A Minor Point…Maybe

Acts 18:12-28

According to our reading from Acts today, Apollos had become a powerful evangelist for the Christian faith as he demonstrated “by the scriptures that the Messiah is Jesus” (Acts 18:28b). What strikes me here is that according to Acts, Apollos did not try to prove that Jesus is the Messiah, but rather “that the Messiah is Jesus.” Perhaps this is only a minor point, a choice of syntax or a style of grammar. Or maybe it means something more significant.

As Christians know, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God” (John 1:1). The Nicene Creed, finalized about 381 AD, professes faith in “one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made…” The question, for Christians anyway, is never Who is Jesus? Jesus existed with God from before anything else, indeed was a part of the creative process behind all being, and not a product of the creation. Based on these facts, to say “Jesus is the Messiah” limits Jesus within a cultural framework, a small fragment of the universe that he as the word of God helped to create. The question is Who is the Messiah? and the answer is “The Messiah is Jesus.” This way we have not limited Jesus within a cultural perspective, but instead we have greatly enlarged our understanding of the Messiah, pushing the image beyond a particular religion and a particular nation out to the furthest reaches of the universe, all the way to the very throne of God.

So it isn’t a question of whether or not Jesus is the Messiah, the fact is that the role of Messiah takes its true shape within the reality of Jesus.

Prayer: Gracious God, lead us in our lives of faith through your Son Jesus Christ to whom we give glory and honor. Amen.