Epiphany 1
By Canon Dr John Toy, Sunday 11th January, 2009
”You are my Beloved Son, with you I am well pleased”, so Mark, Matthew and Luke give the words of God heard by all when Jesus was baptised. These words in themselves do not imply absolute uniqueness – for there were many people described in other religions and in the Old Testament, as Sons of God , even much loved ones. But before long the unique position of Jesus became emphasised and John in his interpretation of the baptism uses the word “only begotten Son of God” several times. Here is a claim for uniqueness and this word of John´s has passed into the orthodox Christian faith, as we shall say in the creed; “the only Son of God”.
No-one can make that sort of claim as a fact of known history; demoting every other human being who ever has lived or who ever will live to being at best only metaphorical children of God, because this one, Jesus of Nazareth is the only one we claim to stand in that unique relationship with God. What are we saying when we say he was the only son of his Father, implying that God has never had and never will have, any other child in this fullest, quasi-physical , sense?
It is an assertion of faith in the world-importance of Jesus, making him the only complete interpreter of God to mankind, the most reliable person in the history of the world, who in his words and actions has showed us the very nature of God and demonstrated how God wants us to live in this world.
It is important to distinguish this essential word in our faith from any claim to historical or scientific fact.; the certainty we can have about it is the certainty of our faith, not the certainty we can have about known truths. As such it is always vulnerable, vulnerable to attack from literal-minded people, and vulnerable to doubts in our own minds.. It is something one can base one’s life on, as the best and most likely interpretation of the history presented to us, but not something that can give the assurance of a world-accepted fact…It is a good example of where the distinction between faith and history lies.
On the other side of this divide is the word that the gospels use of Jesus relationship to his mother: here he is never the only-begotten son of Mary: he is her ”first-born son”, the word used in Matthew and Luke. Matthew reports that Joseph had no sexual relations with Mary until after Jesus was born, but then followed the younger family of at least four boys, named both in Matthew and Mark as James, Joseph, Simon, and Jude, and, in Mark,also some sisters. Here we have facts of history. . Jesus grew up as the eldest of a Jewish family living in Nazareth, his whole young experience was in a family. It helps us to demystify the figure of Jesus by realising that for these many years, probably at least 30, he was a family member, subject to his parents though with all the traits of a precocious boy.
The only incident we know about between those years was when he got lost in Jerusalem and his parents spent three days searching for him. Families often do have one child, who wanders off and this incident mirrors the experiences of many parents. Mollie and I were once in a Roman Catholic bookshop in France and we found a book of cartoons about the Bible and Church. One showed this incident with a very angry Mary and Joseph striding away dragging behind them a 12 year old Jesus out of the Temple by his hair, with Mary saying ” we´ll teach you to be about your father´s business” !
We know also that he gradually grew away from his family when he was somewhere between the ages of 30 and 40,and they were anxious about him, and when they came seeking him he turned from them and said rather brusquely, ” Who is my mother ? Who is my brother ? then pointing to his disciples, Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother and sister and mother”. Here is the saying that links us, as his family of faith, with the historical reality of his human family. Just they, after all these doubts, joined the company of those who believed in him, ( James becoming the first bishop of Jerusalem, James and Jude as possible authors of the epistles and his mother committed to the care of the most beloved disciple, John), so we can be called the brothers and sisters of Jesus, stretching the historical family into the metaphorical..
I said it helped us to demystify the character of Jesus to realize that most of his life he spent as a member of a Jewish family. Sometimes language about him is used that makes it difficult to realise he was a human being at all. But this historic basis to our faith is essential.
He was the first-born son of a Jewish girl and baptised by John in the Jordan – that is history.
We confess him as the only-begotten son of God his Father- that is faith.
On those two pillars stands the Christian religion, both pillars absolutely necessary and both needing to be controlled by the other — rooted in history, but daring to venture beyond that into a confession of the world-importance of Jesus´ words and actions.
That confession has given purpose to the lives of millions and sustains and challenges us through our life`s pilgrimage and we make it now in the words of the creed:
