Jesus, Our Brother
December 21, 2025
There is a Czech theologian by the name of Jan Lochman. He frequently noted that both the communists of the east and the capitals of the west foster a one-dimensional view of reality. Truth is reduced only to facts that fit into the reigning economic system. So that ideals of production and consumption become the corresponding ways of measuring and controlling reality. We see this play out in Alberta and Ottawa, where the present economics of oil is pushed as having a greater value or the only thing of value even when compared to climate devastation. Anyone who challenges the superiority of the economics of oil is written off as a kookie radical who has lost touch with reality.
One of Christianity’s great gifts is that it can open our eyes and ears to a fuller awareness of reality that is not based on any single system economic, or theological. For example, each of us has a God-given value that far exceeds whatever we have or have generated economically throughout the whole of our lives. As Christians and particularly as Protestants, we ought to be suspicious of any preacher who tries to lock us into a single perspective, even of the faith. Which is really what being Protestant should be all about. We Protest any theology that tries to limit our ability to think and believe beyond a specific dogma. The two scripture readings today are a test for us to keep our perspective and theology as brough as possible and not let them be narrowed down.
Let’s look at the Isaiah passage, which is quoted in the gospel reading. In the reading, Isaiah is speaking to the Israelite King Ahaz who is afraid of two kings that are saber rattling. Isaiah says that a young woman is with child. She will bear this child and name him Immanual which means God with us, because by the time that child grows old enough to determine for himself good and evil, so a period a number of years, those two kings, that he has feared, will disappear.
The disappearance of those two threats will be a sign that God is with us, Immanuel, even or particularly, in our fears. This prophecy is on the one hand firmly grounded in the time of Isaiah and King Ahaz but also grants us the perspective that when we are afraid today, God is still with us. All we have to do is look for the signs.
Now we Christians came along and 2000 years ago we were trying to develop and express the theology that Jesus was special. That Jesus was even the son of God. And for me, I see that the Scriptures offered two distinct pathways to get to that theology.
One is the Greco Roman worldview where it was not unusual to have stories of a being that had an earthly mother and a god as the father. Examples of this are Hercules Orpheus and Perseus. Where Achilles had a mortal father and a goddess for a mother. So Jesus being fathered by God is part of that world view.
The other worldview in the Scriptures was Hebrew, and we see this where Jesus, more often than not, calls himself not the Son of God, but the Son of Man. In the last hours of his life, Jesus is challenged by Pilot demanding, “Are you the son of God?” Jesus does not say yes, rather he responds with, “you say I am.” Ultimately by the time the church moves its centre from Jerusalem to Rome it develops a theology of Jesus’s divinity, much more aligned to the Graeco-Roman perspective. Even going to the extent of mis-quoting the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, ‘a young girl shall bear a child’ too ‘A virgin shall bear child.’ Anyone who challenged that theology of the Sonship of Jesus, based on God being the father was quickly kicked out of the church. The thing is the Hebrew theology did not disappear because it is woven throughout the whole of the scriptures. Which only stands to reason since 99% of the scriptures were written by people who identified as Jewish.
With only four days left till Christmas morning what does this mean for us? I would hope that it means we can approach Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus in whom we saw, continue to see and to be drawn closer to, God. And that we allow our world view to be expanded. The scriptures today don’t say that Jesus was born of the father, rather they say he was born of the Holy Spirit. A subtle but important difference. If Jesus is born of the father, then his divinity rests on the narrow condition of that parenthood. And try as I may I can never call Jesus fully my brother because both of my parents are of this earth. However, we can expand our theology if Jesus is born of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is still divine, because the divinity of the Holy Spirit is poured into him. Just as the Holy Spirit is poured into the believers at Pentecost and then baptism. Just as Steven and Peter and Paul were filled with the Holy Spirit and led to preach according to that spirit. Just as,
The Holy Spirit gives the gifts of wisdom, understanding, council, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.
Just as the Holy Spirit calls some to teach, some to lead, some to preach, some to heal, some to do outreach, and any number of Christian vocations. When we live out these Holy Spirit given gifts and vocations, then we become a sign that God is with us, Emmanuel and this is so important in a time when the world that seems so afraid.
Does this make Jesus any less the Son of God? Would God love him less? Does it mean he should be less important to us? Or does this expand our perspective of his Holy Sonship? All I can tell you is that I have one biological daughter, three stepdaughters, two stepsons and two foster sons. And I do not love any of them less just because I didn’t father all of them. Our relationship isn’t based on biology but rather on love and my willingness to give each of them every gift that I can. The gospel today is clear that Joseph wasn’t Jesus’s father, but nowhere does it suggest he loves Mary or Jesus, less. It is probably why I am so drawn to Joseph and grieve that we don’t more about him. Jesus is our Savour not because of his biology but because he loved us and loves us still. That is what I will celebrate at Christmas. Amen