Do we dream about better leaders? Do we pass on poems of what it is to lead in a spirit of service, wisdom and understanding? Are we allowed to ask for leaders who would apply might with counsel, who want to learn, who respect others and who are delighted to spend time in the presence of HE WHO IS?

Hope and change?

The young Yeshu was a pious Jew who loved to hear the ancient words of the prophet Isaiah. In a country ruled by a petty rich elite at the mercy of the Roman empire, he dreamt of prophets, priests and kings who would bring peace, justice, and compassion. People who would be led by holy spirit. Then John the Baptist stood up as such a spirit-led prophet. John felt that things had to change. He showed the people that they were not dependent on corrupt priests to cleanse their consciences for God. He prepared them for a strong leader who would restore Israel as a kingdom of God. A person ‘anointed’ by God (for that is what ‘Messiah’ or ‘Christ’ means). So when John pointed Andrew and Simon to Jesus, they wanted to see if he could be the leader who would restore the kingdom of David, the son of Jesse. Some said that Joseph, the carpenter, was a descendent of David. Was his son Jesus then the son of David, the shepherd boy turned poet and king? Would he be the one to lead them into battle and restore peace and justice?

There are many places in the gospels where Jesus discourages the people to call him their ‘Messiah.’ Did Jesus believe that his followers would take up arms too soon, before they could defeat the Romans? Was it because he did not know himself? Or was he afraid to be arrested like John was? Claiming to be God’s Messiah was a political statement, as there was the political group of the Herodians, who claimed that God had chosen the house of Herod to rule his people in their time. It was no problem that Herod was not a descendent of David, for even in the book Isaiah, the Persian king Cyrus is hailed as a Messiah (45:1), birthed and raised by God to liberate Israel and rebuild Jerusalem (45:10-13).
A year before he is executed as the would-be ‘king of the Jews,’ thousands of men come to Jesus, willing to take up arms to make him their king (John 6:15). But Jesus does not want to comply. In fact, he flees the Galilee and will only return later to hand himself to the authorities in Jerusalem and be crucified.

The effect of the Messianic secret on us as readers of the Gospels is that we too can step back in time and find out for ourselves: is Jesus God’s anointed and, if so, what then is his role? What do I say, if I put my faith in ‘Christ’? Jesus did not see himself as a military leader, even though that is what his followers expected from him. He did not see himself waging war against the Romans, for he foresaw that it would be the end of Jerusalem and the temple. But he did feel he was called. So the questions was: what was the voice of God inside of him calling him to do? Could he discern that voice from the expectations that people around him had of him?

How was Jesus anointed?

It is not through waiting that Jesus found out. After John had been arrested, Jesus stood up to continue the preaching of the Kingdom of God. But when he spoke with people and touched them with his love, they were changed and became agents of change themselves. Community was restored, poor people supported each other, and sick people were healed, bonds were broken. People with wealth, education or power came to see saw themselves as stewards instead of owners and ministers rather than rulers. So much so that Jesus had to seek out places of solitude to pray and meditate about what it was that God was calling him to do. John never poured out oil over Jesus' head to anoint him as his successor. Jesus’s own experiences led him to find his true role as God’s anointed one: to radically love people regardless of their status or beauty, and to heal and free them through holy spirit. Luke 4:16-21 captures this growing insight in a scene in a synagogue. The visitor Jesus is asked to read a passage from the prophet Isaiah:

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up,
and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.
He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.
Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.
The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.
He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

How is your calling different?

For Jesus, the kingdom of God is not something in the future, that we have to wait for while praying and fasting, but rather a spiritual experience that can be celebrated emotionally and bodily today. Jesus was not behaving in the way that John the Baptists had expected the Messiah to be. This becomes clear in a rather embarrassing story preserved in Luke 7:18-23, when John is in jail and hears that Jesus eats and drinks with whores and people who collect taxes for the Romans and Herodians:

John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’”
At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

John’s question came at an awkward moment. People were criticizing Jesus for neglect of his duties as a son and a Jew. He was neither the family support he once was, nor the Messiah they expected. They saw him overstepping ritual restrictions and embracing the sinful and the sick. Jesus must have felt vulnerable. His calling as a Messiah rested on the faith that John had publicly put in him. But now that John started to doubt, it was up to his own faith in what God was calling him to do. After praising John, he said (in verses 31-35):

“To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other:

“‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.’

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But Wisdom is proved right by all her children.”

That last sentence is explained in various ways. Thinking about it now, I see how Lady Wisdom (Proverbs 1:23) pours out her holy spirit both in John and Jesus in very different ways. Each in his own way was anointed with specific gifts and for specific tasks among the people of Israel. “I baptize you with water,” John said, “but He will baptize you with holy spirit and fire.” In his life, Jesus did not accomplish anything of lasting political, artistic or scientific value. The only result of his life was that he had touched people with his words and spirit. Jesus was the ‘Anointed’ whose mission it became to anoint others with holy spirit (I John 2:20,27 and 2 Corinthians 1:21). Indeed, Paul writes in I Corinthians 12:7-11, everyone is gifted and called to lead and serve in his or her own way to the benefit of the entire community:

Now to each the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good [of the whole community]. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and [the Spirit] distributes them to each one, just as [the Spirit] determines.

You are anointed as well

Quite early, baptism involved anointing as well, making us not only Christians (followers or the Messiah), but Christs ourselves. “You will do greaters things than I did,” says Jesus in John 14:12. And that, I guess, allows us to reframe the questions with which we started: Should we not dream about being better leaders ourselves? Do we dare to write poems of what it is to lead in a spirit of service, wisdom and understanding? Are people allowed to expect from us that we apply authority with counsel, always willing to learn, trying to respect others and taking time to delight ourselves in the presence of the eternal God.

*.      *

Samuel anoints David among his brothers. Tempera over plaster from the synagogue wall in Dura Europos, Syria (painted before the city was destroyed in 231 CE).

Suggestions for dialogue

A moderator can explain the dialogue steps and invite people to contribute:

• Check in with yourself. Share with each other how you are in this moment. Then take a moment again to seek stillness, humility and openness. 
• First round: Share something from the text or image(s) that stood out to you and that you would like to explore with the group, briefly indicating the thoughts and feelings that it evoked within you. Listen to the others do the same: what resonates with you? Responses in this round should be limited to questions for clarification.
• Second round: Name one or two things that resonated with you from the things that others just shared. 
• Third round: Having heard the group, the moderator names the main topics for exploration. The moderator may also propose a common thread that emerged in several topics. The exploration normally starts with asking the person(s) who brought up the topic to expand on it.
• Leave room for silence and contemplation. 
• Check out by sharing what you take home from this dialogue.

These suggestions are an adaptation of the Estuary protocol. Look for more at https://www.estuaryhub.com