Proper
19 :: Isaiah 50: 4–9; Psalm 19; James 3: 1–12; Mark 8: 27–38
“OF ANOINTING AND BEING ANOINTED”
(Homily text: Mark 8: 27–38)
Let’s
talk about anointing and about being anointed. [1]
(We
might do well to remind ourselves what anointing is, and what it signifies:
Anointing is a ceremonial action by which a person receives holy oil and
(often) the laying on of hands in prayer.) [2]
As
we do, we might approach the subject by setting before ourselves these
questions:
Who
receives an anointing?
For
what purpose is a person anointed?
Have
we been anointed (and for what purpose)?
The
focus of today’s homily arises out of our Gospel text for this morning, in
connection with Peter’s answer to Jesus’ question, when the Lord asked His
disciples, “Who do you say I am?” (Mark 8: 29) Peter’s answer is memorable:
“You are the Messiah”.
What
Peter meant by his answer is this: “You are the Anointed One”. “Messiah” means
“anointed”, coming from the Hebrew word for “anoint”. “Christ” has the same
meaning, coming from the Greek.
To
understand (perhaps) what Peter meant by his answer, we ought to go back into
the Old Testament to understand more about the business of anointing people.
There,
we discover that priests and kings were anointed. [3] When they were anointed, the ceremonial act of anointing signified that they
were set apart for a specific ministry or task, and that God’s favor rested on
them as they carried out those duties. (The same meaning is attached to the
anointing of objects.)
Oil
was also used in healing. Isaiah 1:6 suggests such a use.
When
God the Father sent His Son to take up our humanity, God’s chosen people
regarded the Messiah in a number of ways. It would be prudent for us to look at
some of the expectations that were attached to the title “Messiah”:
Military
commander: Some of the Jews at the time of Jesus’
earthly ministry expected that the Messiah would return and would remove the
occupying Roman government and army, restoring God’s people to the place they
had been nearly a thousand years before when David was king. The party most
associated with this view of the Messiah was called the Zealots.
King: Some expectations which were attached to the
term “Messiah” had to do with that person being descended from King David’s
lineage. We find such evidence in the Psalms of Solomon, which comes to us from
the body of Jewish writing known as the Pseudepigrapha,
and which may have been written at about the time of the Lord’s ministry.
Healer: The evidence seems to be less abundant for
another aspect of the understanding of what the Messiah would do, and that has
to do with healing. In general, the Messiah, when he came, would restore and
fix everything that was wrong with God’s people in that day and time. Perhaps
it’s possible that the longing and expectation that was attached to King David
stemmed from these memories of David’s accomplishments.
Jesus
as the Messiah fulfills all of these expectations. For example, In John 6:15,
we find that the people who had been fed by Jesus begin a movement to proclaim
Him as king. Perhaps because Jesus had fed that large crowd of at least five
thousand people, many thought that He would be capable of fixing everything
that was wrong with life in those days. The Letter to the Hebrews picks up the
theme of Jesus’ kingship and His priestly ministry, declaring that He is “a
king forever after the order of Melchizedek”. [4] (Hebrews 5:6)
The
early Christians understood Jesus’ Messiahship as being all of these
things: king, priest and healer.
At
this point, we can return to the questions which we set before ourselves at the
beginning of this homily.
Who
receives an anointing? Anyone who is set apart for a specific
purpose or ministry can be anointed. At ordination, for example, a priest’s
hands are often anointed. (Altars, as we have seen, are often anointed when
they are consecrated.) Monarchs are often anointed at the time of their
coronation.
For
what purpose is a person anointed? We would do well to speak of the purposes for
which anointing is done by referring back to the meaning of the Sacraments: A
Sacrament is an “outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.” Anointing
gives a person a unique measure of God’s grace and power to do whatever it is
God has in mind for that person. Anointing with the Oil of Chrism is a rite in
which healing is the reason for the anointing.
Have
we been anointed (and for what purpose)? For many of us, the
most significant anointing we have received is that which is done at the time
of baptism. In that action, the following words are spoken as the Oil of Chrism
is applied to the forehead: “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism, and
marked as Christ’s own forever.” Anointing at the time of baptism is the
outward and visible sign that God has claimed us, in Christ, as His own
forever. In baptism, we turn away from our old life, and we turn to God in
Christ in order to rise to a new life in God. We receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit to know God’s will and to do God’s will.
Of
course, there are many other occasions when we might be anointed, such as at
the time of illness or at the time of death (this last action is often called
“Extreme Unction”). Or, we might be anointed in order to be commissioned to do
something unique or special.
The
various threads we have been exploring all come together in the Book of
Revelation, where we read that Christ has made us “kings and priests to God”. [5]
In
all of these actions, we are called to act as agents of God’s power to heal, to
restore, and to fix what is wrong in the world.
May
we be anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit to be Jesus’ disciples in the
world today, healing and restoring what is estranged from God, and what divides
people from one another.
AMEN.
[1] The technical term for anointing is Unction.
[2] Objects may also be anointed. An example
would be when a newly installed or constructed altar which is to be used for
the celebration of the Holy Eucharist is consecrated. The Bible mentions the
anointing of objects.
[3] The practice of anointing a newly crowned
monarch continues to this day. Queen Elizabeth II was anointed when she became
queen in 1953.
[4] Melchizedek is mentioned in Genesis 14, and
in Psalm 110:4. He was king of the city of Salem, but was also a priest. This
idea is expanded upon in chapter seven of the Letter to the Hebrews.
