Act 4: The Son of God Revealed
The Gospels - Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ, Images 15 through 20
What follows is a supplemental commentary on the fourth Act in “The Canon" collection of captioned art.
Summary
In all four of the Gospel accounts you will find Christ being revealed as the Son of God. In Mark, we see it declared in the very first verse. In others (like Matthew for instance) we see a slow build throughout Jesus' life and ministry, culminating with His follower's public proclaimation of Christ's sonship. The collection tries to capture this movement of man's gradual realization of Jesus' identity, that he is God incarnate. The dramatic irony is that God reveals Christ's sonship before His ministry even starts. But it becomes apparent that man will require a continued appeal to accept and truly "know" this truth. So we observe the ways this prophetic appeal is made:
- We see Christ portrayed as a healer, endowed with the generative power to make all things new.
- We see Christ as demonstrated as an authority over chaos, calming the foreboding forces which threaten the preservation of life itself.
- We see Christ as the prophetic fulfillment of the promised deliverer. One who has a heart for the lost, and who will liberate man from their bondage to decay. He will set the captives free, and He will restore sight to the blind.
Following this progression our confidence in the identity of Jesus is bolstered, "[He] is the Christ, the son of the living God." And in a moment of epiphany, the realization is made that the same God who intervened on man's behalf so many times throught the history of Isreal is the same God ministering to them now. Through the son, God incarnate entered the reality of man. This is not one more permutation of Israel's incremental history of deliverance, this is momentous: the promised Messiah is here, He is the son of the living God.
A man who was fully with God, and God with Him
Image 15 of 29
Inspired by Matthew 3:16-17 and John 1:14
"As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.'"
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
The baptism of Jesus is a uniquely compelling theophany within scripture where seemingly the three persons of the Godhead are interacting with one-another: the Spirit descends on Jesus, and God the Father affirms Jesus's sonship. Furthermore, John the Baptist is in the mix which only furthers the novelty of the scene. The message? God is intervening. It is a powerful moment, early on in all three of the Synoptic Gospels where we see Jesus' divinity and humanity clearly articulated side-by-side. The authors are setting the stage to let the reader know: something new and special is happening - although man had departed from God's presence, we find God coming to dwell under the decaying reality man chose. Its a moving picture, one that really frames the Gospel message for me: the good news of Jesus Christ is here. Hallelujah! And that is how I imagine the miraculous picture of the incarnation.
Tempted in every way, but still believing that God was good
Image 16 of 29
Inspired by Matthew 4:1, 19:17a, and Hebrews 4:15
"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."
"'Why do you ask me about what is good?' Jesus replied. 'There is only One who is good.'"
"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."
Perhaps the greatest display of Christ's divinity, more so than His healings, His miracles, or His teachings is the fact that He bore the weight of temptation without being compelled to sin. Because unfortunately, history shows is us that nothing is more "human" than indulging in the hollow promises of temptation. But not Christ. Timothy Keller once described sin as, "any reason not to believe in the Gospel." A punchy summarization of a larger message he shared unpacking idolatry as the the core motive behind sin, most often expressed through idolatry of the self: that one's personal judgement is what is best. This can be distilled as a disbelief in the Gospel, because its ultimately a disbelief in our trust that God is good. Christ never wavered from this cornerstone belief, that God is good. Even when He submitted to drink the cup of death by way of the cross He affirmed, "not my will, but yours be done". In Christ we find victory over death, but it starts first by Him finding victory over temptation: the subversive cancer that deteriorates life itself. No, Christ remained assured in the goodness of God, and that is how I imagine His victory as it was first revealed to us in scripture.
He brought healing to the sick
Image 17 of 29
Inspired by Matthew 4:23 and 9:21-22
"And He went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people."
"For she said to herself, ‘If I only touch Hiss garment, I will be made well.’ Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.’ And instantly the woman was made well."
