Greetings in that Divine and Most Precious Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Hello everybody,
I just wanted to ask a question about Jesus and the title Christ. The feast of saint John the baptist is approaching in Denmark and a christian newspaper have posted an article about him. Now one of the commentators wrote something that according to me was a little misleading about the nature of Christ. According to him, Jesus first became Christ when he was ressurected and that he was not christ while he was on Earth. To this I responded with the quote from the gospel of Matthew where Peter proclaim that jesus is Christ(Matthew: 16,16) He is probably going to write back and since I am not so skilled in these things(maybe I should just have kept quiet) I would like to ask if someone could give me an orthodox view on this issue.
Thank you.
That idea seems based upon the ideas that Jesus Christ was either a Man who became a God, or at the least some kind of misconception of the concept of the Christ. True, Jesus was not physically glorified until the Resurrection, which He Himself attested to, but as it has been said, He was always the Christ. If this author does not assert Jesus to have been a man who was made God, at the least, this author then seems to be ascribing to the premise that Jesus wasn't made the Christ (ie, the King) until the Resurrection and Ascension when He took His place at the Right hand of the Father in Heaven. This is the trouble with getting to conversational about this issue. Others assert that Jesus is not necessarily the Christ until His Second Coming to reign as a King on the Earth. All of these fall short of the Orthodox theology of the Christ.
Jesus Christ in Orthodox theology is not merely King of the World, rather He is King of Universe. Jesus Christ reigns above all principalities, spirits, entities, forces, etc etc. In this He is the True and Real Christ, not just the earthly king of a small Jewish lineage and family, which the Christos were since the time of King David. As King over all powers and spirits, Jesus Christ was, is, and will for ever be King in this spiritual capacity and realm, and so He was King before His Incarnation, He was King through out His life, and He was King in His Death, and proved the absolute Divinity of His Kingship through the power of His Resurrection.
As the Word, the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ always was and is the Christ (the Messiah, the Christos, the King) and does not need to be crowned or coronated, as His Kingdom is beyond all crowns and coronations. The combining of the Jewish concept of the Moshiach/Christ with Jesus Christ is only meant to emphasize the importance of the Incarnation, of the Flesh and Blood manifestation of the Eternal King Jesus Christ our Lord. As the Jews predicted that a Divine Christ would come, so then our Eternal Savior the Word assumed flesh and blood like ourselves to be able to be a King in an earthly sense which His spiritual Kingship did not necessarily afford in its immateriality.
stay Blessed,
Habte Selassie