“Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ!”
He is ours and God is his Father.
That is the first thing to note about Jesus. The second thing to note is that his last
name isn’t “Christ”. He is not Jesus
Christ, son of Joseph and Mary Christ of Bethlehem and Nazareth.
Some Greek is appropriate here.
Christ is from the Greek word
“Christo”, which means “the Anointed One”.
So, he is Jesus, the Anointed One.
The Anointed One refers across the Bible to the Messiah, in the Old
Testament this is he who is promised by God to redeem God’s people. Priests and kings, servants of God, were also
anointed in the Old Testament, but the Christ, THE ANOINTED ONE, has unique
significance, combining the powers and responsibilities of both offices.
As our “Lord”, Jesus is our Royal Ruler, our King, our Boss, and our
Master. O Captain, my Captain…Jesus is
he. It is a class difference (divine
versus human) and can easily rub against our democratic ideals of all people
being created equal. Jesus, being God
and human, is outside our usual parameters for defining ‘people’.
“Jesus” is the best part.
It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew name “Joshua”. Joshua (when translated from the Hebrew, means
“God saves”!!) was the war leader of the Israelites who led them into the
Promised Land. There is an entire
theology of name significance and historic parallels that can be built between
Joshua and Jesus.
So, to sum up, “our Lord Jesus Christ” becomes ours-belonging to
us-our King and Ruler, Joshua (like the kick-butt guy in the Old Testament) who
is the Anointed One of God and Promised Messiah to save everybody. Our Lord Jesus Christ is much easier on the
ears.
And Neal Patrick Harris is pretty cool too.
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