Jesus is Called Christ

Matthew 1:7-17 (ESV)
and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, [8] and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, [9] and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, [10] and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, [11] and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
[12] And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, [13] and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, [14] and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, [15] and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, [16] and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
[17] So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

And Jacob the Father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
Well I’m not going to spend much more time on the Genealogy. It is there split into fourteen generations between great events in Israel’s history, which is interesting also. But more than that is the meaning of the fact that Jesus called Christ. That is significant. We often say Jesus Christ, as if Christ was his last name. That was a foreign concept. If one needed to be distinguished from another during this time there were two ways of doing it, referencing his father, or the town from which he came. There were other Jesuses during Jesus’ day, that is why Jesus is talked about as being Jesus of Nazareth. Often we think it blasphemous in the Anglo world that the Latin culture names so many boys Jesus. And it is fun when my bartender is named that, makes for some good jokes. But there is nothing really strange about it, and truthfully we are just as guilty when we name our kids Joshua, which is really what Jesus would have been called by his friends. Jesus is a hellenization of Joshua, that is a Greek rendition of Joshua. Both would have been pronounced differently than we do, but honestly who cares?
Jesus is called Christ. That is not his last name; it may be more of a title. More than that it says who he is in terms of what he was to do and did do. He is the Christ. This means he is the promised one to come, the messiah, the one who was expected to come and save Israel, the one prophesied about in the Old Testament. Jesus is called Christ because he was christened, anointed to save the world, to be our prophet, priest and king, to die on the cross and rise again on the third day and bring about the salvation not only of Israel but of the whole world. And this he did, and so Jesus is Christ, and the genealogy serves nothing but to show that he was a suitable candidate to be Christ.