In this image we get to meditate on one of the first roles Christ assumed in His public ministry: Christ as healer. There are over 20 accounts of healings in the Gospel, not to include the several references where He healed multitudes (like Matthew 4:23). It was a cornerstone of His ministry, even more so than other divine acts such as miracles or exorcisms. Why so? Many scholars agree that it helped to subscribe authority to His ministry, as well as fulfill prophetic allusions made to Messianic figures in the Old Testament (like those made in Isaiah for instance). But it also speaks to the character of God and becomes tangibly illustrative of His larger salvific work: God is making things new in Christ. So why does physical healing seem to be much less prevalent in the contemporary church? I think the reality it pointed to is now much more clear: God desires renewed life for you, eternal life, and it is offered freely through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus spent much of His ministry wading through ideas of eternity and resurrection life that were very foreign to His original audiences. Now, most understand that to be the crux of the Christian message. Accounts of physical healing persist in the modern church - it has just become a less normative experience. Instead, as the reach and security of the church matures, it appears that acts of healing become more explicitly focused on the healing of hearts and minds - the healing Christ desires most of all.
He brought calm to the storm
Image 18 of 29
Inspired by Luke 8:24b-25, John 6:16-20, and Psalm 89:8-9
"He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 'Where is your faith?' he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, 'Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.'"
"When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”
"O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you? You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them."
The calming of the seas is authoritative imagery in Hebrew literature - it alludes to the opening scene of Genesis where the Spirit of God hovered over the chaos waters, before calling them into order. The message is that He controls the very things we cannot. He calms the chaos, and invites us not to fear it. We see the same imagery in Jonah, Job, and elsewhere. God is in control. And while I believe it is helpful to apply this exhortation to the circumstantial "storms" of our life (hardship, strife, conflict). I think it is evermore applicable to think of this in a cosmic light, illuminating how we see our life, our mortality, and our purpose. "Do not fear". Life is fragile, and finite in its temporal expression. What more does man fear than death itself? Rest assured, God is in control - He is the orchestrator of our reality. Storms will come and go, as will pre-resurrection life. We are challenged to replace our fear with faith. And that is how I imagine Christ's calming of the storm.
He brought hope to the lost
Image 19 of 29
Inspired by Matthew 5:3, 11:28-30, and Luke 4:18
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”
When I think of the inauguration of Christ's Kingdom, I think of the Sermon on the Mount. And that is the core inspiration for this scene. But what is interesting, is even 2 millenia removed from these exhortations of Christ, we find ourselves in the same position: the inauguration of the kingdom. In the bittersweet tension of now-but-not-yet. It is easy for critics to present evidence of the fallacy of God's kingdom: the seemingly righteous remain imprisoned, the faithful blind, and the humble oppressed. But scripture assures us that Christ's kingdom is coming, and the first fruits are here now. As we speak the Spirit is working tirelessly to liberate the hearts and minds of the family of believers. In Him, purpose is found, dignity is affirmed, and "death has no sting". That is how I imagine the arrival of God's kingdom.
In a way that only the son of God could
Image 20 of 29
Inspired by Ezekiel 1:26 and Matthew 16:15-16
"And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance."
"He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Simon Peter replied, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'"
Of all of the images in the series, this is one of my favorites: the revelation of Christ as the Son of God. There is no consensus as to whether the theophany in Ezekiel is a pre-incarnate representation of Christ. But it has been portrayed as such often, especially in Eastern Orthodox iconography. All four of the Gospel accounts portray Jesus as the Son of God, but I appreciate the slow build in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus is presented as the promised Messiah fulfilling the Old Testemant prophecies. And it is not until Jesus' inquiry in Chapter 16 where we encounter the first explicit pronouncement from His followers, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God", paralleling God's own proclamation early on in Matthew during His baptism. Jesus is the promised Messiah, the one who will bring renewal and deliverance to the nation of Isreal. And it is not carried out by a family, a people group, or a king - not this time. Instead, man's renewal is to be carried out by the Son of God Himself. And that is how imagine the climax of the story of God's incarnation.
