“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”
Luke 9:20
Peter’s confession in Luke 9 is a pivotal moment in the gospel. Amid the excitement of Jesus’ teachings and miracles, confusion lingered. Some people thought he was John the Baptist, others believed he was Elijah or another prophet come back. This confusion prompted Jesus to ask Peter, “Who do you say I am? And Peter’s response is the foundational confession of the Christian faith.
“God’s Messiah.”
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” according to Matthew 16.
The crowd is confused, but Peter gets it. Jesus is the Messiah. Peter has announced what I, as a Christian, knew before even reading this story; Jesus is the Messiah. Some Bible translations say “Christ.” But regardless of whether Peter says Messiah or Christ, I know what Peter is saying. He figured it out and here in Luke 9, Matthew 16, or Mark 8, Peter announces it. Everyone has been waiting for the Messiah, and Jesus is that Messiah. This is very exciting.
I was so thrilled when Peter realized that Jesus is the Messiah and expressed a belief just like mine, that I completely forgot to ask crucial questions: What exactly is a Messiah? And what does it mean to be a Christ?
Will you Just Ask the Question?
What is a Messiah?
I never questioned what I already believed to be true. I came to understand the role of the Messiah the same way I came to understanding of the gospel; backwards. (see post on the gospel). I knew that Jesus was the Messiah, and therefore believed that the Messiah was someone who needed to die on a cross to bring forgiveness from God. In my understanding, Messiah meant a specific type of religious savior. My association of the term was solely with Jesus in a church setting. Thus, I believed that those hoping for a Messiah were essentially hoping for Jesus. It all made perfect sense to me.
Except that it didn’t.
As we read the gospel stories, we find that no one seeking the Messiah anticipated someone like Jesus. In the church, we often discuss the rejection of Jesus by “those people,” but it wasn’t a rejection of him as a person, but as the Messiah. The Pharisees, teachers of the Law, and religious elites failed to recognize Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. The disciples initially saw him as a Rabbi, and even when they began to view him as the Messiah, they resisted the idea of his crucifixion, particularly led by Peter. The crowd in Jerusalem chanted “crucify him!” because Jesus didn’t fit their perception of the expected Messiah. It appears that everyone was expecting a different kind of Messiah.
Finally Asked the Question
Is there a different type of Messiah? This thought challenges my assumptions. If Jesus is the Messiah and Messiahs do what Jesus did, can there truly be any other kind? Can there be a Messiah who doesn’t die on a cross for forgiveness of sins?
Unless….
Maybe I don’t really understand what a Messiah is.
So, after all of that, I’m finally asking – What is a Messiah?
What is a Messiah?
In the intro post, I mentioned that the Kingdom of God is indeed a Kingdom. Similarly, it is important to understand that God’s Messiah is indeed a Messiah. While it is more complex due to God’s involvement in the role, it is crucial to grasp the concept of Messiah before delving into the kind of Messiah that Jesus is. This understanding makes Peter’s confession and the church’s faith in Jesus even more powerful.
When Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah, what is he saying? Now that we are asking the question, the Bible is helpful in answering it.
And they began to accuse Jesus, saying, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.”
Luke 23:2
The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
Luke 23:35-39
Messiah comes from the Hebrew word that means the anointed one, or the chosen one. This king is not just any ruler, but God’s chosen ruler, empowered by the Spirit to lead and guide God’s people in proper worship and righteousness. Throughout the Old Testament, the lack of faithfulness in the kings was a recurring problem, highlighting the necessity for Israel’s hope in God’s chosen and anointed Messiah.
Not his Last Name
The Hebrew word for anointed is the root of the word Messiah, while the Greek word for anointed is the root of the word Christ. When reading the Bible, regardless of translation, we can now better understand the meaning. Whether we see Christ, Messiah, or Anointed, it can be interpreted as “God’s chosen King”. After learning about the Messiah/Christ/Anointed, I changed how I spoke about Jesus in my sermons. I intentionally started saying “King Jesus” instead of “Jesus Christ”, emphasizing the hope for a righteous king. It was Jesus’ kingship that was rejected by the people, leading to his crucifixion. He claimed that God’s chosen king was a travelling rabbi from Nazareth, who befriended sinners and advocated for loving neighbors and enemies. It’s remarkable to envision a king who shared meals with the sick and poor. This idea disappointed some and slandered God in the eyes of others.
But Jesus was not just making up a new kind of Messiah. There was a long tradition of this type of understanding found in the scriptures. Jesus began his ministry by reading a scroll from Isaiah 61 and indicating that he was the fulfillment of that scripture.
The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Luke 4:18
Understanding Messiah as God’s chosen King reshapes how we view Jesus’ identity and mission. Peter’s confession wasn’t just a statement of personal faith—it was a recognition that Jesus was the long-awaited ruler who would bring God’s reign of justice, mercy, and peace. Yet, Jesus didn’t meet the popular expectations of a conquering king. Instead, He revealed a Kingdom marked by humility, healing, and sacrificial love. As we explore this deeper meaning, we’re invited not just to believe in Jesus as Messiah but to follow Him as King—trusting His way of love and righteousness over power and conquest.
Additional Scriptures and Discussion Questions
Question: Prior to reading this post, what has been your understanding of Messiah/Christ/Anointed?
Question: In the posts about defining and preaching the gospel, we said a gospel was the narrative announcement of a king’s new rule. How does understanding Messiah or Christ as God’s chosen king deepen or challenge your understanding of the gospel?
Question: The Gospel not only tells us that Jesus was the king, but a different kind of king. What is the significance that Jesus is the Messiah? What does it say about God and God’ kingdom?
In Luke 22:67 Jesus is questioned by the chief priests and religious leaders. “If you are the Messiah,” they said, “tell us.”
Question: What are they asking Jesus? Does a different understanding of the word Messiah change how we understand the controversy and motivations that led to the crucifixion?
I am anticipating that some who read this post will feel a bit anxious by the way that we’ve defined Messiah as king. What makes us uneasy is that for many of us, we have previously concluded that Messiah meant savior. Messiah was the one who God sent to save us. And in this above discussion, we did not even mention salvation in connection with Messiah. In a few weeks we’ll have a post specifically about the connection between Jesus the Messiah and salvation. But for today I’ll say that, in the same way that a firefighter can save you from a burning house precisely because they are a firefighter, the messiah can be our savior precisely because he is God’s chosen king.
Next week’s Topic: Heaven
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Tanner H Griffin 
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