Revealed: Jesus the Christ May 4, 2025

During Eastertide this year, we have readings from the book of Revelation. This is a magical mystery tour of the heavenly court as visioned by John when he was on the Greek island of Patmos. I am not going to spend time talking about the book of Revelation because I know that Lenny is going there in her study this week and will do a much more thorough job than I can do in this short homily. But the theme of our readings today is revelation.

We heard about Saul’s amazing experience on the road to Damascus when the living Christ was revealed in blazing light. We heard about Jesus’ appearance at breakfast on the shore. And we heard a little of John’s vision who saw and “heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice.” And in the psalm we read that “Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning.”

All amazing and wonderful revelations of the presence of the Christ.

So let us consider the difference and the sameness of Jesus and the Christ. Often we say Jesus Christ just as might say John Smith, as though Christ is Jesus’ surname. It isn’t. The Christ is the anointed One, the Son of God who is one of the three persons of the Trinity and existed before time. Jesus was human like us, bound to time and place. Yet the understanding passed down by our spiritual ancestors is that Jesus was not only human, Jesus was also God. Jesus the son of
Mary is also Christ, the Son of God.

In the first few centuries after Jesus, the church gave a lot of attention to the question of how Jesus could be both God and human. It caused a lot of friction and part of the resolution is contained in the 4th Century Nicene Creed which most Episcopal churches say every Sunday as a reminder and as a way of honoring our ancestors. In that Creed, we remind ourselves that Jesus Christ is one with God, was born of a human woman, Mary, and after his death and resurrection is seated with God.

So we can think of the Christ as the resurrected and ascended Jesus. And we can think of Jesus as a human manifestation of the Christ. Today’s readings are like a crossover point - they are narratives of the post resurrection Jesus who is also the Christ who gave the disciples breakfast, and of the Christ who is also Jesus who appeared to Saul and who is worshipped night and day by the myriads of angels and creatures and elders and saints.

It may seem a bit like splitting hairs, but I have found it enormously helpful in my own spiritual life to understand something of the Christ part of the Jesus Christ package, and so I want to share that with you. Also, in our baptismal covenant we promise to “seek and serve Christ in all persons” and in our eucharistic prayer today we will pray “in the fullness of time, put all things into subjection under your Christ.” So it’s helpful, I think to understand more about the Christ.

As a teenager I attended an evangelical Bible class and was often urged to love Jesus and reminded what a friend we have in Jesus. But I had difficulty with the idea of an invisible man. I found it a bit unnerving to think that there was this man, however wonderful, who was always hanging around just wanting to be friends. I experienced a kind of stranger-danger with him.

The Christ however is not gendered. The Christ is a cosmic being who is involved in calling everything and everyone to our fullest expression. At the end of time, whatever that may mean, at the end of time the Christ, the Son of God, the creative Word of God, will be the unifying principle, the One who makes all things whole. The One who the Creator God, as we say in our eucharistic prayer, puts all things into subjection under. This is the vision of Christus Rex – Christ the Sovereign – who in Jesus rose victorious o’er the grave.

You notice that Jesus just slipped back in.

For us as Trinitarian Christians, we cannot separate the Christ from Jesus or Jesus from the Christ. They are one and the same, only different.

It would make no sense for us in our baptismal vows to promise to seek and serve Jesus in all persons because Jesus lived in 1 st century Palestine and we live in 21 st century California. The Christ however is not limited by time or bounded by space and the Christ is evident all around us. Based on Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 “When I was hungry you gave me something to eat, [when] I was thirsty you gave me something to drink, [when] I was a stranger you invited me in” we understand that as we love our neighbor we are loving Jesus Christ and so our promise is to seek and serve Christ in all persons.

So for me, the Christ is present in all creation, the Christ is the manifestation of limitless spiritual possibility. The Christ is the one who gathers us together and who makes us into the Christlike beings we are called to be.

But I know that for many of you, ‘Jesus’ is far more approachable than this cosmic being, ‘Christ’. The good news is we don’t have to choose. If you find it easier to love and serve Jesus that’s fine because Jesus really is the Christ.

What was so astonishing to Saul who became Paul was that in that blinding light he experienced Jesus and knew he was the Christ. He had an experience of Jesus Christ which changed his life and his identity forever.

Just as Simon Peter and the other disciples would never forget the day that Jesus told them to put their nets on the right side of the boat and they came up full of fish. Not only was Jesus on the land but Jesus was in their workplace, the post-resurrection Jesus lived where they lived.

Just as Jesus the Christ does today. Jesus the Christ lives where we live. Not as some ghostly, invisible man, but as a potent life force, as one who turns our weeping into joy, as one who is constantly moving us forward to be united with God.

And we also live where Christ lives. In some way which is mysterious but true, we are invited to join with the myriad angels and elders worshipping God. Even as we deal with all the messiness of being human, we are invited into the heavenly realms to worship around the throne. And we remember this in our eucharistic prayer when on your behalf I say, “Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, who forever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your name…” and we sing Holy, Holy, Holy together.

In that moment we step out of everyday reality and into the heavenly court which John saw in his vision.

Just as Jesus the Christ is fully human and fully God, who lived a life as a human even while being a cosmic being dancing in the Trinity, so we live fully human lives inspired by the Spirit of God and we also get to worship in the heavenly realms praising God every day with the psalmist who says, “my heart sings to you without ceasing; O Lord my God, I will give you thanks for ever.”

the Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall