Father Peter F. Hansen
Sermon for the 2 nd Sunday after Christmas
“ The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God. ”
Is it important to have a Name for Him? Sure: we seek an identity so we can all know it is He, and only He of whom we speak. So we may speak of Him to others and know they understand whom we're talking about. St. John wrote of His Gospel, “ But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” John 20:31 If believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God gives us life through His Name, His Name grows in significance. What is the importance of His Name?
Well, first the Name Jesus is important because it was the Name that the angel gave to Mary and Joseph. Jesus, or Y'shua, means Savior. It was also the same name of the successor to Moses who led the people across the River Jordan into the Promised Land, delivering them against their enemies to inhabit Israel, the man called Savior, Y'shua or Joshua . Jesus comes as Savior, or Deliverer, because He makes a way across the River of Death for us to be delivered to our own Promised Land of Heaven. He saves us from wandering around in the wilderness and dying in our sins. When the people cried out to Jesus, they were already saying Savior !
The last name of Jesus could be several possible things. They didn't use surnames as we do today, but were called by the names of their fathers, such as Jesus son of Joseph . No one called Him Jesus bar Joseph . They did, however, call Him Son of God . He preferred to be titled, the Son of man , like being the Son of Adam: giving Himself origin with all mankind, not only Joseph, his adopted father, from whom he derived only a family status.
People were also surnamed according to the city of their origin, and He was called Jesus of Nazareth , for that was where His family lived. But place of His origin could have as easily been Bethlehem, for He was born there. More rightly still, He could have been Jesus of Heaven, for His divine origin was from the throne of God. No one called Him that.
And He was called Christ . This is from the Greek, Christos , but His own people would have used the term Ha-ma-shiy-ach, Messiah , the Anointed One. Generically, a mashiyach was someone anointed with oil to be a king, or a priest or even a saint. By the time of Jesus, anointing was also done for grooming, for spiritual healing of sickness, and for burial. Moses' brother Aaron was anointed as Israel's first high priest. God told Moses: “ And thou shalt [the priestly vestments] upon Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him; and shalt anoint them, and consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office.” Exodus 28:41 “ Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him.” Exodus 29:7 Aaron became the first anointed of Israel. When they began to have kings, these were anointed also. Samuel found the boy David in his father's house and, as God directed him, “Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.” 1 Samuel 16:13
Jesus was not just a priest and not any normal king. To have claimed either of these, in fact, would have been to have Him immediately denounced. The clear title to the throne of David was His through Joseph, but that line had been cursed by God centuries before, and no one could take the throne of David without civil war. And the Romans would kill anyone who claimed to be given a throne by God. This was the main reason Pilate eventually let Him be condemned to die. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” If He had claimed for Himself to be anointed priest, His lineage would immediately turn up no line back to the house of Levi or descent from Aaron, and the Jews would denounce that claim. So in what way was Jesus specially the Anointed One?
The prophet Daniel, exiled for life in Babylon, was confessing his own sins and the sins of his people to God, and the angel Gabriel came to him. The angel told him, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” Daniel 9:20-27
This compact little prophecy described the coming of the Messiah , a Prince, who would die for his people. It speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem, of war and finally the coming of the abomination who makes everything desolate. Jesus would not arrive for centuries, so the 70 weeks are symbolic of years, and the 490 days would be 490 years. 7 more weeks: 49 years, and so on. It worked out perfectly, and Jesus arrived on time after Jerusalem was rebuilt to fulfill Daniel's prophecy. That abomination however, has yet to come, and will be fulfilled by the one Jesus called the antichrist.
So, when the Jews spoke of Messiah in Jesus' time, they were waiting for a special Person, not an earthly king or a priest. Jesus was rightly the king, but only heaven would acknowledge His royalty in the bloodline of David. He was also a priest , but in the order or manner of appointment of the man called Melchizedek , Priest and King of Salem in the time of Abraham. He was not of the line of Levi, for Levi would be born almost a century later. Aaron would wait another 400 years. Melchizedek was king and priest of Salem, the future Jerusalem, and his office was directly from God. So was the priesthood of Jesus: a direct divine appointment.
When Jesus declared Himself Messiah , it was in His own hometown, Nazareth. In the synagogue, He was allowed to read the Scripture and to speak. He chose Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.” When He concluded, He added: “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Luke 4:21 Realizing what Jesus was claiming, they tried to kill Him by throwing Him off a cliff!
But was Jesus ever actually anointed with oil in His lifetime? No priest or prophet stood Him in the Temple and poured oil over His head to run down through His beard, to soak into His clothing, as was the custom with anointing for office. When I was made a priest, the bishop rubbed holy oil into my palms to make my hands those of a priest. Who poured oil on Jesus?
Jesus was dining in the home of Simon, a Pharisee. A woman of the city, a prostitute, entered the house unbidden and began to cry at Jesus' feet, reclined as He was on a couch at the table. Her tears washed Jesus' feet. Embarrassed by this, the woman dried His feet with the hairs of her head. Then she kissed His feet. Finally she took out a container of very expensive perfumed oil, broke the seal, and poured it on Jesus' feet. Luke 7:36-48 When the upstanding men at the table began to distain Jesus for allowing such attention from this sinner, He gently rebuked His host, in that Simon never washed Jesus' feet, never kissed Him, nor anointed Him, as one might an honored guest. This woman, sinner though she was, loved Jesus much more and showed it. Then Jesus forgave her sin.
Only one other time did someone anoint Him: Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, came to pour perfumed oil on Jesus. On the Sabbath before the Last Supper, she came to thank Him for raising her brother from the dead. As she poured the oil on His feet, and wiped it with her hair— an intimate act of love —Judas Iscariot scoffed at the waste of money. Jesus turned to Judas and said: “Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.” John 12:7
So, by the hands of women was Jesus anointed, and on His feet, not His head. Nevertheless, God counted Him the Anointed One. So did Simon Peter. When Jesus asked His apostles what they called Him, Peter answered: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:16 When the woman at the well brought her Samaritan townspeople out to meet Jesus, they told her: “Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” John 4:42 The apostle John would write in His 1 st Epistle, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.” 1 John 5:1
Anointed . You who have been baptized are all anointed. Oil was used to mark your foreheads when you were confirmed by the bishop. We are a blessed people, marked with the cross of Jesus. The collect today holds for us a double meaning, and now may a pray it over you in faith, that Christ's anointing become your own.
ALMIGHTY God, who hast poured upon us the new light of thine incarnate Word; Grant that the same light enkindled in our hearts may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen .
PFH+