“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David …”  (Luke 1:32)

Superlatives convey absolutes, beyond which nothing else compares. Jesus Christ, as told by the tongue of an angel, would be the Son of God (as we are intended to understand “the Most High”). Calling Jesus “Son of the Most High” means that He would share in the characteristics and attributes of “the Most High.” He would be, as theologians say, of the substance of God, who is Yahweh. If anything is clear in Scripture, Yahweh is the Most High God:

Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have sworn to the Lord God Most High [Yahweh El Elyon], possessor of heaven and earth …” (Gen 14:22)

It seems odd to us today that such an appellation as “most high” God is needed since we are so inculcated in our Western world with monotheism, the belief in the existence of one and only one God, and that all others so-called “gods” are simply figments of human inventiveness. We must remember though, in ancient times, God’s people lived in a predominantly pagan world, where other people worshiped “other” gods and often many “gods.” Such beliefs were rampant, as one might expect from those who reject their divine Maker. So the emphasis in those kinds of cultures must be noted, that the One who sent Gabriel to Mary was, just to make it absolutely clear, the God of Abraham. In other words, his message comes from the highest authority!

But more to the point, as the Son of the Most High, Jesus Christ takes a back seat to absolutely no one. For us today, as believers in the Son of the Most High, that means we should set as our goal what the apostle Paul wrote to the small-minded, self-centered Corinthians: “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:5).

In other words, we do not think of Christianity as one of many viable worldviews. Itis not just one of many historical movements to capture the esoteric but nebulous spirituality that we humans just can’t seem to avoid. Nor is Christianity a way of life that is simply “better” than non-Christianity, whose evangelism consists of showing that superiority. It is not that what we believe is the “best” way of thinking and living. It is whom we believe in that is the best. Or rather, He is the highest object of our worship and allegiance, because He is the Son of the Most High!

Lord, I confess falling often into the idolatry of using Your Word as a self-help manual, rather than seeing in Your Word the exaltation of Christ to the Highest.