The anointing of British kings and queens at their coronation has remained shrouded in mystery for hundreds of years, but modern media are spilling the beans, or at least the recipe! The holy oil, or charism, which will be used to anoint King Charles III during his coronation on 6 May has reportedly been consecrated at a ceremony in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Friday this week.
According to international news media the anointing oil was created using olives which had been harvested from groves on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem.
The olives were pressed just outside Bethlehem before being perfumed with sesame, rose, jasmine, cinnamon, neroli, benzoin and amber as well as orange blossom. The news outlet reports that the special anointing oil, was prayed over by the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem.
None of this will surprise us as Christians as we have known from our studies of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, that anointing oil was used to inaugurate new kings, priests and prophets, as well as part of the daily temple worship of God. In the New Testament, despite the total change that the coming of Jesus brings, and the end of the religious practices of Judaism, anointing oil continued to have a place. In healing, for instance, (James 5:14) but also in connection with the death of Jesus. In advance of his sufferings, a woman who was really grateful for his help and forgiveness took an alabaster box of anointing oil (probably being saved for her own nuptials) and broke it over the head of Jesus. Jesus commended her for her faith and the prophetic element of her action.
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But it is as a symbol of the Holy Spirit’s anointing and power that I tend to think of the fragrant oil. That dear woman who anointed Jesus would have smelt just like him afterwards, and people might have said ‘she smells just like Jesus!’ when they passed her by. I want King Charles to reign under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and will pray for him to do so. But I also want to bear the fragrance of Christ through my own life by the anointing of His Spirit. So, I pray the words of an old chorus: ‘Oh for a new anointing, Lord’, once again.
