PAUSE FOR THOUGHT
By Rev’d Robert Parrish
OVER the Christmas season Christians will be singing the carol ‘Hark the herald angels sing’ which contains the line ‘see the incarnate deity’.
That Jesus was ‘the incarnate deity’ is a belief unacceptable to Jews, from whose religion Christianity sprung. Judaism insists on the oneness of God: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one.’ (Deuteronomy 6 v4). Jesus himself quoted these words with approval (Mark 12 v29). The earliest Christian understanding of Jesus was that he was ‘a man approved by God.’ (Acts 2 v22).
How then did Jesus come to be understood as the Son of God, and God Incarnate? The first thing to note is that for a Jew to claim to be ‘son of God’ was not to claim divinity. The kings of Israel were adopted as sons of God at their coronation: ‘You are my son, today I have become your father.’ (Psalm 2 v7).
Very early on, Christians concluded that Jesus was adopted as God’s Son when he rose from the dead. That was his coronation moment. (See Romans 1 v3-4). But as Christians reflected on the life of Jesus, they concluded that as God was powerfully at work in his life before the resurrection, he must have been God’s Son prior to his resurrection.
But at what point did Jesus become God’s Son, if it wasn’t at his resurrection? According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus became aware of his unique identity at his baptism (Mark 1 v 10-11). According to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus was God’s Son from the moment of his conception (Matthew 1 v18-25 and Luke 1 v35).
Finally, John’s Gospel concluded that Jesus existed with God before his birth, indeed before time began. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…….The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.’ (John 1 v1 and v14).
The use of ‘Word’ to describe Jesus is significant. We communicate with each other through words. Jesus is God’s means of communication with us. In his life of service to others, Jesus revealed the loving character of God. In the words of one theologian, Jesus was ‘the human face of God’ or ‘the body language of God.’ As the Jesus of John’s Gospel says of himself: ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.’ (John 14 v9).
• The views expressed by columnists of this newspaper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Glamorgan Star, its employees, or proprietors.
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