We quite naturally tend to think of the word “Christ” as Jesus’s second name. We think of the name “Jesus Christ” in the same way that we think of names like Susan Parker or Jack Smith. But that’s an unhealthy confusion. Jesus didn’t have a second name. The word “Christ” is a title which, while it includes the person of Jesus, speaks of something wider than Jesus alone. What’s the difference between “Jesus” and “Christ”?
The name “Jesus” refers to a concrete person who, though the Second Person within the Godhead, walked this earth for 33 years and is still today someone whom we understand and relate to as an individual person. Christ refers to something larger, namely, the huge mystery of both creation and salvation of which Jesus, as the Christ, plays the foundational role but which includes the Eucharist, the Christian community, the historical Christian churches, the community of all sincere people who walk this planet, and physical creation itself. Jesus is a person whom we seek to be in a relationship with in friendship and intimacy, while Christ is a mystery which we and all creation are part of and within which we participate.
