The Messiah as Son of God

This week we talked about Jesus' identity as the Son of God: both fully human and fully divine.  We started out with a little game called "I am...".  Each person received three squares of paper where they wrote down three different thing about themselves that were fairly specific (i.e. NOT I am a girl, but maybe I am into dance).  Then I shuffled them all up and re-distributed three to each person.  Their job was to tape the three descriptions onto the backs of those they thought they belonged to...without talking!  After finishing each person checked their taped descriptions and left on those that were correct, and tried again with those that were incorrect, this time being able to talk to one another and ask questions.  We learned that in many ways, those descriptions that were taped on us that were not the ones we wrote still described us pretty well!  Since most of us there Sunday night knew each other fairly well, we were able to figure out which descriptions belonged to which person without much thinking.

Just like there are people we know well and people who know us well, there were people who lived and walked with Jesus who knew him well.  Just as we know and can describe our friends and family members, these friends of Jesus could do the same with him.  Some of those people were those who wrote the first four books of the New Testament, called the Gospels (or good news).  They wrote about Jesus' life as they saw it and from the stories others told them about Jesus.

This week we looked specifically at Mark's Gospel, because one of Mark's goals was to emphasize to his readers that Jesus was and is the Son of God!  We discovered that throughout Mark there are four key witnesses to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God.

The first one we see in passages like Mark 1:9-11 and 9:2-8 where God, God's self, serves as a witness to Jesus being God's Son.  The second we see in Mark 3:10-11 and 5:1-7 where demons and evil spirits serve as a witness, recognizing Jesus as God's Son even when others around Jesus did not!  The third comes from Jesus himself in Mark 14:32-36 and 55-64 where Jesus names himself as God's son.  And the fourth we see in Mark 15:37-39 where the Centurion or Roman Guard who was guarding Jesus' body on the cross gives witness to Jesus being the Son of God.

In some ways it seems like it would be easier for us to believe that Jesus was half human and half divine.  But we know that this is not the case.  Jesus was both 100% human and 100% God/Divine.  It doesn't seem to make sense, and it is a hard concept for us to grasp, but it is a true and holy mystery!  Without Jesus being fully human, he would not have truly suffered on the cross.  Without Jesus being fully divine, he would not be able to forgive and reconcile us from our sins.  Both are necessary and both are part of Jesus' nature as God's Son.  The youth will continue to ponder, pray and ask questions about Jesus as the Son of God throughout this week, and we will seek to wrestle with those questions when we gather again. Do you have any questions about Jesus as the Son of God?  Comment on this post with your thoughts and questions!

Here's a look at Sunday evening:

Don't forget THIS SUNDAY we will be helping collect donations at the end of both worship services for Souper Bowl of Caring.  And Sunday night we will not be having a regular FUSION Gathering meeting, but will be having a Super Bowl party at the Watson's Home!