It’s no accident that the New Testament goes deeply into Jesus’ genealogy, both his mother’s and adoptive father’s, into Israel’s aristocracy. Jesus was both in the line of David, as prophesied, and the Son of God. He said so himself, many times.
Why does it matter? Because by sending his son to live and die on earth, God the Father made the extraordinary first move toward reconciliation with us, proving that he is not indifferent to us or to our affairs. He does not sit atop a steep spiritual staircase, waiting for us to attain purity, deserve him through our performance or feats. He descended to us. His life and death for our sins is the greatest love story ever told.
Jesus’ coming as God's son is foreshadowed in the Genesis 22 story of Abraham and Isaac. It would be difficult to dismiss as coincidence the synergy between God’s story and Abraham’s. As in the case of God the Father, Abraham’s son was born in a barren womb and destined for human sacrifice. Presaging Jesus’ crucifixion, Abraham leads Isaac to build an altar on Mount Moriah. With no witness save father and son, Isaac is minutes from being slain as an offering when a voice from heaven frees Isaac and promises that God Himself will provide a sacrifice. Spring forward to Calvary, where our heavenly father leads his own son on the altar and leaves him. Isaac’s aborted death was the shadow: Jesus' is the fulfillment.
Jesus’ life, cross, and death speak to us openly and honestly of crosses before crowns. In His bittersweet saga of sacrifice and redemption, we learn that life brings both success and sacrifice. God does not ask what he does not give Himself. The love story is that he opened for all humankind access to His plan of eternal life, a plan that does not exclude but includes, by the gracious invitation of His son, people of all walks of life: whosoever will, let him come.
Even as Joseph crossed his hands and offered equal rights to his grandson, God the Son crossed His hands on Calvary and offered himself to those who formerly had no access to His gracious plan of redemption. At that moment, the cross became a unifier, a connecter, bringing good news to all people that through faith in Him, we may draw to God in a greater way....
To me, Christ as God's son creates the space for humanity to collide with divinity in a splendorous depiction of faith and love. Again: God sent His son to die for our sins and to reconcile us to Himself, not to separate us. God sends an open invitation through his Son to all mankind. His perfect son, living and dying, made room for all the rest of us imperfect son's to fearlessly take our places at the Father's meal. We are accepted through the perfected sacrifice of His son who prepared us for the palace in the way that Jonathan, Saul's son, prepared the shepherd boy David to sit on the throne of Israel. Only the King’s son can invite commoners to sit at his father’s table.
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