Who knows John Baptist?
Now of course, it’s not John Baptist — it’s John the Baptist.
Most people know Jesus as Jesus Christ, but he should rightly be known and called Jesus the Christ — or more precisely, Jesus the Anointed.
Somewhere along the way, the was dropped from “Jesus the Christ.” But why? One possibility is practical: in earlier times, Bibles were painstakingly handwritten, and if the phrase “Jesus the Christ” appeared 190 to 210 times in the New Testament, omitting “the” could save time, ink, and effort.
Yet in doing so, something subtle but important was lost. Without the, the title becomes a name. It turns Jesus the Anointed One into something more like a surname — Jesus Christ — stripping away the weight of his role.
And strangely enough, it’s easier to turn Jesus Christ into a swear word without the the. But if people said, “Aww, Jesus the Christ!” — it wouldn’t roll off the tongue the same way. Knowing that Christ means Anointed one, the phrase Jesus Christ used in anger becomes almost absurd: “Ouch! Jesus Anointed one!”
So in the end, to save a little time and money, Jesus the Christ was shortened to Jesus Christ, and that small edit dulled the clarity of who he really is.
Now again, who knows John Baptist? It sounds off — because it’s missing that simple but important word. The same is true for those who claim to know Jesus. They should know him not merely as Jesus Christ, but as Jesus the Christ — Jesus the Anointed one.
To speak any other way misses the weight of his identity — just as it would if we referred to John the Baptist as anything less. And for those familiar with doctrine, the God of Israel does not look fondly upon laziness — especially when it comes to reverence.
