I was reading about the ancient practice of anointing for both religious and secular purposes and something that I read caught my eye. As part of their bathing ritual, the ancients would anoint themselves with oil after they had bathed because this was supposed to close up the pores and help regulate the body's temperature and moisture. I thought about anointing closing up pores and I also thought about Jesus bleeding from every pore. Jesus is the Messiah and the Christ, which literally means the Anointed One. I always assumed that Jesus was anointed as the Messiah at the outset of His mission. This is probably true. But after suffering for the sins of the world and feeling the pain of every living creature, suffering that was so great it caused Him to bleed from every pore, it would make sense, given that oil causes the pores to close up, that Jesus was also anointed at the end of His mission. He was anointed from the beginning to save the world, and, once He had saved the world, He was anointed once more to seal in and consecrate His eternal sacrifice, closing up His pores so that He need not bleed from them ever again.
