Titles of Jesus the son of God.

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

TITLES OF JESUS

THE SON OF GOD

∙ Jesus is referred to as the Son of God in the opening of Mark’s gospel (1:1). The phrase ‘a son of God’ was often used to was often used in the Old Testament to describe a good man. The Son of God is, therefore, special, meaning ‘the one and only’ or ‘simply the best.’

∙ The nation of Israel was looked on by the Jews themselves as ‘God’s Son’, but, by the time of Jesus the title referred to the Messiah. In both cases, it shows a very close bond between the Son and God.

∙ Jesus never called himself ‘The Son of God’ in Mark’s gospel, although He clearly referred to himself as God’s Son in the parable of the vineyard (12:1-11). In other parts of the scripture, however, (Matthew, Luke and John) Jesus does claim to be the Son of God. He is recognised many times by evil spirits as the Son of God.

∙ Mark uses the title twice – at the beginning and, as a kind of echo and climax, at the end. 1:1 says ‘Here begins the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.’ In 15:39, the army officer, no doubt hardened by witnessing many crucifixions, suddenly realises who Jesus is and says, ‘Truly, this man was really the Son of God.’ This statement is made even more powerful by the fact that it was said by a Gentile who, most likely, had nothing to do with the Jewish religion.

∙ Mark also implies the title ‘the Son of God’ in the account of Jesus’ baptism (1:11) and in the description of the transfiguration (9:11). In Mark 9:7 God says that Jesus is my own dear (beloved) Son. Here, Mark is highlighting the unique and unbreakable relationship between God and Jesus.

The baptism of Jesus

∙ The Baptism is the start of Jesus’ life as the Messiah. At His baptism He felt the presence of God, His Father and He was given the power of the Holy Spirit.

∙ The symbolism of the dove is important. A dove represents gentleness and peace and shows that Jesus, as well as receiving colossal power from the Holy Spirit, would also show and give gentleness and peace.

∙ The voice speaking directly to Jesus was God’s voice. Mark does not mention God by name out of respect for God. It quoted Isaiah 42:1, from what is known as one of the suffering servant poems. These poems predicted that the Messiah would suffer, innocently, for the rest of humankind. The quotation also showed what kind of Messiah Jesus would be. God’s voice was a seal of approval on Jesus’ decision to carry out the job God had given him.

∙ Baptism normally symbolised a person’s turning from evil to good, going from an old life to a new one. Jesus was sinless yet he accepted baptism so that He could identify with ordinary people who were sinners and need to repent and be baptised. God had come, in person, down to our level. Jesus reserved none of the trimmings or trappings of a worldly leader for himself, such as status symbols like bodyguards, usual protocol and distancing himself from ordinary people.

The Transfiguration

∙ The word transfiguration means change of appearance. The presence of God must have made Jesus glow in a way that the disciples could only describe as dazzling white. This reinforces for Christians that Jesus was the Son of God as the whiteness was not of a human whiteness 3-4. It was unearthly and terrifying. Moses represented the Law and Elijah represented the prophets – the two ways in which God had made his wishes known to the Jews until then. Jesus has decided to take the way of the cross, and it was as if Elijah and Moses were giving His decision their enthusiastic agreement. The words, ‘This is my beloved Son, hear him’ give Jesus God’s full approval. The disciples may have recognised the two men from their ideas of what they looked like (but this is a rather far fetched theory) or Jesus may have told them at the time. Another possible explanation for a Christian is that they knew God made them aware of whom they were.

∙ The cloud (called Shekina in Hebrew) was all that could be seen of God. No human being could stand to look at God directly. God’s voice, from the Shekina, plainly told the disciples to listen to Jesus’ teaching. They were not to disagree with him (as Peter had done so six days earlier in Ceasarea Philippi), however little they understood Jesus’ teaching. However difficult and confusing things were to become later, they would always have the glory of this experience to hold on to, deep in their hearts.

The Trial before the High Priest: read Mark 14:53-65

∙ The trial in front of the Sanhedrin was a real sham. It was illegal in many aspects. A prisoner should have been able to call a defence witness but Jesus was not given is proper rights. The trial was held at night so that as few people as possible knew about it. When the witnesses failed to agree, that it should be abandoned since it was obvious that some people were lying. The High Priest assumed that Jesus was not ‘The Christ, the Son of the ...

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The Trial before the High Priest: read Mark 14:53-65

∙ The trial in front of the Sanhedrin was a real sham. It was illegal in many aspects. A prisoner should have been able to call a defence witness but Jesus was not given is proper rights. The trial was held at night so that as few people as possible knew about it. When the witnesses failed to agree, that it should be abandoned since it was obvious that some people were lying. The High Priest assumed that Jesus was not ‘The Christ, the Son of the Blessed One.’ He accused Jesus of committing blasphemy by claiming to be the Christ when he was not, but Jesus was not given the chance, during the trial, to prove that he was the Son of God. The bullying and violence against Jesus by the Temple Police, after the High Priests condemnation, was not part of the judicial procedure either.

