The Christ: Deliverer and Ruler

John 7:37-52

“...some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ” John 7:40-41

There is something within humanity which is constantly looking for a certain kind of leader; a leader to save us, a leader to make things right, and to lead us well. We see the sentiment in the entertainment we consume. In the Star Wars franchise, they looked to the one who would “bring balance to the force”. The family friendly LEGO Movie made much of the “Special” one. We have an engrained longing for the ultimate hero. Have you ever considered to possibility that we have this yearning BECAUSE there really is a Hero, a King – a Christ.

When we hear the mention of “Christ” in our day, we generally associate it with being part of Jesus name. The word Christ however is not a name, but rather a title. It’s really another word for Messiah. It literally means, the anointed one, or the one chosen by God. The Christ was supposed to be a certain kind of person, filling two main functions for humanity. He was to be both a King AND deliverer.

We don’t think of kings the way the ancient world saw them. Our world political climate more popularly functions by democracy. A king was a leader, not elected by the people, but one who rose to the position by some means of power, or inheriting it from his predecessor. The Christ was to be the one good king, to rule truly right.

Although we don’t have kings in our North American political climate, we do still look to our leaders to carry that kind of hope for our nation. We place more hope and expectation on some leaders than others. When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, I believe not only America, but much of the world placed a great deal of hope in his ability to rule rightly. Much talk was given to him being the first black president, the anticipation being America was gaining ground on its racial woes. There was optimism for many areas such as climate change and foreign policy as well as breaking down age old racial and religious barriers. For a short time it seemed there was hope for The United States.

Have a look for yourself and see if you agree with my assessment of the time:

World Reacts to Obama Victory

The Christ was to be more than a ruler. He was also to be a deliverer. The notion of deliverance implies that we are in a mess, and need to be rescued from it. I hope to develop this further in the future. For now, all I will say is that we as a race have gotten ourselves into a state of hopelessness which we are not in ourselves able to escape from.

I will present this to you.

The reason we have movies like “Star Wars” and “The Lego Movie” and the reason we place our hope in our leaders is because there really is a King, a deliverer and Christ. Jesus, as The Christ, is the only One who has been able to carry the hope of a people like He has for the past 2,000 years. No one else is coming to save us. Anyone else who claims to be the Christ is a fraud.