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He has anointed me!
Pauline McDougall, from the Emmaus Family of Prayer, reflects on the anointing of Jesus and what we can learn from this for discerning our own call.
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The baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan was a momentous occasion. No-one before or since has been so clearly singled out for ministry. God the Father proclaimed the relationship between himself and Jesus in an unambiguous way. The Holy Spirit was seen to anoint Him and the onlookers were given instructions to listen to Him. At that moment Jesus became “the Christ” - the “Anointed One”. Immediately afterwards Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Through this prolonged period of solitude he grew in the gift of discernment and understanding of his call. Unless we understand the implications of the temptations in the wilderness for us, we are in danger of diminishing the real humanity of Jesus by failing to understand that He had a real struggle with the various possibilities presented to him at this time. The tools he used in this process of discernment were prayer, fasting and the Word of God in Scripture. The prayer kept him in close, continual contact with his Father. The fasting freed Him from the controls our physical nature exerts over us and the Word of God gave Him a point of reference by which He could measure the words of Satan. He was able to quote at Satan that “Man does not live by bread alone,” resisting the temptation to use power selfishly to satisfy his own hunger. Although we are not faced with the possibility of turning stones into bread, we are faced with the temptation to use any power or gift we have to fulfil our own selfish desires. The second temptation brings the response from Jesus “You must worship the Lord your God, and serve Him alone.” Thus He effectively discounts the attraction of status and material possessions, idols, which occupy centre-stage in many of our lives. The third temptation to throw Himself off the parapet of the Temple is answered by “You must not put the Lord your God to the test”. The urge towards cheap popularity and the irresponsible reliance on His relationship with the Father were rejected. As he struggled with these ideas Jesus must have thought back to the moment of His baptism and reflected on His Father’s words and the Holy Spirit’s anointing. He knew himself to be loved and to be sent. Meditating on this, Jesus realised that service, motivated by love was the way His Father’s will would be accomplished. Afterwards “Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in Him, returned to Galilee” (Luke 4). Going to the synagogue he is invited to read from the prophet Isaiah. Here Jesus reads and declares himself to be the fulfilment of the prophecy. “The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor……" (Luke 4.16-18) Ambassador for Christ The whole of Jesus’ ministry was characterised by His awareness of His anointed task. He constantly refers to doing the will of His Father, disclaiming any suggestion that He was acting on His own initiative. Every stage of His public life, every decision, was preceded and backed up by prayer. Additional grace was poured out on Him at those very critical times, such as the choosing of the twelve Apostles, the Transfiguration, the Last Supper and the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. The call to discipleship of necessity involves us in the same anointing for service. St Paul tells us that we were chosen “in Christ” and if we are in Him we share His whole life and experience. Jesus Himself made our call and commission very clear in John 20:21 - “as the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” In St Paul’s words to the Corinthian Church, we become “ambassadors for Christ”. An ambassador acts on behalf of a ruler; he goes into foreign territory and proclaims the King’s presence there. He must share his thoughts, speak his language and be privy to special information if the King is to be truly represented by him. In a sense, he renounces his own individuality. It is not coincidence that kingship and anointing often go together in the Old Testament. Samuel anointed Saul and David, and Zadok anointed Solomon. Jesus is the king of Kings; we are declared “a royal priesthood” (1 Pet 2 : 9) so we share in the anointing of Jesus. To discover what we, as individuals, have been anointed for, requires the same process of discernment as Jesus underwent. The particular way in which our service is rendered is God’s choice and God’s timing. Jesus did not launch out at the first indication that His Father had work for Him to do. The years between 12 and 30 were an essential period of preparation because a certain degree of maturity is required for really effective service. Lack of fruitfulness is often because we are working in the wrong part of the “vineyard”, or at the wrong time of the day. Remembering the parables, Jesus shows us there is always work to be done and people will be called at all stages. To discern our own call, we need a daily commitment to prayer. Fasting too is a powerful spiritual tool, which will help reveal what controls us and enable us to relinquish dependence on the wrong things. Meditating on the Word of God in Scripture will also help us to clarify our spiritual vision and enable us to see the next step more clearly. An obedient attitude borne from genuine listening to the prompting of the Spirit will prevent us from dictating our will to God and expecting Him to ratify our choices. We should also be alert to what others affirm in us as an indication of the area in which we are called to serve. What do other people ask of us? How are our neighbours served by what we do? When Jesus washed the disciples’ feet He gave us a model for all time “Yet here am I among you as the one who serves.” (Luke 22:27) An encounter with Christ in a deeply personal way produces a willingness to accept the anointing and serve. The Samaritan woman became the bearer of good news to others, Martha and Mary, models of hospitality, Paul, an amazing preacher. So we too can discover God’s call as we meditate on Paul’s words in Ephesians “Try to discover what the Lord wants of you - do not be thoughtless but recognise what is the will of the Lord… each one of us has been given his own share of grace, given as Christ allotted it so that the saints together make a unity in the work of service, building up the body of Christ.”
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