Son of God and Lord: 1st week of Easter Tuesday
Now
we turn our eyes on the title Son of God.
When the Old Testament speaks of the son of God it conveys the sense of
intimacy in the relationship with God – a special friendship with God. So it is a title given to angels, to the
chosen people, and to the kings of Israel.
To be called a son of God in the bible means one has a special
relationship with God as manifested perhaps by their holiness or by their
office. But when the title Son of God
was used by Peter in Gospel when he said “your are the Christ, the Son of the
living God,” that title is different
from that of the Old Testament. It means
that Jesus is eternal, he existed before time, he is like God, he is the Son of
God, in fact He is God. Yes we are also
sons and daughters of God but when we say Jesus is “the only Son of God” that reality
is different from our own sonship. That
is why Jesus would always distinguish his relationship and our relationship
with the God the Father. He would always
say, “my Father and your Father.” He
taught us to call God “Our Father” but only Jesus calls God “my Father.” When he calls God “my father” it signifies a
unique and special relationship with the Father since he is eternal with the
Father.
This
will be further clarified with the title “Lord”. Jesus is Lord. To understand this we have to go back to the
Old Testament. God revealed his name to
Moses in the burning bush. Most often we
pronounce it as Yahweh and sometimes it is also pronounced as Jehovah. I said it is most often pronounced as Yahweh or
Jehovah, because we never know how this word is pronounced because even the
Jews would not pronounce it. They would
not pronounce it for fear that they might violate the second commandment. So, no one, since the day Moses wrote the
name of God, would dare pronounce the name of God. So since time immemorial whenever they
encounter or read in the bible the name of God they would replace it and just
say instead adonai in Hebrew or Kyrios in Greek. In English the Hebrew adonai and the Greek
kyrios is translated as Lord. So when
Jesus is called kyrios it is understood that Jesus is God.
Jesus
is Son of God, but he is not just any son but the “only begotten Son of
God.” Jesus is Lord. Lord here is not just master. Lord is the substitute title to the name of
God – adonai in Hebrew and Kyrios in Greek and Lord in English. Thus, when we say Jesus is Lord we affirm and
believe that Jesus is God, the only begotten Son of God, the second person of
the Blessed Trinity.
In
our gospel today Mary Magdalene calls Jesus using his two titles. She calls her
rabbouni which means teacher acknowledging that he is a learned human teacher,
but Mary Magdalene also calls him Lord.
She acknowledges that Jesus is divine, Jesus is the only begotten Son of
God. But there is something more curious
in this passage and these are the words of Jesus noli me tangere – do not touch
me. The more acceptable translation now
is, “do not hold on to me,” or “stop holding on to me” - do not pin me
down. Many times this is what happens in
our relationship with the Lord – we make him who we want him to be. Sometimes we might not be aware of it but
many times we make Jesus who we want him to be.
Yes Jesus is the Sto. Nino or the Nazareno, or divine mercy. But Jesus is much more. We are correct in saying that Jesus is the
Sto. Nino but he is not just the Sto. Nino.
He is more than just the Sto. Nino.
He is more than just the divine mercy – more than just the Sacred Heart. These are certain angles in his person but it
is not everything. After all Jesus is
Lord.
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