Son of God

Tuesday Before The Epiphany A-1

Entrance Antiphon Ps 118 (117):26-27 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: The Lord is God and has given us light.

Collect O God, who in the blessed childbearing of the holy Virgin Mary kept the flesh of your Son free from the sentence incurred by the human race, grant, we pray, that we, who have been taken up into this new creation, may be freed from the ancient taint of sin. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever

Scripture today: 1 John 2:29-3:6; Psalm 97; John 1:29-34

The next day, John saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me there comes one who is preferred before me because he was before me. I did not know him, but for this have I come baptizing with water that he might be manifest in Israel.” John gave testimony, saying: “I saw the Spirit coming down as a dove from heaven, and he remained upon him. I did not know him but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me: ‘He upon whom you will see the Spirit descend and remain, he it is who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ I saw and I have given testimony that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:29-34)

Son of God At the outset of the Gospel of St John we are presented with the fundamental identity of Jesus of Nazareth. The Gospel opens with St John’s own Prologue setting forth his profound reflections on the person of Jesus. He is the eternal Word who had always been with God. He is the only‑begotten Son of the Father, God himself made man. St John then introduces John the Baptist, in order to inform the reader of what John had said of Jesus. It is a tribute to the Baptist and to his remarkable testimony that he is so prominent in the very Prologue. We read in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) that John pointed Jesus out as being the promised Messiah who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist’s mission in life was to prepare the people for his coming and to alert the nation to the fact that it was in and through Jesus that the plans of God for his people and for the world would be fulfilled. Now St John, the author of the fourth Gospel, had been a disciple of John the Baptist and there are significant additions in his account of the Baptist’s testimony. He shows that the Baptist testified that our Lord’s mission was to take away the sin of the world: “John saw Jesus coming to him and said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’” (1:29). We are not told if John had any conception of how this would be done, but his image of Jesus being the Lamb of God suggests a sacrificial mission. It seems that he understood that this great Servant of Yahweh would be the Suffering Servant portrayed in Isaiah. Jesus would also baptize in the Holy Spirit (1:33). Especially remarkable was his testimony that he who was God’s Lamb and who would baptize in the Spirit, was God’s Son. “I saw and I have given testimony that this is the Son of God” (John 1:29‑34). It is clear that John did not regard Jesus as a son of God merely in a way that might have been applicable to any prophet. He was the Son of God, although there is no further explanation given of John’s use of this pivotal title.

John the Evangelist tells us at the end of his Gospel that he wrote it in order to show that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (John 20:31). At the beginning of the Gospel he narrates that before the public work of Christ began, John the Baptist bore witness to this too. I once met a couple who had on their car a sign saying, “Jews for Jesus.” I stopped and asked them what the sign signified. They told me that “Jews for Jesus” referred to a movement of Jewish people who recognized that Jesus was the Messiah. John, whom the people recognized as a great prophet, bore testimony that Jesus was the promised Messiah. But there is far more to the person, the work and the mystery of Jesus than this. Most critically, there is the fact that he is God’s Son. John the Baptist gave that witness, and John the Evangelist goes on in his Gospel to show that Christ formally claimed to be the Son of God. This implied not only in his own mind but clearly in the mind of his enemies that he was equal to God. It was this truth that Christ bore witness to in the presence of the highest religious authorities in the land. It was in order to render this witness that he allowed himself to be delivered into their hands. It was for this claim that they demanded his death from Pontius Pilate — “for pretending to be the Son of God” (John 19:7). Down through the centuries it has been the litmus test of the Christian. Does one accept that Jesus is not only the Messiah but the very Son of God? This is refused by our Jewish brothers and of course it is refused by our Muslim friends. It is the great claim of the Christian Church, and it is the reason why Christ is understood by the Christian faithful to have all authority in heaven and on earth. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords above all because he is the very Son of God. He is the second Divine Person, and is just as much the one God as is the Father. In him resides the fullness of the Godhead, and the fullness of Christ resides in his body the Church. The Church contains this wondrous treasure, the person of Jesus Christ the Son of God made man. Those who by baptism become members of the Church receive a share in the divine life of Jesus Christ.

Let us place ourselves in the Gospel scene of today and listen to the testimony of John about Jesus. He is the Christ, the Messiah who is the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world. He is the Saviour of man, and there is nothing lacking in him. In him comes every heavenly blessing because he is the very Son of God. Let us make him the entire object of our life and follow in his footsteps, no matter what may be the cost. He is our Way, our Truth and our Life.

(E.J.Tyler)

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