“What’s a Messiah?” - December 10, 2017

Isaiah 61:1-4

The word “Messiah” is an anglicized version of the Hebrew word “Moshiach”, which isn’t easy for us to pronounce.  The gospel writers translated it when they were writing in Greek and used the term “Christos”, from which we get “Christ”.  It means “anointed”.

In the ancient Middle East, the act of designating someone to a special office, generally of kingship or priesthood, involved pouring a small amount of olive oil over his head or sometimes onto the chest or hands.  To this day, when an English monarch is crowned, the service includes a ritual that is considered so sacred that it was excluded from being televised in 1952.  Presumably, that will be the case at the next coronation, too.  (When czars were crowned, they were led out of the main church into the secluded area normally reserved for the priests for the same reason.)  What happens is that the new king or queen is seated on a throne that includes the Stone of Scone from Scotland underneath a golden canopy.  The choir sings the hymn “Come, Holy Spirit” and the Archbishop of Canterbury anoints the royal head, hands, and heart with the sign of the cross.  Next comes a time of prayer and only after that are the Crown Jewels presented and the crown itself placed on his or her head.

In the Old Testament, the kings of Israel and Judah, were regularly referred to as “God’s anointed”.  That is, the king was a “moshiach”, a “christos”.  That’s the origin of the idea prevalent clear through to Jesus’ time and beyond that there is an intimate connection between royalty, especially the royal House of David, and messiahship (if that’s a word).  To be anointed made someone king.  Trouble began, though, when people started thinking that to be king made someone the messiah.

Not all kings showed themselves worthy of the honor that went with the job.  Many of them turned out to be incompetent or ill-suited.  Others were led astray by bad advisors or their own pride.  Eventually, in all the wars that the Middle East is so known for, the kingdoms were swallowed up and destroyed.  People in exile looked forward to the restoration of the kingdom and with it the establishment of another ruler to be “God’s anointed”.  But the kingdom and the messiah became hoped-for parts of the future, not a present reality.

Into that stepped Isaiah and other prophets like him, who had the chance to say, “Hold on here.  Let’s get some clarity about what we’re looking for.”  They, who were collateral damage in the fighting as empire after empire rolled up from Egypt and south from Assyria and west from Babylon and then Persia, they looked for one who would free them and lift the oppression of occupation and enslavement, maybe even someone who would rebuild Jerusalem and the temple that lay in ruins like Dresden in 1945 or Mosul in 2017.  Someone would arise who would announce,

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
   because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
   to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
   and release to the prisoners; 
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
   and the day of vengeance of our God;
   to comfort all who mourn; 
to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
   to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
   the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
   the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. 
They shall build up the ancient ruins,
   they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
   the devastations of many generations.” [Isaiah 61:1-4] 

And they did return from exile.   Nehemiah led people from Babylon back to Jerusalem and they rebuilt the walls, and Ezra returned shortly after that and brought the scriptures, and Malachi arose to encourage the completion of the temple.  God is faithful, and did not forget his people.

            But the empires kept on rolling over them.  First it was the Greeks from the northwest, led by Alexander, and later the Romans who sailed in on the sea and set up a puppet government under the dynasty that included Herod.  There was no longer a king or a kingdom, not in the same sense.  Herod and his successors were not even really Jews.  His ancestors came from the lands to the south, at the edge of the Arabian desert, and they ruled at the whim and permission of the Senate, or later the Emperor, of Rome.  Roman money bought them their position and Roman weapons kept them there.

            Where, then, was the anointed one?  Some people began to look for a leader to arise who would beat all of the empires at their own game.  Inevitably, they were slapped down brutally.  Jesus warned his disciples,

“‘Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.

‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.’ Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.’” [Luke 21:8-11]

Did I mention Jesus?  Let me follow up on that. 

Earlier anointed rulers had led the nation down a path of trouble.  Perhaps, if they were to be led into a future that was free from those troubles, they needed to look for different qualities in a messiah.  There was a man named Jesus, who had gone to spend some time at one point among the followers of another man named John who was proclaiming that God’s kingdom was at hand.  John encouraged people to be baptized in the Jordan as a sign of entry into or renewed allegiance to this kingdom and Jesus took part in that ritual, but as he came up out of the water the Holy Spirit came upon him from beyond this world, and he was anointed by God for something better and more lasting than to lead yet another army into yet another war.

Not long after,

“When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
   because he has anointed me
     to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
   and recovery of sight to the blind,
     to let the oppressed go free, 
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ 
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” [Luke 4:16-21]

            Now, since this is a sermon series and I’ve already crossed over into territory that’s for next week, I’m going to stop there.  But I will say this as a matter of conclusion: over the ages, messiahs have come and gone with varying degrees of effectiveness.  One messiah, however – the one who opted out of the rigged games and false hopes that the others became entangled in – that one messiah has done what none of the others ever did, and brought an end to oppression and a freedom from all kinds of captivity that the others never even envisioned, and of him it can be said in a way that cannot be said of any of the others,

“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” [Matthew 16:16]