Jesus Christ

I am intrigued by the way in which Jesus' name has changed over time and as the institutional church has often fooled people into thinking that they are followers of Jesus. (I'm not suggesting that everyone in the ICs is fooled or that none is a follower! )I am not talking here about whether he is/was Jesus/Iesus or Jeshua/Yeshua or any other variant or translation.  My interest is in how 'Christ' has become like a surname. People use  'Jesus Christ' in the same way as they might refer to Barak Obama or Rowan Williams when, in fact, the word 'Christ' is a title not a name. If we talk about President Barak Obama we should presumably say Christ Jesus Nazareth, though it does sound a little odd.

In truth, Christ, of course, is an English translation of a Greek translation of a Hebrew (or is it Aramaic?) word meaning 'annointed one', with particular refernce to the fact that it is Yahweh doing the annointing. Kings are annointed and so, in effect, when we say 'Christ' we should remember that it means something like' Yahweh's annointed king'. 'Christ' is, in a sense, a piece of Christian jargon. To outsiders, and to many who profess Jesus as their Lord, it has become a meaningless name instead of a magnificent title, which describes who Jesus was and is.The same has happened with the word 'God'. Our god has a name, and presumably, as he revealed it to us, wants us to use it.

I have given up calling Jesus 'Christ' for this very reason, just as I have stopped talking about redemption, salvation, sin, faith and many other words with special meanings. What is the good of saying to people, 'You need to have faith in Jesus Christ for the redemption of your sins,' when it is just gobbledigook to them? People think sin is having a cream cake or having sex, that faith is having any sort of a belief in anything, and that Jesus Christ is a  myth used by  judgemental, hypocritical members of the established order.

So, I am intrigued, yes, but also excitied at the thought of how we can change people's lives. If we can all make a conscious decision to stop talking jargon and start talking like ordinary human beings then people are more likely to listen and ground their new-found trust in Jesus on the true and simple message instead of the traditional Christianese that encourages ignorance and religiosity.

I would welcome your prayerful thoughts.

John