"Election" judgements made... and BEING made...

God has seen humanity's very deep need - to have a leader who will not be self-serving, but who will be filled with both faithfulness to his word, a vision and hope for a better future, a tender shepherd-ly or parental care for those entrusted to him, wisdom to see the need of the hour and the methods and processes needed to address it, and the creative capacity to allow for new options, in order to lead us to grow into the amazing potential the creator put within us, individually, but even more so, collectively.

God’s grooming of that leader is the story of the Hebrew scriptures.

God's anointing (Greek= christen-ing, Hebrew= messiah-ing), of a leader was the first stage of some leaders taking on their leadership role. It is recorded of a king, a prophet, and a priest. In ancient times, in the Hebrew scriptures, the FORM of anointing was: a process whereby (commonly through his recognised representative) God initiates pouring, or dropping, or smearing, “landing” a liquid substance like an oil obtained from crushing olives, onto the head of the one who is about to be made leader. It has the FUNCTION of identifying and claiming  that leader, making God's choice known - both to the leader, and also to a select and trusted few, and giving the leader a chance to “earn their spurrs”, to show their mettle, to display their character, while as yet they were still (sometimes for a number of years) not publicly recognized. God's anointing of this ultimate leader he has chosen has been recorded (several times) in all four Christ-ian gospels. This makes him already, in the minds of those who have seen it and are loyal to him, to function as “Leader of Humanity”.

For this highest office of all he was (mocked by being) lifted up above his fellows, given a staff of wood so big he could hardly hold it, and big enough that he could be nailed to it, and crowned with a crown of Middle Eastern thorns beaten onto his head by another staff. He was tested till death. He stayed true right to the end. He showed us what he was made of to the core, and did not crack under betrayal, taunting and suffering. This was all done publicly. The judge must now take his seat and make judgement.

What do you say of this claimant for the title of God's Christened “Leader of Humanity” - Yeshua, of Nazareth in the Galilee, known as bar Yoseph?