What Does "Christ" Mean? Christos, the Anointed One

Fourth in a series on the names of God. Start with El Roi, or read the last one, Jehovah Shalom.

The first thing Andrew did, after spending a single afternoon with Jesus, was go and find his brother. John records what he said, and then translates it for his Greek-speaking readers, which turns out to be very helpful for us too:

“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 NIV)

That little parenthesis is easy to read past. Messiah comes from the Hebrew Mashiach, and Christos is the Greek word for the same thing: the Anointed One. So every time we say “Jesus Christ,” we’re really saying “Jesus, the Messiah,” a whole sentence of belief packed into a name. I suspect most of us hear it as a last name, most of the time.

The name “Jesus” has been precious to me for many years. Now I’m learning to appreciate the promise of “Christ.”

Prefer to watch? Here’s the two-minute version:

An Actual Recipe

Anointing in the Old Testament wasn’t a figure of speech. In Exodus 30, God gives Moses a recipe for the sacred anointing oil, with weights: five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half that of fragrant cinnamon, the same of fragrant calamus (probably an aromatic reed, though nobody is entirely sure which plant), five hundred of cassia, and a hin of olive oil. By most estimates that comes to well over twenty pounds of spices in about a gallon of oil. The engineer in me appreciates that it came with measurements. Then comes the unusual part: anyone who copied the blend for ordinary use was to be cut off from the people. It was not for sale.

That oil, and anointing generally, marked three kinds of people. Priests were anointed, starting with Aaron. Kings were anointed: Saul, then David, then Solomon. At least one prophet was anointed, when God told Elijah to anoint Elisha as his successor. In every case it meant the same thing: God had set this person apart, for this.

Oil First, Throne Later

The anointing I keep coming back to is David’s. Samuel goes to Bethlehem, works his way through Jesse’s sons, and ends up calling the youngest in from the fields, where he’s out with the sheep. He pours the oil over David’s head in front of his brothers, and Scripture says the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully on David from that day on.

And then, for something like fifteen years by most reckonings, David is not king. He serves the man who is. He runs from that man’s spear. He hides in caves at Adullam and En Gedi, and at one point Saul walks into the very cave where David is hiding. David won’t touch him, and his reason is almost painful to read: Saul is the LORD’s anointed. One anointed man, hiding in the dark, sparing the other.

The oil was a promise before it was a reality.

Two of David’s psalms, 57 and 142, carry headings that place them in the cave. They’re worth reading with that in mind. Someone who had been told he would be king wrote them while sleeping on rock, and they are full of praise anyway.

The Day He Read It Aloud

Which brings us to Nazareth. Luke tells us that early in His ministry Jesus went home, walked into the synagogue on the Sabbath as He always did, and stood up to read. They handed Him the scroll of Isaiah, and He found the place:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” (Luke 4:18 NIV)

He rolled the scroll back up, handed it to the attendant, and sat down, with every eye in the room on Him. Then He said that this scripture had been fulfilled that day, in their hearing. Among the people He grew up with, the carpenter’s son claimed to be the Anointed One the whole nation had waited centuries for. By verse 29 they were trying to throw Him off a cliff, which, as first sermons in a hometown go, is a fairly strong review.

Peter would later sum up that whole ministry in one sentence:

“…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” (Acts 10:38 NIV)

Christians have long described Jesus as holding all three anointed offices at once: prophet, priest, and king. John Calvin is usually credited with laying it out that way. Every earlier anointing had been one of the three, given to someone who failed at it eventually. Here, for the first and only time, all three meet in one Person who doesn’t fail.

It’s also why His trial turned on that one word. The high priest asked Him directly whether He was the Messiah, and He said yes, knowing exactly what that answer would cost. A little later, in Antioch, His followers picked up a nickname: Christianoi, Christ-people. Many scholars think outsiders coined it and probably didn’t mean it kindly. The believers kept it anyway.

Worship Him by Name

Take this one into your worship this week. In the Worship section of the daily worksheet, praise Him by this name: “Jesus, You are the Christ. You are the Anointed One, the promise kept.” Then try the David half. Name one promise of God’s you’re still waiting on, and praise Him in the cave rather than after it. That’s harder than it sounds, and he managed it, so it’s apparently possible.

The free Names & Attributes of God sheet has Christos in the Greek alongside the Hebrew and Aramaic names, and the God OS app works them into your daily worship prompts. Next in the series is Paraklētos, and why Jesus called the Spirit another advocate, which only makes sense if there was already one.