The Son of Man:

∙ This title is used 86 times in the gospels and hardly used outside of them. Only Jesus uses it and it is surely the way he described himself. He used the title the ‘Son of Man’ rather than just ‘a Son of Man’ which refers to just another person.

∙ In Mark 8:31 Jesus says of Himself, ‘The Son of Man is now to be given up into the power of man, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, He will rise again.’ The Son of Man is a title that is closely associated with suffering – paying for the sins of man with death, then overcoming the power of evil by resurrection. There are two major strands in the New Testament – God’s love and God’s justice or judgement. God’s love for humanity is shown by Jesus’ life, death and resurrection: His judgement will be upon those people who choose the misery of eternal separation from God. The Son of Man is the one who builds a kind of bridge over sin to God, across which anyone can go if they choose. The people who heard Jesus may have understood these ideas when Jesus called himself the Son of Man, and many of Mark’s readers, years later, would definitely understood the combined ideas of suffering and glory connected with the title.

The Paralysed Man: Read Mark 2:1-12

∙ Jesus’ popularity was obvious by the number of people who crowded in to try to listen to Him. So, too, was the faith of the four friends: a flat mud roof was not going to deter them. Because of the way that the house was built (a flat roof, stairs outside, a roof made from wooden beams, brushwood and clay) it was reasonably straightforward to get their friend up to the roof and to cut a whole in it. It would have been also easy to repair.

Jesus: The Son of Man:

∙ It was a common belief in those days that the cause of all illness was the individuals’ sin. Although we understand a little better about the effects of bacteria and viruses today, it is also commonly believed today by doctors that worry or guilt (justified or not) can cause many symptoms of illness. It has been suggested, for example, that cancer, in some cases, may be stress-related. It seems likely that this man’s paralysis was caused by guilt of some past sin, because Jesus first forgave him his sin (to remove the guilt) and then told him to walk.

∙ The ‘experts of the Law’ would have been members of the Sanhedrin and they were there to check that Jesus broke non of their rules, and that He stayed within the traditions they believed to be absolute and unbreakable. These lawyers were livid that Jesus claimed to be able to forgive sins as only God could that. For a mere to claim this was blasphemy and Jewish law (Leviticus 24) set the death penalty for this. But they were in a dilemma. In their eyes Jesus showed his authority as the Son of God, to forgive sins by His ability to heal the man. The Pharisees, in fact, became utterly opposed to Jesus even though they had been shown to be wrong – perhaps because of this event. The healing of the man was as good as a death warrant for Jesus.

∙ Today, similar cures, known as faith healing, are carried out in the name of Jesus Christ. Some are clearly the real thing – the cure is complete and permanent – but others are not genuine – either they are carried out mistakenly or they are con tricks (the movie ‘Leap of Faith’ is a good example here), playing on the gullibility of the people concerned. Either way, the ‘cures’ are temporary and often incomplete. The genuine article has to come from God: false cures do not.

The request of James and John – Mark 10:35-45

∙ The disciples were not a very perceptive bunch. In spite of Jesus’ teaching about the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven, they still saw it in terms of an earthly kingdom. They were concerned about their status in the New Kingdom, instead of being concerned about the well being of others. The fact that they kept quiet when Jesus asked them what they had been arguing about shows that they knew that they were in the wrong.

∙ By sitting down Jesus was taking the traditional posture of a rabbi teaching. It was as if He was telling them visually, “look, this is important.” By giving them the example of a child, Jesus was trying to teach them that not only that children were important but also that serving others, often in humble and non glamorous ways, is part of a Christian’s duty. A Christian ought to be concerned with doing whatever job God gives them, and not to care about earthly prestige (or lack of it) that goes with the job.

∙ James and John were particularly stubborn in this case. They wanted to be important enough to sit either side of Jesus in the New Kingdom, and even claimed that they could suffer in the same way as Jesus would suffer. Jesus warned them that they would suffer, but that their judge would be God. (The cup and baptism were sometimes used in the Old Testament as symbols of suffering and trials). Jesus also used the occasion to show that the Son of Man (the Messiah) was to be a servant to humanity even though he would eventually be the ‘Lord of all’. This is the opposite of the world’s values where the rulers ‘lord it over’ their subjects. Great Christians have a habit of being humble and serving, although this is not the same as being over self-critical and servile. A key question for Christians is what can I do for others? Not, what can others do for me?

