SAUCIER — Firstborn of all creation

In Luke, Gabriel appears to Mary and announces that she will give birth to one who will be called “Son of God.”

Flummoxed by the news, she probably didn’t recall that “Son of God” was not an uncommon title among the rich and ruling of the ancient world.

Alexander the Great, King Hammurabi of Babylon, Gilgamesh of Epic fame, and the pharaohs of Egypt all claimed divine parentage, each a Son of God.

Caesar Augustus, Roman emperor when Jesus was born, claimed not only to be Son of God and God from God, but other familiar titles “Redeemer,” “Liberator,” and “Savior of the World.”

But there is something very different between Jesus as the Son of God, and all these other caesarean honorifics.

Kings and emperors used titles to justify, expand and consolidate their power. It was a “me thing,” with the emphasis in “Son of God” on the son, not on “God.”

A lowly born tradesman turned itinerant preacher, a miracle-worker and martyr, Jesus was not a ruler but a revelation, not an earthly monarch but a divine manifestation.

The Epistle to the Hebrews describes Jesus as “the reflection of God’s glory and the exact representation of the Father’s being.”

Nobody ever said that about Caesar Augustus.

Every act that Jesus performed — every kindness, compassion, healing and forgiving — was a revelation of the qualities of God.

God was the source of all the power, love and mercy which distinguished the life of the Son.

It is interesting, though, that Jesus referred to himself more often, not as the Son of God, but the Son of Man.

It is easy to get into the theological weeds here, but for those of us who prefer the simple and the pragmatic, there is still a lot of meaning.

As Son of God, Jesus is the revelation of the nature of God.  As Son of Man, he reveals the possibility for all of us in relation to that God.

Every act that Jesus performed — that kindness, compassion, healing and forgiving — was not just a revelation of the qualities of God, bringing God to us. 

It was an invitation for us to do the same, a path bringing us to God.

“Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” he bids us.

As both Son of God and Son of Man, Jesus shows a path by which we may become as divine as humanly possible.

And as fully human as divinely possible.