In our scripture readings for Messiah Sunday, the apostle John describes the role of the Christ, the anointed one, also known in Hebrew as the Messiah. The Christ will do more than just free Israel from Roman occupation, as the people were hoping. The Christ, this time, will make God known...will change the relationship between God and his people. That's because, this time, the anointed one is God's very own Son, and in him...is eternal life....
Yearning for Messiah. Looking for the Chosen One. Awaiting the Saviour, who can single-handedly change the whole situation. It's almost a universal experience for us. If only the dealership had a new salesman to break all the sales records and get us into the black. If only the team had a generational player who could finally win the Stanley Cup. If only we had a dynamic young preacher who could refill the pews. If only some nice young man would sweep her off her feet, and marry her. Whether it's politics, sports, economics, or relationships, we are always and continually yearning for a Messiah.
The people of God in the first century BC had returned from exile to the promised land. But that land was conquered and placed under occupation by the Greeks, and then reconquered and placed under occupation by the Romans. The people read their scriptures, and yearned for a Messiah in the pattern of Moses, or Gideon, or King David – someone who could lead the people to political freedom and prosperity. Which, as we have seen throughout history, never seems to be permanent. The people always backslide, a new conqueror appears, there is always a need for a new Messiah, decades or centuries down the road.
We, also, tend to think short term when looking for our Messiahs. We need rescue from today, tomorrow, next week, maybe next month, possibly a time horizon as long as a year. This is why the solutions from OUR chosen Messiahs, like drugs, and fame, and money, and human heroes, all fail in the end, and fail quickly. Perhaps this is why God has made his people wait so long for Messiahs in the past – to give them a sense of perspective. When God finally anoints a Christ, the situation is dire enough, the yearning is strong enough, that the people are ready to accept him.
And as we have been celebrating this whole season of Advent, the one God sends as his Anointed one....is his son Jesus, the Word of God, co-creator of the universe, incarnated into flesh as a human newborn. This Christ single-handedly changes the whole situation between God and humankind. Jesus, as a human son, makes God known as Father. Not sadistic judge condemning the almost-perfect. Not indifferent engineer of the universe's inner workings. Not narcissistic tyrannical slave driver. Father, just as Jesus relates to him as son.
The Spirit testifies to Jesus' sonship through the miracles he performed. The water testifies to Jesus' sonship through the Father's affirmation at his baptism. The blood testifies to Jesus' sonship through the covenant established in it at the Last Supper. Jesus the Christ is the Son of God, by the testimony of three witnesses. And through Jesus Christ, we learn how to respond to God as a Father. We are given the power, and the example, to become children of God. Our Messiah rescues us from the darkness of God's rejection, and brings us into the light of God's family.
And the family of God will receive a special inheritance – the eternal life that Jesus has demonstrated. In rising from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion, Jesus is the foreshadowing of the plan for ALL of God's children, that they will be raised to eternal life. This is the good news that John heard, saw, looked at, and touched, and shared with us so that his joy, and ours, may be complete.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for sending your Son Jesus to be our Christ, our anointed Saviour. Help us to witness to his light and life, in Jesus' name, amen.