by Rev. Fr. Mathew Zachariah

The reason for this question is that during Christmas time the phrase 'X'mas is quite often seen on the internet and on greeting cards. Those who do this may not be doing it with malicious intent.

Messiah is the Greek word for Christ -- the 'anointed.' He is Lord Jesus, Immanuel (God with us), God's one and only Son, the Word, and the same Word was God, and the Word became flesh (incarnate), and He is the new born Babe in the manger, Christ the Lord.

Once, Jesus the Christ asked His disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" Did they respond, "Some say You are 'X', others say You are 'Y', and still others 'Z' or one of the other letters of the alphabet?" Of course they didn't.

"But what about you?" He asked. "Who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but my Father in heaven."

While in the midst of heavy loss, suffering and agony, Job, a righteous man, declared, "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes----I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me."

When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."

The prophet Isaiah foresaw the suffering Messiah and wrote, "His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness… He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering."