n OK, folks, let\u2019s get something straight. Christ is not Jesus\u2019s last name. Even if you\u2019re angry, his last name still isn\u2019t Christ, and his middle initial most definitely isn\u2019t H.<\/p>\n Christ is the Greek word (christos<\/em>) we find 529 times in the New Testament and it means \u201canointed one.\u201d It is the Greek version of the Hebrew word for \u201canointed one,\u201d\u00a0mashiach<\/em> (ma-SHE-ach), which is known to us in English as Messiah.<\/p>\n A lot of anointing going on in the Old Testament, the purpose of which is to set someone or something apart for the Lord. The High Priest Aaron and his sons were anointed (Exodus 28:41) as was the tabernacle (Leviticus 8:10),\u00a0and\u2014for our sakes the\u00a0most important\u2014kings <\/em>were anointed, like\u00a0David (1 Samuel 16:3, 12; 2 Samuel 23:1), Solomon (1 Kings 1:34), and Jehu (2 Kings 9:3).<\/p>\n When\u00a0Jesus is called Christ or the Christ he is being called \u201c(the) anointed one.\u201d<\/p>\n Christ is not a name but a\u00a0royal<\/em>\u00a0title<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n And it\u00a0certainly does not NOT mean \u201csecond person of the Trinity,\u201d \u201cGod incarnate,\u201d or anything like that.<\/p>\n To be called Christ is to be designated as having been set apart by God, and in Jesus\u2019s day the royal overtones would have been front and center.<\/p>\n This is why I try to encourage people to replace Christ with Messiah (to be reminded of the Old Testament\/Jewish background and meaning of the term) or with king (to remind them of what\u00a0the word actually means).<\/p>\n Both the Roman authorities and Jesus\u2019s fellow Jews heard Christ\/Messiah to be a claim of kingship over the Jews (Mark 15:2; Luke 23:3).<\/p>\n Jesus\u2019s execution was\u00a0instigated by\u00a0(at least some of) the Jewish authorities, since Jesus not only didn\u2019t seek their approval for his messianic claim, but called them out for hypocrisy.<\/p>\n Jesus\u2019s execution was carried out by the Romans for his politically charged claim and the threat it posed for Roman peace (after all, the Romans already had a \u201cKing of the Jews\u201d in place, Herod).\u00a0The sign over Jesus on the cross, \u201cKing of the Jews,\u201d was\u00a0a warning to all those of what would happen to them if they\u00a0rebelled against the empire.<\/p>\n So when we say\u00a0\u201cking\u201d instead of \u201cChrist,\u201d it\u00a0alerts us to the gulf between what people assumed Jesus as Christ\/Messiah\u00a0would do<\/em> and what he actually wound up\u00a0doing<\/em>.<\/p>\n Jesus had no interest in taking Herod\u2019s place on the throne. As he told Pilate,<\/p>\n My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here. <\/em>(John 18:36)<\/p>\n Don\u2019t pass over that\u00a0too quickly, as familiar as it might be. This is radical stuff.<\/p>\n Rather, Jesus announced the Kingdom of God\u2014a kingdom that would\u00a0not<\/em> participate in a never-ending Game of Thrones human drama\u2014which is also laid out in the Sermon on the Mount, especially the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12).<\/p>\n That is the key point<\/strong>: Jesus\u00a0redefined<\/em> the term, which left everyone scratching their head. He by-passed\u00a0the expected job description of the Jewish \u201cking.\u201d<\/p>\n This is why I like it when the New Testament reverses the order and says \u201cChrist Jesus,\u201d<\/strong> which is all over the place in Paul\u2019s letters. When you read that phrase, just say \u201cKing Jesus\u201d and know you\u2019re doing the right thing\u2014as long as you also know that Jesus redefined royal expectations.<\/p>\n And here is the main point of all this<\/strong>: If you don\u2019t know what Christ\/Messiah meant in Jesus\u2019s day, you won\u2019t get the political and religious subversiveness of the Good News<\/strong>. King Jesus is proclaiming the presence of the Kingdom of God right then and there, and it\u2019s not like any kingdom they were expecting.<\/p>\n ***If you want to read books of mine that contain no trivia whatsoever, here are some: How the Bible Actually Works<\/a> <\/strong>(HarperOne, 2019), The Bible Tells Me So<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(HarperOne, 2014),\u00a0\u00a0Inspiration and Incarnation<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(Baker 2005\/2015),\u00a0The Sin of Certainty<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(HarperOne, 2016), and\u00a0The Evolution of Adam<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(Baker, 2012).***<\/p>\n<\/div>\nJesus\u00a0rejected messianic expectations.<\/h2>\n