“How do the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?” Jesus asked. And then He said, “David himself calls Him Lord, how is He His Son?” The question of what it means for Jesus to be Son will be what we look at today. Two of our readings today speak of the title of Jesus which is “Son.” I am referring to the first reading, from 2nd Samuel chapter 7, and the Gospel passage from S. Mark chapter 12. We are very used to the title of “Son” because we hear it two ways. Jesus is the Son of God, or the Son of the Father Almighty (which are equivalent in meaning); and Jesus is the Son of Man. It is important that we grapple with this term “Son” and find its significance; thus, as another installment of my series “The Mystery of God,” in which we look at the various aspects or dimensions of the one Mystery of God, we turn today to the holy mystery of Christ’s Sonship.
We are very accustomed to the title Son of God, probably because of its use in the Nicene Creed: “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God.” This sonship is referred to in 2nd Samuel 7, when we hear the Lord of host speaking these words: “I will establish the throne of His kingdom for ever. I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to me a Son.” This is not speaking of David because it is clarified that this will happen after David lies down with his fathers; that is, reaches the end of his earthly life.
We are also accustomed to the title Son of Man, but perhaps in a lesser way than the title Son of God. Son of Man is not in the Nicene Creed directly, but indirectly, in these words: “He was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made Man.” But we probably should be very accustomed to the title Son of Man, because Jesus uses it about Himself in many places in the Gospel. Jesus said to the High Priest: “But I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Mt 26.64) Earlier in that chapter of Matthew, whilst in the Upper Room at the Institution of the Eucharist, Jesus says of Judas Iscariot: “The Son of man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” To the disciples in Mark 8, Saint Mark tells us this: “And Jesus began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Earlier in Mark chapter 2, Jesus says: “But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” And there are many more examples I could cite.
I have gotten this far in my sermon, but perhaps I should have clarified earlier what “Son” in fact means. Whether it is used in Son of God or Son of Man, what Son means is sharing in the nature, essence, or quality of the one named. It is perhaps most straightforward to substitute “nature” for Son when ever we read it. Thus, to say that Jesus is the Son of God means that He shares the divine nature of God. “I and the Father are one,” Jesus says in John’s Gospel account. And to say that Jesus is the Son of Man means that He shares the human nature of Man. Saint Paul emphasizes this when Paul calls Jesus the “Last Adam.” Adam is a word that means both a singular human being named in Genesis, and also “adam” means humanity itself, all of human nature. And the term “Last” in “Last Adam” means that Jesus is perfect man, perfect humanity, the completed and fullest expression of humanity, which is what “It is finished” means when Jesus utters this on the Cross right before He gave up the Spirit and died.
Thus the holy mystery of Christ’s sonship begins by recognizing that Jesus is very God and very Man; “very” means truly and completely. Jesus is completely and utterly the Son of God, and Jesus is completely and utterly the Son of Man. He is perfect God and perfect Man, and at no point in His existence, before all time in His divine sonship, and from His conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, at no point in His existence is He anything less than perfect God and perfect Man. What seems like a contradiction is in fact the truth of Christ, and because He is both God and Man, we adore Him and we bless Him and we worship Him.
But we want to keep the mystery of Christ’s Sonship of God and Man present in our thinking, and there is no better way to do so than to meditate on the Definition of the Union of the Divine and Human Natures in the Person of Christ provided by the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, the fourth ecumenical council attended by over 520 Bishop and completed on the 1st of November, AD 451. It is found in the Book of Common Prayer, page 864. My dear brothers and sisters, hear these words which express the holy mystery of Christ’s sonship perfectly and completely, because it was provided to all the bishops by the Holy Ghost:
“Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance (homoousios) with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer (Theotokos); one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the Fathers has handed down to us.”
Thus it is the mystery of Christ’s sonship that captures the primary mystery of Christ. It took the Church praying and arguing for over four hundred years before it came to this understanding that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and at the same time the Son of Man, fully and completely in each nature, each sonship. And in knowing this, and meditating upon it, much is revealed to us as to Who Christ is, what we know of Him, and how we ourselves are known by Him. He sits on the throne of His Father’s kingdom, and at the same time is like us in all respects, apart from sin. Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, King of kings, and Lord of lords: Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
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