The prediction of the Passion - Mark 8:31-33

∙ The title Son of Man for the Messiah showed a new approach and a new set of ideas. The other titles used for the Messiah were Son of God, and Son of David: these were associated with the idea of a great political leader. The title Son of Man contains two main ideas

∙ An association with the suffering servant – the Messiah would have to suffer for the sins of other people

∙ An association with Daniel’s vision of the Sovereign Messiah: “I was gazing into the visions of the night when I saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, as it were a son of man. He came to the One most venerable and was led into his presence. On him was conferred rule, honour and kingship, and all peoples, nations and languages became his servants. His rule is an everlasting rule which will never pass away and his kingship will never come to an end” Daniel 7:13-14

∙ Peter could not accept, at this stage, that the Messiah would suffer, and he tried to dissuade Jesus with the best of intentions. Jesus gave Peter a particularly severe telling-off by calling him Satan. He was not trying to say that Peter was evil but that he was not looking at events past and future, from God’s point of view. Peter was being used, unwittingly, by the Devil.

∙ The Jews, at the time, believed that the Messiah would be a political leader who would defeat enemies (such as the Romans), set up a kingdom on earth and bring peace, albeit through violent means. Peter probably had a similar belief.

∙ Jesus thought differently. He based his life on the idea of the suffering servant described in Isaiah 53. In order to achieve spiritual victory over evil, Jesus had to suffer innocently for the sins of all humanity. To have met force with force might have achieved worldly victory at the time, but it would have been useless for the souls of future generations.

Jesus/Saviour – The calming of the storm – Mark 4:35-41

∙ Some of the disciples were fishermen and would have been used to the violent storms which were common on the Sea of Galilee, so it must have been a really violent storm to frighten them. By calming the storm, Jesus not only helped is disciples, but also showed that he had power over nature – the sort of power that only God possessed. It helped to show the disciples that Jesus was not an ordinary man but was the Son of God. When such a storm subsides, the lake or sea continues to heave for a while even though the wind has dropped. In this case, the calm was immediate. It is no wonder that the disciples were sacred!

∙ The calming of the storm can also be used as a symbol an allegory for a Christian. The disciples, who were out of their depth, were frightened by the storm and where helped through it with Christ. In the same way when a Christian faces overwhelming problems, the storms of life, they can be helped through them with Christ. The disciples’ terror of the storm changed to awe at Jesus.

The Feeding of the 5000 – Mark 6:30-44

∙ Jesus was obviously under great pressure because he did not even have time to eat! He went off with the apostles for some peace and quiet, to get some rest and probably pray. The crowd wanted to hear more of what Jesus had to say, because they were like lost sheep. They were hungry for Jesus’ teaching, instead of man-made ideas about religion.

∙ The observation that the people sat on the grass and that they sat in rows suggests that Mark was working from an eyewitness account. The twelve baskets were the baskets that the disciples each carried as a matter of course. A Jew’s basket would contain his own food supply, so that he could be certain that it was ritually clean, kosher.

∙ The disciples’ attitude, when Jesus told them to feed the crowd, was what can we do? We have so little and there are so many! Christians sometimes have the same idea – I have so little ability. What good can I do for God’s Kingdom? Once a Christian commits their resources and abilities completely to God, the possibilities for good are virtually unlimited.

The Syro-Phoenician Woman’s Daughter – Mark 7:24-30

∙ Jesus was outside the Holy Land, probably to get away from it all, and to avoid being seen in Galilee after the Feeding of the 5000 – where they had tried to make him King. The woman Jesus helped was a Gentile. Most Jews believed that the Kingdom of God was for Jews first and that Gentiles would be attracted to it, accepting lower status in it that the Jews. Jesus’ mission was to the Jews first, then to the Gentiles. However, Jesus asked the woman why he should help her, a Gentile woman, in order to draw out her faith. Jesus used the metaphor of the more important children and the lesser dogs. He did this with good results. The woman trusted Jesus, a Jew. Jesus then healed the woman’s daughter from a distance. The whole incident is symbolic of the Kingdom of Heaven, rejected by the Jews, being eagerly accepted by the Gentiles.

∙ The Calming of the Storm, the Feeding of the 5000 and the Healing of the Syro-Phoenician woman’s daughter are all example of Jesus helping to save people from physical difficulties or danger. They are an indication that God, through Jesus, can save people from spiritual difficulties and danger.

Christ, Messiah and Son of David:

∙ The name Jesus is the Greek version of the Old Testament name Joshua. Christ is not a surname but a title. Some people refer to him as Jesus, the Christ. The Hebrew title Messiah means Anointed One and is the same as the Greek Christos or the English Christ. More generally, the Messiah is taken to mean the Saviour of the World.

∙ Anointing was a ceremony by which a person was publicly declared to be a king. The Anointed one was, and is, therefore, seen as the King of kings.

