“Who do you say that I am?” Jesus asked, turning to his 12 disciples. Confident, Simon Peter stepped up. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”.
We know from the Christmas story, the boy that Mary was going to give birth to was to be named Jesus, but there was no mention of Christ. So what did Peter mean when he called Jesus “the Christ”, and why do we do it too?
The Greek word for Christ is chrīstós, meaning “anointed one”. Being anointed was an honour reserved for the High Priest of Israel, the only one who could oversee the sacrifice and atonement of sins. He served as the go-between for God’s people and God.
Access to God was limited.
That completely changed when Jesus stepped into time.
In his death, he served both as the anointed sacrifice for our sins and the anointed priest presiding over the sacrifice. In doing so, His broken body became the anointed temple for God’s chosen people to live in.
No longer do we have to go to an earthly priest with an animal sacrifice. Jesus’s blood has paid for all our sins and bought our freedom once and for all. When we pray, we can ask largely knowing that the Father hears us because of the Son, Jesus Christ – the anointed one.
