Luke 2:10-11
10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Many of us are so accustomed to titles like “Christ” and “Lord” we just blow past them. We read them as if they are akin to a southerner calling a grown man, “sir”–a polite term of pseudo-respect out of obligation. But let’s not miss the power of these titles. As we’ve seen, these angels did not waste words or throw out idle syllables. The title “Christ” means the “anointed one,” the Messiah, God’s king over all the earth. He was the one promised throughout the Old Testament, the one whom Israel anticipated and yearned for to restore them.
But he was not the kind of Christ they anticipated. He was born in an animal shed to an unwed mother from a backwater town. His entourage at birth consisted of shepherds and farm animals. He did not overthrow the Romans (though he is sovereign over emperors). He did not come with military might (though He is the Lord of hosts). He did not establish a mighty nation or people (though his kingdom shall last forever and every knee shall bow to him).
No, Jesus was Christ, the Messiah, the Lord and ruler of all who would set his people free and rescue us from the curse that has brought us low since Genesis 3, the bondage to sin and its rampant effects on the world. He came to undo it, to redeem and renew and finally to make all things new.
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