∙ The kings of Israel had many faults and people began to look forward to the arrival of a kind of super-king or a Messiah. Isaiah 11:1-9 and Zechariah 9:9-10 who were both Old Testament Prophets wrote about the arrival of the new Messiah. By the time of Jesus, people expected the Messiah to come and set up God’s Kingdom. However, they intended to see the Messiah in worldly terms of success – victorious in battle, a kindly but powerful dictator, ruthless when necessary, ruling Israel, which, in turn, would be the leading and controlling nation of the world.

∙ Jesus had to get rid of these ideas from his followers and replace such false beliefs with the idea of a suffering servant who was all-powerful, yet had to die.

∙ It is significant that Jesus did not call himself the Messiah. Palestine at that time (as now) was a very unstable part of the world. If Jesus had used the title Messiah, many people, especially the Zealots, would have tried to make him king (as happened after the Feeding of the 5000 according to John’s Gospel). They would have wanted the Messiah only to overthrow the Romans, not to overcome evil itself, and change people’s hearts.

∙ David was the greatest king of Israel. He was believed to be very close to God, and, according to the Jews, that was why Israel was so successful as him as its leader. Son of David meant descendant from David, from David’s line or family tree. In the Psalms, the Messiah is described as Son of David. Although Matthew and Luke trace Jesus’ ancestry back to David, Mark only uses the title twice in his Gospel:

➢ Once by Blind Bartimaeus – Mark 10:46-52

➢ Once when Jesus was teaching in the Temple – Mark 12:35

∙ Mark must have agreed that Jesus must be a son of David, but laid much more emphasis on the title Son of Man.

Caesarea Philippi – Mark 8:27-30

∙ Peter realises that Jesus is the Messiah. This incident marks the start of the disciples’ understanding and belief that Jesus was the Messiah. When Jesus asked them Who do people say I am, he was trying to see if they understood the significance of his being the Messiah. Jesus was soon to die and someone had to carry on his work. When Peter said You are the Christ he was showing that he was the first disciple to appreciate who Christ was and that he, Peter, stood out as a leader of the disciples, and that he would help to build Christ’s church. Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him being the Messiah, because he did not want to give people a reason for making him the wrong sort of king – that is a political leader against the Romans. He wanted people to follow him to God, not to follow him juts because his actions were spectacular. Jesus needed his disciples to keep quiet about him as Messiah (this is called the Messianic secret) until he had taught them what the Messiah meant and what it involved. Jesus also now knew that Peter was able and willing to be the future leader of the coming Christian Church. It was now time for Jesus to face the Cross and overcome evil.

Blind Bartimaeus – Mark 10:46-52

∙ This is the last healing miracle of the Gospel. Jericho is fifteen miles from Jerusalem and it would have been full of people readying for the Passover in the Holy City. The majority of people would either be going to Jerusalem themselves or they would be encouraging those who were going. Jesus did not just pass through as we might do in a car going through a town.

∙ Many people surrounded Jesus and were listening intently to his teaching. Many people in Jericho would have been curious to know about the Galilean preacher who had caused such a stir.

∙ Bartimaeus was not to be silenced by the onlookers and, out of desperation to be healed by Jesus, shouted until he got Jesus’ attention. This was not idle curiosity at Jesus like Herod, but an overwhelming and urgent need to meet Jesus, and the faith that this Son of David would heal him. Maybe Bartimaeus did not fully understand that Jesus was a suffering servant Messiah, rather than a political hero, but he was drawn by faith to him, and he followed Jesus on the road. That road led to Jerusalem and danger. Christ never called anyone to an easy life.

Entry into Jerusalem – Mark 11:1-11

∙ This took place on what is known as Palm Sunday. Bethany and Bethphage were two villages at the top of the Mount of Olives. Most people expected the Messiah to appear suddenly from the Mount of Olives.

∙ It seems as if Jesus had arranged, beforehand, to have the colt collected. He chose a colt that had not been ridden before because this gave it religious significance; it was as if this previously un-ridden animal was carrying to Jerusalem and the Temple a sacrifice – Jesus himself. A donkey also symbolised peace. Jesus came as a peace making Messiah for all time, not as a conquering warrior for one generation only.

∙ The ordinary people became very excited because they thought that, at last, the Messiah had arrived. Unfortunately, they misunderstood what Jesus’ spiritual aims were and expected a superhero to lead them to worldly victory. They word they kept shouting, Hosanna means save now. Many of them were quoting from Psalm 118:26 which describes the coming of the expected Messiah.

∙ The incident at Caesarea Philippi, the healing of Blind Bartimaeus and the entry to Jerusalem all point to Jesus as being the Messiah. Peter suddenly realises it at Caesarea Philippi; Bartimaeus persists in his efforts to get rid of his blindness through the Messiah – just as Christians today should persist in getting rid of their spiritual blindness through Christ; the entry to Jerusalem was a dramatic visual statement by Jesus as if he were saying, I am the Messiah, the Messiah of peace.