Growing up in a Jewish family, I was taught that Jesus was a good man and an inspirational teacher, but not the Messiah. It was expected that, among other things, the Messiah would usher in the Messianic age, bringing an end to all war, disease, death, poverty, etc. Yet our lives teach us that transformation of even a modest flaw in our character takes devotion of thought and a commitment to spiritual growth. It seems logical, then, that rather than being able to make the changes for each of us, let alone all of us, the promised Messiah would make plain the means by which we can increasingly win our salvation, individually and—ultimately—collectively. As the Apostle Paul said, we are to “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).

So I was glad to learn of the teachings of Christian Science, which explain the Messiah’s role as our Way-shower. These teachings share the Jewish expectancy that all worldly evil will be vanquished as a result of the Messiah. But this redemption is seen as coming about through humanity yielding, individual by individual, to the deeper, divine reality of being, which would be proved by the Messiah, or Christ. (These two terms, Christ and Messiah, describe the same idea. The Jewish Messiah, or Anointed One, became known more widely through the Greek term Christ as this God-bestowed salvation began to be understood as universal in scope.)

As the promised Messiah, Christ Jesus is our Way-shower. He showed God’s nature as Spirit, the all-good creator, with unique clarity. His healings proved that we are each truly the expression of God’s all-good, spiritual nature. He also showed that such spiritual truths about God, and about our true identity as God’s creation, aren’t divorced from our day-to-day experience but demand that we live these truths in loving our neighbor. Fulfilling this demand ranges from embodying qualities such as patience, forgiveness, and kindness, to growing into the deeper demonstration of the Christly love that heals, which Jesus so powerfully exemplified.